Message-ID: <199704041617.BAA01375@inetnif.niftyserve.or.jp> Date: Sat, 5 Apr 1997 01:12:00 +0900 From: FORWARDED <mailto:QWA01214@NIFTYSERVE.OR.JP> Subject: The System: Inherently Evil!?! To: mailto:DEVEL-L@AMERICAN.EDU
The following is a reaction/response by a Canadian student that should be of i nterest and encouraging to many.Please reply to the DEVEL-L list and I will forward your comments to the WUSCN ET list where this came from.
<<<<<<<<<<<< FORWARDED >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Date: Thu, 3 Apr 1997 13:02:02 -0500 From: Steve Izma <mailto:steve@ASTRO.WLU.CA> Reply-To: University Student Committee Network <mailto:WUSCNET@QUCDN.QueensU.CA>
> Date: Thu, 3 Apr 1997 10:46:11 -0600
> From: Mary Jo Welch <mailto:$WELCHMJ@BRANDONU.CA>
> Subject: Re: Shell Shelled: A QUERY
>
> As a student receiving less than adequate living expenses from student
> loans, I am employed by Shell for $5.40/hour. I cannot quit my job, there
> is no assistance to those who refuse to continue valid employment. The
> economy is such that *if* you have a job, be thankful. Be even more
> thankful if that job pays for shelter and food (my does not, I am forced to
> take on sewing in attempt to pay the bills).
>
> In times like these, I do not know how to react. Perhaps the only reaction
> is that injustice permeates the global society and we need to react,
> globally, yes, but nationally as well, if we *truly* desire a just and
> healthy global society and environment.
I think Mary Jo has pointed out an important issue here. The problem is not just Shell but something greater; in fact the more you look at the way the global economy works, the more evident is the trap we've gotten ourselves into: 1) Shell is part of the problem of the oil industry in general; - check out the history of any large oil company and you find serious exploitation of whoever lived on the land these companies wanted to exploit; B. Traven (in his novel The White Rose) told a story about Mexico in the 30s that is similar in many ways to present day Nigeria; Standard Oil (John D. Rockfeller and partners) were well-documented crooks from the very beginning of the industry (1880s) 2) the oil industry is just one problem within the resource-extraction industry in general; - the oil industry's track record in human rights violations is pint-sized compared to mining, whose atrocities go back at least to the time of the Roman Empire (slave labour), but also, of course, Spanish in Latin America, and now Canadians in Latin America (INCO and others), including uranium mining, coal mining, etc. Then, even more mind-boggling in its potential for corruption and exploitation and death, is Bre-X. Don't forget South Africa, etc., etc. 3) the resource-extraction industry is just one part of global industrialization - our ability to use this listserver is directly related to land reform issues in various parts of the Third World, especially South-East Asia and Central America. In South-East Asia, as hungry Japanese plantation and logging companies (for example) took control over more and more land traditionally used for community-sustaining agriculture, the long-time residents of that land had no choice but to move to urban areas for employment. These large pools of displaced people have become cheap labour for various kinds of industry, especially those mass producing integrated circuits and other electrical devices. Again, this industrial revolution is nothing new and is not a coicindence: read Charles Dickens, among others, to get a glimpse of how similar removals of people from their traditional communities created the industrial ghettoes and miseries of 19th Britain. We wouldn't have cheap commodities like personal computers (not to mention CD players) without the cheap labour of many other parts of the world.
The point of this is that we're all caught in the same trap as Mary whether we work for Shell or not. But this doesn't mean that just because you're caught you have no means of resistance; in fact, in one sense the opportunities to expose injustice surround us everywhere we go. But rather than being depressed by this, why not try to engage other people in a more general awareness of the problems? Just because our older communities have been squeezed out of existence doesn't mean we can't build newer communities from the small efforts in our society towards a more co-operative rather than exploitative existence. And the awareness of the need for this rebuilding will only develop if people begin to realize how broad the problem is.
For these reasons I have a problem with campaigns directed at individual companies and institutions; such campaigns need to be very careful that they don't educate people in only a partial way. The corruption of one target company needs to be connected to the system that supports the methods that not only that company uses but all its competitors as well. The fact that other oil companies may engage in "less evil" activities is no reason to support them. Have we forgotten about Exxon and their oil spills? Scratch the surface of other companies and you'll find something similar.
So what do we do about our jobs? Inevitably we all find ourselves working for a company or an institution whose values are so weighted towards increasing wealth (or just the bottom line) that human values and human creative activities are given less and less space. I think we need to ask questions like: why can't our working life be geared towards making the world a better place to live (building healthy human communities)? Why do we have to work in places whose products contribute more to the garbage problem than actually enhancing our communities? I imply an important distinction here between the health of individuals and the health of communities: I prefer activities and products that help us enjoy life with each other rather than merely feed our consumer instincts -- for me the former category does not include cars, televisions, fast food, fashion items.
If you've read this far, thanks for your indulgence. Does anyone have any more ideas to help us with the overall picture of things?
--Steve Izma, Wilfrid Laurier University Press Waterloo, Ont., Canada N2L 3C5 (519) 884-0710 ext. 6125 FAX: (519) 725-1399 mailto:steve@astro.wlu.ca or sizma@mach1.wlu.ca