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you fatcats didn't finish your plankton
Feb. 5th, 2007 06:05 pmRight-o! Today on ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-community.gif)
14valentines it's Economics/Wealth day, which to me means the feminization of poverty. Most of the impoverished people in the world today are women (and by extension, children). The 'good' side to this is that when women *do* get some money, they generally spend it on stuff that improves their families and the community. The bad part is that they rarely get the chance to make a decent living.
My mother told me that all the old women in the village back home used to have something called a souk, where they would pool their money, give loans to women who needed them, and basically run a little informal bank that was fluid in forms of repayment. This sort of thing now is done by organizations like Grameen Bank, which offers microcredit to poor women.
Now, obviously, we random mortals can't erase debt loads for developing nations or offer loans to impoverished people. What we can do is *be aware* of the world we live in, and understand that we are privileged to be able to live the way we do. We need to make the connection between the things we consume and the people who produce them. We need to comprehend that our excessive energy and resource consumption is what keeps people in poverty.
Look, I'm not saying give up everything you love or anything like that. Just, y'know -- spring for the fair-trade coffee next time, or turn off the lights when you leave a room, or re-use things a couple of times before you throw them out. You'll not only be helping the environment, you'll be doing a wee bit to staunch the economic gluttony of our consumer culture.
And since this is not intended to be a screed about world economics, here are some female-themed icons! ( Barbarella; Beyond the Valley of the Dolls; La Passion de Jeanne d'Arc; Kama Sutra; Myrna Loy; The Last Life in the Universe; Janghwa, Hongryeon; Spirited Away. )
14valentines it's Economics/Wealth day, which to me means the feminization of poverty. Most of the impoverished people in the world today are women (and by extension, children). The 'good' side to this is that when women *do* get some money, they generally spend it on stuff that improves their families and the community. The bad part is that they rarely get the chance to make a decent living.My mother told me that all the old women in the village back home used to have something called a souk, where they would pool their money, give loans to women who needed them, and basically run a little informal bank that was fluid in forms of repayment. This sort of thing now is done by organizations like Grameen Bank, which offers microcredit to poor women.
Now, obviously, we random mortals can't erase debt loads for developing nations or offer loans to impoverished people. What we can do is *be aware* of the world we live in, and understand that we are privileged to be able to live the way we do. We need to make the connection between the things we consume and the people who produce them. We need to comprehend that our excessive energy and resource consumption is what keeps people in poverty.
Look, I'm not saying give up everything you love or anything like that. Just, y'know -- spring for the fair-trade coffee next time, or turn off the lights when you leave a room, or re-use things a couple of times before you throw them out. You'll not only be helping the environment, you'll be doing a wee bit to staunch the economic gluttony of our consumer culture.
And since this is not intended to be a screed about world economics, here are some female-themed icons! ( Barbarella; Beyond the Valley of the Dolls; La Passion de Jeanne d'Arc; Kama Sutra; Myrna Loy; The Last Life in the Universe; Janghwa, Hongryeon; Spirited Away. )
