December 15, 2014 - 06:00
In the terms of the 10 week project, I definitely think that my contact zone was expanded. Everything is connected in life and in death—even things that may seem to have the most pure intentions can actually be charged with a manipulative purpose. I realized through this project that it is a lot harder to help people in need without carrying the weight of actually physically going out to help. There are so many organizations that market themselves as philanthropic and humanitarian, but in actually are not.
I would be lying if I said that I was not disappointed in my naivety. I’ve owned more pairs of TOMS in my lifetime than I can remember. I’m pretty sure I’ve contributed thousands of dollars to the organization and during that time that I was unaware, I will admit that I felt great—wonderful even to know that I was helping someone else by buying such indie and hip shoes. I might have helped some Chinese worker in the sweatshop that my beloved shoes were manufactured in to improve some standard of living, but I know deep down that the improvement is small. Weilla taught me that because China is so big, there is a lot more competition within the country. Because of the competition, sometimes working in sweatshops is sometimes more preferable due to the guaranteed paycheck. However, I cannot help to think that if I had refrained from buying TOMS and actually used the money that I spent on the shoes to buy a plane ticket, I might have been able to help either the local economy of the villages that TOMS gives shoes to or help improve the conditions of the factory workers in a TOMS factory more than what TOMS is doing now.
I have already begun telling a lot of my friends about TOMS shoes. In order to do this project, I had to make sure that I was not the only one unaware of where TOMS were manufactured and I needed to quadruple check to make sure that other people’s shoes also had the “Made in China” tag on them. While I do not think this new knowledge will really affect their consumption of TOMS shoes (because fashion), it is good to know that at least my friends will be more conscious of the manipulative marketing of TOMS shoes. There is a fine line in educating and ranting. I will be sharing a lot of the information that I found about both TOMS and Vans with my friends whenever we go shoe shopping. But, I will also mention the positive outcomes of working in sweatshops and how our consumption of these shoes contributes to someone else’s paycheck and a way to bring food to the table. I will allow my friends to chose the lesser of the two “evils”.
I would like to further understand what I could do with my newfound knowledge. Now that I have all this information, what can I do? Also, how could I streamline this process when I am looking at other companies and their policies? How can I get over my struggle with understanding that despite the corruption, someone in need might actually need that corrupt organization in order to eat? These are questions that I would like to continue to explore throughout my life.
In regards to the other presentations, my contact zone was expanded in that I got see where the truth about a lot of products that I was consuming from their sweatshop usage to the controversial policies/politicians/line of thinking that they support (for example, Urban’s antigay support). I really wish I could proclaim that I would stop consuming products from certain companies with questionable policies; however, I know that I have neither the time to research everything that I buy or resources (I’m on my own paycheck now). It is a selfish thing to say, but it is important to be aware of. The world was never a fair place, which is why communism in theory sounds so appealing. There will be people who will be stepped on and there will be people who will benefit from stepping on others. Because I am from a privileged country, I know that I will be stepping on others (both physically through my actions of stepping through my shoes as well as in the wider context of things with my consumption of certain products). I have uncovered many things about this world and about myself that I am interested to continue exploring throughout my life.