Be Fair, Buy Fair or With Power Comes Responsibility

Happy Cow

Yesterday I saw an Arte film about Murat Kurnaz, a turk who spent 5 years in Guantanamo although he was innocent. A very tough film that needs to be seen.But what brought me to tears was a peculiar moment of the film.In his cell came daily a little lizard.Murat starts to tame the lizard which becomes his friend.And this is were it becomes really devious (as if it wasn't already enough) as the US investigator commands Murat to kill the lizard because you are not allowed to have pets in the prison. After this follows a very long scene where Murat basically is tortured in an isolated cell and goes on a hunger strike.The strike and the isolation takes about 2 months and the investigator brings the lizard for Murat to kill it. Which eventually he does, crying (as I did and actually still do right that moment when writing this) as he has no other chance of survival.And I just can't grasp my mind around this. You torture humans, which is bad enough, but killing another living being just to torture another one? I mean, how bad can humans go?I'm aware that people kill each other because they disagree (religion wars, hello!) or because they want more stuff (territory, money, heck humans) and I do wonder if humans all have a psychopathic tendency which allows them to stop caring at some point.Which is a paradox, as the more power you have, the more you should care.Humans have never had so much power, be it on other humans, animals or the very ground we are standing on.Yet responsibility is still lacking.Slaves still exists, women and kids are oppressed, humans and animals are exploited to get low prices.How is this relevant?Because you partially do have a power to make a change.Be the change you want to see by checking what you buy, what you use, where the stuff you want comes from, be it the eggs, the milk, the sundress, the bag or your car.No, you don't want a cheap shirt that has been made by exploiting a kid on the other side of the earth. Because that kid should go to school. Knowledge is power and knowledge can help better human's conditions.And no, you do not want milk or cheese that comes from a factory farm where cows are badly treated as objects and seen as a numbers with a percentage of losses. You would not want to hurt a cow, so why encourage such farming?And nope, you do not want that cheap chocolate, that probably was made exploiting humans into only work, no play and bad pay.And those cheap eggs you buy per dozen? Putting chickens in a a small cage where they suffer their entire existence, never seeing the outside world, their feet cramped onto grills? Nope, you would not want to live like this, so why impose it on others? Get some local eggs from a farmer you know treats its chickens with respect.You don't beat your pets either.Fair wages you say? Yes, that should be the rule, but it sadly isn't, so we have to actually check if it's "fair trade". What an absurdity!Every trade should be fair and it is not, it's not even in France.Right now farmers are striking as they are not paid enough for their produce.So please buy fair as much as you can. This should be the rule, not the exception.Too expensive you say? I know, I have cut dramatically my intake of cheese as I can't afford as much fairly made cheese. I stopped meat partially because of that (and also partially because meat is the worst for the environment).And yes, of course some people just can't afford buying fair. Why? Because they themselves are not paid fair...The sooner we start caring again about humans, animals and the earth again, the sooner we can straighten our course.read more :The impact of MeatSlavery footprintEcouterre (fair fashion)Fair Food Mattersand if you have more articles that are relevant or any rotten tomato to throw at my face, be my guest below.xxStéphanie