Sounds fair enough. Does it not?
Arms that trade. Makes me think of that poem, 'not waving but drowning.'
I object. The thing I object to is the principal that trading, selling stuff, is the only activity that matters. Especially if this 'stuff' is just exactly that. Stuff. More crap that no-one really needs. It may well be small-scale, organic, recycled, ethical and local - all good principals to direct your purchase-power. But ultimately, it's about selling more Stuff. More soap. Or bags. Or Christmas cards. Or cakes and coffee, to an already over-cafeinated and caloried society.
Crap. Shite. Clutter. Junk.
I am a person who objects to the culture that pushes us to buy, need and want ever more Stuff. And yet now I'm being trained to direct a huge chunk of my intellectual energies and working hours towards thinking up a viable business model for creating and selling shite. Even it is actually very good shite. Shite that people want.
No.
The reason I do the work I do, the reason I work for a charity and not a bank, is because I'm primarily concerned with people's needs. Not their wants. The people I work with have severe disabilities and are not able to work. Which means they do not have money. Which means that they do not have any power. Even though they have huge needs, they will never be able to buy the services they need, and so no-one will ever go out of their way to provide that service. It is not a viable business model.
And that is why charities exist.
The ultra-consumerist, free-market-driven model is all about first creating and then catering to the wants of people who have money, and already have everything they could possibly need. Which is all very well. But now they want charities to do the same.
Fuck that for a game of soldiers.
Image by davco9200
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