It's kind of a mystery, really. In my head and heart, it's all Thomas all the time. And yet, the world seems not to understand that it needs to stop and pay attention here. People keep on screwing things up willy-nilly, and we fail to pay attention at our peril.
So, focus... focus.... I'm trying to focus.
BuyBlue reports that there's a new list of corporate villains named and shamed for their fabulously abusive practices. These corporations have been abusive to people and abusive to the earth, at just staggering levels. The Walt Disney Company, Chevron (which now owns Texaco), and Citigroup have been "awarded" hall of shame prizes. Check your credit cards, boys and girls. It should be fairly easy to withhold business from both Chevron and Citigroup.
Other losers include Coca-Cola, Novartis, Cyngenta, Ciba Specialty, and Bayer. Check out BuyBlue for documentation and more information. They really have quite the informative site.
Yet, the question is still open. What do we do now that we know this information? I have no business with either Citigroup or Chevron. It's harder to avoid Walt Disney than it should be, but it can be done. I don't drink Coca-Cola products very often at all, and really how much aspirin can a girl use? Bayer would hardly notice if I stopped buying their products.
Before too long now, I'm going to have to confront the question of socially responsible investing. My alarmingly meager retirement funds are invested.... somewhere. That largely happens without my intervention. Sigh. I should pay more attention; I really should. I could well be supporting these companies and not know it.
You might want to check out this site as well: Responsible Shopper. I'm not one for recreational shopping, as my wardrobe would certainly suggest to you. But, even I have to shop sometimes. It's helpful to know more than which stores to avoid, since new socks must, in the end, be purchased somewhere. And there's this information re: buying gasoline, which I have yet to hear contradicted anywhere: Buy-Cott, which suggests that buying gasoline from Citgo is the way to go.
And once you're in the habit of buying gasoline here and clothing there, you don't have to think about the why of it anymore. It's just what you do and no trouble at all. Of course, we still need to challenge ourselves to be sure that the list of ethical choices we make gets longer.
So that's today's task. As always, I'm open to your ideas. They're certain to be better than mine, these days.
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