Posted on 06/26/2002 3:17:08 AM PDT by Clive
"This is what democracy looks like. The Gap is what hypocrisy looks like."
The irony in that chant was everywhere yesterday.
As the crowd -- made up by as many media types and onlookers as protesters -- jammed Stephen Avenue Mall and chanted against the sweatshop conditions the trendy clothing manufacturer allegedly imposes upon its Third-World workers, I had my toes stomped upon by a chanting teen wearing "sweatshop- made" Reebok running shoes.
"You're wearing Reeboks!" I exclaimed accusingly.
Leighanna Gates, 21, blushed at the shameful revelation.
"Like many other Canadians, it took me a while to be educated about what goes on," said the Saskatoon student.
After informing me that her clothes were from a thrift shop, she turned on her heels and stopped talking to me. Her friend Anastasia Tataryn, 17, then pulled up her left foot and showed me that her Nike running shoes have been defaced by a black felt pen with the message "NO NIKE."
"I bought these Nikes when I was in Grade 6, before I knew about Nike's practices," she says.
As hard as it is to believe that shoes she bought when she was 11 would still fit six years later, Tataryn believes it's better to wear the shoes made from labourers chained to their sewing machines than to throw them away, creating waste in the process.
She points out that she was one of the Bike Brigade that pedalled 658 km from Saskatoon to take part in the anti-G-8 protests.
"I don't agree that eight white men sitting in a closed room have any mandate to be deciding the future of Africa," she says.
Nor do I, frankly, but my guess is, she'd still be here protesting if they didn't have Africa on the agenda.
Actually, I'm opposed to the G-8, too, but for different reasons. I'm also opposed to the G-7, the G-12, the G-20, APEC, the Summit of the Americas, the Commonwealth Conference and any other costly gab-fest of the world's leaders. After all, haven't these people heard of teleconferencing?
This two-day meeting of the leaders of the world's eight wealthiest countries will cost $300 million. That doesn't include the cost of the other countries.
Meanwhile, on Monday, Federal Finance Minister John Manley made a big song-and-dance for pledging $67 million to help build affordable housing in Alberta over five years.
Think about that. Some $67 million for affordable housing spread over five years or $300 million for a two-day chin wag and photo op.
Shouldn't those numbers be reversed?
As for Africa, I've got the easiest solution of all and it happens to jive with the opinion of many of the protesters. Cancel Africa's foreign debt.
That tidy solution could have been decided after making seven phone calls and is far superior to Prime Minister Jean Chretien's New Economic Partnership for African Development (NEPAD) which sounds like a recipe for further impoverishment of that troubled continent.
The foreign debt -- taken on by corrupt dictators -- is impoverishing the poorest of the poor. In the past two decades of meddling by the West, Africa's income per person has declined.
The ratio of external debt to GNP for sub-Saharan Africa is more than four to one. That's unconscionable.
Meanwhile, Africa has more than paid off that debt over the years, but with the inflated interest rates, they'll likely never be free of it.
Just for a lark, I ask Tataryn (who is, I must admit, adorable in her earnestness) where her clothes were made.
She says she cut all the labels off her clothes in an Oxfam- directed protest. I check out the back of her brown T-shirt. It is sized small but I am positive the remnants of the label remaining were once from the Gap. She shrugs.
Corporate reps for the Gap did not return calls yesterday, but the cash registers three floors above the fray were as busy as ever.
If, as the saying goes, hypocrisy is prejudice with a halo, it's no wonder so many were wearing sunglasses.
Must be a really grand luncheon.
Oh she is just precious.
I was going to make some snide comment...but then Carlos(my invisible friend) said... You could very well be right.
The sad thing is she actually believes she is educated instead of brainwashed.
Sounds so simple. Cancel the debt. Africa owes foreign creditors $300 Billion dollars!. Funny that the author never mentioned the figure.
"The easiest solution of all" to my financial problems would be a cancellation of my debts. Where's the G-8 conference on my behalf?
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