Today was a strange day at work. People were stressing out, worked up, micromanging and I still had a hard time finding motivation. I did a random google search and the following article was near the top of the list:
'If you don't take a job as a prostitute, we can stop your benefits'
The story was about a woman who was on unemployment benefits in Germany where they've legalized prostitution. As the article outlined it a person in Germany can lose their unemployment benefits if they turn down a valid job offer. When prostitution was legalized - somewhere in the past couple of years - a job offer in a brothel turned into one of those jobs. So there are women in Germany who are losing their unemployment benefits because they refuse to work in a brothel.
This angered me on so many levels. Most of them I'm sure you can understand and I'm not going to go into them in this blog post because it's not the surprising part. The new anger which I've never experienced before is the anger of helplessness. What am I going to do about it living in Denver? I don't have a job to offer. I don't have money to send at the moment. I have no influence over the German government. What good is having knowledge of injustices without having choices to make toward change.
Then later in the day I realized what a fricken contradiction I am. Vivian got a (red) candle for Christmas - a product that promises to use it's influence to help save Africa. I've got nothing against Africa, in fact I'm all about saving it. Fighting AIDS. Saving Darfur. Stopping violence and civil wars. And yet I'm completely skeptical of the (red) products. They're so trendy. Do people really want to help or do they just want one of those trendy t-shirts from the Gap. Does that matter? I'm also skeptical about how much money actually goes to Africa. Is it tied into profits or does it come right off of gross? People are making money off of people's sympathies for a very real problem. It makes me sick. Yet I'm not trying to do anything to help Africa either.
I don't understand myself today. Just crazy.
In other news - more snow is on the way overnight tonight which is just so irritating seeing as driving in Denver is still like off roading and the street just east of our house is totally blocked off by police cars and lots and lots of crime tape. I'm very curious about what's going down.
Thursday, January 04, 2007
Surprising Anger
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5 comments:
MG-
I just posted on the whole (red) trend...read through their manifesto, I don't think they are just some trendy way to save Africa.
Two, the police tape has to do with some person driving recklessly through downtown and crashing into cars and then ending up in the parking lot of Coors Field.
Funny you should mention that GAP campaign...I was accused of ruining the Swagman family Christmas because my sister got an inspi(red) GAP T-shirt, and was going on about how she was supporting their AIDS campaign. I commented, "They also run sweatshops in Honduras where woman are forced to have abortions. So you're supporting that as well." Dialogue went down hill from there.
Now I'll be the first person to admit I'm not perfect. I don't drink Fair trade coffee all the time. I eat bananas. And I threw away a pop bottle this afternoon instead of recylcing it. But let's not fool ourselves into thinking we're buying social responsible clothing because the GAP is doing an AIDS campaign
Let the anger out sista'!! Maybe we can go over to my place, light the (red) candle, and have a cry fest :-)
I figured the police tape had something to do with that chase - only on the news it didn't say anything about 14th and Washington.
and vbt love it – I’m in. I really don’t feel as strongly about it as the blog and my reaction yesterday suggests. I did check the Gap though and they’re sending 50% of profits. Which means if you really want to save Africa send your entire $30 to the campaign instead of the probably $2 that represents the 50% of profits from the t-shirt you just bought. I mean way to go Gap trying to use your influence for good. And - there’s still something in it that doesn’t sit right.
Fortunatley that article has no evidence to suppoet it. Under Germany's new prostitution laws, ProstG, that came into effect in 2002 no brothel is allowed to advertise their business in an employment centre.
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