Haiti, H+M and hubris
To any readers who haven’t done so yet, please donate to the DEC (Disasters Emergency Committee) which includes major charities like ActionAid, Oxfam and Save the Children:
This weekend I was in the H+M store and the experience made me stop and think about how some retailers are adopting a helpful approach. Yes, some of them do have questionable labor practices and operate “sweatshops” in developing countries and exploit their workforce. Nonetheless, some are admirable in the way they’re contributing towards efforts to help the Haitian people and any efforts along these lines should be mentioned and commended!
What happened was that (at point-of-sale) an H+M sales assistant asked me if I wanted to donate towards their Haitian appeal. Now, when we buy anything online via the likes of Paypal, Amazon etc. we’re given the option to donate GBP1 or more to a known charity but what I realized in H+M is that few retail stores in the UK do this. Often, they don’t even have a collection box for loose change that we may want to give to charity.
So it was good to see H+M staff conscientiously ask every customer if they want to donate.
Later, I was in Harrods and they made no such attempt to persuade customers to do so — which is a missed opportunity since a Harrods customer donating even 1 percent of their purchase price would be equivalent in hard cash to more than 10 percent from another store. That or instead of getting an extra 10 percent off with their Harrods loyalty card the store could have offered to contribute that 10 percent to the Haitian disaster fund. Of course, any customer of any premium department store could, of their own volition, opt NOT to buy that purse or gizmo in the sale that cost GBP250 and send the money to DEC instead………….
Hmmn, consumerism and moralism whizzing in my mind and then I happened upon an article anout small pots of lip balms that cost GBP30 whilst, elsewhere, I watched a news report noting that GBP30 is how much it costs for a tent that can house 10 people for 12 months in Haiti………
Images of lots of shoppers swarming GBP100+ items in department stores also replaying in my mind……
Let’s just say that I didn’t spend much this weekend on retail therapy and I am donating to the Haiti appeal.
As for the hubris part, well…….on some discussion boards some commentators have bemoaned the fact that Western democracies are constantly having to financially support economically bankrupt dictatorships and that when we donate the monies only end up being siphoned off by unscrupulous parties or in administration costs. Granted, that’s a point of concern for the globally civic-minded.
However, three considerations:
(1.) Western democracies are simply lucky they didn’t draw the teutonic plates short straw;
(2.) 99% of Haitians cannot be blamed for a handful of corrupt dictators, management incompetents and money siphoners.
(3.) HUMANITY + COMPASSION sets us apart from the machines and the (sch)muck.
Interestingly, it has also been the week in which JP Morgan has indicated its US$1+ billion bonus pool, President Obama has announced measures to clawback some of the monies US taxpayers stumped up to bail out the banks and there’s yet another cycle of “How to reform the banks and their bonus culture” media-bashing of bankers.
Of course there has to be some co-ordinated global philosophy and practice wherein capitalism can work with altruism in a substantive and meaningful way. That, though, may need to come from sources other than the politicians (because, let’s be frank, some of them are so busy electioneering and point-scoring that they’re losing the ability to THINK THROUGH PROPERLY and DO).
Please donate to the DEC, thanks!
