was interrupted by poor quality coffee. whether or not your coffee is laced with blood should always be a secondary concern to consumer quality, not to mention your miserly power-hungry pursuit of near-extortionate market prices.
read the provocation
a) Vive Hugo! his country has a long history of being pushed around ("dictated to?") by the United States. he donated millions of dollars worth of oil to New Orleans poor in the wake of Katrina. And it's pronounced "Ooh-Go," by the way.
b) Adam Carman has now joined Jason Schambach on my list of Houghton people who strain out gnats while swallowing camels, pleased to play around as if they had big ideas and important causes while playing havoc in others' lives over inconsequential and oversimplified, overpompous pontification. There are more important things in life than chapel scanning and paying a few extra cents for gas. I am generally tolerant of childish idiots--until they begin running amok, frustrating others, destroying communities, and making life rougher for people for whom life is difficult and unbuffered already.
c) people at Houghton live such wealthy f*****g existences that they are completely removed from complicated things like earning honest bread, sustaining spiritual lives independent of a church-camp-like structure, or dealing with people and things who do not fit into neat little good guy/bad guy perfect-individualistic-capitalist black and white worlds.
d) speaking of people without the luxury of pompous moralizing and ideological faith in capitalism, what would the impact of a boycott on the Houghton gas station be on the local folk who work at that gas station? are you comfortable with causing them to, oh, lose their jobs or take pay cuts to add a notch to your ethical-ego-belt?
e) there's a bigger world out there, Adam. one where sixteen-year-olds OD on heroin (for the third time) and nasty corporations burn families off their lands and out of their houses and people are mainly occupied with finding a way to make it to tomorrow or next year. I don't care if you're rich and stupid--at least you contribute to the trickle-down. but when you start f*****g around with people's livelihoods and dismissing with self-congratulating laughter the hard work of people trying to make it easier for the economically poor to get just a few of the advantages you take for granted...
then you have a Jesus problem my friend, and you have a problem with me.
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6 comments:
Yeah Holcomb!! Rock on!! I couldn't have said it better at all. Mostly because I don't say things well, but it was still well put!
i do agree.
except, on your last point--maybe i read the article wrong, but wasn't he just arguing to switch gas suppliers? i believe that citgo was previously bp, and before that was probably something else... switching to mobil wouldn't directly change the local economy.
not to say that that is all that matters.
That article made me FURIOUS... I can feel the heat in my face... and all the words that... well, we'll leave it at that. You said many of the words I'd like to say and would say if I had anyone to talk to at the moment. ONE of the things that makes me the most angry (and there are MANY!) is that he is talking out of complete ignorance of the perspective of the majority (of Latin Americans). Did he bother going beyond CNN or ABC or FOX or the Democrat and Chronicle or whatever other all-American-almost-completely-one-sided spewing forth of a biased and American-informed MEDIA? Has he ever put even one little baby toe outside of the rabidly traditional non-biblical bigotted christianity that makes me want to apologize to the world for being under the same name. If THAT is what christianity is... forget it. THAT is not Christ. And Cheers to Hugo Chavez for having the guts to stand up to the United States. I only pray that the good that he is accomplishing won't end in a power-tripped finale... that he will use his power for "good" and a good that isn't interested in licking the boots of the American consumerist/capitalist cooperations and the government they represent. And if I may continue in this spirit... Vive Che! Vive Hugo!
Thanks Dan. Seriously. THANK YOU.
and don't get me started on this guy about fair trade... oi!! i'm so pissed!!! i don't remember the last time i was this angry.
to address katrina's point--a boycott of the local gas station would most certainly affect the local economy--also the transaction costs involved in switching suppliers would add economic "friction" to gas station's operating costs.
but kat also brings up another unexplored point--our money is going one way or another: to support a national leader who advocates charity, justice, and operation on some moral standard that includes cheekily defying frighteningly powerful and heavy-handed governments on the basis of principle.
or--support some large oil company involved in, say, drilling for oil in places of natural beauty, exploiting the politics of oppression and chaos in the Sudan, or subverting the integrity of local governments.
hell--the way Mr. Chavez is edging towards socialism, you're probably helping to provide healthcare for people who aren't so well off as you are if you support his oil company.
AND--you're encouraging the kind of business ethics that include charity to the helpless--in this case, helpless American citizens, American victims of natural disaster.
yeah, what was the name of that company again? I'm going to start looking for it next time I'm in the need for gas. which, at my current savings rate, could be a while...
hehehe, Rachel's comment made my day. A furious Rachel is ALWAYS a good thing. :)
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