Fashion, drugs and fair trade

This month’s theme on the Feminist Fashion Bloggers’s website is ethics. And I’m a good girl so I always do as I’m told, unless I do the exact opposite. So below is my opinion on fair trade.

I think there are two things that don’t go together and that is: telling people they should buy fair trade and taking drugs. There is absolutely not a single industry in this world that causes more harm than the drugs industry. And I’m not talking about drug addicts. I’m talking about the people that make it and that bring it to you.

Below are some reasons why some people seem to think that the drugs industry isn’t that bad:

It’s not my fault. It’s because it’s illegal. If drugs would be legal, we could also make fair trade drugs.

• Using drugs is not going to make them legal.

The money from drugs trade is used to support rebel armies that try to overthrow the violent, cruel regime of their countries.

• They use violence to (try to) overthrow this regime. History will tell you that rebel armies that overthrow a regime with violence hardly ever become a democracy, if never.

It creates opportunities for a lot of people that really have no other solutions.

• So do sweatshops.

I also think it’s very suspicious that there is more demand for fair trade clothes and food than for fair trade oil. The oil industry is in my opinion the number two industry responsible for human suffering. And it do is legal, so there is no reason why oil can’t be made fair trade. I think it’s because clothes and food are seen as an expression of your personality and that oil isn’t: ‘You are what you eat’ and ‘Fine feathers make fine friends.’ There is no saying about how the kind of gas you tank says something about who you are. I think the reason people buy fair trade often isn’t because they are someone that wants to change the world, but because they want to be someone that tries to save the world.

I still think it’s a good thing to buy fair trade food or clothes, but if you want to change the world, you’re going to have to do more than just buy stuff. Buying fair trade food or clothes do are steps in the right direction, but it are small steps and you can take bigger ones.