All about "Welcome to the dark side..."

If you talk with me for more than 5 minutes, you'll quickly become aware of my passion and drive for social justice. But I haven't always been this concerned about how my choices impact others. There are blog posts to come about my journey to this passion, but that is for another day. Today, I wanted to give a little background into the series I've titled "Welcome to the dark side..."


It's easy to be caught up in our own little bubble of life. All too easy. It's so simple to ignore the world around us. It doesn't take much effort to forget about the global impact our choices as consumers make. We want what's easy, convenient, and comes at the cheapest price. After all, in this economy, we need to be frugal with our hard earned money that never seems to be quite enough.

I am eternally grateful to the amazing people who opened my eyes to the world around me, and helped me to bring my life into focus. With knowledge comes responsibility. This is one of my favorite and most challenging phrases. What good is knowledge without action? We've all heard it said that knowledge is power, but I wholeheartedly disagree with that. Knowledge that leads to action is power.

You know what else is power? For those of us living in Western societies, the way we spend our money is power. Don't agree? Think about it. What is the best way to send a company a message? Simply don't buy from them.

So these next few weeks or months or however long I feel compelled to keep up with this series, I am going to be opening your eyes to areas that I, too, was once completely oblivious to. And it's not going to be pretty. Trust me. A lot of the things that I'm going to be talking about are dark. Things we would rather not think about. Things that we want to keep out of our bubbles. Hence the title "Welcome to the Dark Side."

The truth is, this world is a scary place. It's a place where bad people do bad things. It's a place of exploitation, of dishonesty, of selfishness. But we can be a part of something better. We can be a part of the light. There's a Chinese Proverb that says "Better to light a candle than to curse the darkness." And that is my desire. That we will all light candles in the darkness of exploitation that is rampant in this world.

Let me leave you with one more thought. A lot, if not all, of what I'm going to be sharing has to do with slave labor. And the only way to the light the candle in the darkness is for us to change. Which means more thought going into our choices, and it means more money being spent on products that result in fair wages being paid. You see, the products we buy cheaply, we get most of the time because of slavery. It costs more to actually pay workers a fair wage. And it's going to be hard for us to change our ways. Especially when it comes to shelling out more money for similar products that we're used to getting so cheaply.

And I totally understand. I struggled (and still struggle) with the same thoughts. But think about your own kids. Your grandkids. For me, it's my nieces and nephews (I will never understand why there isn't a collective word like "siblings" for nieces and nephews. Seriously.) Picture them in your mind right now. Now picture them working as forced child laborers. And you are too poor to do anything about it. Think about the torn and dirty clothes that they are wearing, the lack of shoes on their feet. The dangerous work environment they are forced to endure. Wouldn't you pray, earnestly, to whatever god you believe in for someone to help you?

We can be that help. We can be that shining light in the darkness. It only takes 1 candle to produce light in a dark room. And the more you add, the less darkness there is. Our candles can be as simple as refusing to buy from products notoriously derived from slave labor until the executives are forced to change their ways.

Let's use our spending power to stop slave labor, instead of perpetuating it. Are you ready to light your candle with me?

-A.A.

If you missed the first post in this series, check it out: Welcome to the Dark Side of Chocolate. Halloween is right around the corner. Start shining your light now. Purchase your Halloween candy from fairly traded companies!

Welcome to the dark side....of chocolate

Since Halloween is looming ever closer on the horizon here, and many of us are going to be stocking up on goodies to pass out to the little Trick-or-Treaters that pass through our neighbors, the inspiration for this post came at just the right time.


Who doesn't love a good piece of chocolate? A candy bar to get through the day, a gift for a loved one, ice cream and cookies for a sleepover...chocolate is everywhere! And why not? Scientific studies are proving that (dark) chocolate is good for your heart and brain, and that any kind of chocolate releases feel-good hormones.

But it's time for everyone to know the truth about chocolate, and I feel it is my responsibility to help forward that knowledge. With knowledge comes responsibility. As Martin Luther King, Jr. puts it, "Our Lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter."

The vast majority of main-stream chocolate in our stores is brought to us compliments of forced child labor. Slavery. This problem was first brought to the worlds attention via British and American Journalists in 2000-2001. You can read about their discoveries here. Due to public pressure, the Harkin-Engel Protocol was enacted in 2001 where mainstream companies promised to work towards eliminating the "worst forms of child labor". (more about Harkin-Engel here).

As I'm sure you can imagine, this "working-towards" promise was nothing more than a farce, and here we are, 12 years later, still faced with the bitter truth that every time we buy chocolate we are supporting child slavery.  The tasks these children are forced to do include spraying hazardous chemicals onto the crops with no protection from inhaling the fumes and using machetes to cut down and break open the cocoa pod which often result in cuts and scars.           The vast majority of these "workers" do not attend school, cannot read or write, and live on a diet of corn paste and bananas. A 2011 study done by Tulane University estimates around 2 million children enslaved in coca related activities. Things are so bad, in fact, that the International Labor Organization has dubbed the cocoa industry as the WORST form of child labor.

So what do we do about it? The answer is simple. Take a stand with me, and REFUSE to buy chocolate originated in slavery. Let these companies know that we are serious about ending the use of child slaves in our chocolate process. We can work together to end slavery, and I am asking you to start with the cocoa industry.

Don't worry! This doesn't mean that you have to stop buying chocolate. Lucky for you chocolate-lovers out there, there are a lot of options that do NOT originate in slave-based cocoa production. And quite frankly, these options taste a whole lot better, as well!

So let's talk fair trade for minute. The quick definition of fair trade is that the workers were paid a fair wage. That means NO SLAVERY. That means NOT PERPETUATING POVERTY. That means providing HOPE and a FUTURE for the workers, especially, in this case, the ones in the third-world countries harvesting the cocoa. Look for Fair Trade symbols like these on your labels and you'll know that your money is helping to END SLAVERY.

The best way to go about this is to not buy chocolate from mainstream brands--Hersheys, Mars, Cadbury, Nestle--they ALL use slave-derived cocoa. I'm NOT ok with that. And you shouldn't be either.

Don't rely on the Fair Trade label alone. This certification is awesome, but it is also extremely expensive.

Do some research. The internet is so handy. Do some reading on fairly traded, ethical brands of chocolate.

Yes, it's going to take "sacrifice" from us. It means looking harder when we are craving a good candy bar. It means paying a few more dollars for our chocolate. But when the difference is supporting slavery or freedom, it shouldn't be that hard of a choice, right?

As of today, I am taking a pledge to not willingly support slave-derived chocolate. And I am challenging you all to take that stand with me. I can no longer be so selfish as to think that my desire for a Milky Way outweighs the global ramifications of  supporting the slave industry through the spending of my money.

Let me leave you with one last thought :

 "He who passively accepts evil is as much involved in it as he who helps perpetrate it. 

He who accepts evil without protesting against it is really cooperating with it."

{Martin Luther King, Jr.}

Refusing to cooperate with evil any longer,

-A.A.

find out more and sources I've used:

http://simplemom.net/chocolate/

http://grist.org/food/a-guide-to-ethical-chocolate/

http://thecnnfreedomproject.blogs.cnn.com/2012/01/19/child-slavery-and-chocolate-all-too-easy-to-find/

http://www.slavefreechocolate.org/

http://equalexchange.coop/blog/child-labor-cocoa-industry

How I'm Failing at adulthood and how I'm changing my ways...

(disclaimer: For those of you readers who know me personally, you know I generally try to appear like I've got my act together. But it's just that...an act...cause I totally don't.)

It has come to my attention recently (within the past few months) that I am epically failing at being an adult. It's not that I'll be paying off my student loans til I'm 35. It's not that I'm living with my parents (what recent college grad can afford to live on their own these days anyway?). It's not even that I stay up til 1:00 a.m. most nights. (Although that can be contributing factor.) So here's a random personal post about what I'm doing wrong, and how I'm going to fight to make it right.

I oversleep. Just about every morning. Like seriously oversleep. Oversleep as in I have 20 minutes to shower, get ready [and look somewhat professional], and get myself to work on time. I don't know what it is about my body that loathes mornings. I can stay up til 3:00 a.m. and I'm fine. But no matter what time I go to bed (and believe me, I've tried the going to bed early thing) I still just hate getting up in the morning. Just this morning, I literally hit snooze every 8 minutes from 6:30 until 8:00. I know. So pointless. But when you're bed feels like a fluffy cloud, it is just so hard to get up.

I am overly caffeinated. Right now, I'm averaging at least 4 caffeinated drinks a day. That's a lot. Correction, that's too much. Which is probably why I have trouble sleeping. Or sitting still. It's now a running joke with some of the teens in our youth group to ask me how many cups of coffee I've had every time they see me. (This may be because they rarely see me without a coffee cup attached to my hand.)

I am pretty sure I have some of the worst eating habits. Like ever. I know I'm picky, but that's not excuse for the epic fail that is my eating. Fast food, junk food, and candy are basically what I live off of most of the time. And this is not good. And my body knows it's not good. But I do it anyway. It's so tempting to just run over to one of the multiple fast food places a block or two from the office. And then I feel gross the rest of the day. But I do it, anyway.

Like many Americans, I have a gym membership. But until last night I hadn't been to the gym in a solid 2 months. Some of this was unavoidable. When you're pulling 80+ hour weeks, it is just impossible to squeeze in gym time. But a lot of it was lack of motivation and lack of discipline.

So, in a nutshell, that is a lot of how I'm failing. But I have a plan. I like plans. Especially when they involve making lists. I am a HUGE list-maker. So here we go. Ali's Plan to Start Being a Real Adult.

1) Oversleeping - This is not a problem that is going to be fixed overnight. (No pun intended). My goal is to work up to getting up at a decent time this month. Starting this week I need to be out of bed no later than 7:45. Next week it will be no later than 7:35. Small goals produce a greater outcome. I've also started setting out my outfit the night before. That way I'm not groggily staring at my closet trying to figure out how to put a business casual outfit together.

2) Caffeine- I am limiting myself to 2 cups of coffee in the morning at the office. Obviously, there will be an occasional exception to this one. But as a general rule, 2 cups and I'm done. I want to start getting into drinking green tea, so that will be my afternoon pick-me-up.

3) Eating habits -  This one I'm going all in. No more fast food for lunch at the office. Majorly cutting back on the candy intake. I went to the grocery store last night and stocked up on healthy things for lunch at the office, like oatmeal, granola and yogurt, and whole wheat bagels. Drinking more water and less of everything else is also on the list, as is drinking green tea, lemon water, and Naked Green Machine juices. I hate green veggies, and realistically, I'm never going to sit down and eat a salad, so Green Machine is my way of getting all those healthy green nutrients.

4) Gym Time - I've recruited one of my goods friends to help me with this one. We're gonna keep each other accountable on gym time and make sure that we're both following our goals. Yay for friendship!

Well, there you have it! I'll try to keep you updated on my successes and failures. October is my month for changing my life and it's exciting! I spent an hour at the gym last night, and just finished my whole wheat bagel. I'll eat my apple after I run some office errands.

How are you trying to be healthier, or manage time better, or be a better adult?

-A.A.