I know there's a line of reasoning that we ought not to trade with those who do wrongly to others. China has a record of harming its citizens upon occasion; and other charges have been made involving justice and freedom issues--for example.
But the point is to keep the lines of communication open, perhaps not to influence the leaders but to gain access to their followers and fellow-citizens in a country ruled by injustice treatment of their citizenry. I've always been against the Department of State's list of bad nations, for example. Why? It cuts off our ability to influence change in countries so labelled. And, also important, it places higher value on organizations and groups in this country who play the advantage to reap greater remuneration and worth on what they are promoting than such items or ideas may be actually worth.
The idea is to keep communicating and talking and bartering to advantage of all the parties involved. If a country uses child labor, deal with them to buy goods--but buy only those that they make without the use of child labor, No need to say, "I'll never visit that nation again," or "I'll never buy anything again that they put on the open market, just because I won't buy those items made with child labor." Rather, teach them why child labor is wrong; and keep buying items they don't make with child labor!
That's my opinion. Keep buying from those you know are sometimes in the moral wrong, and expect they'll see the light! (You might also pray for them!)
No comments:
Post a Comment