The Change We Have to Make

Contestant no.: H2296

Mahatma Gandhi once said, ‘If you wish to see a change, be the change.’

Imagine, how our world will be like in 2030? Technology everywhere replacing

workforce? Great progress in economic growth? Kicking out fossil fuels and using

sustainable resources for everything? Every thing you can think of may become true.

Let’s take a look at how our world is like and how we can contribute to change the

future community.

COVID-19 has caused a destructive impact to the global economy. Not only

are the global hygiene and health being threatened, but also the economy of the world.

The number of people unemployed has soared to 4 times that of during the global

financial crisis in 2007 to 2009. Because of the pandemic, less tourists travelling

around, the tourists’ arrivals fell from 1.5 billion in 2019 to 381 million in 2020,

which is not expected to return to 2019’s level in 4 years’ time. The situation in

different industries has forced the young generation, such as the freshmen who has

just graduated from the university, to face the bad news of unemployment.

Other than the problems created after the pandemic, there’re some that had

already existed before. One of them is fair trade of various products around the globe.

Regarding the fair trade affairs, the exposure of Starbuck’s scandal would be one of

the most shocking ones. According to a report published by the local inspector of

Brazil, Starbucks was said to be related to a plantation where the workers are working

in an nasty condition with bats and mice in their food. There was no sanitation system,

and with an extremely unreasonable working hours of 17 hours. The workers are paid

with low wages and sometimes not even enough for their living. As there’s 80% of

the producers of coffee beans are small producers, and this in fact exacerbated the
problem of poverty of the world. The policies about fair trade attempted to provide

protection for the workers. However, Starbucks has set another standard and claimed

that 99% of their sources of coffee beans are ethical. The C.A.F.E. Standard they are

using cannot really ensure the quality of living and also the health condition for the

workers. This is one of the problems that we actually have to pay attention to. Though

boosting the economy is important, people’s interest cannot be deprived. Isn’t the

actions taken by these capitalists turning the cart before the horse?

You may ask, ‘How can we help?’ We’re not running a business that can go

against these dominating businesses. Yet, what we can tell is that, there’s not only one

solution. Just take a small action before you purchase the products. Buying products

with the logo signalling that it’s a fair trade product will help to donate the money to

the fair trade organisation and thus give a helping hand to the workers. On the other

hand, as we’re in the times of pandemic, as well as the global economy is at recession,

we can also take a small action to help our own region’s economy. Before paying for

a product, check if we can find the same thing that’s made in local, which actually

gives a helping hand to the local small businesses and also boosting the local

economy, which serves as an export to the local.

The economy and further affairs can only be worked out if the government,

businesses and citizens cooperate. Without any one of their help, the community

would not be what we imagine in 2030. In this era of advanced information

technology, just put down your phone, look around, and do something to help. There’s

no one that can leave themselves out of the problem and situation.