BLACK OR WHITE
It is nice
when people know what is right and wrong, black, or white, to do or not to do!
Unfortunately, there are lots of shades of grey. It's a great pity that the
real world we live in is not, yes or no, up or down, right or left like that. It
would be so much easier if it was, black or white right or wrong, without any
intermediate spaces or opinions – wouldn't it?
Of course,
the thing is, even God compromises and accommodates that which He does not want
to happen. I'm so glad He does, aren't you?
So, “what
brought this on?” you ask. Well, I have
seen many things on Facebook about electric cars. Mostly, it’s all about how
they don't work, are too expensive, and they exploit children and therefore we
shouldn't buy them, and on top of all that, they won't get you where you need
to go.
Of course, I
am missing out that most of the writers have never driven one, never been in
one, and, if we are honest, know nothing about them - but hey! that never
stopped our prejudices did it.
But for me,
it does throw up the problem of child exploitation, and yes, I have thought about
it, and yes, I have driven Electric cars for almost ten years if you include
the original hybrid cars. I believe doing so is better for the environment. For
me, I think the last ten years has saved me around £11,000 in running costs
from running my previous petrol car. That does not include the free parking,
the (sometimes) free electricity, the low cost of tax and the government perks as
well as the free driving in Central London, (i.e., not paying the congestion
tax.)
However, we
cannot ignore the child exploitation that is utilised to get the material for
the battery. However, if we are going to think about exploitation for the
construction of car batteries, shouldn't we also think about the exploitation
in other areas of both children and working adults too? The exploitation of workers in clothing
factories, exploitation of children making footballs, exploitation of the
environment and local people via oil pipelines and the pollution of food
sources in coastal areas. Wasn't there a whole load of innocent working people
killed in the Rana Plaza building collapse?
I do listen
to the people trying to represent such situations. However, the grey area is that
the people who are being exploited tell us to not stop buying the goods,
because if we do, they do not have any work at all. So, the result of or black and white
moralistic cry is starvation. Sometimes
in some countries, the only working person in the family is a child. Is that right? Of course not! However, the
grey area is that there are choices. Either, we stop buying such things,
creating even worse social and financial situations for those families, or we
buy making loads of noise to those in power to change the working conditions in
the relevant countries, stop children from working and employ adults. The end-product
of that change will mean that our clothes, batteries, food, and the oil will
become more expensive, maybe it should be.
As a
follower of Jesus, I am sure that we have an international responsibility to prophesy to power. To call out the misuse and injustice towards
children and working people We need to seek and pull down the Kingdom to our
time-space world, handfuls of Kingdom justice, righteousness, equality, and
wholeness. Let us make a noise. We can do something - doing nothing is not an
answer, but neither is not buying.
Sadly, there is no black or white - just lots of different greys.
Adrian
Hawkes
7th
August 2021
W.
572
www.adrianhawkes.blogspot.co.uk
