Some of you may remember a small task that you were assigned at one of our previous meetings. We have talked about poverty, and what I had asked you to do was to take a few minutes to look up an organization that either has a strong commitment to social (or environmental) justice, or one that has a bad reputation in the same areas.
In the course of our discussion, we mentioned that Wal Mart has a bad reputation. So, to get your thoughts flowing, I decided to do an entry about some of the injustices that are attributed to Wal Mart.
First of all, to understand how powerful the Wal Mart corporation is, it's economic power exceeds that of 161 countries.
So, what's the problem with Wal Mart, anyway?
There are several reasons why Wal Mart has a bad track record. Some of the issues are supporting slave labour, undercutting local businesses and other smaller companies, disregard for the environment, poor employee wages, among other serious issues.
Some people even blame companies like Wal Mart for the current financial crisis!
This Saturday, while we are doing the famine, we should take some time to think about some of these issues. How does what we do, or where we shop affect impoverished nations? What can we do to help? Over the next few days, take some time to think about this, and come on Saturday with some information about a few companies, either good or bad, that you can share with the group.
