in passing

About two years ago--just before I began my enforced exile in the leading exporter of violence--I recall there was a military coup in Honduras. The democratically elected President was escorted out of the country by a bunch of thugs--roused from his bed early in the morning.....

Just before the coup, the President had expressed a desire to raise the minimum wage. (So-called "minimum wage" because we know that these wages are never something anyone can really live on.)

Recently, in this desert outpost of a cruel empire, I have done a little browsing in the shops. I have been horrified and disgusted to notice that most of the clothes for sale seem to have been produced in Honduras.

So, in the USA, when we shop, if we purchase, say a t-shirt or a sweatshirt, we are supporting a military dictatorship. The problem can't easily be solved by a mere consumer boycott because we cannot simply stop purchasing things----bananas, underwear, coffee, etc. Whatever you name, it's been produced in an exploitative manner. Our very lives are purchased at the cost of someone else's misery.

I don't think that is a good thing or anything to be proud of. Quite the opposite.