Not much chance of trying out my weed killer recipe today it hasn't stopped raining all day and the river looks very different from yesterdays photograph. I have been planning for a show at Achfary for next week and writing out a list of what I am taking. Achfary is a really pretty village west of here and the show is going to be open all week.
Driving home from doing the shopping I was listening to a discussion about Zimbabwe and whether it should be boycotted by British business. There were some very interesting comments from Peter Hains MP and a representative from Tesco who are just one of several supermarkets that import things like french beans. They say that they have had a long term relationship with their supplier and it would cause additional hardship to workers if they ceased trading with them . Given what I have been reading about the major supermarket chains this sounds a little hollow.Tesco and its major supermarket rivals have faced criticism for abusing
their monopoly positions and contributing to some of the major social
and environmental problems plaguing society today. These include
exploiting small farmers in the UK and worldwide and hastening their
replacement with industrial monoculture plantations where wages are low
and labour rights are minimal; undercutting almost every other retailer
and hence turning our town centres into boarded-up ghost towns;
co-operating with climate criminals, Esso; as well as numerous other
corporate crimes.
Peter Hain is of the opinion that the only way that we can cause problems for Mugabe's corrupt regime is to cut off their income by having a trade embargo.
It is a difficult one isn't it? Generally speaking I am against boycotting but a lady from Zimbabwe phoned in to make the point that all producers were having to pay huge premiums to the government so it would have an effect on finances. She went on to say that here in the UK we simply do not understand how difficult it is for the people with escalating inflation, no electricity or petrol and little food to buy. On balance I think that it would cause additional hardship because of the time its likely to take to have a financial effect on a regime that is basically uninterested in its peoples welfare. What do you think? I would be very interested to hear some others opinions on this discussion.
Linda
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