Money Where Your Mouth Is

Recently, we all heard or read about a terrible incident of racism at a Starbucks store in the United States. Although the incident was isolated, it gained media attention around the world as the warriors for Social Justice demanded that Starbucks, rightfully, be held accountable for the actions of their managers. Tens of thousands of people have decided to boycott the coffee giant as a sign that discrimination, on any scale, will not be tolerated.

Even more recently, Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland, threw down the gauntlet in a tweet regarding Saudi Arabia. In no uncertain terms, Freeland made it clear that Canada is prepared to stop doing business with the oil soaked country as long as they ignore adherence to basic human rights standards. Much like the Starbucks incident, there has been a lot of publicity around Canada’s stance on Human Rights and even support for halting trade with Saudi Arabia.

As I ponder both of these situations, I am sitting in a country that has recently stripped over 500,000 of its people of their citizenships and human right just because of the color of their skin. Street lynchings are becoming common and trafficking of these newly undocumented children has risen over 1000% in the last year according to a local NGO. Still with all of the virtue signalling and grandstanding, hundreds of thousands of Canadian per year visit this “island paradise” and spend tens of millions of dollars.

It is easy to boycott Starbucks with a different coffee shop on every corner.

It is easy to demand a boycott of oil from a country on the other side of the world.

After all, taking a stance that doesn’t affect our lives is the easiest kind of stance to take.

You want to really take a stand for human rights and make a statement? Read Widlene’s story and never spend another penny in Dominican Republic.