Friday 18 November 2011

what's your slavery footprint?

More on flickr

Earlier this week I came across the new Slavery Footprint Quiz. Essentially it asks you a bunch of questions about your lifestyle and from that presents a number representing the slaves that work for you to help you maintain your lifestyle.

Well, all I can tell you is that when I did the quiz I was shocked and appalled. I found I was tsk tsking myself at the number of slaves that maintain my and Kym's lifestyle. How many? 41. That's right, 41. Yuck.

Now, there are some things that aren't taken into consideration. For example, while it asks the number of clothing and jewellery items you have, it doesn't ask where you got them from. My one diamond is reclaimed and I've been solely buying second hand or fair trade all year, and most of my wardrobe reflects this. However, even with taking this into consideration, Kym and I still use 36 slave workers to maintain our current lifestyles. Well. That is just too much.

While I'm not planning on throwing away all my possessions, it does make me think about what I could do differently in the future. It's definitely been a good tool to get me thinking about what I can do to lessen the impact of my lifestyle on those who are vulnerable.

What's your number?

2 comments:

  1. I did this too Kate ours was 61 GOSH but I also didn't deleted items from rooms so I'm guessing ours would still be around 50
    What I liked about the quiz is that you also get information about where the slaves are and what they are used for.
    Thanks for sharing!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Isn't it scary!!! It really makes you think about where your "stuff" comes from. It's got me thinking about how I can reuse items that aren't necessarily useful in their original state. We've got a dining set from my parents that I am planning to sand down and revarnish/reupholster and it has really got my mind going of how I can make this "slavery-proof"... thinking I will be spending a lot of time perusing op shops and ebay for second hand fabric...

    ReplyDelete

thanks for your comments, I love to hear from you!

LinkWithin

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...