chocolate anyone?

  

While all of us love chocolate, a vast majority is not aware that about 1.8 million children are subjected to hard labour and horrible working conditions on West African cocoa farms, which is where 70 percent of the world’s chocolate comes from. According to the US Department of state, Cote d’Ivoire or Ivory Coast, which alone accounts for nearly 40 percent of world’s cocoa production, has more than 109,000 children working under “the worst forms of child labour”, with over 10,000 being victims of human trafficking and slavery. (Singapore Independent, 2014)

So given this news, what can we do? I've started drafting a post, but it's not ready yet... stay tuned.

Choices - so hard!

 

 My mission this year is to learn how to live more simply - because I want to know that I'm not disadvantaging people with my choices. This mission weighs on my mind daily. Coffee or not? Take away cup or BYO? Buy my lunch or take it from home? But my garden just doesn't produce enough to supply all my lunch needs..... as you can see - my thoughts wander through these cycles. 

So here's the thing - I think I've been absent from blogging because I'm feeling guilty.... living simply is hard by my current standards. Now, I have a new mission now - how can I live simply, in line with my hopes, in a way that is achievable in my actual life - that is - I commute 3 hours to work, don't see my garden any more than 1 day a week, and cant pack a lunch for every day. So - it's now about finding and purchasing ethically, locally, and minimally. 

While this is perhaps the image I had about simplicity.....

This is more like the image I hope for -  one of sitting peacefully with my decisions....

So now - I will be posting very soon on my Chocolate research.... it was an emotionally difficulty piece of research to do. But now I see my man making ethical decisions about what we're purchasing, and loosing weight as evidence that he's cut back - I feel like it was a great start.