I am very aware of the reality of oppression that still terrorises our world. I feel it as the constant context of our lives as I seek my own comfort and safety, as well as a way to do something about it all.

"I heard my brother calling me but I could not answer him,
for I was fighting my own demons of poverty and doubt"

The scale of the problem is such that it involves everything aspect of the military industrial medical political educational agricultural complex.
I cannot see anything less than the whole healing of the human heart will suffice to do more than relieve the suffering of the lucky few and allow the continued suffering of the unlucky many. What is needed is a quantum leap from the consciousness that creates all these problems.

I would encourage anyone to do whatever they can to help in whatever way they can – but I think we do need to realise that it is the most profound healing of the whole human conciousness that is ultimately required.

Yours for a peaceful and compassionate society
Narada Das
www.birdtribes.org/Firebird

I’m skeptical of the effectiveness of consumer boycotts in decreasing overt slavery and indentured servitude in very large scale industries like agriculture. A consumer boycotter may feel good that he is expressing outrage but the population of boycotters is so small and the number of slavers is so large that a consumer boycott is unlikely to have a discernible effect. Adverse publicity, particularly against large scale users of agricultural products, like fast food chains, and lobbying may ultimately have much greater effects than consumer boycotts.