Consumerism or Caring?
I came across something this morning that brought me up short. It's the I.V. Plant Pot, available at www.vitaminliving.com for a mere $280.00.
I don't know how it will seem to you, but for me this product has a slightly obscene veneer to it. It's a rather unspectacular planter outfitted with a medical-grade 500 CC I.V. to water the plant even when the owner chooses not to. It's life-saving properties, of course, hinge on the owner remembering to refill the drip bag when it's empty.
To me, this is an example of consumerism at its worst. Most of us have an image of a family gathered around a hospital bed, praying for the recovery of a loved one connected to an I.V. Using the drip for a plant pot trivializes this.
Take a look at their site, with its slogan "a life less ordinary" and its supposed nurse posing for the camera while she holds her little play-doctor kit. This is all to sell a money-grabbing idea to people who have coin of the realm to waste and absolutely no idea of how to spend it on something worthwhile.
If someone with $280.00 to spare is really interested in a "life less ordinary" they can take that money to the online catalogue for Canadian Food for the Hungry International, and spend a happy hour deciding just how to use their money. Any sum they spend there will take a life where the "ordinary" is too often poverty, disease and despair, and truly make it extra-ordinary.
Malaria takes an average of 3,000 children's lives a year. Instead of one plant pot, your money could buy 20 bednets and perhaps save those 20 lives. Who knows whom you might be saving? Imagine helping to bring the next Gandhi-like figure to his/her people!
If the idea of your gift rippling out in concentric circles of care appeals to you, that same amount could be used instead to fund the training for six health care workers. That one plant pot could be turned into six 6-day training workshops for community health care workers. In countries where understanding of basic sanitation is sometimes sadly lacking, having someone of your community, someone right there to teach young mothers how to better care for their babies, for instance, could truly produce a ripple effect that would have no end.
If you prefer to think of your gift as having a face you could put to it, use that same amount of money to purchase two agri-combos. One pig, four rabbits and fruit trees will be given to two separate families, creating food and income for each of them. Instead of one plant pot, you could gift two families and their communtites with smiles, and you'd still have enough money left to go to the nursery and buy yourself a spectacular plant, a lovely pot, and a clay plant feeder/watering system. Many of them will water your plant for up to 14 days. If you can't remember to replenish the water within that time period, maybe it's time for you to consider a move to silk flowers. You can sit and gaze at their artificial beauty while you think about the very real smiles on the faces of those who benefited from your gifts.
I don't know how it will seem to you, but for me this product has a slightly obscene veneer to it. It's a rather unspectacular planter outfitted with a medical-grade 500 CC I.V. to water the plant even when the owner chooses not to. It's life-saving properties, of course, hinge on the owner remembering to refill the drip bag when it's empty.
To me, this is an example of consumerism at its worst. Most of us have an image of a family gathered around a hospital bed, praying for the recovery of a loved one connected to an I.V. Using the drip for a plant pot trivializes this.
Take a look at their site, with its slogan "a life less ordinary" and its supposed nurse posing for the camera while she holds her little play-doctor kit. This is all to sell a money-grabbing idea to people who have coin of the realm to waste and absolutely no idea of how to spend it on something worthwhile.
If someone with $280.00 to spare is really interested in a "life less ordinary" they can take that money to the online catalogue for Canadian Food for the Hungry International, and spend a happy hour deciding just how to use their money. Any sum they spend there will take a life where the "ordinary" is too often poverty, disease and despair, and truly make it extra-ordinary.
Malaria takes an average of 3,000 children's lives a year. Instead of one plant pot, your money could buy 20 bednets and perhaps save those 20 lives. Who knows whom you might be saving? Imagine helping to bring the next Gandhi-like figure to his/her people!
If the idea of your gift rippling out in concentric circles of care appeals to you, that same amount could be used instead to fund the training for six health care workers. That one plant pot could be turned into six 6-day training workshops for community health care workers. In countries where understanding of basic sanitation is sometimes sadly lacking, having someone of your community, someone right there to teach young mothers how to better care for their babies, for instance, could truly produce a ripple effect that would have no end.
If you prefer to think of your gift as having a face you could put to it, use that same amount of money to purchase two agri-combos. One pig, four rabbits and fruit trees will be given to two separate families, creating food and income for each of them. Instead of one plant pot, you could gift two families and their communtites with smiles, and you'd still have enough money left to go to the nursery and buy yourself a spectacular plant, a lovely pot, and a clay plant feeder/watering system. Many of them will water your plant for up to 14 days. If you can't remember to replenish the water within that time period, maybe it's time for you to consider a move to silk flowers. You can sit and gaze at their artificial beauty while you think about the very real smiles on the faces of those who benefited from your gifts.
1 Comments:
Definitely something worthwhile to think about as Christmas approaches ... if you're about to buy an IV Plant Pot ... think twice ... unfortunately, there are some who will read this post, and will not understand the meaning of "a life less ordinary."
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