As university students, we are often within arm’s length of campus information, news reports and the latest on world issues. Student groups and clubs do a good job of pushing their messages to the public with the hope of gaining support. Sometimes their message is relevant.
Unfortunately, sometimes it is not. In the past weeks, Students for Fair Trade has taken a strong vocal and visual presence in The Daily Cougar and, thus, in the conscious of the student community.
I applaud their efforts to voice their concern over oppressive exchange practices and poverty in developing nations, but as a UH student, and one speaking directly to SFT, what does this have to do with me?
Or better yet, what does this have to do with any students?
Fighting for such issues misses the mark in terms of relevant student concerns. Why are we, as students, as well as student groups and clubs, not doing more to voice opinions regarding the recent hike in tuition, the hectic parking situation, or safety concerns on our campus?
We are too caught up in coffee beans when there is a slew of issues in and around our campus that impact the student community more directly.
In Ross Barnard’s guest column, "Rudley continues to ignore fair trade issue," (Wednesday, Opinion) he explained that the main issue that fair trade addresses is poverty. If poverty is such a concern, one only needs to take a ride around campus and into the surrounding neighborhoods to see poverty, as well as other, more relevant issues that plague the Third Ward community – a historic and important community that UH is very much a part of, but one that has consistently been ignored or overlooked.
Evidently, our own community’s issues are beyond SFT.
What SFT is essentially arguing about are the consequences of a capitalist economy, an economy exhibiting the classic supply-and-demand economic model. This begs me to ask what the point is. If coffee is an issue for SFT, then they should also take issue with the clothes they wear, the products they buy and anything else that is bought while playing the inescapable role of consumer in a capitalist society.
Students should have an active role and voice in worldly issues, and the efforts of SFT should be applauded.
Their presence on our campus along with other similar groups is admirable, but with SFT’s recent library banner fiasco and their interruption at a Faulty Senate meeting in September, it is hard to take their issue seriously and one questions the relevance of their cause at our university.
The issues that matter to our student body should be brought to light and handled by the appropriate powers as well as the students themselves. However, these issues must first be relevant to our campus community before anything else.
Perea, an anthropology senior, can be reached via [email protected]
