I was happily watching the Oprah, even though it was a repeat (I'm pretty sure I saw parts of it the first time). It was the one with Julia Roberts discussing Eat Pray Love the movie. Haven't seen it yet but I read the book and liked it so hey why not catch the O about it.
Where does the displeasure come in - well Julia was talking about how she has taken to knitting and sewing stuff for her kids. So far so good. It's a nice gesture to the kiddos and as she herself said, it's good for the mind to learn new things. But then she did it - she went on to say how in these trying economic times, you've got to do all you can to save. "Have you seen the price of kids clothes?" Hazel's dresses are just 2 panels sewed together - I can do that'. (I paraphrase - but it was something like that - I tried to look up the interview on You Tube but was copyright protected and the Oprah website didn't have the whole transcript available.)
Now doing sewing and knitting for your family as an expression of love - awesome. Doing it to save money - that's cool too. BUT this woman makes $10's of MILLIONS for the movies she does. Are you *&@ing kidding me? How Profoundly Insulting to the millions of Americans who are actually struggling. And that doesn't include the millions who are homeless. Or the 10's of millions of children who don't have enough to eat in the States - let alone pretty clothes. (According to the Hunger Site, 14 million children in the States live in "poverty and desolation".)
And that's just America! Worldwide - 1.02 Billion are experiencing chronic hunger (due to the current economic crisis!) with 53% of pre-schooler age children's deaths being directly attributable to malnutrition. Julia - You do NOT need deals. You are not affected by any economic crisis. Be respectful of actual people's daily struggles as opposed to rejecting the reality of the vaulted life you are privileged to live and accept.
And Oprah even backed up this sentiment of hers in her August issue of O Mag - in the "What I Know for Sure" article. She discusses wanting deals. Really? Are you kidding me? I get not wanting to get screwed over just because you have money. But it's that sentiment of not wanting to pay what something is worth that is the most insidious form of greed. That's the greed that big business uses to justify its figurative and literal enslavement of workers. More Profits - well, there are limits to everything. It's long past time we figured that out.
There's nothing wrong with paying what something is worth. Mind you, if we were really doing that natural gas, hydro-electricity, nuclear energy would include the environmental costs. Corn, wheat, dairy, beef would all cost much more - they're currently subsidized. We actually throw out more milk than we consume - because we don't produce food for consumption, we produce it for profit. But there's a cost - and the Oprah's and Julia Roberts' of the world should at least be willing to acknowledge that there's a gap. AND that they, of all people, can afford to pay it!
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