While some people prefer Blogging about the simpler
things in life I on the other hand prefer Blogging about more complex issues in
life. As of late I have been thinking about Boycott Woolworths, to be honest
what got my attention was the amount of people who have joined the Boycott in
such a short amount of time, basically the boycott is caused by Woolworths trading Israel. Interestingly amongst the large amount of people who have joined
the boycott I found people like Notably Blade Nzimande, Cosatu, SACP and PublicInvestment Corporation.
I’ve found Boycott Woolworths to be a complex issue
because of its nature, in short the story covers a lot of issues related to
different political, legal and ethical views.
According to the Oxford school dictionary sanction is
defined as “action taken against a nation that is considered to have broken
international laws, Sanctions against that country include refusing to trade
with it.” I`ve felt the need to define sanction and put it out there to help express
my feelings a bit more and explain why I agree with boycott Woolworths so much.
Firstly I want to take you back in time back to a bad
place in time in a country I love so much I want to take you back to the apartheid
era in South Africa and remind of a big role that was played by the sanction made
against the South African apartheid government at the time, if you really take
a minute to think about it the sanctions placed against the government were
place because of the international laws broken by the government at the time
and as a result of the sanctions the economy crashed and the government was
forced to change their bad laws and as a direct result of the laws changed the
sanctions were gone, so sanctions helped end apartheid in South Africa.
The reason why Israel is under sanctions due to its apartheid
government and it apartheid laws. Head of retail operations Paula Disberry in
Woolworths says “legislation Cleary allows trade with Israel” in all honest she
is right it does. I’m not saying what Woolworths is doing is unlawful I`m
saying it is unethical, because weather willing or unwillingly Woolworths is
funding an apartheid government in Israel while so many South Africans clearly disapprove
of such actions. I`m a public relations student and I know for a fact that it
is not the legislations of South Africa that walk into Woolworths and buy bread
and milk every day but rather the people of South Africa that walk into Woolworths
and buy bread and milk, so I think Woolworths should stop hiding behind legislation and start standing with their consumers and more importantly stand
with their fellow South Africans against an apartheid government in a foreign
country. 