Who could say no to such cute faces freezing in the cold? (source)
As my fingers were getting numb from the cold, I didn't even get to explaining in most cases what we were raising money for. People either pretended not hear me, ditching me with a cold 'no, no' while staring into the shop displays with the newest sales on offer, or happily pulled out their wallets with their minds torn between which gadget to get in return for their contribution. Fortunately, the mix of people's reactions was balanced enough to keep me going through the cold. One guy, however, made my day.
Asked to support Vredeseilanden, he replied in a somewhat offended manner - 'Don't you know how expensive life's become these days? I have to buy a new car, that's taking more than enough out of my wallet!'. Well, then. I reckoned that if he was going to buy a new car, 5 Euro more wouldn't really make that much of a difference in the face of so big an expenditure. Yet, that really seems to have pulled his strings - 'Haven't you got any idea how much a Mercedes costs? You must think I've got money to spare!' Mightily offended, he then strode off to the car salon and left me wondering whether to rip the hair off my head or burst out in laughter.
This anecdote came to my mind as I was thinking back on the seminar I gave yesterday at a development course. During the last part of that session, we were reflecting with the group on solutions for the structural inequality and unfairness of the international trade system, especially when it comes to agriculture. One of the students asked me why it is that policy makers and politicians persistently neglect the evidence that free trade is hurting instead of benefiting the 1.3 billion small scale farmers who - oh gruesome irony - do not have enough to feed their families. 'Because a lot of them honestly believe that free trade is the real solution to this problem,' I said to her. At which point, then,
several other students joined that girl's outrage at willingly turning a blind eye at three decades of failed agricultural free trade policies.
It struck me that the indignation with which the girls at the seminar fumed against those 'blind and ignorant' policy makers, was not too different from the way that man on the street reacted to me for even daring to suggest that he could pinch off a few bucks from his car budget. As this only hit me several hours after that class, I couldn't share these last thoughts anymore, so I do it here. All too often we are so convinced of other people's wrong, that we erupt like a volcano with lava streams of arguments proving our right. Self-gratifying as this may be, it won't bring us any closer to a solution. For this, we should seek to understand why that other person holds these views and figure out a way - if possible - to create common ground, a level playing field from which to reach a better outcome than the status quo; an outcome to which both parties agree and which they honestly support. After all, there is often little point in being right when you're on your own at the right side of the table.
