Mövenpick & Morals

There's been feedback on the coffee blog.  Coffee consumption and morals--rich!
http://lexieintrator.blogspot.com/2011/09/what-would-immanuel-kant-say-about.html
I'm posting some reactions:

Of course, we "Kant be sure" about how Havelaar coffee is produced; 

I have to  assume  that their claims to "fairness in trade" are truthful.

And based on that assumption, I will buy Havelaar bananas in preference

to Chiquita. Sheldon Kopp, a wonderful psychiatrist-author, said in

his "Eschatological Laundry List":

- We must live with the ambiguity of partial freedom, partial power, and partial knowledge.

And

- All important decisions must be made on the basis of insufficient data. 

I think the important thing is not whether our actions are indeed ethically correct -

with our partial knowledge, who knows.. they may turn out in reality not to be so -

but whether we are impelled to take these actions on the basis of ethical principles ! DL

Interesting piece. I should put you in touch with my cousin who has a coffee thing in Mexico, a type of cooperative she and her husband are involved with, and she's quite opposed to Fair Trade coffee.
There's an old Claire Bretecher cartoon about three yuppies, and one starts taking off this piece of clothing and that for political reasons and refusing this and that food for the same reason, then at the end, says that it's impossible to be a genuine revolutionary any more...LF

As for ethical coffee... having spent my formative years in the NGO world I've drunk enough revolting "campaign coffee" to last a life-time - what, you never heard of campaign coffee? Disgusting muck, launched on an unsuspecting world by Oxfam, enabling us to consume caffeine with a clear conscience (and maybe just a hint of smug self righteousness). As there was little else on offer, I drank gallons of the stuff in my youth - I paid my dues and now feel I've earned the right not to question where the coffee comes from! PH


You are something!!!!!!!! Now I can't even drink my morning coffee (and I have been saving the Mövenpick for a special treat)  without considering ethical dilemmas and whether the workers were exploited while picking the beans and what my position should be not just about the coffee choice but about all the political agendas around me. Am I living the life of an ostrich much of the time here in l'il ol' Groton?????? MV

You like Mövenpick Coffee, enjoy it!  Don't go on a guilt trip everytime you have some. MP

Does this mean you don't buy Exquisito anymore?????   PF


Vigorous reactions, with multiple ?? and !!
(fuelled by caffeine no doubt)