Can We Face Ourselves?

Can we face ourselves?

When Mr Hansen arose from his bed this morning his felt surprisingly fresh, maybe due to the fact that he had slept so comfortably in his new bright blue beddings; an inexpensive purchase of yesterday’s shopping trip to Jysk SengetÐ"Ñ'jslager. His morning only improved as he inaugurated the new red fluffy towel after a beautiful long shower; another cheap purchase of yesterday. At this time of his life Mr. Hansen felt very good about himself, he did not in the least feel guilty or ashamed, but this would change the very same evening when he would be watching a documentary on television. A documentary which would reveal the truth about how his purchases of yesterday had come into existence; how people had suffered and how the environment had deteriorated, just so he could save a penny or two.

The majority of the cotton items sold in Jysk are produced in India, where farmers use extreme amounts of pesticides to control the damage caused by the dreaded cotton worm. While cotton only covers five percent of India’s cultivated land it is here fifty percent of the country’s consumption of pesticide takes place. Farmers spray their fields with pesticides up to thirty times a year to secure the harvest. This excessive use of pesticides may in the long run have the opposite effect since the cotton worm may become resistance, leaving the farmers without any means of controlling the worm, but they will have to cross that bridge when they get to it. At the moment, a more the merrier mentality seems to prevail among the cotton farmers.

Additionally, several types of pesticides legally used in India are believed to be so dangerous, both to humans and the environment that they have been forbidden by law in Denmark as well as in the rest of Europe. Some of these pesticides, which have been proven to cause cancer, impair genes and destroy the reproductive ability, are produced and sold in India by the Danish owned company; Cheminova. Some of the toxic substances use to produce these pesticides are in type equivalent to the substances we know as weapons of mass destruction. Well aware of the dangerousness of its products Cheminova ease their conscience by enclosing directions for use; a poor help knowing that the majority of the farmers are illiterate. For the directions to be the least useful they would have to be illustrated, and even then, they may not make a world of difference since the farmers most likely cannot afford to by the necessary protection outfit. As a result, cotton fields are sprayed day after day by unprotected farmers who are risking their lives. The number of people suffering from cancer has exploded the last couple of years; from 1100 cases a year in 1998 to 6000 in 2003. Dr. Ashok Alwar Kumar, who is a cancer physician in one of the new numerous hospital built in the cotton-belt of India to accommodate the rising amount of cancer patients, sees a direct link between the use of pesticides and the risk of developing cancer.

As the truth about the coming into existence of Mr. Hansen cheap purchases