To Make a Difference in the World and In The Helping Professions

I just finished watching a show on Cinemoi titled: ‘Earth From Above’ with Yann Arthus Bertrand. He travels the world to point out the consumption that exist. How products are made, where the material comes from, and the carbon foot print left behind.

The world at 6.5 billion people today will be over 9 billion people by 2050. Instead of using, making/manufacturing locally, products are manufactured where it is cheapest which means the locals are losing out on employment and the country that is now manufacturing has employees being paid lower than the typical minimum wage in the U.S. or Canada. Why are we allowing this and not lobbying in huge crowds for this to stop? As a society we should demand a stop to over-consumption and over-manufacturing.

Imagine a pair of jeans created in Tunisa that  have zippers from Japan, nickel tabs from Australia, material from India and many go through a process that creates the faded look. This faded look is created artificially with chemicals, rocks and by human hand. When I was younger, faded jeans, rips and holes at the knee came from wearing them for so long! As helping professionals many of us have the traits and skills of being compassionate, emphatic, respectful, and  wanting to make a difference. We chose social work, counseling, coaching, case management, and other areas of employment, because it is who we are naturally.

We need more of the general population to actually want to make a difference, and desire  to make the changes to make the world better. If each one of us made a small change or small gesture to reduce pollution, material consumption, to buy locally, and  reduce water usuage, imagine what could happen!

*November 9, 2012-www.northernmsw.com