Advocacy Makes a Difference in Nike Case

Advocacy and volunteering is a big thing amongst college students, and has been at least since the 1960s. Organizations such as Student United Way, Amnesty International, and Circle K give students more opportunities to volunteer, write letters, and protest. It also insures that its mambers are well aware of what is going on in their country and around the world.

A rally at my school protesting the rising cost of tuition

Because of all of the efforts put into noble causes, its always rewarding to see those efforts make a difference. Universities and an Organization called United States Against Sweatshops put enough pressure on Nike that they finally agreed to pay severance costs as well as health insurance for a year to 1800 workers in Honduras who worked for Nike's subcontractors. They will also give them priority hiring.

You can read the whole artilce here.

Let's get some discussion going here. Are you involved in any advocacy at your school? What kind of causes do you feel are most important? Also, share one of your favorite stories about a protest or volunteering of some kind.

Related articles by Zemanta

• Nike Compensates Laid-Off Honduran Factory Workers (time.com)
• Sheila Shayon: Nike Bows to Labor Activists (huffingtonpost.com)

Also Read:

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  How Volunteering Can Take You Places
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  Volunteering in the Off Season

Food in the Summer

Lot's of low-income children rely on the free or reduced cost lunches (and breakfasts) for their nutrition. And during the summer, they aren't getting that. Many programs, such as Energy Express, help make up the difference, as well as food banks. Unfortunately, due to the economy, they are suffering. Please take the time to go to this site and find a local food bank to donate to. Just think about what some of your favorite foods were as a kid (macaroni, T.V. dinners, soup, etc) and donate it.

One of my pet peeves is how easy it is to donate to worthy causes during Christmas and Thanksgiving but it is much more difficult during other parts of the year, even though it is no less needed.

Empathy is Dead.

According to a new study, we as modern-day college students have as much as 40% less empathy than our counterparts in the 80s and 90s. When I think about it, that may be true, but I don't think its necesarily that we care less.

I consider myself a pretty empathetic person. I feel bad when bad things happen, even if it is to bad people, or someone I don't know at all and I know other students, or recent students, who are similar but to a different degree. However, it doesn't get me all that far.

Think about when a society asks for donations, which is usually every day. Do we see the results of the donations we do make? Most likely all we see is the suffering continueing, or that same organization asking for even more money. Or we see just as valuable causes fall by the wayside for more popular one. And we've all witnessed administration get in the way.

When we try to be empathetic, is it returned? Or do we have poor empathy role models who show us that it is not worth the trouble?

So yeah, we're less empathetic than some former college students when they were our age. But maybe its because we had to enter the real world before graduation. After all, are working adults so much better?

Here is a link to the article and one psychiatrists theories about how it happened: http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,593832,00.html