How funny to read your thoughts just now when a couple of hours ago a woman came up to me as I walked out of Gail's with a coffee and said "Do you know they support Israel?" She was fuming and low-key expecting me to throw away the coffee on the spot, but at £4 that's a luxury I cannot afford.
Beyond this anecdote, and being from Spain myself and with a sister living in France for over a decade, I confirm that protesting isn't engrained into British culture and I agree with you that it probably has to do a lot with individualism and the motto of "minding your own business," which is not per se a bad thing but it can lead to disconnection and prevent people from realising they do have power to change things when they are part of something bigger than themselves.
OMG Cristina, I would never condone throwing away a nice coffee! Probably the Brit in me, but that woman was rude!
They do say 'there can be no ethical consumption under capitalism' - most of the banks have operations in Israel, fgs! It's extremely difficult to avoid. It's one of those things that is put on the individual to solve and, although I do agree boycotting works, it's only effective when a collective commit to putting pressure on wider organisations! Confronting people coming out of Gail's having already bought a coffee is not the right approach and won't solve anything.
I didn't take it personally and to be honest I felt guilty buying the coffee before this woman confronted me out of the blue because I am aware of Gail's support of Israel through a Palestinian friend. To make a long story short, I went to two other independent coffee shops but there were long queues on both and I needed to go back home so I thought "Gail's will have to do."
Whenever I can I try to make conscious choices because it is the bare minimum and in London one can always find an alternative even though it's impossible to know what every single business does behind the scenes whether it is exploiting people, automating jobs through AI, greenwashing or supporting Israel.
How funny to read your thoughts just now when a couple of hours ago a woman came up to me as I walked out of Gail's with a coffee and said "Do you know they support Israel?" She was fuming and low-key expecting me to throw away the coffee on the spot, but at £4 that's a luxury I cannot afford.
Beyond this anecdote, and being from Spain myself and with a sister living in France for over a decade, I confirm that protesting isn't engrained into British culture and I agree with you that it probably has to do a lot with individualism and the motto of "minding your own business," which is not per se a bad thing but it can lead to disconnection and prevent people from realising they do have power to change things when they are part of something bigger than themselves.
OMG Cristina, I would never condone throwing away a nice coffee! Probably the Brit in me, but that woman was rude!
They do say 'there can be no ethical consumption under capitalism' - most of the banks have operations in Israel, fgs! It's extremely difficult to avoid. It's one of those things that is put on the individual to solve and, although I do agree boycotting works, it's only effective when a collective commit to putting pressure on wider organisations! Confronting people coming out of Gail's having already bought a coffee is not the right approach and won't solve anything.
I didn't take it personally and to be honest I felt guilty buying the coffee before this woman confronted me out of the blue because I am aware of Gail's support of Israel through a Palestinian friend. To make a long story short, I went to two other independent coffee shops but there were long queues on both and I needed to go back home so I thought "Gail's will have to do."
Whenever I can I try to make conscious choices because it is the bare minimum and in London one can always find an alternative even though it's impossible to know what every single business does behind the scenes whether it is exploiting people, automating jobs through AI, greenwashing or supporting Israel.