Victoria's real secret?

So ... I think I won't be buying any more Victoria's Secret stuff any time soon ... according a report from the National Labor Committee, the workers at a factory in Jordan who make some of the lingerie giant's undies work under pretty bad conditions ... and I haven't yet come across a reply from the higher-ups at VS regarding the issue -- which could go both ways. Either it's not true, and they just don't want to address it; or it is true, and they're not sure that there really is a way to do damage control on this one, so they're just hoping it goes away.

It's probably hypocritical of me, and aside from learning to sew so I can make all my own clothes, I'm probably SOL on having a sweatshop-free wardrobe. I can't even get out of that one by claiming to buy things at thrift stores ... but I figure that if you can no longer claim ignorance on a subject, it's best to take the high road and not endorse such behaviors any further ... don't you?

I'll see what else I can come up with on this. In the meantime, it looks like I'm a Hanes girl ... unless I find out something unsavory there, too ...

On a related note:

I watched "Amazing Grace" a couple weeks ago. I felt such conviction again over how trivial and self-centered my life has been.

At the ripe ol' age of 24, William Wilberforce was a member of parliament in Britain, and his best friend, William Pitt the Younger, was in the running to be prime minister (and did become prime minister). And they were fighting against the tide of popular opinion and comfort to abolish the slave trade. Not only that, they had to keep fighting, for over 15 years (more like 20, if I remember correctly), because each Wilberforce introduced the legislation, it failed. But he kept trying, and kept trying, and kept trying. "We're too young to realize that certain things are impossible!" Pitt tells his friend when Wilberforce laments that no one their age had ever taken power.

And he was so eloquent, yet humble.

I know it's Hollywood, and events likely weren't as perfectly scripted in real life as they now appear on celluloid, but I love the parts of the film where Wilberforce is struggling with whether he ought to devote his life to serving God or devote it changing the world, and his friends take the opportunity to challenge him to do both, to serve God by changing the world.

At 24, I was trying to figure out which credit card to transfer my balances to. I was transferring jobs and towns. I was focused on little ol' me in little ol' Wyoming at a little ol' bookstore and bank and newspaper.

The extra features on the DVD go on to highlight that though slavery was officially abolished long ago in the "civilized" world, it continues today, and not just in countries like Jordan and China and Bangladesh ... I've listed here before articles in Christianity Today that highlight the thriving slave trade in America -- from children tricked to coming to American to sing in choirs, only to be forced to travel and sing -- in churches, no less -- with minimal food and rest while being forbidden to reach out to anyone for help at the risk of being turned over to the authorities as illegal immigrants; to girls tricked to coming to the U.S. for jobs, only to find themselves in forced prostitution, with similar threats that if they try to get out, they'll be turned in as illegal aliens.

Just a thought. The potential of lead in the paint on your kids' toys isn't the only harmful element.