Drink responsibly EVERY DAY! You go to meetings, coffee breaks, PTA functions, and soccer matches, accompanied by the ever-present cup of coffee or bottle of water. You stop at Starbucks or 7-11 for coffee. You jog with a bottle of water. So, care for our planet by lessening the amount of Styrofoam and plastic on the roadsides and in the landfill. Keep a coffee cup at your desk at work and a commuter mug in your car for use at meetings or filling at Peet’s. Fill a water bottle on your way out to a game or run. Keep a couple filled, in the refrigerator or freezer (great for a hot day at an arts festival). Just be sure to rotate your cups and bottles often, bringing them home for a thorough cleaning to avoid bacteria growth. This keeps both you and the Earth healthier.
Tag Archive for soccer
Sweet–and Fair–Fundraising
There’s a knock at the door. It’s a youngster with chocolate bars. You buy because you want to support the soccer team. Warning: in your eagerness to help one group, you may be harming another. Do you know where the cocoa beans came from? Were the growers paid fairly for their work? Enough to feed their families and meet basic needs? Most likely, the workers, including very young children, are living in poverty in another country, and their hard work doesn’t earn them enough to climb out of hardship.
Meanwhile, fundraisers enjoy big profits, passing on a tiny amount to your soccer kids. Next time your group wants to raise money, suggest a compassionate alternative, Fair Trade Chocolate. For example, there is Divine Fair Trade Chocolate, the first brand in the world to be farmer-owned (www.divinechocolate.com). Or try one of these which are fair to the growers and kind to the earth: www.equalexchange.com, www.sweetearthchocolates.com,www.ChocolateBar.com, or www.VosgesChocolate.com. Some offer discounts for fundraisers.
What a deal — the kids raise money, social consciousness, and quality of life for families all at the same time!
Women Soccer Champs Not Worth Much
If your team wins the World’s Cup once–or even three times (more than any other country in the world)–what can you expect to earn? A lot if you’re a man, not so much if you’re a woman.
Last year, the U.S. men’s soccer team, who lost, earned $9 million; this year’s winning women will get $2 million. The average salary for these players is $305,000 for men and $14,000 for women. And the prize for winning the World Cup? $576 million for men and $15 million for women.
Why the difference? I think it’s the way the world values women, as summed up by a tweet (now taken down) by England’s Soccer Federation, that their soccer team can now “go back to being mothers, partners and daughters.”
But I’m more concerned about attitudes in my own country, the U.S., including the ones that say that women, no matter how accomplished or hard-working, are worth less than men.
Traditional Ash Wednesday Riot
A sanctioned riot on Ash Wednesday? For most Western Christians, today is the day that kicks off a season of penance and atonement, reflecting Christ’s 40 days in the desert. The kick-off in Ashbourne, England, is quite different, though. It’s the second day (starting yesterday, Fat Tuesday–Shrove Tuesday to them) of a free-for-all soccer game that looks more like two mobs of rioters going at each other.
This Royal Shrovetide Football Match, also called “hugball,” is a tradition dating back to 1667 and involves hundreds of people and very few rules. Read more about it at “This Soccer Match May Just Be the Craziest Ash Wednesday Tradition Ever.”
Not my cup of tea, I’m afraid.
Sock it to Her…Again
Love soccer and are good enough at it to play in the World Cup? Go for it, but, if you’re a woman, don’t expect to be paid the bigger bucks the men get. Comparing women’s tournaments with men’s is “not worth debating” and “nonsense,” according to FIFA’s Secretary General Jerome Valcke. He doesn’t anticipate any pay equality in the near future, nor does he see a reason for it, even though women’s soccer is becoming more and more popular.
This is yet another area in which gender discrimination rears its ugly head when the same job is being performed by women as it is by men.
Read more about the situation with the World Cup in the Huffington Post article, “FIFA Has No Plans to Give Women Equal World Cup Pay Any Time Soon.”