This social experiment aims to create greater awareness about our culture of consumerism in this capitalistic world that is built on inequalities and exploitation. Sometimes we forget, or take things for granted – where the goods that we demand and buy come from, who worked on it, and how the working conditions and environment are in other parts of the (unfortunate third) world. Corporate companies possess the power and resources to deny and mask their involvement in labour exploitation thus leading many consumers to blindly (or naively) engage in this unfair economic and political system that benefits the wealthy and the elite. Some ignorant or heartless souls would argue that it is their right to benefit from the bargain or that the poor are to blamed for not educating themselves so as to assume a better position in the workforce. Such responses are alarming and disappointing. How could we progress towards the betterment of all when we are trapped in the system that exists due to power, privilege, greed, and violence? The experiment is not about boycotting brands or companies. Instead, it seeks to send a message about awareness and hope that combined support and voice from the people would push companies to ensure a safe environment and fair wages for the abused and exploited.
Allan Sekula mainly employs the medium photography, infusing it into exhibition, film, and books. He claims that the sea is the “forgotten space – out of sight, out of mind”.
Allan Sekula, “Fish Story”.
People living in cities are too busy occupied with routines and focused on their daily attempts to climb higher the social ladder. Some may take it for granted that products and materials we have today actually travel far and wide by sea from different ports all around the world. The raw resources experienced being cut, hit, heated, sewed, molded, assembled by various skilled laborers all around the world. They are exported, imported, re-exported, and so on. The exchange of goods and services (Oh, the exploitation of cheap labor and neo-colonialism). The economy – capitalist economy, to be precise.
Sekula argues that international trade, globalization, and everything else that contributes to capitalism throw the world out of balance. In the pursuit of striving greater efficiency and economy success to support our culture of materialism and consumerism, we are usually blinded by the exploitation and increasing inequality between the different worlds in our social reality. Are we forever trapped and enslaved by a system we’ve constructed and followed after all these years? Can we ever escape? Can we create or adopt an alternative that is entirely free of corruption and exploitation? Will the system, or life in general, be completely balanced and just to all? Or are we all slaves, serving both the bigger powers and our own self-interests?
The 16th century – the Age of Discovery… for the Europeans. They traveled in search for new trading routes to the East Indies so as to provide for the growing capitalism in Europe. They wanted to gain wealth by possessing gold, silver, salt, and spices (Oh! and slaves). From the 8th to the 15th century, the Republic of Venice monopolized the spice trade between Europe and the Middle-east. The spices were imported from Africa and Asia.
The Portuguese challenged and dominated Venice by exploring Africa and Asia by sea. Henry the Navigator commissioned sailors to search the path to the Indian Ocean to gain control over spice trade and also to find Prestor John, a legendary king and patriarch that rules over a “Nestorian” (Church of the East), so that he would attain help in the Crusade. The mission was both gold and God (Christianity). Vasco da Gama made it around Africa and across the Indian Ocean to Calicut, on the Malabar Coast. The wealth of the Indies was opened for Europeans to explore and exploit – thus allowing the growth of Portugal’s economy. However, there was tension between the Arab merchants and Portuguese traders in Calicut. The latter were later expelled after the Calicut Massacre. They sought refuge in Cochin. This led to the war between Calicut and Cochin, war between Calicut and the Portuguese, and later alliance between the two against Kunjali Marakkar who defied the Zamorin. In the pursuit of wealth and power, many lives were lost. That seems to be fundamental throughout all these years.
A steel engraving from the 1850s, with modern hand coloring – It shows meeting between Vasco da Gama and Zamorin of Calicut.
Spanish and Dutch merchants and missionaries began to enter the picture as Portuguese’s power dwindles during 16th century trade by sea routes. Furthermore, Christopher Columbus was ordered to compete with Portugal for the spice trade with Asia. He accidentally landed in the Americas instead of East Indies. That, on the other hand, begins another narrative on the New World in which the evangelical effort went hand-in-hand with colonial conquests.
