Santa's Elves Outsourced

Years ago I had a neighbor who worked as one of Santa's helpers. I wasn't living anywhere near the North Pole. Much further south, in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. She sewed up fluffy, cute stuffed animals, many of which made their debut under the Christmas trees of boys and girls in the United States and Canada.

To make sure she stayed busy as an elf, she was paid by the piece. If she worked really fast she could make 14 cents an hour. Most of Santa's helpers in Haiti lived in single-room tin and cardboard shacks in vast overcrowded shanty towns with open sewers.

I'm not sure what Santa had to pay his elves. Maybe they had formed a union. But the elves are not the only ones who've suffered from Santa outsourcing workshop jobs up north to sweatshop jobs down south. We all suffer from this economic model that has come to dominate our world and our lives.

A friend sent me the link to a wonderful little online movie that explains the hidden price we all (and our environment) pay for just going along with this. Take a few minutes to watch this short streaming video and pass it along to your friends.

We really don't have to put up with this. And there's not better time to change our ways than during this festival that celebrates the birth of one who came to announce liberty to the captive. We've been taken captive by this model that impoverishes us and trashes our planet. This little video can help us see our way free.