Confu(SED)

For those of you not in the know, Bono of U2 joined up with the gap (who I'm defiantly lower-casing) to create a number of garments to be sold in gap stores, of which half the proceeds will go to helping the people of Africa who are suffering from AIDS. To read about the products and the mission, click here. This promotion was launched in mid-October and since then, the (red) product line has been spirited out of stores by zealous shoppers eager to do their part in saving the world. Millions of dollars are being made, and half of those dollars are being sent to the millions of unfortunate souls living with the AIDS virus all over Africa. Anti-retroviral medications are being distributed, and the recipients of the meds will surely live longer, healthier lives.

As wonderful as this is, I still feel compelled to roll my eyes every time I pass one of the new Gap (red) campaign posters. Aside from being a full-frontal assault on the ad space in NYC, it's confusing to me, and I'm forced to ponder its validity.

Each evening I descend into the uptown #1 train on 18th st, and I pause to glare at Seal, cuddling a puppy in a gap sweatshirt, as if I might be able to telepathically ask, "Are you really falling for this, Seal?"

Writing "peace" and "love" on your ad posters does not a socially conscious company make... Seal is actually posing for a "hood" gap ad (focusing on being with your loved ones/things on the holidays.... in a gap hoddie. How warm and fuzzy of them), not a (red) ad.

But the gap does seem to be addressing something these days that gap protesters have been rallying for for years: social responsibility.

Since the gap became the middle-of-the-road shopper's haven in the 80's, it's consistently been one of the worst offenders of social and economic injustice in big business. Not only did they (until very recently) manufacture all of their clothing in sweatshops, they employed some of the youngest, most malnourished, impoverished of peoples in the most decrepit cesspools in the world. The workers were often paid as little as 11 cents an hour. Further, as if the gap, bananna republic and old navy didn't make the Fishers (purveyors of the gap) enough money, the family decided to become redwood loggers. In 1998, for about $230 million, the family bought 350 square miles of timberlands just two hours north of the Golden Gate Bridge, in bucolic Mendocino County - ground zero in the battle to save the remnants of California's once-mighty redwood forests. In 2004, the Fishers destroyed 235,000 acres of redwood forest in Mendocino and Sonoma Counties, in northern California, with extensive clear cutting and toxic herbicide use. (To be fair, there are other details here. I believe the Fishers held less than a 50% stake in the gap at that time, and I don't know when old navy and bananna republic were added to the empire.)

For these reasons, I'm skeptical of the gap's intentions. It's not as if the money from the same overpriced $14 t-shirt is being divvied up, half going to Africa. People are now spending $28 on the overpriced t-shirt.

Of course, you won't find anti-capitalism scribbled on my wall. I don't fly my flag upside down, and I don't believe in anarchy. I'm all for making money, making as much money as you can, and spending it on whateverthefuck you want. So if someone wants to charge $45 for a single sock, and people will spend that, then go for it. If they then decide to give half of that to someone in need, then all the better. In fact, the gap is being pretty honest about the fact that this is not a "charity", it's a "business model". These are their words, taken straight from their "(red) manifesto". Really, I want to applaud this mission along with everyone else.

What I'm concerned about is not the idea. It's the possibility of the cloak. The proverbial wool over the eyes. What if they're just distracting us with their bells and whistles of aid to Africa, and then get busy logging every tropical forest from here to kingdom come? (The Fishers only own about 25% of the company now, so really we probably don't have to worry too much about that). What about the sweatshops? China doesn't provide the cheapest labor any more, so the gap is looking elsewhere. Some of the new production is happening where else, but in Africa? I can't comment on the quality of these new factories. I just don't know. Maybe, like the diamond trade, this industry is cleaning up as well, and providing legitimate and safe jobs for people in unimaginably destitute and violent places.

To quote Ani Difranco: "The system gives you just enough to make you think that you see change. They'll sing you right to sleep, and then they'll screw you just the same." That song begins: "Your basic, average superstar is singing about justice and peace and love, and I am glaring at the radio, swearing, saying that's what I was afraid of".

Is the gap being your basic, average superstar? Do they have the right to stamp their ads with "peace" and "love"? Will they honor these words and what they mean to people like me? Will they do right by us? If they do, does that mean I have to forgive them now? What if I'm not ready to just get over the years of horror?

Or maybe I should be grateful. Maybe websites like gapsucks.org, and all of the years of rallies and protests in front of gap stores all around the world really helped. Maybe the day I printed a few flyers from an anti-gap website and stood in front of the gap on Broughton St. in Savannah, GA helped to bring some degree of awareness to an issue nobody seemed to know about. Maybe the poor sales clerk I reprimanded for being a part of the "gap machine" went home and googled the situation and wrote someone, somewhere an angry letter. Then again, maybe not... but maybe, for once, our work paid off! It seems they listened to us, and are doing a reasonable penance. While a public apology from the gap to the world would be nice, complete with a five point plan on how they'll fix what they done, it might be a little bit more humble-pie than they can chew.

One final detail has been of concern, and that is: Does Bono know what he's doing? This has been one of the most head-cocking, brow crinkling aspects of the whole thing. Mr. Love-Peace-FairTrade himself pairing with the gap? But maybe he has an if-you-can't-beat-em-join-em philosophy. Maybe he's figured out that he probably couldn't get people to stop shopping gap stores, but if anything, he could get people to shop more. So he partnered with them in a mission that will surely be successful, and will save lives and qualities of lives regardless of the rest of its affairs. Moreover, it will get people involved and empowered. Even if it is a manner of getting involved that works against another side of the same war, it could be worth it. For all of us.