A Cup of Coffee

“A cup of coffee”, shouts out the boss from within his office, to let the peon know he is in his office and he has begun his day. This cupper many not be the first nor is it the last, but does he know the journey of this coffee to his desk.

Yes, it is the natural tendency of the consumers consuming the aromatic taste and smell of coffee that stimulates the senses to goad them into motion. Money buys them not only the coffee but also the pride in having the power to possess.

This coffee comes from beans usually procured in some of the poorest nations on earth from some of the poorest people who do not get the benefit of the price of the coffee we pay for on the receiving end. Yet, with pride we consume it, not aware that our actions does not have the trickle down benefit to those people who actually make it possible for us to have the luxury of the cup of coffee.

Who is to blame for this? I doubt that the poor farmers that toil the year around just to be paid peanuts for their harvest, that is barely enough to sustain them and educate their children – some of the mighty multinational companies that manufacture coffee run schools showing the coffee farmers that they are doing them a favour. It is no favour as you are just returning them what they have made possible for you and your share-holders.

It has always bugged me as who should get the benefit – the famers who make the cup of coffee possible for our drinking pride or the companies that use their know-how and potentials to market it, making hefty profits for the companies and those who gamble on their company’s shares.

Life has its magical ways of giving those that do the least labour the most benefit and those who practically do the most nothing. It is that they are made the modern day servitudes to benefit society for all the wrong things. This basically happens all due to us. The middle men cheat the lower end of society taking the lion’s share of the goodies which actually should not be the case.

There are two kinds of people who are essential for the cup of coffee. The producer who is the farmer and the manufacture who makes the coffee and then markets it. The profit for the coffee should then be evenly distributed among the two.

This disparity of who receives what is because of us. We are unaware of the real truth. If only we make people more culpable for what happens, then only would just prevail evenly among all people. We are the ones to blame.

Stop buying coffee from companies that do not follow this policy and when their profit margins begin to drop would the realize the truth, that they ought to be humanity in their approach. Only then would the cup of coffee, we drink serve the true purpose.

William Pitts