What has been done? Janice Bueckert, our younger sister, wrote this story in 2007.

Once upon a time, there lived a fair maiden, whose name was Genoevea. She was the fairest in all the land. In fact, when people came to see her, they stood in awe. Her auburn hair glistened in the sun; her blue eyes seemed to sparkle with some unknown secret. Her gracefulness and dignity made everyone around her love her with selfless abandon.

Her father was a merchant in the slave trade and her mother was a cosmetician. Genoevea also had two brothers. One named John and one named Peter. Both were valiant and brave and had fought many battles.

Not all battles were fought on the field, however. Peter struggled with selflessness, people admired and misunderstood him for it, but he didn’t know how to say no and in turn, he was often burnt out and worn to frail pieces within his soul.

Genoevea never appeared to struggle outwardly but she wrestled inwardly immensely.

One day as she was out for a walk, she saw a rose. Not an ordinary red or white one but an orange rose. Curious, she stopped to sniff it. As she breathed in the fragrant blossom, she felt herself being taken to a faraway land.

A land where she’d never been but had often longed to go. What she saw was not what she’d expected, however. What she saw was her father’s trade taking hundreds of slaves captive.

She saw the slaves harvesting and having it taken from them with hardly a penny in payment.

She saw hungry children dying from horrible diseases, sometimes without a hand to hold in those last crucial hours. Just as she thought she could bear no more, she saw something that brought her to her knees in tears and prayer.

She saw her own hands beating slaves, snatching babies from their mother’s arms and waving food tantalizingly in front of their noses then snatching it away with cold-hearted cruelness.

She saw that behind her turned back many precious lives were being taken and she had never done anything about it. She saw that she could’ve done anything and it would’ve been better than doing nothing, but she had chosen not to for the simple reason that it was inconvenient and uncomfortable for her to do what was right.

As Genoevea drifted back she straightened and started wiping away the tears but stopped. NO, she said; let them ask me what is wrong. Let them listen to what I have to say. Surely, we can change this horrible situation.

But as she told her story, over and over again, people looked at her blankly, patted her on the head, and walked away.

Then one evening as she wept by the fireplace she told her brothers what had all transpired. Peter lifted her chin, looked her in the eye, and said, “Change begins with one person, Gen. Be the change you want to see.” Then Genoevea realized what he was saying and nodded.

If change was going to occur, she couldn’t just tell people about the problem, she had to do something about it herself. So from then on, she worked to free the slaves and to restore equality among all people. It wasn’t easy, but she knew that she had to do something or die.

Now, I’m sure you are wondering (or should be anyway) how the story ends. Well, frankly, that is entirely up to you. See, this is an allegorical sort of story. the slave merchant represents every one of us. the slaves are those in developing countries, trying to grow coffee, cacao, among others, and are getting pennies for it literally.

For example, one farmer, who used to grow coffee, hacked his coffee bean plants down and started growing khat, which is a drug that can induce manic behavior, hyperactivity, hallucinations, and affect the liver. It is also an effective anorectic.

The farmer didn’t want to grow the drug, but he was forced to because he couldn’t afford to feed his family with what he was getting paid for the coffee. Therefore, we are all slave traders when we do not do anything to change the situation.

How you may ask? Well, there are options, in some stores, they sell fair trade coffee and hot chocolate. There are also many fair trade options on the internet. Small changes like buying fair trade coffee aren’t much, but it’s better than turning your back on people dying.

What fair trade does is it works to bring farmers in developing countries a fair price for their products. Which helps people start helping themselves.

It’s a small start, but isn’t doing something small better than doing nothing at all?

Consider this. You may not be able to change the world but you can change the world that one person lives in.

-“Don’t turn your back, do something.”- Janice Bueckert (AKA Janice Constant).