Business and organization ethics- the irony and hypocrisy of both businesses and organizations.
On Twitter, I am keeping a very close eye on a coffee business known as “Pale Horse Coffee”. The business account (and those of its employees) has gone through numerous suspensions and is seen to be complaining on Twitter about how many times it has been suspended. Yet, after looking through their timeline, I agree with Twitter’s decision on the suspension of Pale Horse Coffee. Sometimes they post tweets that is very abusive, others are often either hateful or glorifying violence. Yet people like Nicki Jackson would rather drink coffee or tea— even if it is from a business known for abusing people online or posting hateful or violent content. And these same anti alcohol campaingers are deafened to the fact that caffeine can also cause disorderly behaviour, health problems and even death- caffeine, like alcohol is a dangerous neurotoxin found in many plants, many of which are indeed poisonous such as holly.
Yet an alcohol company, Amarula (people like Dr Nicki Jackson clearly dislike alcohol) has, despite being known for booze and it’s drinking culture, is VERY committed to conservation of elephants and Marula trees (Marula is an African tree belonging to the same family that Poison Ivy and cashews are in in terms of botany- people who are allergic to mango, cashews or other members of this plant family should either avoid Amarula or drink with caution as the toxicity of Marula is still unknown and possibly may have the same poison [urushiol] as found in poison ivy) has very strong ethics, cares about conservation and the local people of Africa, and has most importantly NEVER abused anyone online. Yet ethically made alcohol like Amarula still gets the big brunt and hate from people like Dr Nicki Jackson and Alcohol Healthwatch, and sometimes fans of ethically marketed and produced alcohol receive abuse. Yet I have seen NO word from her (Jackson) regarding unethical business coming from coffee companies.
You can produce intoxicating stuff, like alcohol, but you can be ethical about it. You can a person advocating for other people’s health and wellbeing, but you can be a hateful, mean spirited, and unethical person. Yes, we’ve certainly had a fair share of poor business ethics from alcohol companies and liquor stores, but the point is that not everything you disagree with is unethical. And not every organization or person you care about and support is ethical. And that’s the irony and hypocrisy in Pale Horse Coffee. And after the Christchurch terror attacks, businesses need to be more careful in what they do as they have an influence on the general public in terms of advertising. While Amarula is ethical by promoting conservation and is against the killing of elephants, Pale Horse Coffee is the direct opposite by using their business account to tweet out violent, racist, anti-LGBTQA+ content and in addition abuses Twitter by evading bans and suspensions.
And people are also one sided on alcohol and coffee- both can be just as bad as each other when not consumed properly, when caffeine and alcohol becomes an addiction, or abused. People look down on alcohol due to health concerns but not on coffee when it too is just as bad (or worse). And yet caffeinated substances aren’t age restricted despite being an intoxicating stimulant. It almost gives you the same euphoric effect as alcohol. Only difference is that you are wide awake on coffee, while alcohol does the opposite. (Remember that too much coffee can be harmful, or even fatal.)
So lesson learned: If you are going to support a local business, at least research their ethics first. Not everything is as it seems. And some alcohol companies are actually MORE ethical than coffee companies (and fashion as well — dolce and gabbana is yet another unethical company). If a business is tweeting out fascist content on the internet, don’t support the business.
For information on Amarula and it’s conservation activism, head over to their website here (Disclaimer: You MUST be of legal age to enter their site).
