“…And don’t forget in doing something for others that you have what you have because of others. Don’t forget that. We are tied together in life and in the world. And you may think you got all you got by yourself.…You reach on over to get a little coffee, and that’s poured in your cup by a South American. Or maybe you decide that you want a little tea this morning, only to discover that that’s poured in your cup by a Chinese. Or maybe you want a little cocoa, that’s poured in your cup by a West African. Then you want a little bread and you reach over to get it, and that’s given to you by the hands of an English-speaking farmer, not to mention the baker. Before you get through eating breakfast in the morning, you’re dependent on more than half the world.” —Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. From “The Three Dimensions of a Complete Life,” delivered at New Covenant Baptist Church in Chicago on April 9, 1967.
In your description of the tomatoes, what did you not describe?
Step 3
Watch video and answer the following questions:
How is Lucas Benitez a leader in human rights work for farm workers?
Describe the life of a tomato picker in Immokalee, FL?
Tomato pickers work 12 hours in the hot sun in order to pick 4,000 pounds of tomatoes, which will earn them $50 a day. What would the hourly wage be? How does this compare with the federal minimum wage of $7.25 an hour? How do tomato growers get away with paying such low wages?
How has the Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW) changed the lives of the workers so far?
Why did the CIW target Taco Bell for a boycott? Why didn't they negotiate with the tomato growers?
What methods did the CIW use to help get the message out about the plight of the workers? Were they effective? Why or why not?
Pretend you are a group of bank managers in charge of giving out loans. Review the indicators banks generally look at in order to determine if a person qualifies for a loan, called the 3C’s, or one’s Character, Capital [or Collateral], and Capacity. Then discuss the pros and cons of giving the people described on the worksheet bank loans.
Step 3
Watch the video and respond to the following questions:
How is Yunus’s idea different from traditional lending practices?