BOYCOTTS are one of the oldest and most popular forms of protest in the world. They are especially popular because they are easy for the individual to engage in and they feel good. Every time a shopper makes a trip to the market, he or she makes a statement on where they stand on a particular issue. And it usually does not take much effort. Rather than doing something, you don't do something. The effectiveness of boycotts is a different issue. South Africa was boycotted for years and yet apartheid continued unabated for decades. The Arab boycott of Israel was a powerful statement that does not seem to have weakened the Jewish state a bit. The US has boycotted Cuba for half a century and only now has the Communist nation begun to introduce free market reforms. And that has more to do with the retirement of the iconoclastic Fidel Castro than US law. The Arab boycott of Danish products did, indeed, put a dent in the Danish export market but estimates are that it reduced the overall Danish economy by only two percent. That amounts to a lot of money, no doubt, but its per capita effect was probably negligible. Now, there is talk in Saudi Arabia of boycotting certain products because of perceived price gouging on the part of local marketers. Food prices are soaring and consumers are understandably angry, especially when the products are produced locally and there seems to be little basis for blaming currency exchange rates and increased shipping costs. If marketers are, indeed, engaging in price gouging, a boycott could actually be effective. It would affect those who are engaging in the practice, especially if it is the retailer. That is the strong point of boycotts. They are quite effective at altering practices on a local scale because the refusal to buy something has a direct effect on the establishment selling it. On the other hand, this locally oriented success does not have much influence on mega-operations. Given the size of the global market and free trade agreements that make formal bans on importation of most products illegal, the loss of a market or two is likely to be worrying but not definitive. One of the harsh realizations of adult life is that very few individuals have the means to change much beyond their own personal world. Boycotts figure into that equation. A boycott is a perfectly valid avenue of self-expression. It is valuable to understand, however, if that expression will change the world of family, the world of community or the world at large. __
