Nothing like a silly metaphor that sounds pompous to start of an article about something barely newsworthy. Too much ink has been spilled over this in the last few days already, and in all honesty I cannot add anything meaningful to the whole media hype. However, I own a Sodastream and I have an unhealthy romantic interest in Scarlett Johansson. So that makes me about as competent as most media talking heads to spew my opinion on this.
So what has happened? Scarlett Johansson, apart from being a movie star, also actively endorses products: Calvin Klein and L'Oréal and Luis Vuitton and Mango and Dolce & Gabbana and Moët & Chandon. She is really rather busy. The latest brand that contracted Scarlett's face is Sodastream. An Israeli producer of home carbonation systems, or in easier language, they make a kitchen appliance with which you can make fizzy drinks.
That's where it all goes a bit wrong, Scarlett, you see, also has beliefs for which she doesn't get paid. She has supported democratic politicians in the past and she is, or was, a global ambassador for Oxfam, an aid and development agency.
Sodastream's biggest factory, you remember Sodastream from two paragraphs ago, is based on the West Bank, in an area Israel occupies in, what is one day supposed to be, the independent state of Palestina. Oxfam, being the left wing, Israel critical lobby that it is, obviously disapproves of this and put it bluntly to Ms Johansson: 'Either them or us.' Ms Johansson chose them.
So yeah, Sodastream produces in occupied territory and does that, one assumes, because wages are a lot lower there than in 'real' Israel. It is also morally a bit, well, wrong, you know, with it being Palestinian land illegally occupied by Israeli settlers and all that.
Oxfam clearly has a point.
But there's also another side to the story. The home carbonation system that Sodastream produces cuts a lot of waste and pollution. The drinks they produce combine, as the two main ingredients, carbon dioxide and tab water. This means no long supply-chains to get sparkling water to and from the shops and no long supply-chains to get empty bottles from homes for either reuse or recycling. This invention really does cut waste.
Also, the production facility in Ma'ale Adumim, on the West Bank provides local jobs, 900 of which go to Palestinians. With the unemployment on the West Bank being 19,1% (22nd of November 2013 according to Haaretz), I'd say the place needs all the jobs it can get.
So it's not as straight forward as it might seem.
Sodastream, although behaving questionably by producing in occupied territory, is a company who's emergence really might be a good thing, for about 900 Palestinian families and for the environment.
What I miss most in this hype is a lack of depth. It would be an excellent opportunity to write about the Palestinian economy and the lives of Palestinians in occupied and semi-occupied territory, talk to some of their employees in Palestina. Another option would to write about Sodastream and about what the actual environmental effects of such technologies are. You could still put Scarlett's face on top of the article to attract readers. You wouldn't even have to pay for it.
