ndrosen

Before the pandemic, I used to get coffee at the Concessions shop in the Concourse under the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office campus, but I avoided Ethiopian Sidamo, which was one kind of coffee they sometimes had, because I did not approve of the Ethiopian government. Then the country turned toward democracy and relative freedom, and I started drinking the coffee.

As I understand it, the Ethiopian government has been waging a brutal war in the Tigrayan region of the country, and it takes Russia’s side regarding the Russian-Ukrainian war. Should I return to boycotting Sidamo coffee? If I drink the occasional cup of it, am I aiding the government in returning to authoritarianism and alignment with Putin’s Russia, or putting a few pennies in the pockets of poor coffee growers there, or some of both? Does anyone have advice?