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"'Look at the mess we've got ourselves into just because we invited a gringo to eat some bananas.'" This quote sounds like something any Latin American might say, but it is spoken by Colonel Aureliano Buendía from Gabriel García Márquez' literary marvel One Hundred Years of Solitude. The novel has recently been chosen by weight-loss guru turned champion of literature Oprah Winfrey for her book club, meaning a sudden return to bestseller lists in North America.

I have an ambivalent attitude towards Lady Winfrey and her cult-like entourage. The power she wields over her followers is either comforting or ridiculous depending on whether or not you think low-carbohydrate diets are a godsend or a confirmation of humankind's fundamental naivety. I can't make up my mind whether Oprah-watchers are self-absorbed zombies being led from one fad product to another or if they are genuinely finding the happiness and solace that their leader promises.

Either way, my assumption is that Oprah affects her audience directly. She's either a hypnotist directing a herd of cellulite-cursed sheep towards exercise machines or an authentic touchstone of inspiration, injecting motivation and a righteous disdain for pasta into her fans. Whatever the case, good or bad, people like me assume that Oprah's audience is somehow under her control.

Which brings me back to Colonel Buendía and the bananas of Latin America. What will come from having the eye of Oprah and her followers directed at One Hundred Years of Solitude, a novel which deals in part with the effects of the banana industry on the fictional Colombian town of Macondo?

Any sane review of the history of banana production in Latin American countries will find a heartbreaking catalogue of human-rights and environmental abuses sadly common to most agricultural industries. In fictional form, García Márquez tells this history in such a way that his readers can fully apprehend the enormity of the tragedy that the banana industry has wrought on these countries.

Perhaps nothing brought the horrors of Western economic colonialism home to me more than the scene in One Hundred Years of Solitude in which the striking workers of Macondo are massacred by the Colombian army at the behest of the banana company's executives. I can't imagine anyone being unaffected by that scene. It forces us as secure North Americans (or it forced me, anyway) to realise how dependent we are on other people's misery for our comfort.

That being said, did reading about such terrible events make me stop buying bananas from multinational corporations? The embarrassing answer is no. While I have made many decisions to boycott certain companies and brands, I was unable to resist the lure of that seductive yellow fruit, so tasty and so darn inexpensive. Deep inside my brain some neuron would fire, warning me that bananas are so cheap because everyone who contributes to its chain of production is likely underpayed and maltreated. Too often, such information is easily ignored by people like me who should know better.

It makes me wonder whether reading a book can actually alter our lives? Or can watching a TV show change who we are? Given my own ability to selectively forget my disgust at the Macondo bloodbath and what it represents, I wonder what the reaction will be from Oprah's devotees to this scene and to the book. Ultimately, to assume that art or media can alter our behaviour in some Pavlovian manner is too simple. You can only change a person who wants to be changed and you can only alter them in the way they want to be altered. While One Hundred Years of Solitude affected me deeply, it couldn't change me. I wasn't ready yet.

However, I feel like I am ready now and in an unexpected way, it's thanks to Oprah. Spurred by the appearance of García Márquez' novel in bookstore windows and even, shockingly, at supermarket checkout stands, I've decided that I cannot let the citizens of Macondo down anymore. Luckily, due to hard work by activists and organisations like Oxfam, fair trade bananas have finally appeared on the Canadian market. Proceeds from these bananas go towards social programs for the workers and ensure much better working conditions for them. Through their home delivery service and weekend store, Vancouver's own Small Potatoes is the first Canadian retailer of fair trade bananas, meaning I will be able to start putting my money where my heart is.

This coincidence of the fair trade banana movement's growth in North America and Oprah's selection of One Hundred Years of Solitude for her book club could make a real difference if people see the connection and are motivated to act. I am especially interested to see how Oprah will treat the subject, if she mentions it at all. She can get North American women to buy yoga mats and juicers, surely she can spare a few minutes to promote the idea of a better banana industry by plugging fair trade bananas.

My optimistic side tells me that Oprah will come through and use García Márquez' book as a means of revealing the consequences of the North American way of life and challenging her viewers to promote change. My cynical side says that Oprah will simply use One Hundred Years of Solitude to deliver some drippy inspirational message about discovering one's inner magic--bananas only getting mentioned to warn people that they are high in carbohydrates.

Ultimately, the message Oprah delivers will depend on what she thinks her audience wants to hear. Though art can be powerful, no TV show or book can teach anything to those who aren't willing to change.

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