by Louise Davies |
July 09, 2014
|
There are a whole bunch of reasons why Brazil's World Cup could be deemed unfair, not least that the tournament is costing the Brazilian taxpayer £7bn when more than 10% of the population live on less than $2 per day.
But the good news is, you can make your own kick-about a little fairer with these fab fairtrade footballs from Bala. These high quality balls are made in the same factories as well-known brands, but the workers receive a much higher wage, along with the Fairtrade premium which can be invested in social development schemes of the workers' choice.
And if football's not your bag, you can get fairtrade rugby balls, volleyballs, netballs (and cool trainers) from FairCorp.
Tagged:
fairtrade,
football
by Andrew Williams |
July 08, 2014
|
It was great to read this article by Giles Parkinson in the Guardian yesterday - an optimistic, yet realistic assessment of the future of renewables. Nothing infuriates me more that people who look at the current state of play in the renewable sector and say "that will never work." The challenges are great - storage, distribution and infrastructure for starters - but these people are the equivalent of someone watching the Wright Brothers take their first tentative flight and proclaiming confidently that international air travel was never going to happen. It's only by taking these short steps today that we can build a platform for tomorrow.
And then of course, there are those, as the Guardian highlights, who *still* think the whole thing isn't happening. Which gives me the perfect excuse to repost one of my favourite cartoons... (artist: Joel Pett)
Tagged:
fair trade,
fairtrade,
renewables,
solar,
The Guardian
by Andrew Williams |
July 08, 2014
|
A hat-tip to @masscustom for alerting me to this intriguing story. Protoprint, based in Pune in India, aim to supply Fairtrade 3D printing consumables, working with urban waste pickers to supply their labs with the necessary raw materials.
For me this raises lots of questions about the long term game plan of a company like this, i.e does their business model rely on there always being urban waste dumps to be sorted through by litter pickers? But as a short term and eye-catching proposition this seems like one to keep an eye on.
Sidhant Pai, their CEO, has just been chosen as a 2014 Echoing Green Fellow, which should give them the spotlight they need to get this off the ground.
Tagged:
3d printing,
fair trade,
fairtrade,
Protoprint
by Andrew Williams |
July 07, 2014
|
Today is World Chocolate Day, fact fans - insert joke here about every day being chocolate day etc. It was very heartening to read this article about Clonakilty Chocolate, an up and coming chocolate maker based in Ireland, who have seen first hand the real difference that Fairtrade can make.
Founder Allison Roberts writes, "The impact of Fairtrade in these rural communities is remarkable, we're talking about the basics - introduction of water facilities, toilet blocks and schools. Fairtrade also provides education for farmers around crop rotation and safety and the Fairtrade premium nurtures the development of other industries such as Batik or Palm Oil production in these areas of high unemployment"
You can read more about Clonakilty Chocolate on their website, which also has details of their crowd-funding campaign. Good luck to them, and hey - Happy World Chocolate Day!
Tagged:
Clonakilty Chocolate,
fair trade,
fairtrade,
World Chocolate Day
by Andrew Williams |
July 07, 2014
|
There is an old rule about the internet which always bears repeating: "Do not feed the troll." Here goes anyway.
Damien Grant writes for the New Zealand Herald, and seems to be one of those hacks from the Delingpole/Littlejohn school of saying the most provocative thing you can think of in the hope of generating valuable clicks for your employer. Here's one of his previous articles about why tax cheats are actually jolly nice people who we shouldn't be so nasty to.
Now he has turned his razor sharp intellect to the subject of fairtrade and, surprise surprise, it's a bad thing. This is because in Damien's world (and see also the Economist yesterday), nothing can stand in the way of the capitalist, market driven approach to economics. Anything that gets in the way of competition, lower prices and greater profit is therefore to be opposed.
We have had decades of this now - years of people like Damien telling us that we will all be richer in the long run, if only we allow the very rich to carry on getting richer today. Years of rhetoric that actually, people working in sweat shops are very happy to be there and are eternally grateful to have a pittance in wages at the end of it. Years of people like Damien telling us that fairness, equality and social justice are juvenile conceits we should have left behind when we went to join the grown ups in the bright, shining, market driven future of iPads, fracking and zero hour contracts.
How is that working out for everyone so far?
Tagged:
damien grant,
fair trade,
fairtrade,
NZ Herald
