Small Confusion
JUST A RANDOM THOUGHT:
A few hours ago I went to the local supermarket to buy the last little supplies for my imminent trip to Los Angeles, California. I suddenly realised something that has stayed in my mind for hours. I went through the coffee aisle, and I was faced by something which nowadays is pretty normal. Some of the coffee was fair trade, and it had the corresponding sticker with a happy colombian family.Most people took the cheaper stuff without even looking, but thats another story. The Supermarket chain couldn’t be prouder of how much it helped workers live in better conditions, and they advertised it everywhere.
But then, as I advanced towards the “paying line”, I was faced with large signs, advertising shirts for 3.90 Euros, packs of 5kit-kat bars for 1.35, and a 500pack of printer paper for6.95. I couldn’t help thinking how much the worker in china, the cocoa farmer in Ecuador, and the Lumberjack in Brazil were making.
I think that this shows that even though a lot of effort is going into fair trade(both from retailers and consumers) there is a very long way to go if we really want to achieve the originalfair trade objectives.
Anyways, this isnt much of a post, so I’ve included the fun map in case any of us have forgotten what each nation is for 
Although fair trade is a pretty idea, so is a world relying on todays’s alternative energy fuels. It’s impossible. For example, music piracy exists mainly because of the elevated price of ‘original’ goods. So fair trade goods, being more expensive, are reserved for either the very idealistic or the very idealistic and rich. Either way, they do not market to the normal public, beacuse the normal public wnts to see cheaper prices, rather than help some brazilian worker earn some beef. People are not altruists, for better or for worse, and that’s why although charities may be successful, in the end the average person will care more about his own life than that of others on the pther side of the world. I knot this is at least true for me: I would rather save money than give it to a person on the other side of the world. Besides, not all of the difference in price goes to the farmer; a lot of it stays in the company thaty markets it, taking advantage of a public conscience that may not even exist.
Comment by Adrian — July 27, 2005 @ 12:21 pm