as
part of the "booda
: a one woman crusade for global justice"
series I am bringing you 3littlethings.
this is not an attempt to turn you all into raging
as
part of the "booda
: a one woman crusade for global justice"
series I am bringing you 3littlethings.
this is not an attempt to turn you all into raging
hypocrites*
hippies, rather a gentle reminder that sometimes there are slightly more ethical
options which make NO difference to you. (you can bookmark all this from my
webage
here)
Three tiny things that you could change in your
life to make the world ever so slightly fairer:
If you know them already I hope you find a useful link or two :)
1)
The most evil of the big 4 supermarkets are
Asda, Tesco and Morrison's, very slightly less evil is Sainsbury's. Anything
outside these 4 is a better option and Marks and Spencer's actually seem to be
making an effort.
see
where this comes from
Suppliers of branded goods are less likely
to be bullied by the big four into offering a price which is too low**. So yes,
buying "Kellog's Corn Flakes" is better than "Asda's own flaky corns"
references:
1
2
2) When was the last time you bought something just for the sake of buying something? a birthday present perhaps? here are some green options...
mens socks with 10 square metres of rain forest thrown in
green greeting cards – cheapest £1
each
soap set for the ladies
lovely books from the 'we are what we do' movement
or even better buy them second hand
here
guardian eco store (yes, a lot of it is overpriced
rubbish, but what do you normally buy your uncle for his birthday?)
another general eco-store
eco clothes
it's a bit hectic but includes lots of different companies
3)
Sign up to a newsletter from one of the
organisations below who are campaigning for trade justice.
Fair trade is a spot on concept, and buying fair trade products means that you personally are choosing to buy from people working under decent conditions. Many people have argued, however, that this is no solution to the larger problems at hand and, to be fair, they have a point.
Real Trade Justice is the hardest problem to do anything about because it is in the hands of acronyms, (WTO,WB,IMF,EU,USA), extremely boring, and the people who do understand the horrible injustices of it all are usually so angry about it they are difficult to have a conversation with. (check this out if you don't believe me). Looking at a regular email bulletin (even just the title before you delete it..) is a zero effort way to increase your awareness about something boring but very important. warning: it may help you sound like a proper leftie liberal when you bring it up at the next dinner party. if you follow the link it takes seconds to sign up
oxfam trade campaign sign up on the right hand side
share the worlds resources a monthly
newsletter with denser, but super interesting, articles on
on
globalisation, trade and development by sensible economists and the like.
(want to know a bit more? go to the
very very bottom)
* hypocrite = someone who preaches ethical shopping, reads books on global justice, studies international development and then goes out and buys a 75 cent plastic water pistol from a Chinese supermarket because it's a fun festival accessory only to arrive at said festival, discover there is no running water, load up with vodka instead, and accidentally squirt it in her friends eye - a problem which wouldn't have had nearly such disastrous consequences had there been running water to wash said eyeball. a catch 22 situation indeed. (like buying a goat for a family in Malawi)
** definition of too low = a price which means the suppliers cannot afford to pay a living wage to their workers, leaving them earning considerably less money than is required to feed, house, and cloth themselves.
I highly highly recommend this book: "Poor Story" by Giles Bolton
Subsidies :
Farmers in the USA and most EU countries can only stay in business because they
are paid subsidies from the government. This creates a price on the world market
which is artificially low, meaning farmers of the same produce in poor countries
have to sell it for less too, or sometimes they can't sell it at all – even in
their own backyard.
In
2001-2 US cotton subsidies were 3.9 billion dollars, which is more than the
value of the entire cotton crop for that year. For the money spent on
subsidies you could give each US cotton farmer a grant of 156,000 dollars to
start farming something else. Europe's agricultural subsidies are the highest in
the world, the most damaging to African countries, and were hopefully going to undergo
significant reform in the latest round of Doha trade talks before they
collapsed. (data from Poor Story by Giles Bolton)
Protectionism :
Why is free trade a bad thing? Well apart from the fact that it is not "free" to start with (because of all the subsidies), less developed countries can't compete with multinationals when they open up their markets. Before they have the opportunity to sell their products abroad, their own country, and their main market, is swarming with goods from foreign countries. Every developed nation used protectionism to stop this happening so they could get where they are today, yet the current agreements being forced on poor countries, already at a disadvantage, do not allow them the same privilege.
these guys agree with me too... http://www.fightingftas.org and i love the transnational institute
more links on trade:
very specific articles on trade from CUTS
here
bilaterals.org - a list of organisations involved in
trade campaigning
http://www.stopepa.org/
http://viacampesina.org/main_
thanks for reading this far.. but it's action we're looking for yerrr :)
