Wednesday, 11 February 2009
coffee, chocolate and choices
Why is it that if I eat three quarters of a bar of chocolate and hide the rest, I feel like I haven't really eaten any chocolate at all? A bizarre sense of denial? I mean I can hardly deny the evidence on my hips can I? The other thing I feel the urge to do, is hide chocolate, just in case...JUST IN CASE OF WHAT?! A national shortage? My sig. other questions my need to hide chocolate as foolish and self defeating: "If you buy it just eat it and enjoy". No! No! No! I don't need to enjoy it, it just needs to be there. My current bar of choice is the newly revived Wispa which I think is due in part to the fact that's always on at 3 for £1 in the excellent co-op. The other thing the excellent co-op is brilliant at is fair trade; everyone knows about fair trade and if not then the fair trade Foundation spells it out on it's excellent website. So, when I'm busy shovelling three quarters of a bar of chocolate down my throat, I got to thinking about it. I saw a superb documentary film not long ago called Black Gold. In a nutshell, it follows the journey of Tadesse Meskela and his attempts to get a fair price for the coffee growers of Ethiopia by representing coffee growers co-operatives; it's inspirational and moving. The growers wanted nothing more than what we take for granted; an education for their children, clean water, shoes, fair pay but instead found themselves ripped off by rich, western middlemen. When I first saw the film, I felt like going through the cupboards and discarding anything not fair trade; then I fell into the usual apathy that is common amongst many people, "I can't afford it" I bleated. However, after a recent viewing of Black Gold, I have made it my mission to be socially conscious because it does affect so many lives; if I can afford a new pair of shoes, a new hair cut, to send my kids to dancing and football then I can afford to be more aware of the difference that one purchase can have.
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3 comments:
good for you. I try to buy Fair Trade here in the US but it is NOTORIOUSLY difficult to find. The Americans find it practically communist (a four letter word) even to consider paying somebody a fair wage when they could screw it out of them for nothing and buy it for cheaper at Wal-Mart.
I am going to try to be less of a slacker and hunt more diligently. You've inspired me
I love chocolate too and have a secret stash. Just found your blog, you may be interetsed in our network for British Mummy Bloggers http://www.britishmummybloggers.com. There's lots of us there and we'd love to have you.
Motherhood...I once had a sociology teacher who admitted to being a communist and immigration refused him entry to the US...I thought he was joking at the time; then thought more fool him for letting on and wasting a load of money on a plane ticket! Fair Trade stuff is just taking off here but it's definately there and easy to find. I wonder what effect the economic climate will have though? The main complaint is that it's too expensive; I counter that by arguing that buying less "stuff" makes it affordable. I don't know...I think it's important, to me it's more important than eating oraginic. Thames glad to hear there are fellow chocolate stashers out there! At the moment I argue that 'cos I'm breastfeeding I MUST eat the stuff...it's almost medicinal. Have checked out the link and glad to be part of it cheers
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