Posts by Don Christie
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Hi kowhai
I quite like this article, Fairness in International Trade, which makes a good stab at identifying "fairness" without necessarily supporting my comment about FT coffee. Recognition that the analysis has to be much deeper than a simplistic western accreditation regime is a pretty good start and really all I ask.
This article linked to on the above page emphasises that globalisation is both an opportunity and a threat.
This study has the following words in its conclusion:
Section four has however made clear fair trade is not a tool suited to tackle issues of the size of the coffee crisis. Additionally, OLS regressions of section four have put in evidence consumer awareness is not making a difference and treatment regressions support the hypothesis fair trade is used by supermarkets to clean-wash their reputation.
Here is a link to some research sponsored by the Fairtrade partnership which counter the criticisms have been made.
Suffice to say, when I think of "fair trade" I am not thinking labeling regimes, I am thinking of international structures and rules that are not totally skewed to the advantage of western nations.
Which brings us back to the analysis of Mike Moore's tenure at the WTO. Some cute, self serving comments about his cunning and guile but not much about whether he achieved anything towards creating fairness in that organisation.
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The scare had not pained Harry for nineteen years. All was well.
I've ended the last HP and can stop hiding from Che Tibby on the buses again.
And that's an ending in itself, he's a big fulla, Che.
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Are bowling clubs cool in Wellington?
Only if you can find one with a waterfront location.
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What is wrong with Fair Trade coffee?
Sorry, I missed all these question. FT coffee isn't evil, it just isn't all that great either. The rules have been made up in the West to suit Western feelings of guilt over some pretty shonky ROI models to producers.
As a result of the rules lots of deserving producers miss on the value of an FT label whilst others are in a position of overproducing due to the high prices they receive in an artificially cornered market.
What we *really* should be looking at is how agriculture is treated in terms of trade barriers and the massive control supermarket corps have over the supply chain.
We in the West effectively have placed triple barriers against producers - trade, supermarket control and now a shonky labeling system.
We give enough of a fuck to pick a nice label coffee but not so much that we change the systems that really screw over developing countries.
Hope this helps.
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That was my first KGB and it was great.
Many thanks indeed to Russell and mrbrown.
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My friendship with my best boyhood friend, Guy, ended when he died aged 19. His lung muscles stopped working having finally succumbed to muscular dystrophy.
We'd lost touch for the first first year I spent away from home drinking and enjoying college life to the full. Carelessness on my part.
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It is hard to disagree with Lomborg's core thesis which, in my view, has little to do with global warming. It is that badly thought out western "feel goodness" can and does often do more harm than the issue it is supposed to be addressing (fair trade coffee, for example).
It would be a much stronger argument if his global warming data passed scrutiny.
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What's up with Mike Moore's comments in the Herald this morning?
Audrey Young and other seem to think this is a new departure from Moore. But readers of the DomPost will know that he has been slagging off Clark and this Government for a long time. Those damn Labour Muldoonists, fancy supporting his WTO candidacy.
Young describes him as "popular". If time in office and elections won are any indicator those are very rose tinted specs Young is wearing.
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[Sound of thunderstorm]
"Thunder. Enter the three Witches".
Not saying I was disappointed with the rest of the transcipt, just that my expectations had been heightened somewhat.
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Way OT....
Russell, if your email is out, can you contact the good folks at Catalyst? We are trying to get in touch.
TIA.