August 20, 2007 • 12:12 am 0
…you can’t beat Wellington on a good day. I absolutely agree. In a diversion from my usual blog posts, please enjoy these photos I took this sunny winter morning in my beautiful city.
Please note however, that these photos do not show the heavy duty wetsuits the rowers were wearing!
Filed under: New Zealand, Wellington, life
August 13, 2007 • 11:20 pm 0
Maybe it is because my daughter is one, but I have a very soft spot for Honduran children. My google reader has thrown up a few posts about them recently which I thought I’d share.
The bad news- the UN Children’s Rights Committee has “warned that thousands of Honduran children are growing up on the streets without access to health care and education, and forced to work or commit crimes in order to survive.”
Another UN report (co-written by the UN’s Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean and the children’s fund, Unicef) states that more than a third of children and teenagers in Latin America lack access to safe drinking water in their homes, with the worst affected being groups black and indigenous children, particularly in Nicaragua, Honduras and Bolivia.
The good news- “ministers from several Central American nations (including Honduras) are gathering to discuss child labor problems in their countries. … The goal of the meeting is to eradicate child labor in the region. The ministers also plan to create programs ensuring a more decent life for children.”
The heartwarmer- This photo gallery of children from Ciudad España in Honduras, photographed by Terry Rombeck. I find that beautiful pictures like this one below help restore some balance to all the bad news.
Filed under: Central America, Honduras, Latin America, children, social justice
August 11, 2007 • 12:23 am 6
“For every cup of Ethiopian coffee Starbucks sells, Ethiopian farmers earn 3¢.” – Oxfam, October, 2006
The trademark dispute between Ethiopia and Starbucks has ended with a bizarre and mysterious accord. Ethiopia, one of the ancient civilizations in the world, collided with a symbol of globalization and, to some extent, challenged the status-quo without success. The outcome should serve third-world countries as a reminder of the harsh reality that they have far go to get control of their intellectual property rights.
Although Ethiopian coffees command a premium price in foreign markets, particularly the US, farmers who grow the beans often live in extreme poverty. The Ethiopian coffee sector’s strategy to trademark the famous coffee brands, Harar, Sidamo, and Yirgacheffe, in all major international markets was an eye-opener for many of the coffee growing nations in Africa. But that effort hit a dead end in the US, home for Starbucks Corporation. After several months of fight, Starbucks and Ethiopia declared on June 20, 2007 that they have both emerged as winners.
Whether and how the terms of the truce will benefit Ethiopian coffee farmers remains to be seen. What is unquestionable is that, because of Starbucks and the National Coffee Association, Ethiopia has lost the trademark for Sidamo in the US and has surrendered the moral high ground that had won her support from all over the globe and has very little to show for it. Besides, all the economic opportunities that might have changed the lives of the poor farmers, who, for centuries, have been taken advantage of, have vanished into thin air.
From Coffee Politics- more here.
Which all makes me wonder why the first Starbucks in West Africa is aboard the Africa Mercy. Surely Mercy Ships can afford to be a little more choosy about thier sponsorship.
Filed under: Africa, coffee, social justice
August 4, 2007 • 11:41 pm 0
Thanks La Gringa.
Filed under: Central America, blogging
August 3, 2007 • 12:01 am 1
I’m not going to go into it all, plenty of bloggers already have. I just want to post a couple of my favourite posters from Emerging Grace’s response to the original ‘motivational posters‘. Which should show which way I am leaning at the moment.
More here.
Filed under: Christianity, blogging, religion, social justice
PhD candidate in Development Studies, currently doing fieldwork and experimenting with living in Honduras.
