Here we go again. Companies claim ‘fair trade’ & ‘socially responsible entrepreneurship’ for exploiting poor women in a poor country to make overpriced, over-hyped goods AND they want a pat on the back.
Throwing in words like ‘tradition’ and photos of your happy smiling workers (they aren’t gonna tell you – their western buyer – to piss off are they?) doesn’t mask the fact you fund your lifestyle from poor women doing piece-work who have no choice about the work they have to do. You are cynical exploiters using a very cynical marketing ploy no matter how much you spin you put on it.
Cut the crap and just sell your stuff like the good exploitation capitalists you are. —Look closely at the emperors fair trade clothes
This article appears in Jul 15-21, 2010.
And you, no doubt, trade organically grown wheat for the bolts of homespun cloth you use to make the tie-dyed phish t-shits you wear to open mike night at Gus’s?
Yea, communism is better.
I can’t wait for LIFE SUCKS’ brilliant insights on this one. I’m on the edge of my seat.
well communism is coming people so start preparing for “free global trade” it’s not going to be pretty (I hope I’m Dead)
OP, can you be more specific?
It’s true that every worthy initiative that has come out of the progressive movement in the last forty years has eventually been co-opted by corporate marketing gurus to one degree or another including “fair trade”, but that doesn’t invalidate the “fair trade” model if properly applied.
It’s like the organic labeling you see on food. Once agribusiness decided that “organic” worked as a marketing strategy, they joined every oversight body they could in order to lobby for weakened organic standards that would fit with the corporate model of farming. But that doesn’t invalidate the wisdom of organic farming practices.
It just means you have to look past ad campaigns and product labels and figure out for yourself whether you’re being sold a load of bullshit.
At least communists follow through on their promise to “Redistribute the Land” Unfortunately it’s usually in mass plots, shallowly dug.
Yes martym, you are correct. North Americans will have to give up a lavish and unsustainable lifestyle for one that is sustainable and internationally competitive.
And education must accompany it. We are going to have to start flunking people. We have to “leave them behind” if we want to compete.
Harsh realities, nobody likes to hear them.
I would gladly “leave them behind” and play on a level field if the game wasn’t fixed
Let’s make sure those factories are all closed because of the unfair way they treat the workers!
Of course, the law of unintended consequences demands that the workers will have no jobs and will end up being prostitutes on the street someplace.
Even a small pay cheque with small gains over a long period of time is better than that, no?
are you otay ivan? i noticed the avatar change. RAWK?
i guess the o.p. is talking about wally mart or maybe it’s martian conter part, the xincher .
What people here don’t realize that even though we think their wages are low compared to ours, in reality they live a better life than others in their country. Stop trying to compare apples and oranges.
I am Painey. The Hornby eaglet died and I’m blindsided by just how much I had emotionally invested in watching him. No matter how crappy my day; that site could really pick me up. I’m sorry for you and Ocean Lady and all the other watchers. Life goes on but right now the world seems a bit of a poorer place – Rawk, Rawk >: (
oh man i did not know. i am glad i heard it from you. ya saweet feller… these are the best emotions, it is what makes us human^^ mournful rawk and scree with some bagpipes thrown in
“One sword ,at least , thy rights shall guard.
One faithful harp shall praise thee”
C’est vrai Painey, Merci.
sorry to disappoint you oldhand, but today is too fucking muggy for much of a groaner, maybe later tonight tho.
I’m only going to mirror Bro Tim’s comment; in many of the cases, the wage these people are paid is actually a good wage for the country they’re in. I’d love to see them actually make a wage where they could live as we do, but given that these people live in regions that are less stable than a certain North Korean dictator. So, given that a military junta is right around the corner, they’re lucky.
This OP had better not own any piece of clothing made in China, Indonesia, India, or Canada. Wait. Scratch Canada from that list.
He clasps the crag with crooked hands;
Close to the sun in lonely lands,
Ring’d with the azure world, he stands.
The wrinkled sea beneath him crawls;
He watches from his mountain walls,
And like a thunderbolt he falls.
From Alfred Tennyson for Ivan
SCREE, SCREE, SCREE ! >: )
They probably got the images off Google….they are not even the people who make the stuff. Anyhow, why buy this crap. It’s cheaper to buy off eBay.
try working in a third world country with a fair trade organization and then speak about it. you know nothing. educate yourself.