Steven P. Barrett"FAIR TRADE" -- BUT FOR WHOM? POLITICALLY CORRECT TRADE HURTS U.S. CRAFTERS
July 6th 2008 01:19
Steven Barrett
Have you been to your local house of worship lately and found yourself scolded for not demonstrating all-out support, and I mean ALL OUT GUSHING support for "Fair Trade" and the coffee your parish or synagogue PC crowd are insisting everyone drinks from now.
"What do you have against Fair Trade?" Having to answer this question brought back fond memories of the old Nuclear Freeze days when even to roll your eyes at the naive and unsuspecting "peace-seeking" attitudes of your local "Peace Network" would inevitably cause these erstwhile peace-seeking folks to trot out their own weapon of mass destruction (of all conversations and possibly your mental reputation around town.)
"What, are you for nuclear war? Why do you want to wipe out the Russians?"
DID I SAY I WANTED TO TURN MOTHER RUSSIA INTO A NEW MARCHING PARADE GROUND FOR THE RED ARMY?
Saying you're against "fair trade" and the nuclear freeze -- especially in college towns -- is very much alike getting the old "When did you stop beating your wife?" routine. YOU CAN'T WIN THIS.
At the church we have regular coffee from Nicaragua and decaf from Peru, all ground and produced by "Dean's Beans" based in nearby Orange, MA. (There's NOT much else up in Orange.) Just to let the locals in on my suspicions about Dean's Beans and Fair Trade, I'll tape a scrap paper with "Steven's Somoza Special" on the thermos container.
I'll admit it's hard to have much of a beef against an organization trying to make life more liveable for many people in Central and South America who've been squeezed and shafted for centuries. The same goes for poorer artisans and food growers from all over the world.
As a crafter, however, I've got a MAJOR -- HUGE -- AND BIG TIME BEEF with "Fair Trade" and the Ten Thousand Villages ("Villages") retail company selling foreign made crafts. Villages isn't just a company, it's an NGO--non-governmental unit protected by the United Nations, founded by the Mennonites (Ohio Amish) and it literally gets away with practicing legal discrimination against American crafters.
Try going up against THAT kind of operation even in an artsy-fartsy area like mine. You can't win and with New Englanders being notoriously cheap as they are -- in Oscar WIlde's famous observation -- knowing the price of everything and the value of nothing, local crafters get the shaft. I create and sell hand-crafted nativity creches in my spare time, using no nails or other metal fasteners (save for aesthetic purposes only -- and that's very seldom.) It's difficult enough to deal with Wal-Mart which has a sweetheart deal with a nation that only recently rounded up Christians (like Buddhist Tibetans) to manufacture cheap creches for ten dollars. And, folks, they sure looked like ten-buck specials. Then to deal with a Mennonite-run company that gets away with thumbing its thumb and nose at American crafters.
Our crafters get the shaft because it's not only politically incorrect, but also spiritually incorrect with a lot of do-gooding souls eager to score points with this or that trendy cause. It's damn hard for me not to give into the temptation to buy an olive-wood small creche or cross made in the Holy Land because I'd be helping fiscally strained Christian Arab crafters stay in business. Dealing with skinflints is one thing: dealing with the Israelis and the PLO plus the daily threats of terror bombs and that Wall in the West Bank is another proposition altogether.
But why should I or any crafter living here be discriminated against in my own country by a church-run NGO that's protected by the UN (with obvious State Department approval.)
HOW ABOUT FAIR TRADE FOR AMERICANS FIRST?
IS THAT TOO MUCH TO ASK?
Have you been to your local house of worship lately and found yourself scolded for not demonstrating all-out support, and I mean ALL OUT GUSHING support for "Fair Trade" and the coffee your parish or synagogue PC crowd are insisting everyone drinks from now.
"What do you have against Fair Trade?" Having to answer this question brought back fond memories of the old Nuclear Freeze days when even to roll your eyes at the naive and unsuspecting "peace-seeking" attitudes of your local "Peace Network" would inevitably cause these erstwhile peace-seeking folks to trot out their own weapon of mass destruction (of all conversations and possibly your mental reputation around town.)
"What, are you for nuclear war? Why do you want to wipe out the Russians?"
DID I SAY I WANTED TO TURN MOTHER RUSSIA INTO A NEW MARCHING PARADE GROUND FOR THE RED ARMY?
Saying you're against "fair trade" and the nuclear freeze -- especially in college towns -- is very much alike getting the old "When did you stop beating your wife?" routine. YOU CAN'T WIN THIS.
At the church we have regular coffee from Nicaragua and decaf from Peru, all ground and produced by "Dean's Beans" based in nearby Orange, MA. (There's NOT much else up in Orange.) Just to let the locals in on my suspicions about Dean's Beans and Fair Trade, I'll tape a scrap paper with "Steven's Somoza Special" on the thermos container.
I'll admit it's hard to have much of a beef against an organization trying to make life more liveable for many people in Central and South America who've been squeezed and shafted for centuries. The same goes for poorer artisans and food growers from all over the world.
As a crafter, however, I've got a MAJOR -- HUGE -- AND BIG TIME BEEF with "Fair Trade" and the Ten Thousand Villages ("Villages") retail company selling foreign made crafts. Villages isn't just a company, it's an NGO--non-governmental unit protected by the United Nations, founded by the Mennonites (Ohio Amish) and it literally gets away with practicing legal discrimination against American crafters.
Try going up against THAT kind of operation even in an artsy-fartsy area like mine. You can't win and with New Englanders being notoriously cheap as they are -- in Oscar WIlde's famous observation -- knowing the price of everything and the value of nothing, local crafters get the shaft. I create and sell hand-crafted nativity creches in my spare time, using no nails or other metal fasteners (save for aesthetic purposes only -- and that's very seldom.) It's difficult enough to deal with Wal-Mart which has a sweetheart deal with a nation that only recently rounded up Christians (like Buddhist Tibetans) to manufacture cheap creches for ten dollars. And, folks, they sure looked like ten-buck specials. Then to deal with a Mennonite-run company that gets away with thumbing its thumb and nose at American crafters.
Our crafters get the shaft because it's not only politically incorrect, but also spiritually incorrect with a lot of do-gooding souls eager to score points with this or that trendy cause. It's damn hard for me not to give into the temptation to buy an olive-wood small creche or cross made in the Holy Land because I'd be helping fiscally strained Christian Arab crafters stay in business. Dealing with skinflints is one thing: dealing with the Israelis and the PLO plus the daily threats of terror bombs and that Wall in the West Bank is another proposition altogether.
But why should I or any crafter living here be discriminated against in my own country by a church-run NGO that's protected by the UN (with obvious State Department approval.)
Ten Thousand Villages. A Fair Trade Retailer.
Your fair trade purchase of handmade jewelry, home decor and gifts helps improve the lives of thousands of artisans in Asia, Africa, Latin America and the Middle East.
Your fair trade purchase of handmade jewelry, home decor and gifts helps improve the lives of thousands of artisans in Asia, Africa, Latin America and the Middle East.
HOW ABOUT FAIR TRADE FOR AMERICANS FIRST?
IS THAT TOO MUCH TO ASK?
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Comment by Anonymous
Comment by Anonymous
I'll drink the Dean's Beans stuff and sometimes it's not bad although it makes Starbucks' coffee look meek and mild which I never thought possible. As to how long these "Fair Trade" companies could even keep up with a presently downsizing Starbucks is anyone's guess.
Pay's one thing: the best benefits that protect you when you can't earn your pay due to sickness, a child's sickness, elderly parent's frailty, etc. and all those other things the do gooders love to harp on as much as anyone else, if not moreso, but don't or can't produce -- well, we know all good intentions have to meet their ends, no matter how ideologically pleasing they might be.
And how "socially just" or "fair" is it to knowingly put a fellow American's (or legit foreign national's) livelihood at risk by willingly supporting a concept and trade arrangement favoring non-domestic companies or non-profits such as a church, no less?
Keep up your vigilance against this form of politically correct marketing, be it for coffee, crafts, etc. It's one thing for us to demonstrate genuine compassion; it's another thing to keep shooting ourselves economically in order to "feel their pain." The truly oppressed want our continued strength, and our ability to continue holding out the light of economic prosperity; not economic pity parties guilded by misplaced and over-emphasized "compassion."