Fair Dinkum
The month has gotten away from me. The whole budgeting plan, over. Did not happen. Mostly because I was away and when I got home I had no interest in the pile of receipts Ken and I had saved up. But also because I realized that spending less money this month just means I will spend more next month. Not buying diapers on sale this month means I will have to pay full price next month, ya see?
Anyhoos I have accepted that my March goal is a bust and I am moving on.
I am reading a book, Bitter Chocolate: Investigating the Dark Side of the World's Most Seductive Sweet by Carol Off. It is a huge eye opener. Did you know that chocolate is harvested by slaves, children slaves? Beaten and starved slaves. Cadbury's, Hershey's, Nestle, all the big names, they are in on it. It's dreadful. I recommend this book to anyone who enjoys chocolate. I'll be giving it to my dad!!
I am not totally naive in the ways of the world but I try not to think about nasty things like child trafficking, corporate corruption and greed. I am taking up a new cause, fair trade. I am going to do more research on where I am spending my money. Instead of paying the lowest price, we are going to start paying a fair price. It will likely be a gradual process.
Our Easter bunny didn't get the memo in time and will be bringing slave chocolate for our egg hunt. Next time...
FYI- organic fair trade chocolate available at cocoacamino. They have bars, cocoa, chips, hot drink mixes. I am sure they are lots more sources.
7 comments:
I didn't know. I've been skipping chocolate for a while and now I have another reason to give it up. Hey if your interested take a look at this video -The story of stuff. It's all over the internet.
I think the Easter Bunny is also a slave of sorts, not sure who he is working for, Cadbury?
sorry, slavery is no laughing matter, really.
oh. the Easter bunny here shopped for hershey's. had no idea. i will have to check that out.
Kristin - it's a time for eye-opening; you can bet I'll look that book up too. I don't like chocolate much (yeah yeah, I know) but I like child labor and slavery less, for real. I've also had my eyes opened about what the Chinese are doing in between preparing to host the world for the Olympics (like destroying Tibetans). Springtime is a good time to open the windows of the heart and mind, too, and sweep out a lot of the old murky stuff that might lurk there.
I had no clue that chocolate was made that way, I will have to become more discerning in my candy ways.
You can also get fair trade coffee and tea.. a lot of little "indy" coffee shops sell it, but I recommmend www.tenthousandvillages.ca. you can get it at their stores or online. You can also larn a lot more about fair trade on their website (they sell fair trade chocolate too)
I've been considering reading/getting that book. Nice to know it's an interesting read!
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