Fair Trade 11

The Emperor and his new clothes (Donald Trump and his new tea)

8 years ago Ethics

Funny how things seem to work in endless loops in business. Something becomes popular, it becomes a success, and that success attracts big business which buys up all the little guys who made the thing popular. As the bean counters take charge, things invariably go stale when they dismantle all that made the thing a […]

From Seattle to Nowhere (via Doha) in 10 years

9 years ago Ethics

The need for equitable development to address growing poverty is more critically important now than ever before. The self interest of wealthy nations has drawn the promised free and fair trading system offered in 1999 by WTO, into a decade long catalogue of self interest and a pretence of commitment to free trade. Pascal Lamy’s […]

Fair Trade, rhetoric and reality

9 years ago Ethics, Tea Industry

Fairness is about justice, a basic element of humanity. In the sphere of international trade, that notion should logically be deployed simply because it is the right and only way forward. That deployment would be supported by widespread education and support from government and non governmental agencies to include as many producers, wholesalers, retailers and […]

Someone’s got their hands in our crop

9 years ago Ethics, tea

Decades ago it was smoke and mirrors that were used to create illusions. Today’s illusionists are a little more sophisticated – they use brands, certificates, and a lot of money – they have after all, much more to gain than J. N. Maskelyne or Harry Houdini. The illusion I talk of is a strange one; […]

WTO seven years on. They must be kidding …

10 years ago Ethics, Nothing Whatsoever to do with Tea

It has been a while since Dr. Robert Aboagye-Mensah of the Christian Council of Ghana famously commented, “International trade between my country and the West is like an antelope and a giraffe competing for food which is at the top of a tree. You can make the ground beneath their feet level, but the contest […]

Is it CSR or just business as usual?

10 years ago Dilmah, Ethics, Images of Tea, Nothing Whatsoever to do with Tea, tea, Tea Tasting, Unbelievable Tea Experiences

The June 2008 issue of ‘The Director’ Magazine of the IoD, included a well researched feature on the subject of CSR. It was to me, an informative, yet bewildering overview of the subject. Informative because it is a comprehensive and well researched feature, bewildering because in many cases, the businesses that practice this ‘corporate social […]

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