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One of the most central
challenges of our time is the need to find the balance between global
socio-economic processes and their effect on local communities. In this
blurry situation, governments, private sector and NGOs alike take
efforts in contributing to the sustainable development of local
communities by using experience and methods already tried worldwide.
Understanding the importance and the need of interdisciplinary and open
thought is crucial in order to offer the best solution to complex
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| David Martin Abrahams |
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Fair Trade
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By David Martin Abrahams
Sep 25, 2009
The ideology between the fair trade organizations is admirable, as it combines an innocent ambition to change the world and a practical, methodological system that does change it.
The basic idea is humanist: we, in the West, will consume only products that, during their production, benefited the original manufacturers. That is, the Chinese worker was paid fairly for the shoes I wear; the money I spend on buying coffee finds its way to the bank account of the Guatemalan farmer; etc.
In practice, the fair trade mechanism substantially helps third world populations. It enables small factories & farmers to lessen their dependence on mediators, and in the long run it contributes to local economic development.
I feel, however, there is only one problem with the fair trade: it perpetuates the capitalist system and the consumerism derived from it. In the end, we are still left with rich Westerners purchasing products from third world economies (though with clear conscience…). So now I buy this nice shoes from a fair trade Chinese factory, but if tomorrow I get a cheaper pare of an excellent hand-made pare of Italian shoes, I would certainly go for it.
Well, there are no magic solutions and fair trade is indeed a great idea and it achieves great results. Nevertheless, I think we should encourage more domestic solutions, like microfinance mechanisms offered and implanted, for example, by Muhammad Yunus in Bangladesh. In this mechanism, poor populations first and foremost can choose a new economic road to follow; a choice that does not exist in the fair trade mechanism.
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