I am passionate about Fair Trade! You might say, "well, you have to be - you sell it." No, it's the other way around - I sell it because that's how passionate I am about it. Jolica has great sales, plus a new project and mini catalogue in January, but it's about so much more than that to me.
I've done a lot of reading about fair trade over the holidays and will once again advocate for the book fair trade: a human journey by Eric St-Pierre. Just as the title states, I was given a human face for fair trade. Fair Trade is not about a product, it's about a person. It is honoring people 1/2 way around the world that do jobs we would probably never be willing to do, making sure that they have safe working conditions and are paid fairly for their time, talent, and product. The real question is, "Would we accept anything less for ourselves?" I wouldn't and I'm guessing that you wouldn't either, so that is exactly the reason to support fair trade - because less would not be acceptable for ourselves so it shouldn't be acceptable for anyone else on the planet.
When I consider the many luxuries that we have at the snap of a finger in North America - coffee, tea, flowers, chocolate. . . - I can't for the life of me expect another human to be broken (financially, physically. . .) just so I can have that LUXURY, not necessity, but something that makes my cushy life even cushier. I always leave Ten Thousand Villages with a huge smile, though I probably shouldn't have spent money that day, the money that I just spent went to making sure that another human being on the planet has a safe, stable job where they are paid fairly, have a say in their working conditions and are able to access services we take for granted on a daily basis (education, medical, food & clean water. . .). Please consider how you can support fair trade this year. It does not have to be Jolica (though I'd love your business!), it does not even have to be big, just start. Start, because it's not about a product, it's about a person.
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