CONSUMERWATCH: Fair Trade

Koodos to CTV Winnipeg for reporting on Fair Trade, Manitoba's One-Month Challenge and informing consumers of the labels to look for to ensure that they are actually buying Fair Trade products!  Check out the report and video at: winnipeg.ctv.ca/servlet/an/local/CTVNews/20110228/wpg_fair_trade_110228/20110228/?hub=WinnipegBin

Going Green

Normally, I'm not a green girl. . .I'm from Manitoba and green means that you're cheering for Saskatchewan, our next door neighbour.  I don't think I ever expected to cheer for Saskatchewan, especially when they play Manitoba, but that was the case today.  I love watching curling and the politics have been an issue off the ice with Team Canada (from Manitoba), so I was very excited to watch the final game and cheering Saskatchewan on to victory over Canada!

Pembina Hills String and Wind Ensembles

Tonight was the final concert for the band I've been a part of over the last few months.  It doesn't matter that this was years after high school, the nerves were still the same!  I've never played with a group of strings before and it was a lot of fun.  We only played 1 song together, but since flutes are in the front row of the concert band, it sounded very different being in the middle, behind the strings (you can see part of my head between the bottom of the cross and our conductor's shoulder).  We also played 4 songs on our own and I think it was the best we've ever played them.  A huge thanks goes out to Paul, our conductor!

Answers

I enjoy my silence and solitude.  At various times in my life, I have probably thought that I could go for quite a while without any contact.  And while I can be alone, when in Austria during a 48-hour solo time, I discovered that I craved human interaction much more than I would have admitted to previously.

On Tuesday I was reading from My Utmost for His Highest (Updated Edition) and he said "[O]ne of the greatest stresses in life is the stress of waiting for God."  How true!  I have so many unanswered questions in my life and I'd like some answers.  But if I'm really honest, it's not really answers that I want, but rather it's my answers that I want:  'yes' when I'm hoping for 'yes' and 'no' when hoping for 'no'.

The Front End

Snow and I have not really been getting along this winter. . .actually, it's been my car and snowbanks that have "butted heads"!  My car finally went in for repairs yesterday only to find out that more parts had to be ordered.  So there she sits, waiting, with her front end totally exposed.

Human Trafficking Around the World

Here are some articles about human trafficking from China and the United States:

www.voanews.com/english/news/asia/Rights-Activists-Say-Chinas-Gender-Ratio-Contributes-to-Human-Trafficking-114480334.html

www.huffingtonpost.com/Mickey-goodman/sex-trafficking-united-states-children_b_812784.html

www.oregonlive.com/opinion/index.ssf/2011/01/child_sex_trafficking_imperfec.html

Man to Man

Man to Man (endthedemand.ca) is a campaign put together by Beyond Borders (beyondborder.org), ECPAT Canada.  It's simple economics - if there is no demand for prostitution and pornography, then there will be no push on the supply, which results in human trafficking.  And it's not just a problem 'out there' - it's time to wake up and speak up.

Hear the Reality - www.beyondborders.org/mtm

This Burden

Some days I wake up and wish that I could just have a normal life.
That the burden God has given me for injustice could be someone else's.
That I could look away and pretend it's not there.
But instead I'm forced to look at it and, in turn, look at myself.

We are all connected, so what is my part of the problem?
More importantly, now that the problem is here, what is my part in the solution?
Am I doing enough?
Can one ever reach 'enough'?
What if I never make a difference - not even a dent - in the situation?
And if there's no progress, will I be able to continue to carry the burden?
Will I want to?
If I choose to ignore the issues, will God be more disappointed than if I tried & failed?

I just want to live my life.
In a world where justice reigns for all.
God created me and breathed dreams and desires into me.
He knew the journey my life would take before I was born.
And He uses the broken pieces of my life to fulfill His divine purposes.
As I look in, I can see out.
I don't carry this burden alone.

Poured Out

There are specific stories in the Bible that resonate with me more than others.  Though I can't quite pinpoint why, the story of the woman that washes Jesus' feet with her hair, tears & perfume moves me.  Yesterday I think I was able to understand why, through my devotional from Our Journey:

"[S]he knew that she needed Jesus.  This made her do something remarkable.  First, she brought all that she had.  That alabaster jar represented her whole future.  It was her most prized, precious and profitable possession.  It was her hopes of marriage, her desire to be cared for, her capacity to be noticed.  She took it and poured it on feet that would soon be tramping the dusty, dirty streets.  Her hair and tears represented her whole heart.  People watching probably thought it was the most humiliating thing they had ever seen.  Humiliation is when you do something out of ignorance; humility is when you know exactly what you are doing and carry on regardless.  The woman was not ignorant to what she was doing, or who she was doing it to.  She was willing to surrender her heart and her honor for Jesus.  The defining worship moments in your life will be those where beauty is displayed out of your brokenness, where humility recognizes who Jesus is and where you see so clearly who you are.  It is displayed as you understand in light of His majesty your own poverty."  (Scott Hamilton)

Justice

I celebrate together with the Derksen family that justice has been served.  In all honesty, I thought that the family would again be left hanging without answers after this trial, but the jurors announced a 'guilty' verdict.  Read about it at www.winnipegfreepress.com/breakingnews/guilty-verdict-ends-26-year-saga-116525433.html.

Guide to Ending Sweatshops by Co-op America

Please go to www.greenamerica.org/PDF/GuideSweatshops.pdf and read the "Guide to Ending Sweatshops" by Co-op America.

Page 10 says: "In January 2004, the New York Times reported on the jaw-dropping pay disparity between US baseball players and the Costa Rican workers who stitch baseballs for the major leagues.  According to the Times, the average US baseball player makes around $2.4 million a year or $46,154 a week.  Working 11 hours a day, Costa Rican laborers can craft about four balls an hour, at an average pay rate of 30 cents apiece.  Usually, this works out to about $55 a week."

They offer Ten Ways to End Sweatshops (see the Guide for more details):
1. Organize locally
2. Support Co-op America's Wal-Mart campaign
3. Join other consumer campaigns
4. Use shareholder clout
5. Investigate companies
6. Buy fair trade
7. Support fair trade campaigns
8. Buy union-made, local and secondhand
9. Spread the word
10. Use the power of collective action

And You Wonder. . .

And you wonder why I live on the prairies. . .

Icicles

Our assignment:  icicles.  Icicles in February?!?  We have a month to capture icicles for the Photo Club and lucky for us, we have had a beautiful week with high temperatures (that would be around the 0 degree Celsius mark!) and a lot of melting happening.  It also means that it's a little easier on the fingers and the camera - not the -25 (plus wind chill) weather that is normal for this time of the year.

I was honored to be asked to be part of the Photo Club, but more important than being a part of it and exchanging ideas, it will be my motivation to get my camera out and snap away.  I don't want to be empty handed when we meet again next month!  One of my photographer friends said that 2010 may not have been the best year for me picture-wise because I was so pictured-out from 2009, and I quite agree.  My camera and I have not been seeing 'eye-to-eye' for a while now!

But icicles, how was I going to capture them?  Again, the weather was important and not only that, but the time of day to go out and shoot.  With the sun out, if you wait too long in the day, the icicles have all but disappeared.  So yesterday I had some time in the morning and I headed into town.  I had a few buildings in mind that had some possibility.  As I drove around town, my eyes were on the move.  And as I started looking around, I found icicles in the most unexpected places - none of the buildings I had in mind worked out.

After getting a few keepers, I was actually motivated to keep shooting and so I trudged through knee-deep snow (yes, it's melting, but there's been A LOT of it this year) and had the most fun I've had with my camera in a long while.  I'm looking forward to some great Photo Club meetings, but the club has already done what I was hoping for.  And with more spring on its way, here's hoping that my camera will always be close at hand to capture icicles, or whatever else should strike my fancy as I continue to grow and learn in my photography.

Valentine's Mission Accomplished!

With no valentine of my own and my family all away, I decided to celebrate Valentine's Day a little differently this year.  I picked up some 35 cent fair trade chocolates from Ten Thousand Villages and set off.  People that I personally encountered throughout the day received one at the end of our interaction and it's amazing the smiles that crept across faces that were not expecting a thing from me including the secretary at school, my teller at the bank, and my doctor.  What's better than getting a gift you expect? - one that's totally unexpected and a huge surprise (even if it's a very small gift)!  Valentine's mission accomplished!!

Valentine's Chocolate

As we celebrate the love in our lives today, I beg of you to consider where the chocolate gifts that you buy come from.  PLEASE BUY FAIR TRADE CHOCOLATE!  So much chocolate, especially big corporations like Hershey's, use CHILD LABOR to harvest the cocoa.  Why would they do this? - It's simply a matter of money:  more money in Hershey's pockets.

I read the article "Valentine's Day activists say chocolate uses child labour, finances Ivory Coast's Gbagbo" from the Winnipeg Free Press (www.winnipegfreepress.com/breakingnews/activists-say-valentines-day-chocolate-uses-child-labour-finances-ivory-coasts-gbagbo-116153054.html) and it made me SO angry.  I want to know why companies like Hershey's refuse to use certified cocoa.  How can the bottom line be so much more important than the future of our children?  Yes, OUR children because we are all truly connected and no child deserves to grow up working.  They deserve to laugh and play, to learn and be safe.  They should never be working their lives away, especially for our luxury.  Let us remind ourselves that chocolate is a luxury, NOT a right we have.

TransFair Canada

More Fair Trade information - just in time for the One-Month Challenge (fairtrademanitoba.ca/get-involved/omc/), starting tomorrow!  Head to TransFair Canada at transfair.ca.

The Bata Project Pins Have Arrived!

Both my mom and I ordered these cute little pins - the $12 cost pays for 1 year of schooling for a child in the Philippines.  If you haven't already, check it out at bataproject.org - personal delivery for those of you in Winnipeg!

World Press Photo

Check out the article about this year's World Press Photo award winners:

www.winnipegfreepress.com/breakingnews/image-of-afghan-woman-whose-nose-was-cut-off-by-taliban-wins-1st-prize-at-world-press-photo-115862979.html

The Real Enemy in Afghanistan is. . .

Canadian Women for Women in Afghanistan (CW4WAfghan) presents:

www.cw4wafghan.ca

War Dance Trailer

I have advocated for it before and now I've found the trailer for War Dance!  I'm hoping this will motivate you to go out and rent it or buy it.  If your rental store doesn't have it, ask them why not and see if they'll get it in for you.  Also check out War Dance Returns at shineglobalwebtv.com/films/movie/war-dance-returns/23227

www.shineglobal.org

The Story of Electronics

Check out the newest video from The Story of Stuff:  Electronics at storyofstuff.org/electronics

One-Month Challenge 2011

Are you ready for the one-month challenge?

"Manitobans are invited to take up the challenge by consuming fair trade coffee, tea and chocolate - rather than conventional brands - for the period of from Valentine’s Day, February 14th to March 15th. Sign-up is available at www.fairtrademanitoba.ca."

Hey, and why don't we also increase the challenge to buying fair trade Valentine gifts at stores like Ten Thousand Villages (www.tenthousandvillages.ca) or Jolica (www.jolica.com/ladawn.siemens)?

Perspective

Today was a brand new experience for me - the first time teaching Sunday School!  I have 8 weeks with these youth, learning more about photography and about God.  I'm calling it "Perspective" and by the end it's my hope that everyone will gain a new perspective on God or in photography or, at the very least, simply start to see things differently.

My Life

In the regular-ness of life, I sometimes forget that extraordinary things are happening all around me.  When people hear about my travel experiences they always ask, "So where are you going next?"  I average about 3 years between trips - 2003 was Austria, 2006 was Turkey and 2009 was Hawaii/Panama/Costa Rica/South Africa - so I guess that means 2012 should be the next trip.  That may or may not happen, but I have to remind myself that life also happened between those trips, as it does right now.  I'm not very good at it, but my last trip really taught me to live in the moment - not to always plan for tomorrow, but to enjoy today.  And that's really difficult for a person like me who wants to be in control and know what's going on, not just now but into the future.  Not knowing the future is such a struggle and yet it seems like it's the way my life is - I don't really stay anywhere, doing the same thing for very long.

As I look back on 2010, I sometimes have to pinch myself.  I probably spoke to about 15 or so groups (churches, schools, etc).  For someone who just wants to be invisible and do what she needs to do without stirring things up, I seem to have defied the odds.  I have conversations I never thought I would have - about prostitution and human trafficking - with people I never thought would ever cross my path.  Without a car until September, I taught a photography class, started selling Jolica, subbed, and sold Threads of Hope and Little Travels at the summer festivals (thanks Mom and Dad for your vehicles!).  After getting a car (somehow I actually got a loan), I have been racing around, trying to truly take advantage of the time (and car) I have been given.

I'm not one of those people who had a clear life plan so that by 25 I'll do this and by 30 I'll do that. . .but I can certainly tell you that I never imagined, never in my wildest dreams, the life I have lived so far.  Don't get me wrong - I have had more struggles than success along the way, but you've got to be willing to take the bad with the good, right?  And I'm not sure what tomorrow holds - I really have no idea where my life is going - but I can tell you the One who holds my life and that's far more important to me.

Making Music

Growing up, one of my uncle's who didn't see me a lot would ALWAYS ask me, when he did see me, what kind of music I like and I never knew how to answer that question (plus, it really annoyed me!).  For me, it's not about a specific type of music (though there are a few types that I'd rather NOT listen to!) and my response was that the music I most enjoyed was the music I made myself.  I am not one of those people with a truly natural music talent - I have to work really hard and practice in order to play piano, flute and guitar (oh, and there was a little oboe in grade 12 yet too!).

For about 2 months before Christmas and now for January and February, I have thoroughly enjoyed Tuesday nights playing in a community band.  I started out very nervous, trying to figure out my place and having a lot of questions and doubts run through my mind - could I really do this again, after not having played in a big band for more years than I'd like to admit to!  It feels so great to practice on my own each week and then fit it all together Tuesday nights.  Yep, my very favorite music is the opportunity I have to make it myself!