Before I start this one, I feel it appropriate to let you know that I have never purchased any of the items on this list. But I need new black shoes, I'd like to put some socially conscious thought into which ones I purchase, and I'd like to hear what you think. I'll give you two options for now. Tell me which ones you like best, or give me an alternative. Keep in mind that I typically don't mind paying more for items that are produced more fairly.
These are Blackspot Sneakers. Made in a union shop in Europe, these are more or less a sweat-shop free version of Converse All Stars. They're also "vegetarian shoes", whatever that means. I've had a few pairs of Chucks - I think they're cool and comfy. I don't like that Converse is actually owned by Nike, a company known for using dirt cheap labor to sell pretty expensive kicks. But I can't decide if the sweat-shop free copycats are cool... is it just a ripoff of Converse, or is it an even cooler alternative? I need your help here. These are TOMS Shoes. Their slogan is "Shoes for Tomorrow." What they do is actually really cool. For every pair of shoes they sell, they give a pair of shoes to a child in need. I think that's a pretty cool idea. My issue with these guys is that I wrote to them asking about the conditions in which the shoes are made and they wouldn't give me a straight answer. They just said that they are made in safe conditions and that they conduct regular audits. When I asked them to elaborate, they didn't get back to me. Maybe them giving a pair of shoes away is just as good as promoting fair working conditions elsewhere, but shouldn't even the best-intentioned of organizations be examined for fair trade practices? What do you think? The other issue with these is that I think I might think these are sort of ugly.
Do you know of any other shoes I should look at? Should I get the Blackspots? The TOMS? Should I just forget about it buy another pair of velcro Vans to replace the old ones, which may have been my favorite shoes ever? Should I not get any shoes and just wear my orange Chucks or my green and white checkered Vans with everything, ignoring any and all fashion crimes I will have to commit along the way?
Being the swell friend that I am, I spent this past Saturday night helping Sam learn 151 drugs and their classifications. I knew absolutely nothing on the topic (although I was not surprised to find out that oxygen falls under the "medical gas" category).
To help her study, Sam and her sister Sara printed off 5 sheets of paper listing all of the drugs and all of the classifications, then cut each one out (that is a lot of cutting). Because she is Sam, she also glued each one onto a colorful piece of construction paper. We went and bought some sticky tack, then Sam put all of the classifications up on a wall in the basement. Her job would be to put all 151 drugs under the right classifications.
To help her remember, my job was to list the drugs for each classification while she was putting the classifications up on the wall. This was before the "game" actually began. The pronunciation was a bit tricky for most of these, but overall I did OK (Sam may disagree with this due to my embarrassingly awful initial pronunciation bronchodilator, which, in retrospect, has a very obvious pronunciation).
Anyways, I'm sitting there listing these drugs off (Sam I expect you to know which classifications these fall under!)...
It was those last two that caused me to declare, "Sam, I feel like Harry Potter." The drugs totally sounded like spells!
She pretended not to know what I was talking about, as she has not read or seen any Harry Potter, but I could tell she thought my joke was pretty funny. For the rest of the night, every time I listed the drugs, I did so with a fake wand in my hand, and as if I were casting a spell on Sam. It was really quite fun. But I didn't use a British accent because I do not know how.
I am so excited to post about fairly traded bananas! I have always had issues with buying bananas because I did not know of any banana company that did not have some sort of human rights violation under their belt (ie. Dole, Chiquita, Del Monte). Even though I love bananas. Unless it is artificial banana flavor, or unless it is a too-ripe banana.
Anyways. Did you know that bananas are the most-often purchased food items in grocery stores?
Today I looked on the kitchen counter and there were bananas from a company called Organics Unlimited. It was also labeled as a "GROW" banana, which stands for Giving Resources and Opportunities to Workers.
I was so excited that I exclaimed, "Wow!"
Then I looked it up and learned that GROW is non-profit, and that all of its resources go towards improving the lives of farmers and their communities with services that include a free daycare service. The funds come from a 60 cent per box addition to the price of bananas.
Consumer choices are important! If we can increase the demand for items such as these, we can empower a socially conscious organization like GROW. I think that is so great.
...and I must say, voting has never felt so right! The downside is having to wait two whole weeks for the results.
Am I being an egocentric American, or is the rest of the world also anxious about this election? I mean, if you're not American, odds are you've been frustrated with my country of citizenship at one point or another in the last 8 years, right? Not to say that you will never be frustrated again, but at this point change has got to be a good thing. If you are American, don't forget to go vote on Nov. 4!
Well, here's hoping that something changes. Now I'm gonna go all partisan on you and post a cool video.
Lately, I've been thinking about the good ol' days in Ghana. I literally have hundreds of good memories of those days, and I think about my friends there often.
One thing I absolutely LOVE is hiplife music. This may come as a surprise to those of you who are not familiar with the gangsta side of my personality that has been fairly suppressed since my university days. What can I say, there really isn't much gangsta action up here in Canada. Although, I have to say that listening to Canadians use gangsta slang with their polite-sounding Canadian accents is the most entertaining thing I have ever seen/heard.
Anyways, hiplife is a Ghanaian style of music that combines highlife (traditional drum/dance) rhythms with hip-hop. It is so cool.
One of the songs that I love, and that was really popular when I was there in '05, is called Monkey Chop Banana by Nkasei. I think it's awesome. Chop is a Pidgin English verb for eat. There's another thing I miss, the Pidgin English. It's like an entire language of slang, it's ridiculous.
If you're at all interested in taking a listen, here's the Nkasei song...
And, Hene, feel free to correct me if I am misinformed on anything!
If you've ever heard my long and frequent rants about Fair Trade at Starbucks, I'll tell you right now that I learned most of it from Oxfam. They are a defender of human rights, under which falls the issue of fair trade, and they have run a million billion (I'm exaggerating) campaigns to improve the lives of vulnerable people all over the world.
My favorite campaign that they have run is the one that pressured Starbucks to give trademark rights to the Ethiopian coffee farmers for their specialty coffee brands. I was so glad when Starbucks signed the agreement with Ethiopian coffee farmers that I ended my silent protest of Starbucks coffee and went to the nearest of the corporation's establishments to get a soy latte for myself.
This is Oxfam's video of the organization as well as the Ethiopian farmers thanking everyone who was involved in the campaign.
The most important lesson here, I think, is that enough concerned consumers can change the way business is done. We've got to care about injustices and then do something about it. We've got to realize how blessed, how ridiculously blessed, we are and then do everything we can to give as much as we can to others. We have tons of resources to do all of this. We really do.
I went to Annie's Build-a-Bear birthday party yesterday and it was SO FUN. (I am not meaning to gloat to those who wanted to come and couldn't, I am just expressing my feelings, OK?) Maybe I'll have a Build-a-Bear party for my birthday next year.
Also, the Build-a-Bear staff was amazing - really patient and all-around awesome with the kids.
The prices were ridiculous, though. I mean, $5 for a pair of underwear for a stuffed bear? That seems a little over the top. Hmm, in that case maybe I won't have a Build-a-Bear party next year.
I can't believe it took me so long to get to telling you about Kicking Horse Coffee! It's organic Fair Trade coffee, it's great, and you can find it all over Calgary (including Safeway and SAIT), though the roastery is based in Invermere, BC, so I'm guessing it's common in lots of nearby cities and towns. Do you remember seeing it anywhere?
Some of the names of their coffees might ring a bell if you are from... anywhere near the Canadian Rockies. Kootenay Crossing, Pacific Pipeline, Three Sisters, etc.
The company is active in their community: educating people on Fair Trade, sponsoring community events, and working to protect the beautiful Kootenays...
I got a joke book from the library and tried telling Madeline (age 4) one of the jokes.
Me: Two homeless turtles were having a race. Where was the finish line?
Madeline: Who's there?
I don't think she got the joke. We found the section with knock knock jokes after that. The punchline is "at the Shell station," by the way. Do you know any good knock knock jokes I should tell her?
Yeah, so I am running out of titles for Fair Trade Fridays. Anyways.
Today's Fair Trade product is Divine Chocolate. This chocolate is made with cocoa beans from Kuapa Kokoo, a cooperative in Ghana. And everyone knows the best chocolate comes from Ghana. In other words, it is really yummy. One thing I love about this chocolate is that its packaging is covered with Adinkra symbols from Ghana. A class I took once included a two hour lecture on Adinkra symbols and I like to think that, by eating this chocolate, I am using my University education in the real world. If you click the above link, you can learn what the symbols mean.
No joke, I am eating some Divine Chocolate as I write this post. (Thanks Cassy - what a perfect present!) It is the coffee milk chocolate kind and man is it ever delicious.
This short video is a lovely depiction of what the company is all about:
You may or may not know that I am over halfway done with my Bachelor's degree, and that I haven't taken a class since Winter '06. Holy cow, that's almost 3 years ago! My dropping out had much to do with money, and not having any. I somewhat randomly decided to move to Calgary to be a nanny so that I could save some money and pay off some back tuition. My plan worked! I get to be a student again!
I'm taking an online class called Eastern Religions to fulfill one of the requirements for my major, which is Comparative Religion. Isn't that great?
These are Blackspot Sneakers. Made in a union shop in Europe, these are more or less a sweat-shop free version of Converse All Stars. They're also "vegetarian shoes", whatever that means. I've had a few pairs of Chucks - I think they're cool and comfy. I don't like that Converse is actually owned by Nike, a company known for using dirt cheap labor to sell pretty expensive kicks. But I can't decide if the sweat-shop free copycats are cool... is it just a ripoff of Converse, or is it an even cooler alternative? I need your help here. 
These are TOMS Shoes. Their slogan is "Shoes for Tomorrow." What they do is actually really cool. For every pair of shoes they sell, they give a pair of shoes to a child in need. I think that's a pretty cool idea. My issue with these guys is that I wrote to them asking about the conditions in which the shoes are made and they wouldn't give me a straight answer. They just said that they are made in safe conditions and that they conduct regular audits. When I asked them to elaborate, they didn't get back to me. Maybe them giving a pair of shoes away is just as good as promoting fair working conditions elsewhere, but shouldn't even the best-intentioned of organizations be examined for fair trade practices? What do you think? The other issue with these is that I think I might think these are sort of ugly.
