Nine-year-old Sarania Chida Cleon, who wants to be a nurse, stands outside rows of new classrooms at St. Gérard School in Port-au-Prince, the capital. The school was rebuilt after the original building collapsed during the 2010 earthquake – killing 27 students. Over 13 new classrooms have been built at the school, which now serves an estimated 1,200 students. The new facility is earthquake- and hurricane-resistant and child-friendly. It is among 193 semi-permanent schools built with UNICEF assistance since the earthquake.
Haiti, 2011 © UNICEF/NYHQ2011-2215/Marco Dormino
Anyone in the Orange County area that cares about social justice and changing the world???
Come to the Social Justice Summit at Cal State Fullerton on April 14th!
It’s amazing and it’s free!!
Register at: www.fullerton.edu/socialjusticesummit
UNITE TO RISE ABOVE APATHY
Fair Trade is an alternative approach to conventional trade that is based on a partnership between producers and consumers. It provides better terms of trade and ensures the sustainability of production and trade, even in times of economic instability. The Fair Trade standard aims to correct the imbalance of power that has been created through trading relationships and to redress the injustices of conventional trade.
For producers, Fair Trade means prices that aim to cover the costs of sustainable production, an additional Fair Trade Premium, advance credit, longer term trade relationships, and decent working conditions for hired labour. (www.fairtrade.net)
Fair Trade rewards and encourages farming and production practices that are environmentally sustainable. It also encourages producers to strive toward organic certification. Producers are required to:
- Protect the environment in which they work and live, including areas of natural water, virgin forest, and other important land areas as well as dealing with problems of erosion and waste management.
- Develop, implement, and monitor an operations plan on farming and techniques that reflects a balance between protecting the environment and good business results.
- Follow national and international standards for the handling of chemicals (there is a list of chemicals which are prohibited).
- Avoid (intentionally) using products which include genetically modified organisms (GMO)
- Monitor what affect their activities are having on the environment then make and implement a plan for how to lessen the impacts.
FAIR TRADE STANDARDS
There are two distinct sets of Fair Trade standards—one set applies to smallholder producers that are working together in cooperatives or other organizations with a democratic structure. The second set applies to hired labors/workers whose employers pay decent wages, guarantee the right to join trade unions, ensure health and safety standards, and provide adequate housing where relevant. The standards also cover terms of trade, which most products having a set Fair Trade Price, which is the minimum price that must be paid to producers. This price aims to ensure that producers can cover their average costs of sustainable production. It provides a safety net for farmers when the world markets fall below the sustainable level and protects against vulnerability. When the market price is higher than the Fair Trade minimum, the buyer must pay the higher price.
Producers also receive a Fair Trade Premium, which is an additional sum that producers use to invest in their communities. The money goes into a communal fund for workers and farmers, which is used to improve social, economic, and environmental conditions. The use of this money is decided upon democratically by productions within their farmers organization or by workers on a plantation. It may be invested in education, healthcare, farm improvements to increase yield or quality, or processing facilities to increase income. The broader community outside the producer organization often benefits from these improvements as well.
Fair Trade is a strategy for poverty alleviation and sustainable development. Its purpose is to create opportunities for producers and workers who have been economically disadvantaged or marginalized by the conventional trading system. If fair access to markets under better trade conditions would help them overcome barriers to development, they can join Fair Trade.
Trade operators can join Fair Trade if they are committed to supporting these Fair Trade objectives. This standard should be viewed as the minimum requirement on traders for demonstration of their commitment to Fair Trade.
Companies trading Fair Trade products must:
- Pay a price to producers that aims to cover the costs of sustainable production (i.e. the Fair Trade Minimum Price)
- Pay an additional sum that producers can invest in development (i.e. the Fair Trade Premium)
- Partially pay in advance when producers ask for, thereby providing advanced credit.
- Sign contracts that allow for long-term planning and sustainable production practices.
For a full list of Fair Trade Standards, visit Fairtrade Standards.
For more information on where to find Fairtrade products, visit Fairtrade Products.
When I first heard about the SlutWalk movement, I admittedly had very mixed feelings about it. I understood the message, but I questioned the methods. I couldn’t express why, but something about the movement unsettled me. To an extent, it still does. Nevertheless, when I heard that SlutWalk was coming to Houston (and that I would be in town for it), I decided I wanted to participate. To be clear, I do still think there are flaws with the movement, as no movement is perfect—there will always be issues with inclusivity and message framing and what not, but that doesn’t mean the movement isn’t worthwhile or important or effective. So I went and participated and lent my voice on Saturday.
So why did I decide to participate?
For me, SlutWalk represents the need to fight (and put an end to) victim blaming and sexual violence. SlutWalk to me means that no one deserves to be raped or assaulted or harassed. No one is ever “asking for it.” No one is to blame for the assault except for the perpetrator, the rapist, the assaulter.
If you have been a victim of rape, sexual assault, or sexual harassment, listen to me. I don’t care who you are, what you were wearing, what you were doing, where you were working, or who you were with—the blame belongs to the person who assaulted you. It is NOT your fault. I don’t care if you are drunk and high and running down the street at night completely naked—nothing ever, ever, EVER gives anyone the right to rape you, to assault you, to lay a single hand on you without your expressed verbal consent. Period.
SlutWalk also means we need to stop shaming women for their sexuality. The number of comments I have encountered stating that “if women don’t want to be treated like sluts, they shouldn’t dress like sluts,” or “If you dress/act/look like a whore, don’t be surprised when you get treated like a whore”—it’s just maddening. And heartbreaking. Women are taught their whole lives to be ashamed of their bodies, of their appearance, of their sexuality, of their sexual desires. And if (God forbid) women try to break free of these constraints, to own their sexuality and be proud of their bodies, then they are told they deserve to be raped and assaulted—they are reduced to nothing more than physical objects, good for nothing more than the sexual pleasure of other people (particularly men).
Women’s bodies and sexuality have been commodified for a long time. You see it everywhere—in the sex trade, in advertising, in the calculated use of sexual violence in war, in the trafficking of women and girls all over the world. And yet at the same time that women and girls are being told that their only value is in their sexuality, they are also being told to value their virginity (and in many cultures, including much of the U.S.) that their virginity is their only TRUE source of value. Without it, they are damaged goods. Worthless. Disgusting. Filthy. Ruined. So women and girls are taught that if they want to be loved and valued and accepted, they must be sexy/sexual—but not too sexual, because then they are just worthless sluts and whores. Be sexy. Attract sexual attention. But not too much—you don’t want to be a whore. (And even if the attention you are attracting is unwanted, remember it is your fault. You are doing something to attract that attention.)
I know I personally received that message from a lot of sources growing up, and it is a message I am still trying to break free from. But like many other young women, that message was ingrained in me: “Sex is bad. Sex is wrong. Don’t think about sex, talk about sex, and certainly don’t HAVE sex…and if you do, you should know you are a terrible little girl.” Even though intellectually I know that message is wrong, I still have an emotional, knee-jerk reaction to open conversations about sex and sexuality. I am working through that, and I aim to support and promote very sex positive messages that embrace and encourage safe and healthy sex, open communication, verbal consent, healthy relationships.
I also believe sex should only happen when all parties involved are ready, willing, and able to participate. And if at *any* point someone withdraws consent, sexual contact should cease immediately. No excuses. Consent should never be assumed. And what someone is wearing (or not wearing) does NOT constitute consent. Neither does what their makeup looks like, whether they are drinking or not, whether they are flirting or dancing or partying in public, whether they are a sex worker on the corner or an exotic dancer on the pole, whether they getting high in a club or running in a sports bra down the street—it doesn’t matter. Because none of that conveys consent. None of that gives someone the right to lay a hand on them. None of that means they deserve to be raped or assaulted. None of that means they were “asking for it.”
I don’t care how someone dresses or where they work or what their background is. Everyone deserves to be respected and loved and treated with dignity. And no amount of shaming and victim blaming will ever change that fact. For me, SlutWalk is about making sure everyone knows that.
