David Lean and Fair Trade Fortnight

I'm so sorry for not posting for such a long time, but I've had a bit of a bad back and sitting at the computer doesn't really help it. I'm feeling much better now, but instead of writing a long post on Fair Trade Fortnight, I though I'd just say a quick hello and post on a few bits and bobs.

First up, are two extracts from David Lean's This Happy Breed. It's one of his first films, and I suppose pretty unknown compared to Brief Encounter, Bridge on the River Kwai and Lawrence of Arabia. However, I do love it, perhaps more than it's sister film, the more famous, In Which We Serve. You can buy the film on DVD.



Also, here's the original trailer.



Next up I thought I'd post a few links on Fairtrade Fortnight. I'm passionate about Fair Trade. I really like food: I like coffee, and chocolate, and sugary treats, and I like mangoes and bananas* and beautiful flowers. But I also really like people. If you like people too, then this fortnight (which always seems to coincide with the first two weeks of Lent), you may want to switch your standard treats to the Fair Trade variety.

Here's some of the reasons why.

1. You cannot guarantee that your favourite chocolate has not been made with child slave labour unless it carries a Fair Trade label. Horrible but true.
2. Cheap supermarket flowers are often grown by women and children in the developing world under terrible conditions. Many women have miscarried or given birth to still born children because the pesticides they use are so very dangerous. This doesn't happen with Fair Trade. It's the same with cotton.
3. Fair Trade coffee and bananas are grown with the people and environment in mind, and not grossly inflated profits. People deserve a decent wage for a decent day's work.

I could go on, but I don't want to seem like a nag, and I'm definitely not "holier than thou", but we homemakers (contrary to popular belief) wield an enormous amount of power. We are the ones who control the spending in our households, we are the ones whom the marketing men have been in love with since the 1900s. We can vote with our purses and make the large multinationals change their policies. Just buy Fair Trade this fortnight and you'll be doing your bit to "stick it to the man" and that would be a very groovy thing indeed for our brothers and sisters in the developing world.

*Edit: I don't actually like bananas, I was simply including them in my list for rhetorical effect, I do buy them for the kiddilumps though!