Iran has long been known as a volatile state, prone to violent authoritarian activity that continuously threatens the security of its inhabitants. Telephone calls in Iran are carefully monitored by government security agencies: the slightest whiff of a political discussion and your conversation is hastily disconnected.
While most of the world stands by, aghast that freedom of speech can be so flippantly disregarded, there are companies who are looking for opportunities to turn it in their favour, to make a profit at the expense of those without a voice.
Once such company is Nokia Siemens who, it is alleged, have assisted the Iranian Government in setting up a state of the art surveillance system with which they can monitor the use of fixed lines, mobile phones and text messaging within the country. According to their 2009 sustainability report:
…Nokia Siemens Networks provided a monitoring center to allow Iranian law enforcement authorities to implement the Lawful Interception capability in MCI’s mobile network…
Iranian Human Rights Campaigner Isa Saharkhiz is bringing a case before the US Federal Court which, if successful, will call Nokia Siemens to account for their actions, and to use their government connections to call for Saharkhiz’ release from custody.
Saharkhiz was arrested, with the help of this technology, because of his support for the opposition leader, Mehdi Karroubi. Amnesty International have commented that they:
“…[consider] him to be a prisoner of conscience, held solely on account of the peaceful expression of his views, including regarding the outcome of the election and is at risk of torture or other ill-treatment.”
Sources: Zdnet, The Guardian, Google News.
Patricia Lanton proposes that Fairtrade wines have, at last, come of age over on the Guardian Word of Mouth Blog. She reviews a number of Fairtrade wines, including strong offerings from The Co-operative, M&S and Waitrose:
Recently I tasted around 50 wines which are currently available and found that the quality has improved enormously and the choice is becoming much more varied.
Sounds like the makings of a good headache! Read more here
UPDATE: The Independent have now released their Ten Best Fairtrade Wines, which you can read on The Independent Online.
(Photo: Mr T in DC)
Green and Blacks and Ben and Jerry’s have re-affirmed their commitment to ethical manufacturing, both announcing that their ranges will soon become 100% Fairtrade.
Green and Black’s have always had a commitment to Fairtrade. Their Maya Gold bar was the first official Fairtrade product to be sold in the UK, but this announcement demonstrates their continued commitment to good values.
After Ben and Jerry’s was sold to Unilever 10 years ago, the brand has been closely observed by those of us wondering “will corporate ownership change their activist priorities?”
These announcements come as refreshing news at a time when many manufacturers opt for a single Fairtrade product line to appease their “ethical consumer” target group, while leaving the rest of their range unchanged.
(Source: The Guardian, BBC News, Photos: Beattrapkit and Meaghan O’Malley)
According to CNN, traffickers are taking advantage of the current instability in Haiti to take children and organs out of the country. Many children have been orphaned and the massive displacement of people, in makeshift dwellings, make them extremely vulnerable:
Haiti is trying to locate displaced children and register them so they can either be reunited with other family members or put up for adoption, Bellerive said.
But, he said, illegal child trafficking is “one of the biggest problems that we have.”
Many groups appear to be legitimate, “but a lot of organizations — they come and they say there were children on the streets. They’re going to bring them to the [United] States,” he said.
(source: CNN.com and @STOPTHETRAFFIK, photo: United Nations)
As I’ve mentioned here before, the industry juggernauts are beginning to notice. They’re beginning to tap into the growing target group that is the Fairtrade consumer. It’s been creeping in for a long time, ever since the pioneer brands (Traidcraft, Cafédirect, Divine, etc.) created enough of a presence to force supermarkets to realize we exist: we who care who produces, and what goes into, the food we eat.
So in the UK we began to see Tesco and ASDA branded Fairtrade-certified goods. At the time these changes were seen as a breakthrough, a sign that at last consumers were having an influence. The idealists among us imagined that eventually we would visit a supermarket and not have a slave-produced alternative, that it would all be fairly traded and that we would even hear reports of fewer countries classified ‘developing’, as they gain economic power themselves. But the supermarkets continued to stock the other products and they continued to fly off the shelves.
This year we have seen a spate of the big players decide to accommodate the ethical consumer in their product ranges: Cadbury have committed their Dairy Milk line to certification, Mars have announced that by 2020 they will be more ethical, and Kraft Foods, who want to buy out Cadbury, are taking steps towards working with the Rainforest Alliance. Sadly, on Monday when Nestlé announced that their four finger Kit Kat will be Fairtrade certified we got another whiff of the target group mentality – “we’ll create a line which is Fairtrade, so that we can tap into that niche.”
When this fair trade journey began, the goal was to play the capitalist game in a way that would benefit the poor. It wasn’t about charity: for people to throw money at the poor while they pretended to be interested in the product. We actually wanted better products that would be desirable for more than just their sense of conscience. That’s how Cafédirect came to be, and why Nestlé (Nescafé) were forced to pay a little more for their coffee (because apparently the farmers were giving their best produce to the highest bidder).
With this in mind, why does it leave a nasty taste in our mouths when we hear of a Fairtrade version of the Kit Kat, or a Fairtrade line of Nescafé?
Maybe we were hoping that the soul-less superpowers would grow souls? Or perhaps there was an idea that we would be proven right and that the oppressors would repent of their wrong doings and confess to being modern-day slave barons?
Of course, there’s no reason why Nestle can’t take the profits from their Fairtrade line and invest them in another less-than-ethical enterprise. There’s nothing stopping Mars from back pedaling before 2020 (as they have before). But, as Stephanie Celt points out, there are 8,000 farmers who will be affected, for the better, by this (Kit Kat) decision.
We must celebrate this, but also recognize that there will always be people who face injustice, and it is always our responsibility to fight it. Wearing our “consumer” hats and fighting on an economic level is not our only option. As George Monbiot reminded us recently:
“We cannot change the world by changing [only] our buying habits…our power comes from acting as citizens – demanding political change – not acting as consumers.”
And so the fight goes on. Yes, we’ve won a tiny fraction of Nestlé’s overall output, and yes, we will continue to long for a day when their whole product line represents our consciences. But until then we must allow these small victories to fuel our steady movement forwards.
This post is part of a larger debate on the mainstreaming of Fairtrade curated by Shared Interest on their Blog. Click here to read more.
(photo by Ahron De Leeuw)
It’s a disturbing thought that a market established on the dreams and imaginations of children could be profiting from the widespread use of sweatshops and unsafe working environments. According to Tim Hunt, of Ethical Consumer Magazine, this is today’s reality and ethically conscientious manufacturers are in the minority:
Up to 80% of the world’s toys are made in China, where human rights are often overlooked. The report “Nightmare on Sesame Street” by the US-based National Labour Committee last year highlighted many of these problems.
It found that in the Kai Da factory in Shenzhen city, which supplies Hasbro, a hundred 16-year-old high-school children and several younger children were working. Conditions in the factory were said to be dangerous, with potentially toxic solvents and paints routinely handled by workers with only rudimentary protective gear. Shifts were allegedly routinely over 12 hours long, seven days a week, with no days off for many months, plus mandatory 19- and 23-hour shifts at busy times such as the pre-Christmas rush.
(Source: The Guardian Online, Image: Katherine)
