fair trade

sometimes on saturday i work in a fair trade shop here in heidelberg, the weltladen

i believe in the fair trade concept, even though i understand it's complicated to fit it into our daily routine and more important even though i know it's just a temporary solution, a patch to some extent, to the problems that it's supposed to solve...

people there are really nice, and they are ok with my terrible german! but still, for me that's an issue... after a while i cannot stand a serious discussion in german, no way! tonight i went to dinner at some friends' place (the bio friends of the bio cake) and we had a discussion about fair trade issues. well actually i witnessed the discussion, but as usual i never took part, which is frustrating because it's really embarrassing that i've lived here for nearly 3 years and my german is still that bad...

and moreover, there are some issues about fair trade that i would really like to discuss with them, some thoughts that i developed before and after having started working there, but no way i can ever express them, not even in a one-to-one conversation...

example: we always discuss ways to get more customers in the shop, because the shop has often bad finances and if you believe in it and want it to work, you have to find the money somewhere. so we organise various events, we spread flyers all over the place to invite people to come to our cafe and have a drink there (fair drink!) or to come to us to buy their christmas gifts (fair gifts, obviously)... ok, fair enough, it seems... but still, are we only trying to get the customers of other shops and bars, are we only playing in the big competition game of trade or are we really doing a difference? should we push people to consume, even though the goods are produced fairly, only because this is the only way to keep being able to produce them fairly? shouldn't we maybe push people not to consume that much? if i don't need a chocolate bar, there's not much difference if i buy a milka one, a nestle one or a gepa one from fair trade: it still won't change the bottom line, i don't need it though i buy it... if, hypothetically, every western european customer wanted to buy fair trade products with the same consumistic tempo, would we still be able to produce that huge amount of goods in a fair way??

that is the main issue that i still cannot solve myself nor speak about with any of my german mates from the fair trade shop. but still is something having written it here...