Fair trade coffee: Case study in social change
Written By: Miguel A. Antunes, Emilio M. Recio.
The problems facing today's citizens of the so-called third world include
poverty, malnutrition, backbreaking sweatshop labor, child labor, and land
theft (`repossession' of land by banks on behalf of agribusiness monopolies).
As the corporate juggernauts spread throughout the world, pushing forward
``free-trade'' and ``democracy'' through globalization, the developing
nations whom have adopted capitalism is the exploitation of the country's
environment and its people. The corporations change the balance of power such
that its citizens become dependent; when they can no longer support
themselves by their traditional methods, the people have no choice but to
move to the cities.
There is, then, no doubt that there is a growing gap between the rich
and poor throughout the world. In most post-colonial countries, the
poverty is so high, that their governments have had to take out loans from
the World Bank to alleviate its economic status. Unfortunately, all
countries, after having taken out a loan from the World Bank, find themselves
in a vicious cycle of poverty and debt. They have had to cut back on social
programs, which the capitalist class sees as frivolous spending, and allow
themselves to be invaded by multi-national corporations so that they might
`rebuild' their economies. What has emerged, since the non-governmental
organizations have pushed their trans-national economic agendas, is a new form
of colonialism: economic dependency. By breaking the tide of economic
dependency, we prevent, on a large scale, the monopolization of agriculture
by corporations; in turn this prevents the poverty stricken shanty towns on
the outskirts of major cities, because it prevents rural to urban migration by
making it economically feasible for farmers to keep their small farms. This paper
is an outline on how every one of us can help the citizens within these
developing nations maintain their culture, tradition, livelihood, and health
of current and future generations through financial stability, by simply buying
a particular cup of coffee.
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