amandacembal's Friends

Over the past 50 days, the Eco Warriors associated with the DeforestACTION project have been hard at work supporting projects in Borneo, Indonesia that empower local communities to take action against deforestation and support orangutans who depend on rainforest ecosystems. I had the honor of visiting the Eco Warriors to see first-hand to how the online learning and fundraising support of youth and schools around the world has translated into real-life impact for communities in this region.

The Eco Warriors are working in four teams to raise awareness of the impacts of deforestation, and to take tangible steps to help them. The Education Team put together an educational theatre program that culminated in a series of presentations to schools in the West Borneo region. They have been promoting dialogue between students, teachers, and the Eco-Warriors about the important topics of deforestation, palm oil, and protecting wildlife such as the orangutan. So far they've presented to over 600 students, including  attendees at a conference for educators and government leaders in the region.

The Reforestation Team has developed a nursery in the community of Tembak, taking factors into account, such as flood levels, shade versus sunlight, and accessibility. During my visit, they were preparing seedlings for planting. Additionally, the team intends to hold a workshop with the local kids about proper reforesting techniques, developing a sense of community, accomplishment, and ownership for the forests among the children of Tembak.

The Mapping Team has been flying to great heights! Their team flew an unmanned drone airplane over the village of Tembak, taking aerial video and still images of the community and surrounding areas. The data will help protect communities from encroaching palm oil plantations by viewing the area from a whole new angle. The team also intends on mapping other communities during their stay in Borneo, with the goal of empowering local people by providing them with accurate records of their land.

The Animal Rescue team has been working hard with the people of Tembak to create a release site for orangutans of the region. The community of Tembak has donated 63 hectares of land to act as a forest school where orangutans can be introduced to forest life. Tembak also has 20,000 hectares of protected forest where the orangutans can be released after graduating from forest school.  The team has successfully built the observation hut for veterinarians and carers of newly released orangutans, as well as set up the cage and water tank.

For more information on how you and your students can get involved, visit www.deforestaction.org.

*Special thanks goes to co-author of this post, Eco-Warrior Mark Kuroski 

               Given the increasingly interconnected global community that we live in, the chances are quite high that you know and interact with migrants on a daily basis. Perhaps you or your family has migrated from another country. A migrant is essentially anyone who is working outside of their home country. In 2000, The United Nations declared December 18^th as International Migrants Day. Observing this day brings to light many issues surrounding migration - including securing formal and substantive fundamental rights for migrant workers and their families. Debates regarding immigrant policy, and combating racism are also prevalent themes.

                While these issues are important, the circumstances that led to migration in various countries are often left unaddressed. Often underlying the reality of a mass movement of migrant workers is a lack of opportunity in underdeveloped nations or countries faced with crisis. Even more ignored are questions of power and privilege implicit within migration. Who gets to decide the value of contributions made by migrants and how they are compensated? What are the social implications of families broken apart by migration in labor-exporting countries? These are questions that never crossed my mind until pursuing higher education, but I strongly believe that they should be addressed when studying migration in the classroom at the secondary level.

                Despite these issues, migration in countries rich with multicultural identities, presents people with a rare opportunity to interact with various cultures, world views and experiences first hand. This is no doubt one of the benefits of migration – it is a valuable contribution to the multicultural identity of a nation by helping to create a more informed and inclusive society. Growing up in Canada, I’ve always tried to develop a more adequate understanding of the world through connecting with a diverse group of people. However in my experience, the lessons that I’ve learned have often been taught outside of the classroom, rather than being included in school curricula. For example, it was in my afterschool multicultural club, that I first started to question why history is dominantly taught from the perspective of Anglo Saxons. It seems more appropriate for the multinational Canadian identity to be adequately reflected in the nation’s history.

                So what does International Migrate Day mean for education? It should cause us to reflect on the changing nature of our society, and how we should incorporate new perspectives, debates, voices and information into the classroom. I would encourage all educators and students to reflect on these themes, not just on International migration day, but whenever possible.

TakingITGlobal and the Centre for Global Education are proud sponsors of the MindShare Learning 21st Century Classroom Video Challenge, which celebrates new thinking and new possibilities through the power of education technology. 

Every month, the Multilingual Community names its most outstanding volunteers as Multilingual TIG Stars!  This month we want to recognize an awesome volunteer who is working very hard towards the goal of  launching their team Language:  Doreen Reinhold from the German Team! Congratulations Doreen- your hard work and dedication is really appreciated!

1. When did you become involved with TakingITGlobal’s online volunteer team? What motivated you to become an online volunteer?

 I started volunteering a bit more than a year ago. When I first learned about TIG I was amazed about the various opportunities for youth movements and young volunteers from different regions of the world to connect and work together. 

2. What attracts you to your role as a volunteer? 

The opportunity of being a part of the TIG community and helping to make TIG more accessible for the German-speaking youth attracted me a lot.

1+2) Ich habe vor etwas mehr als einem Jahr angefangen, mich als TIG-Volunteer zu engagieren. Als ich zum ersten Mal von TIG gehört habe, war ich sehr fasziniert von den vielen Möglichkeiten, die die Seite Jugendbewegungen und jungen Ehrenamtlichen aus den verschiedensten Regionen der Erde bietet, sich zu vernetzen und zusammen zu arbeiten. Von der Möglichkeit, Teil der TIG-Community zu werden und dabei zu helfen, TIG auch deutschsprachigen Jugendlichen zugänglich zu machen, war ich daher sofort begeistert.

 3. What have you learned from the experience so far? 

3) From a more technical side I learned lots of new English words and a bit about the CMS TIG uses J.  Through translating, I became aware of a number of TIG-initiatives and functions on the website I hadn’t recognized before.  But, most importantly, I met lots of other volunteers and made a new friends!

3) Mehr von der technischen Seite habe ich natürlich viele neue Englische Wörter gelernt und ein bisschen was über das CMS, das TIG benutzt J. Außerdem habe ich durch das Übersetzen eine Menge TIG-Initiativen und Funktionen der Webseite kennen gelernt, die ich vorher noch nicht bemerkt hatte. Für mich das Wichtigste war jedoch, dass ich viele andere Volunteers kennen gelernt  und neue Freunde gefunden habe! 

 4. What advice would you give other young people out there interested in becoming online volunteers?

4) Being an online volunteer is great fun- but it can be a little lonesome sometimes. Before you choose to volunteer you should know exactly what you want to do! Be an online volunteer or do something that involves a little bit more ‘action’, work on the administrative side of a project or ‘in the field’, support a large human rights initiative or a grass-roots project with disabled children - opportunities are plenty, but at the end of the day, volunteering is work, too. Choose something you feel passionate about and that fits your lifestyle. That makes it easier to keep up you motivation. Volunteering should be fun, not another item on your to-do list !

4) Online-Volunteer sein macht sehr viel Spaß – ist aber auch manchmal ein bisschen einsam. Bevor du ein Ehrenamt beginnst, solltest du genau wissen, was du machen möchtest! Ein Online-Volunteer sein oder etwas mit mehr „Action“, bei der Organisation von Projekten helfen oder direkt „im Feld“ arbeiten, eine große Menschenrechtinitiative unterstützen oder ein kleines Grassroots-Projekt mit behinderten Kindern – es gibt unzählige Möglichkeiten, aber ein Ehrenamt macht eben auch viel Arbeit. Wähle etwas aus, das du leidenschaftlich unterstützt und das zu deinem Lebensstil passt, dann fällt es dir leichter, deine Motivation aufrecht zu erhalten. Ein Ehrenamt sollte Spaß machen und kein weiterer Punkt auf deiner To-do-Liste sein !

 5. What are your overall thoughts on the experience?

5) It’s been exciting to see the German TIG-site coming into being – and I can’t wait to finally seeing it being launched! 

5) Es war aufregend, die Entstehung der deutschen TIG-Seite mit zu verfolgen. Ich kann es kaum erwarten, dass die Seite online geht! 

This blog is about my Global Dignity Day experience at my old high school, R. H. King Academy, on October 20^th, 2011.

My 40-minute Global Dignity presentation was scheduled to be in the library with two classes of grade nine students.  Before jumping into anything, I took the advice of Mike Layton (whom I met just a few days earlier at a Civic Engagement Network conference) and tried to build a connection with the students first by telling them my life story; milestones that shaped who I am today.  I mentioned my grade six teacher who changed me for the better by showing me compassion instead of frustration (I was quite the trouble maker in elementary school!).  I also told them about my experience as a grade nine student; how I hated it because I was shy, had very few friends and was too nervous to talk to girls.  But then high school got better as I got more involved with clubs and student council.  It wasn’t because I had more friends but because I felt like I had a purpose at the school.  Then I told them about university at McMaster and how, if it wasn’t for peer support and group work, I might not have made it past 2^nd year in the Physics and Astronomy program.  I finished off my story with my experience at OISE and how it led me to TakingITGlobal.  Mike Layton was right!  By opening up and showing them that I was nothing special, just a regular person like them with passions and limitations, they felt comfortable doing the same and sharing their thoughts with me.

After this initial icebreaker, I jumped into a group activity.  The students were already seated in groups of 4-6 people so I handed out a piece of flip chart paper and markers for each group and asked them to work together and come up with two things:

1. What does dignity mean to your group?
2. Write down a story that you know of where a person did something to make someone else’s life better

I then had one person from each group (there were 11 groups in total) come up to the front to present their group’s work.  In the days leading up to Global Dignity Day, I was told by a couple of people that starting with this activity might be tough because, since dignity is a difficult word to define, the grade nine students might not be able to come up with much.  I decided to start with it anyways because I didn’t want to influence them by telling them my version of what dignity is first; I wanted to hear their fresh and objective thoughts and it turned out great!  The presentations were amazing!  A quote from Shunryu Suzuki’s book “Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind” effectively captures the lesson I learned from this activity:

“In the beginner’s mind there are many possibilities, but in the expert’s there are few”

Had I discussed the concept of dignity and shown them the Global Dignity Day video before asking them to participate in this activity, I might have ended up with 11 similar responses.  Instead, allowing them to think for themselves and work together resulted in 11 significantly different definitions and stories.  This is an example of why I think it’s important to have faith in the potential of young minds (especially when they’re in groups); I ended up learned a lot today because I gave them the chance to speak their minds, rather than trying to get them to regurgitate something.

So I came to the school expecting to teach the students something but they ended up teaching me a lot too.  Here’s another example.  At some point in my talk I told them about how I feel sad and a bit hopeless sometimes because there are so many world issues that I care about that it makes the problems seem so large.  Sometimes I secretly question how much one person can do; it’s something I struggle with on and off.  After my presentation, a girl came up to me and told me “I totally know what you mean but you shouldn’t look at it that way.  Sure there are a lot of problems in the world but there are also a lot of good people who do good things too, you should focus on that.”  Her words had such a big impact on me.  It’s one of those things that you think you know but you never fully process; obviously I know that there are good people in the world and that it’s more productive to focus on them, but it just didn’t click until she pointed it out.

I also learned an important lesson about the process of teaching and learning.  Up until now, I had prepared for lessons by carefully creating lesson plans and practicing them at home so that I always knew what came next.  I tried a different approach on Global Dignity Day though.  During the student presentations, I glanced at my watch and noticed that they were taking up quite a bit of time and that I wouldn’t be able to show them the rest of the presentation that I prepared.  They were so engaged though!  So instead of rushing them for the sake of having the talk go the way I expected, I embraced what was happening and just had fun with them.  At the end I had students who shook my hand, asked the librarian to take a picture with me and stayed afterwards to talk to me (I was probably at the library for another 30 minutes!).  So, the other thing I realized today was that learning can never be fully planned for because it doesn’t always follow some predictable structure; learning unfolds in its own way.  This doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t have a plan, but just that we should be prepared to throw it out the window once we step into the classroom. 

Since R. H. King was not able to organize an assembly for Global Dignity Day due to conflicting school events, the wonderful school librarian organized a poetry cafe after school that I wanted to stay for.  About 10 poems on the topic of dignity were read by students and once they were finished, something really interesting happened.  One of the students asked the group if they wanted to tell more dignity stories!  So, just as it happened in the morning, students were once again sharing stories of how people were making other people’s lives better.

I think that being present is such a simple yet important part of teaching.  Often times when we’re planning and thinking about our personal agendas, we miss out on the many opportunities and conversations that make life so rich.  Being present allows us to respond to the needs of the people we work with as well as truly hear what they have to say.  Although I only used about 60% of the presentation that I prepared, what resulted was 10 times more fun and inspirational than I had hoped.

Check out what Deanna has to say about her favourite teacher!

As school has already swung back into action, students have returned from their stress-free summer lives. Or so you might think. With the advent of technologies like Facebook and Twitter, students who experience troubles at school can no longer escape them in the summer months. As well-meaning students have found a way to enter the online world to express themselves, so too have those looking to bully and terrorize others. Bullying is just one of the many factors we can attribute to teen suicide and along with it can come the issue of mental health. 

As part of the TIGed resources, the Mental Health game "Brain Waves" is a fun and unique way to raise awareness about the ways in which we suffer quietly from mental illness. I have played through it and didn't do as well as I should have, but to me that's the point of the game. I didn't get all the answers correct, because like many of us, there is much about mental illness I don't know. 

The game was featured on CBC's The National on Sunday Oct. 2nd 2011. The story brought attention to the many youth who suffer in silence from mental illness. Often, those who are suffering the most may appear to be perfectly fine - until it's too late. 

The Mental Health game "Brain Waves" and other resources provided on the TIGed website are great tools to help youth develop their understanding of mental illness. It's also a great way to get the discussion going and allow youth to realize they are not alone. 

For those of you that are interested, here is the link to our segment...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tSB4MidvCoc

-Steve

The most common feedback we received from youth during the 2010 program cycle was a request for opportunities to interact with and learn about other youth artists around the world. In an effort to begin to address this, we launched an exciting video exchange project involving youth artists in Argentina and Canada.

We asked each group to create a video as a group to showcase their respective cultures and communities. Once the videos were made, each group sent their finished project to the other group.

Yesterday I had the great pleasure of visiting Río Tercero, Argentina where our local partner Fundación Tierra Vida has been working to deliver the Adobe Youth Voices program. at Colegio Superior de Comercio, a public school in Río Tercero.

Alongside our educators, we facilitated a media workshop with a group of 60 young artists. To start the workshop we screened the video that Toronto-based Friends in Trouble created through the Adobe Youth Voices program. Their video shares their vision, goals, and love for Toronto, and it poses questions to the youth in Argentina about what they community is like.

It was amazing to see the kids reactions after watching the video, I could see how happy they were, they couldn't believe that youth artists from Canada wanted to know more about them and their country. 

As part of the planning for the workshop we had asked every participant to bring an object that represents their culture or something that is important to them. We wanted to generate ideas around the the elements that are unique about their community and what it means to be a youth living in Argentina.  Based on that framework we split the artist into small groups where they could talk about their object and make quick videos snippets, that later would be use to edit a video to send back to the youth artists in Canada.

Bellow you view the videos that we produced as well as some photos from the visit to Argentina.

Friends in Trouble, Toronto:

Friends in Trouble ~ Adobe, Project You(th) from Friends inTrouble on Vimeo.

Kids and teens at 'Friends in Trouble', learning how to use Adobe Photoshop and Adobe Premiere to share their visions, goals and love for Toronto, Ontario. F.i.T. is a non-profit organization dedicated to support and empower youngsters living in the area of Jane & Finch. This clip was made to be shared with the Adobe Project youngsters in Argentina.

Fundacion TierraVida, Cordoba:

http://vimeo.com/32932235           

I really want to thank everyone that participated in the project, for all of us that were lucky enough to be a part of it this has been a really enriching experience and my hope is that in the future we will be able to to do more events that offer our program participants opportunities to learn, share and be part of our global network. 

Hello ! I've decided to take the plunge and start.. a ..Blog! A Blog? Whose a Blog? Am I going to be a Blog-er? Like a tweet-er, or a facebook-er? but wait a second.. WHAT is a blog?

According to (not so trusted OR credible OR reliable, yet the key to many questions floating in my head) Wikipedia..A blog is a website with regular entries of commentary, descriptions of events, or other materials graphics and videos. 

Regular entries of commentary? About what? All the things that interest me, or things I want to learn more about ..Current events, history, books, music, fitness and nutrition, food, science, movies, psychology, energy, environment, war, peace, people- dead or alive, famous and not so famous. 

Descriptions of events? Places I visited, places I have yet to visit, things I've seen, concerts, restaurants, festivals.

"Other" Materials graphics and videos? Paintings I love, youtube clips everyone should watch, music that I believe is candy for the soul. 

Welcome to the inner-workings and ramblings of my world (a.k.a my mind).

Fatima

Every month, the Multilingual Community names its most outstanding volunteer as a Multilingual TIG Star! This month we want to recognize Deniz Ovalıoğlu from the Turkish Team! Deniz is an awesome volunteer who is working very hard to launch Turkish! Congratulations Deniz- your hard work and dedication is really appreciated! We asked Deniz to answer a few questions about her volunteer experience with TIG. Read on to hear what she had to say!

1. When did you become involved with TakingITGlobal’s online volunteer team? What motivated you to become an online volunteer?

I have been a part of TIG Since August 16^th 1999.  My best friend Gulce is an online volunteer and she informed me of all the great work TIG is involved with. I truly believe that being informed about issues is important to live in our globalized world. I enjoy helping TIG spread knowledge about global issues on the Turkish platform. I am very happy to be a part of TIG.

TIG'de çalışmaya 16 Ağustosta başladım. "Küreselleştiğini" düşündüğümüz şu dünyada küresel meseleler çok önemli. En yakın arkadaşlarımdan biri olan Gülce, TIG gönüllüsüydü. Bana burayı o önerdi. Bir küresel meseleler platformu olan TIG'in Türkiye'de de yaygınlaşmasına yardım etmek, kolay ve zevkli bir fırsattı benim için. TIG'in bir parçası olmaktan mutluluk duyuyorum.

2. What attracts you to your role as a volunteer?

What attracts me to my role as a volunteer is gaining pleasure from doing something for the planet, and finding new people to cooperate with.  I am not concerned about money.

Para aslında hiçbir şey hayatımızda. Bu gezegen için bir şeyler yapıyor olmanın ve işbirliğimiz için yeni bireyler bulmanın verdiği haz paradan çok daha değerli.

3. What have you learned from the experience so far?

I believe that globalization is damaging the world. Through the TIG platform, we need to learn how to live in a globalized world without causing damage. 

Küreselleşmiş bu dünya için yanlış kelime çünkü biz küreselleştirerek dünyaya zarar veriyoruz. Zarar vermeden nasıl küreselleşebilineceği bu siteden öğrenilebilecek bir şey.

4. What advice would you give other young people out there interested in becoming online volunteers?

If you are interested In becoming an online volunteer, Do not wait ! You will be very happy to be a part of this platform.

Eğer ilginizi çekiyorsa sakın beklemeyin! Bu platformun bir parçası olmaktan mutluluk duyacaksınız.

5. What are your overall thoughts on the experience?

Being on a team such is really amazing. What you do and how you do your job is very important.

Takım olmak büyüleyici bir şey. Ne yaptığınız tabii ki önemli ama bunun nasıl yaptığınız işinizin değerini ortaya çıkartıyor.

All the Best

Deniz

Every month, the Multilingual Community names its most outstanding volunteer as a Multilingual TIG Star! This month we want to recognize Deniz Ovalıoğlu from the Turkish Team! Deniz is an awesome volunteer who is working very hard to launch Turkish! Congratulations Deniz- your hard work and dedication is really appreciated! We asked Deniz to answer a few questions about her volunteer experience with TIG. Read on to hear what she had to say!

1. When did you become involved with TakingITGlobal’s online volunteer team? What motivated you to become an online volunteer?

I have been a part of TIG Since August 16^th 1999.  My best friend Gulce is an online volunteer and she informed me of all the great work TIG is involved with. I truly believe that being informed about issues is important to live in our globalized world. I enjoy helping TIG spread knowledge about global issues on the Turkish platform. I am very happy to be a part of TIG.

TIG'de çalışmaya 16 Ağustosta başladım. "Küreselleştiğini" düşündüğümüz şu dünyada küresel meseleler çok önemli. En yakın arkadaşlarımdan biri olan Gülce, TIG gönüllüsüydü. Bana burayı o önerdi. Bir küresel meseleler platformu olan TIG'in Türkiye'de de yaygınlaşmasına yardım etmek, kolay ve zevkli bir fırsattı benim için. TIG'in bir parçası olmaktan mutluluk duyuyorum.

2. What attracts you to your role as a volunteer?

What attracts me to my role as a volunteer is gaining pleasure from doing something for the planet, and finding new people to cooperate with.  I am not concerned about money.

Para aslında hiçbir şey hayatımızda. Bu gezegen için bir şeyler yapıyor olmanın ve işbirliğimiz için yeni bireyler bulmanın verdiği haz paradan çok daha değerli.

3. What have you learned from the experience so far?

I believe that globalization is damaging the world. Through the TIG platform, we need to learn how to live in a globalized world without causing damage. 

Küreselleşmiş bu dünya için yanlış kelime çünkü biz küreselleştirerek dünyaya zarar veriyoruz. Zarar vermeden nasıl küreselleşebilineceği bu siteden öğrenilebilecek bir şey.

4. What advice would you give other young people out there interested in becoming online volunteers?

If you are interested In becoming an online volunteer, Do not wait ! You will be very happy to be a part of this platform.

Eğer ilginizi çekiyorsa sakın beklemeyin! Bu platformun bir parçası olmaktan mutluluk duyacaksınız.

5. What are your overall thoughts on the experience?

Being on a team such is really amazing. What you do and how you do your job is very important.

Takım olmak büyüleyici bir şey. Ne yaptığınız tabii ki önemli ama bunun nasıl yaptığınız işinizin değerini ortaya çıkartıyor.

All the Best

Deniz

Hi everyone,

My name is Steve Sears and I will be working as the Marketing and Promotions Assistant for the TIGed program at the Toronto office. 

As the Marketing and Promotions Assistant I will help develop promotional materials for the TIGed progam. I will work with team members to develop and design content for the online presence of the TIGed program. Additionally, I will help promote the brand on various social media platforms such as Twitter, Facebook and Delicious. I will continue to keep an eye on trends in the online education industry so our team can maintain an updated and informed understanding of our competitive environment. 

As a recent graduate from the Communications program at Brock University I have developed a passion for marketing and social media. I think TakingITGlobal is a great platform to foster awareness for the youth of today and I'm excited for the opportunity to promote it. I have a background in video production and I have worked in the television industry for 7 years. These opportunities have allowed me to become very familiar with the media industry and I hope to draw on that experience while I'm here. 

-Steve

Today was an exciting day!  Zenia, Christy and I were asked to work as a team and lead a TIG tour for a group of 5^th & 6^th grade tech students. 

As soon as they stepped into the office they were all so excited and curious (as children usually are); looking around the office at the colourful rooms and asking us if they could sit in the beanbag chair in the corner. 

After assuring them that we’d take them on a tour at the end they agreed to follow us into the meeting room where we had prepared a presentation for them.  We started off by asking them to make name tags, which they eagerly decorated.   After introducing ourselves we asked them to do the same and tell us how they use technology in their daily lives.  We were quite surprised to hear how adept they were with programs like Word, Powerpoint, Prezi and Bitstrips.  Many of them also used social media such as Facebook to keep in touch with friends.

To lead into our discussion of the pathway to action “Inspire.  Inform.  Involve.” we asked them the following question:  How can you move from individual change to global change?  One of the students answered “You tell your friends and then your friends tell their friends and it spreads” another student responded with “You have to change yourself first before you can change other people.”  This led beautifully into the idea that TIG doesn’t just inspire people (through features like Member Stories) without providing them with resources to learn more about the issues and spark change on an individual level.  To lead into our discussion of the last step “Involve” we asked them “So you get inspired and inform yourself about an issue, then what?”  to which a student answered “You need to do something about it.  You need to take little steps to move forward and every little step counts.” 

After going over the pathway to action, we wanted to introduce the different departments and programs at TIG.  While discussing “Defining Moments” and the idea behind Local Engagement a student raised their hand and asked “Is this kind of like how you need to understand yourself and your own culture before you can really understand others?”

When we first saw how little the students were, we were worried that our questions might be too complex for them and that we would receive very little involvement.  They definitely proved us wrong with their enthusiasm and incredible responses!

During the question and answer period they also asked us “How old do you have to be to make an account?” “What’s the difference between the green dots and the purple dots on the member map?” “How many members online have made a difference?” and “Can you have round tables instead next time so that it feels like a roundtable meeting?”

Since the students were part of a technology class, their enthusiasm increased ten-fold when we took them on a tour to meet the tech & operation teams.  It was super cute to see these little kids running around taking pictures and asking questions to any adult who would listen.  We then took some group photos and just like that, it was over.

It’s funny how when you set out to help someone else, you often end up learning a lot yourself as well.  As a soon-to-be teacher, this experience was a great reminder that although children might not be able to express themselves as eloquently as adults, they can often understand issues at a greater depth than we give them credit for.  If the teacher is careful in the language they use and the way they present the issues I believe that even very young children can use their incredible sense of what is unjust and unfair to ask questions and participate in a discussion.  As a Math & Physics major I am well aware of the idea that it’s useful to have multiple perspectives when solving any problem.  I therefore hope that over the years I won’t forget that teachers can learn a lot from their students and that often times, asking children for their input and truly listening to their responses can result in perspectives and ideas that we adults would have never imagined.

I've always been skeptical about the idea of “Fair Trade” coffee (or any goods for that matter).  Is it really helping farmers or is it just a clever marketing ploy used as an excuse to charge consumers more?  Some people say it benefits farmers, some say it doesn't.  What should a consumer believe?  I sincerely hope that my efforts to make responsible decisions, purchasing “Fair Trade” products for example, are not in actuality making matters worse.

I read some really interesting stuff from Bean North's blog

http://www.beannorth.com/newsblog#

But I still don’t have an answer to my question; the politics and issues seem complex.  It's a lengthy blog so I’m posting some select passages I found interesting in hopes that you can help provide me with some opinions to make this issue a bit more clear.  Thanks in advance!

...Counter intuitively, as prices were plunging for coffee farmers, middle-class Americans were learning to pay double or triple what they once had

...Farmers were being squeezed by middlemen, known as coyotes, so that even the dismal profits from cheap mass-produced coffee failed to reach them. Growers lacked basic information about what their crop was worth, how to maximize production, and how to market their beans, and it was to the coyotes’ advantage to keep it that way.

...The FLO defines a fair farm as a family farm that is a part of a large democratic cooperative.

...Martinez owns a small family farm and produces a high-quality coffee, but none of his beans carry the Fair Trade label. His farm isn’t part of a cooperative, a Fair Trade non-negotiable that disqualifies small, independent farmers

...Fair Trade spurs disempowered growers to form cooperatives, creating islands of democracy in often autocratic regimes.

...“Co-ops can be just as corrupt as any organization,” ... “It’s not the farmer who is getting that $1.26 per lb. The co-op decides what the farmer is going to get.” A corruptly managed co-op, like a coyote, can mask the real price of coffees from individual farmers.

...“Almost all coffee that isn’t Fair-Trade, shade-grown, or organic exploits workers and our environment.” That assumption, absorbed by at least some of the coffee-drinking public, drives roasters and retailers nuts. They say the idea that coffee without the Fair Trade label is based on coercion penalizes independent farmers who don’t conform to the Fair Trade vision. (They also say consumers who drink only Fair Trade coffee are missing out on some of the best roasts available.)

...In 2000, activist groups including Global Exchange launched an attack on Starbucks that has left the company stained with a reputation for mistreating farmers. Yet given its size, Starbucks likely has done far more than the Fair Trade movement to improve the lot of coffee growers.  In 2004 it bought that coffee at an average price of $1.20 a pound, slightly below the $1.26 Fair Trade pays but more than twice the average price for beans on the global commodity market.

...customer loyalty hinges on quality, not the perception of social justice

...The specialty revolution, with its $4 lattes and emphasis on growing methods, has probably jacked up prices for farmers far more than the Fair Trade movement has.  When consumers become coffee snobs, prices rise, and some of that increase makes it back to growers.  (My personal comment: Does it really?  Or do the companies like Starbucks just get more profit?)

...The best hope for farmers lies with consumers demanding better coffee, not just from Starbucks but from the supermarket shelf. This may be inevitable; a generation weaned on high-quality lattes is not going to turn to instant Nescafe as it grows more affluent. But there are signs that Fair Trade, with its predilection for uniformity, is retarding, not accelerating, that process.

...Fair Trade co-ops are composed of hundreds of farmers producing vastly different qualities of coffee. Often their output is blended together for sale to roasters, masking any quality improvements one farmer may have felt motivated to implement. Money then flows back to the co-op, not the individual farmer, and is distributed equally among the members. “There is no reward for the guy who works harder than his neighbour,” Nor is there much motivation for individual farmers to learn better farming techniques, experiment with new types of coffee, or seek new markets.  The system thus breeds anonymity and mediocrity in a business that desperately needs to focus on branding and identity. Ironically, this mimics the problems brought on by multinationals: Treating coffee as a single commodity, in large undifferentiated lots, prevents any single farmer from excelling and advancing.

...The redemptive story TransFair sells—its literature thick with the smiling faces of coffee farmers the world over—invites the consumer to act as protagonist.  “This is seen by many as a direct way by which they can influence the way the world is,”  Fair Trade consumers are buying a story of personal connection, a vision of transparency, and an impression of political influence—not a bad deal for a few extra cents. If the picture of Fair Trade as a poverty panacea is off base, so too is that of the duped, defenceless consumer.

...Yet what is revolutionary about Fair Trade is not the brand’s focus on poverty but the suggestion that consumption is a moral response to inequality. “Instead of boycotting the wrong kind of wine or the wrong kind of rice, we can now buy the right kind, the moral kind, and buy more.”

In Nelson Mandela's book 'Long Walk to Freedom' he said

"In African culture, the sons and daughters of one's aunts or uncles are considered brothers and sisters, not cousins.  We do not make the same distinctions among relations practiced by whites.  We have no half brothers or half sisters.  My mother's sister is my mother; my uncle's son is my brother; my brother's child is my son, my daughter."

It got me thinking about what it would be like to have such strong bonds.  In the society that I live in, I feel as though people are so disconnected.  When strangers are in an elevator together they act as if the other people don't exist.  When I give a friendly smile to a stranger they sometimes quickly avert their eyes.  Why is this?  What makes a stranger any different than a family member?  Aren't we all just searching for a sense of peace and happiness in our lives?  To love and be loved?  Why then aren't we all kinder to each other?  

As Chris McCandless said in 'Into the Wild' - "Money makes people cautious" and I totally agree with this.  In many ways, the society in which I was raised encourages a mentality that draws clear lines between what is "mine" and what is "yours."  Everything is categorized and therefore fragmented.  I have noticed that when I'm not careful (particularly when I'm stressed) this habit of categorizing sometimes makes it easy to not care about anything beyond the realm of "me."  Being truly selfless is not easy.  I don't expect to undo in a few years what culture and society have taught me in 23, but I definitely think that the world would be a much better place if everyone was a little less concerned about "I" and "mine."