Issue 15 | July 09, 2012 | critic.co.nz

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FAIRTRADE 20 | fb.com/critictearohi
FAIRTRADE Fairtrade Fortnight: Food for Thought by Baz MacDonald It seems clichéd, but university is a good place to question things. I’m sure that for most of you, this very notion has conjured the image of wankers in berets writing in coffee shops, but this isn’t necessarily so. Many of the people we see trashed on Thursday and Saturday nights (this may be you) are our country’s future decision-makers. So, in between studying your arse off and getting your rocks off, it can’t hurt to take a moment to think about the world in which we live and how we can make it better. It seems amazing to our generation that there was a time when women couldn’t vote. No doubt our children will also be astonished that there was ever a time when gay people couldn’t marry. It makes me wonder what their children will be astounded by. Maybe future generations will be floored by the fact that there was ever a global imbalance in standards of living. It seems a hefty challenge to address, but we live in a time of exponential change, and organisations are already working on making these wishes a reality. “There is no denying that there is an imbalance of wealth in our world; developed countries hoard their acorns while developing countries starve in the winter.” Fairtrade is a social movement that seeks to promote producers in the developing world by creating solid trading conditions between them and Western distributors. What does this mean? It means that a group of people decided that it was stupid to buy products from some corporate giant who buys up half of Asia and turns it into a banana-making factory in which workers are cogs in their machine, but instead buy products from some farmer who owns and works his own crops and sells them at a local market. In more local terms, it is the difference between buying a piece of steak from your local butcher instead of the supermarket. There is no denying that there is an imbalance of wealth in our world; developed countries hoard their acorns while developing countries starve in the winter. The most obvious benefit of the Fairtrade movement is that we are moving some of these acorns to where they are needed. The Fairtrade movement is a practical and logical way to spread the wealth of the western world to developing countries instead of recycling it through developed corporations. Walking through campus over the last fortnight, a few people may have noticed the bollards were plastered with A4 sheets advertising “Fairtrade fortnight.” OUSA and the University of Otago have been involved with Fairtrade since 2007, so although it may be six years late, it’s time we had a look at what all this Fairtrade stuff is about. There are many charitable organisations that are seeking to remedy this imbalance; however, Fairtrade has got a good formula that not only provides opportunities to developing countries but does so in the least patronising way. The phrase “Give a man a fish and you’ll feed him for a day, teaches a man to fish and you’ll feed him for a lifetime” is a cheesy critic.co.nz | 21
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Page 6 and 7: NEWS Recreation Centre facelift lac
Page 8 and 9: NEWS Debating Society refrain from
Page 10 and 11: NEWS Radio 45,000 By Zane Pocock OU
Page 12 and 13: BEST OF THE WEB theworstroom.tumblr
Page 14 and 15: BALLS DEEP 14 | fb.com/critictearoh
Page 16 and 17: BALLS DEEP unconvincingly attempted
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Page 24 and 25: may the SPor be with you FOOTBALL t
Page 26 and 27: EGG DONATION 21st Century Fertility
Page 28 and 29: EGG DONATION I ruled out any profil
Page 30 and 31: COLUMNS Kiki Beware ALL The Flags B
Page 32 and 33: COLUMNS 20 May - 26 May Tonguing Pr
Page 34 and 35: MUSIC Nadia Reid and Ivy Rossiter (
Page 36 and 37: MUSIC BASTI MENKES | music@critic.c
Page 38 and 39: ART Charlotte doyle | art@critic.co
Page 40 and 41: GAMING BAZ MACDONALD | gaming@criti
Page 42 and 43: FILM sam Mcchesney | film@critic.co
Page 44 and 45: LETTERS Letter of the week The lett
Page 46 and 47: COMIX Tristan KeilLor | comics@crit
Page 48: Grade: A Gourmet Pizzas and Kebabs

Issue 15 | July 09, 2012 | critic.co.nz

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