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Photo: http://www.flickr.com/photos/mwillms/
Ride my bike to work, have a shower and be at my desk before 9am.
Check SMH.com for 10 minutes. Read an article that says chubby children are less loved by their parents (link)
Power through some admin work for an hour while I am still fresh.
10am case share meeting at the local cafe with Fair Trade Coffee and a light breakfast (toast with tomato, avocado and ricotta with a boiled egg on the side).
I find it hard to believe that there is a better way to start the week than this.
My wonderful Fair Trade tea
I am out of tea!
I have a packet of fair trade English breakfast tea bags that helps me get through the day (peak periods are 8:30-9:45 and 3:15-4:30)
Anyway today I ran out! No more tea! That will teach me for only buying the 25 bags packet! Although I am tempted to make an investment and upgrade to the next level of tea! I am thinking that I should bring in a tea pot and brew loose leaf tea to drink. The tea is not only nicer but the process is more fun! Win win!
On a side note I have plenty of green and gold ‘citrus twist’ tic tacs. I can’t seem to get rid of them! I don’t really want to eat them and no one else seems to either, so they just sit neglected in my drawer.
That will teach me for being adventurous with tic tacs!
yuck. I literally can't give these away
Anyway starting tomorrow I will get back to a walk through Joshua! The reason there has been such a gap between posts is because I preached on Joshua at church over two weeks and my blogs and sermon would have been suspiciously similar. So I thought I would spare the two people who go to my church who read my blog (mum and Tim)* and do it after the sermon.
On a completely unrelated note did you know that you can get insurance for your pets? To cover all their vet bills and operations? Wow! I honestly did not know that!
*Note: no mention of my wife!!
I am currently sitting in front of the TV writing this, my choices are simple, The View, Oprah or Go go Stop… I’m watching Go go Stop. It is actually a pretty exciting episode, it is neck and neck between the freckly ranga kid and the skinny Indian kid. Liz thinks the Indian kid is going to win… I have learnt to never underestimate a ranga! Anyway, on to the new year resolutions!
There are two times in the year when you see stacks of bikes on the road, January and July. It is not hard to figure out why there is such an increase in July, cyclists get Tour fever! Also incidentally, the number of yellow jerseys increase in July! Well in January it is new year resolution season and people decide to commute on their bikes, it is good for you, it is free and it is good for the environment!
Thus I am going to jump on this bandwagon and commit to riding to work at least twice a week (unless it is raining)! I live in Meadowbank and work in the city, it is about a 18km ride, so twice a week will be more than enough. Again the benefits of cycling:
-good for your health
-good for the environment
-cheaper than the train (especially when I lose my beloved concession card)
Cycle route to work
Elevation Profile - Work cycle route
OK, time for a quick Go Go Stop information break:
What is Cathisophobia? Is it the fear of girls named cathy, or the fear of sitting?
It is the fear of Sitting!
P.s. Ranga just won Go Go Stop!
Back to the resolutions!
Fair Trade
As of today I will attempt to only drink fair trade coffee and only eat fair trade coffee! It shouldn’t be too hard, fair trade tea and coffee can be found almost anywhere if you are willing to look. Plus you can find it in most super markets! The tea will be easy enough, I love Scarborough Fair English Breakfast Tea and keep some in my drawer at work. Plus there is a Fair Trade coffee cafe near my work.
The hard part will be when we go over to peoples place for dinner and they offer non fair trade coffee. Or going out to a cafe with someone. I guess there are no hard and fast rules in this social situation, the aim is not to be legalistic about it, but rather when I have the choice to always chose fair trade. Thus I will have to take each situation as they come.
Anyway, these are my two resolutions, nothing drastic I know, but some good stuff none the less.
Ashfield Presbyterian Church
I am a Presbyterian.
If you didn’t know that then you should hang out with me more often.
Anyway this Sunday evening following the evening service at Ashfield Presbyterian Church we will be having a question time on ‘what is Presbyterianism?’. It’s a fair question, and it raises a whole bunch of other questions with it! Why do we even have denominations? Are denominations good, bad or neither? Does it really matter what denomination I go to anyway? I go to a Presbyterian church but that doesn’t necessarily make me a Presbyterian… does it?
Well if any of this interests you and you are free tomorrow night then you should definitely come along. Tim Smartt will be facilitating the question time and Dr Ian Smith from the Presbyterian Theological Centre will be answering the questions.
There will also be a delicious supper served with baked goods and far trade tea and coffee!
Hopefully I will see some of you there!
Cadbury has just announced a plan to become Fair Trade certified by Easter 2010! This is really excellent news and something that we should definitely celebrate. However having said this there is very little celebrating happening and I think that is because there is still a lot of ambivalence and ‘vagueness’ about Fair Trade and so I thought that I would write a brief post simply outlying what is Fair Trade and Why it is important to buy fair trade. Enjoy.
Martin Luther King once said:
“Before you’ve finished your breakfast this morning, you’ll have relied on half the world!”
King was right then and he is still right now. The world is more connected than we all realise; every cup of coffee, tea or hot chocolate connects you to a farmer overseas who produced the bean! You are connected through your reliance on them to produce the beans that is used in your beverage and the unfortunate reality is those that producers are often exploited and oppressed. The most common form of exploitation occurs when buyers intentionally wait to the very end of the season– when sellers have to sell their stock or receive no income from their harvest – to buy the stock. This desperation forces farmers to sell their stock at a cheaper price, an unfair price. The income from that harvest is regularly so low that they don’t do much better than simply cover the expenses of farming the beans in the first place (sometimes they can’t even do this). This of course has ongoing effects as people aren’t being paid a living income – it keeps people in poverty.
look for this Logo on products to be certain that it meets the Fair Trade criteria
Fair Trade is an international movement which ensures that producers in poor countries get a fair deal. This means a fair price for their goods (one that covers the cost of production and guarantees a living income), long-term contracts which provide real security; and for many, support to gain the knowledge and skills that they need to develop their businesses and increase sales.
Fair Trade is essentially an independent body that assesses whether organisations have earned the Fair Trade Certification. It is similar to the heart tick of approval. It is important to know that Fair Trade is not a brand. Many people say to me that they would like to support fair trade, but it just doesn’t taste as good! However Fair Trade is not the problem, that blend of coffee/tea/chocolate is the problem! When people say this I always tell them to try a different type of Fair Trade certified coffee/tea/chocolate.
Well that is what Fair Trade is… but why should every Christian buy Fair Trade?
1/ To receive the certification, organisations have to guarantee a fair wage for Third World Produces. By buying Fair Trade you know that you are not involved in exploitation.
2/ Fair Trade forms real partnership between organisations and farmers to secure long term security for the producer, allowing them to escape the cycle of poverty. Fair Trade also emphasises transferring knowledge and farming skills to help produces develop their businesses and increase sales.
3/ Fair Trade has ongoing effects to families and communities, allowing children to go to school (as they don’t have to work in the farms) and fair wages giving people the opportunity to access health care.
4/ As a consumer, buying Fair Trade shows organisations that you think it is an important issue. Organisations respond when people vote with their shopping trolley – this is one of the main reasons that Cadbury is going Fair Trade.
5/ It is not more expensive and it does not tastes worse than non fair trade coffee – both these things are simply untrue. You can access a fair trade products at major supermarkets and as more organisations see the importance of it (see the point above!) there will be an even wider distribution of Fair Trade products.
Christians like William Wilberforce were the leaders in the movement to abolish slavery. Christians like the Earl of Shaftesbury were the leaders in the movement to abolish unethical child labour. Christians like Martin Luther King were the leaders in the black civil rights movement in the United States. Christians should be the leaders in the movement to Make Trade Fair!
Do you use Fair Trade? Does your church? Your workplace? Your local cafe? Maybe you could be a leader in the movement to make Trade Fair!
If you would like some more information then you can check out these websites:
http://www.cadbury.com.au/About-Cadbury/News.aspx?newsID=45
http://www.tear.org.au/downloads/resources/resourceMagazineHarambee2009July.pdf
