Sunday, October 2, 2011

COME SHOP WITH ME

Shops I have known


Firstly what used to be my Uncle Bill's chip shop in Barnsley, as it looks now.  Next a picture I took circa 1967 of a shop I used to pass every day on the way home from school.  Finally a shop in Kampala, snapped when I visited Uganda a couple of years back.



And this is my shop.  You may download the whole thing on condition that you donate 50 million zimdollars to your favourite charity.  Alternatively you can opt to smile at every one you meet for a whole day.  Click here to DOWNLOAD

Furniture 1a.zip

Next pic is Dubai Mall.  Sometimes drop by here on the way home.  Bit different from my walk home in Barnsley 44 years ago.  Now I drive down a six lane highway.  The mall has an ice rink and a 3 storey high aquarium with sharks, it's next to the tallest building in the world and has the biggest singing/dancing fountains on the planet too.  It's a fun place to chill out after a hard day at the office :)


But what is Fair Trade ?  How would you define it ?  Does it have anything to do with the vast disparities between Dubai Mall and the wooden shops of Kampala's informal suburbs.  What kind of world is it where I live in this space-station plonked down in the desert and go for a holiday in Africa's slums ? 


Received wisdom of the sustainability lobby in Europe and North America argues for buying locally grown food. Save the air miles ... hard to fault that logic.  But what about the women growing vegetables and cut flowers in Kenya just to keep their extended families alive.  Should we be sabotaging their market ?


No black and white answers to these questions, which is why my blog is "shades of grey".  So I'm sharing my families with you guys and I'm hoping we can all find ways of sharing with the wider world out there most of whom have no idea what Revit is and may be more concerned about access to a decent water supply.


My last pic is a bicycle which represents a young Ugandan's livelihood.  A constant stream of fit young fellows ride these bikes up a very steep hill to carry water from the river to a bustling little business centre.



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fair_trade

Fair trade is a trading partnership, based on dialogue, transparency and respect, that seeks greater equity in international trade.

3 comments:

  1. I can not download, please check/.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Sorry about that. Fixed now, please try again.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Downloading still not working...

    ReplyDelete

I've been getting a lot of spam so had to tighten up comments permissions. Sorry for any inconvenience. I do like to hear from real people