I cried today...

[Narz]

Of course, I never said anyone was owed a job.

Farmers in Africa and elsewhere arent our slaves. You shouldnt belittle the plight of real slaves, by calling free men who farm their land in their own countries 'slaves'.

If someone can't quit their job and get another job than they're as good as a slave. Also, underage factory workers could be considered slaves.

Its idiotic to be more concerned about the well being of your family, your friends, and your neighbors, than you are about the wellbeing of nameless faceless strangers in another country? Maybe in a book it seems idiotic, but out in the real world, its the most natural thing in the world

No, worrying about JOBS is stupid. Let's bulldoze a forest and build a mini-mall to provide jobs. It's short-sighted thinking that's all. Kind of like fabricating a crime wave to create more jobs for police or cutting down the rainforest to make more jobs for lumberjacks. If people were a little more self-sufficent maybe they wouldn't be so damn fearful of losing their jobs.

He's got a fragment of a point. Bringing higher profits to small farmers in the developing world isnt about trashtalking the American people. Thats not serious, it doesnt help the cause of the farmers, its just kid stuff. In some circles, it makes the person spreading hate speech against Americans popular, but it does absolutely nothing to help the farmers who we supposedly are so concerned about here. Thats because America is a very important country to win over to Fair Trade, if the goal is to have a real impact on the lives of farmers in the developing world. Anti-American hate speech isnt going to accomplish that.

He just said he was ashamed of some of what his country has done. How is it any different from you expressing regret and distain over the fact that your country blew up two Japanese cities killing hundreds of thousands of civilian men, women and kids?

Narz, come on man. How can you possibly read the OP, and then call ME a reactionary? Do you realize that youre only arguing with me about his anti Americanism, and not about Fair Trade? So then whats the issue here, how evil America is, or how cool it would be to help out poor farmers in the developing world?

I agree he could have done the second bit without condemning America but personally I think the American people do deserve a bit of critisizm. We can't blame everything on the government. It is up to us to research it's claims and policies and make informed consumer decisions for ourselves.

 

[Sidhe]

Bozo, you know White Elk's got a point. You do to - name calling ususally doesn't work and pushes people away (as PETA should also learn). However, that doesn't discount his point and you know it. You're being needlessly reactionary.

Bozo's points are the only thing keeping this thread alive, we as devoloped countries should all be ashamed of our actions across the board, that it takes as I understand it, a patently biased film to make people decry the US is terrible,there are so many real and genuinely unbiased reasons to decry the US and everyone else for that matter and you just noticed now that global capitalism is sucking the humanity out of the planet and reversing the efforts to level the playing field, you been on Mars or something? I'm not against capatilism but I am very much in favour of responsible trade and pointing the finger is not helping, unless it's used to draw a rather large circle around most of the globe and then shake it. We all suck: get used to it, or do something about it I say.