What I like about this video is that it connects our own poverty (relational, spiritual poverty) with the physical poverty that millions of people around the world face. I like the idea that a Fair Trade transaction doesn’t just ‘save the poor person’, but helps us to think about the meaninglessness of consumer culture, and helps us to think about someone besides ourselves. There is a part of me that thinks the message of Fair Trade is more important for us (the self-absorbed rich Americans) than it is for the poor who benefit from jobs and additional income.

I’d love to hear what other people think…

A friend also posted this video on facebook, and I found myself unsettled by it. On one hand, I realize that it can be a mistake to make the perfect the enemy of the good… but on the other hand, I find that the video presents the West as the saviours who will swoop in and make everything better, because the rest of the world is so desperate and unable to find a way out. There seems to be very little mutuality or even, perhaps, respect in this orientation.

I might be overly picky, too. I’m interested to hear what you and other readers/watchers think.