Kony 2012

It's been way too long since I've posted, but I haven't been truly inspired with something to write about. Maybe it's because I had to give up my weekly shift. I miss volunteering. I don't know who makes these decisions but whoever you are, let me know when One Fair World starts opening on Sundays again :)

Now, to the focus of this post. Most of you have probably heard about the "Kony 2012" campaign to make Joseph Kony, a wanted Ugandan war criminal, famous (or infamous). If not, you can find the video created by Invisible Children here. If you've been following the story, you've heard the controversy over Invisible Children's tactics, United States military involvement, and the recent mental breakdown of Jason Russel, the head of the Kony 2012 campaign.

Let me start off by saying that I'm not taking a side on any of the aforementioned issues. The point of this article isn't to preach my opinion on whether Invisible Children is corrupt, or whether the United States government should get involved in Uganda's affairs, or anything like that.

What's my point then? It's that people are so focused on the wrong parts of the issue that they completely forget what the issue is even about in the first place. It can generally be agreed upon that killing thousands of people and forcing children into the military is morally wrong, right? But instead of a unanimous voice against these crimes, there are people arguing over the legitimacy of the organization trying to bring attention to the issue and even whether or not these crimes were "misrepresented."

I realize the situation is way more complicated than "let's just send some troops into Uganda, capture Kony and then everything will be good again," but let's not get our differences in opinions distract us from what's really important - keeping Joesph Kony and others like him from exploiting and murdering innocent people.

Fair trade is all about preventing these same people from from being taken advantage of in the workplace and providing a way from them to live a good life - let's support these same ideals regardless of the controversy surrounding the method of achieving them.

Fair Trade IT in the future?

I stumbled across this article about incorporating the fair trade model into the production of IT (or information technology) such as computer hardware and software. The difference between this industry and other industries where fair trade has had successes is the scale of the operation; with IT production, the goods are being manufactured in a factory where there are thousands of workers as opposed to a small farming community.

Another obstacle for fair trade is economics. Implementing fair trade policies increases the cost of production (an increase many companies are unwilling to take) and ultamitely raises the price of goods. As Ang Kai Hsiang, an associate with Baker & McKenzie.Wong & Leow, noted, "It appears that consumer purchasing habits, especially in relation to IT products, are largely price-driven." Unlike other fair trades goods like coffee and apparel, the market of people willing to pay more for fair trade IT products is too small for a company to exist in such a competitive industry. "It is good to have models of responsible production, but unless there is a plan to turn those models into the norm, then you hit a dead end," as the executive director of the Worker Rights Consortium (WRC), Scott Nova, put it.

For the full article, click here.

What are your thoughts on this? Leave a comment below if you've got something to say :)