Yummy Wakame

I can’t believe these are only $36.00! They look outrageously expensive.

For every cup of coffee sold by coffee chain stores, poor farmers in coffee-growing countries like Ethiopia only earn about 3 cents. Yet the coffee industry makes billions of dollars – Starbucks alone has already made more than $5.8 billion in net revenue this year.

To give its 15 million farmers a better cut of the profit, the Ethiopian government has asked Starbucks to sign a licensing agreement that recognises Ethiopia’s legal trademark ownership over its most famous coffee names - Sidamo, Harar and Yirgacheffe. Ethiopia wants to determine an export price on their coffees that makes sure farmers see a fairer share of the profits. Despite its much-publicised “commitments” to farming communities, Starbucks has not taken Ethiopia’s request seriously and has used the US legal system to block it.

ABC News article

Why is it important?

By owning the rights to its fine coffee names, Ethiopia can help its farmers negotiate a better price, potentially increasing income for the country’s coffee industry by an estimated $88 million a year. This would help lift millions of hard-working farmers and their families out of poverty, helping them to send their children to school and access healthcare.

Ask Starbucks to sign this agreement with Ethiopia by sending a message to CEO Jim Donald.

R Kelley’s ghetto soap opera.

Chapter 1

More chapters: 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12.
Thanks Pieter!

Control Arms has been campaigning for 3 years for tougher control over the arms trade with the help of ordinary people like you and me.

After three weeks of campaigning in New York and three years of campaigning around the world, the Control Arms campaign achieved a massive victory on Thursday when the UN General Assembly’s First Committee passed a resolution to finally start work on an Arms Trade Treaty (ATT).

Find out more about the resolution and Control Arms activities at the United Nations.

“In a highly significant display of support for establishing common standards on the international arms trade, 116 governments from around the world had officially endorsed the resolution entitled ‘Towards an Arms Trade Treaty’ before it was voted on. The resolution then received resounding support with 139 governments out of 164 voting in favour. Governments now have an opportunity to create a treaty that will help make a real difference to the hundreds of thousands of people whose lives are devastated by armed violence every year. more…

“Every choice you make defines you. Own your choice.”

The flash version is gorgeous too!

Despite worldwide outcry and a ban on whaling in place since 1986, Iceland, like Japan, continues to kill whales using cruel methods, saying it’s for “scientific” purposes. But now the government of Iceland has gone even further, launching a commercial whale hunt for the first time in more than two decades. Permits have been granted by Iceland’s Ministry of Fisheries for the hunting of 30 minke whales and nine endangered fin whales. In fact, whaling ships have already killed their first two endangered fin whales.

Yet few Icelanders eat whale meat regularly (only 1.1% of Icelanders say they eat whale meat once a week or more*); and there is limited, if any, world market for the meat. A growing number of jobs in Iceland also depend on the country’s thriving whale-watching industry.

Watch the latest video of Iceland’s cruel killing of endangered fin whales. Warning: Video contains graphic footage that may not be suitable for all viewers.

It’s quite rare for Iceland’s embassy to receive an outpouring of public comments on a political issue. That’s why it’s not too late to have an impact!
Please send a polite message today to protest Iceland’s terrible decision to resume commercial whale hunting.

*Gallup Poll, 2006

stylegala: “dobmobi has posted mobilized XHTML templates for download (free; see links at bottom). From what I see they’re mostly a cookie-cutter starter kit (of course), but perhaps a good place for mobile web dev newcomers to begin.”