Live 8

[DavyR]

I meant Fair Trade (tea, coffee, chocolate, etc). But free trade would obviously be hugely beneficial (if not as tasty).

[Alan Stubbs]

Fair trade means paying the world market price for commodities. However, in Africa, for example, they have far higher haulage costs to be absorbed which drives up their costs, but labour costs are cheaper. If they want to produce commodities they have to offer something in excess to justify higher prices. African sugar costs more to produce because of distribution costs in its hinterland, and it is cheaper for them to import British and European sugar - so why do they persist in growing it?

 

Free trade means opening up all markets without tarriffs and barriers. Very laudable - but unfortuantely, every country tries to protect it's own interests, and African nations with their inherent corruption will be worse than most. Look at Mugabe's Zimbabwe as a prime example.

[chesters1]

trouble is the farms belonging to the poorer and more needy are small ,this means they have no clout and depend on many levels of "middle" men ,if they stopped hacking each other to death for a minute they could form farmers unions and deal direct with the importers cutting out the hoodlems that pay them peanuts.

we look at the leaders of the country as money grabbing loonies but it extends all the way down to the bottom.

its no good us moaning about the leaders or even threatining them ,change only comes once the "people" rise up and sort it out themselves .

its strange its gone very quiet about the program on tv proving that a (and probably all) british oil? or mining? company actually employed rebels to murder and burn farmers and villagers in order to clear land needed for their "enterprises" :confused:

 

annoyed me a copper said its no good turning up without a ticket as you wont get in :mad: its a park for christs sake and open to all not just millionaires or lucky mobile phone users :mad:

even if the parks closed there must be public footpaths crossing it have they been closed using the defined legal actions :confused:

 

i see our big brother government is bringing out laws to stop any one protesting within a kilometre of parliament ,nice to see democracy in action

 

[ 01. July 2005, 07:57 PM: Message edited by: chesters1 ]

[Peter Sharpe]

I was looking forward to seeing what The Cure look like these days - then I found out that they aren't playing.

[jeepster]

i read the first part of your post and thought 'i didn't know they were playing'...........

[chesters1]

still stuck in that damn wardrobe i heard

[chris parker]

I may have a selfish atitude and I apologise in advance. I do not care about Africa or any other country as long as our own is in such a state.

 

If we have so big a pot of money to go cancelling debts why don't we use it for the benefit of the UK.

 

Why not cancel out the student debt that every student not born with a silver spoon will leave university with. Why not increase pensions if we are so flush with money so that our elderly can afford to eat and heat their homes without having to dip into their savings just to exist. Increase the budget of the NHS so that people are seen and treated on demand, think of the pain and loss in peoples quality of life that waiting lists cause.

 

I could go on but won't. We need to look after our own before we throw away the taxes paid by them. Once that is accomplished and not before can we look at helping other countries.

[Ken L]

Alan

The global market price for sugar is depressed because countries like the US insist on subsidisinf their own farmers to grow it in a climate that is far from ideal because they absolutely will not allow themselves to be held to ransom by a forign producer of sugar in the same way that OPEC held them to ransom over oil.

We were doing much the same thing for the same reason until very recently by paying our farmers to grow sugarbeet - one of the most inefficient and costly ways to produve sugar that there is.

The result of these subsidies is to lower the global market price for sugar and make it impossible for small farmers in the third world to make a profit once they have covered their labour and fertilizer costs.

Exactly the same is true for cotton.

 

Interestingly, it's not just the third world countries that are impacted by American farm subsidies and protectionism. Ihe Aussies were doing their nuts over American subsidies for their beef and sugar farmers a couple of years ago.

Odd that John Howard is now George W's bestest buddy, I wonder if a quiet deal got done ?

[Alan Stubbs]

Ken L:

Alan

The global market price for sugar is depressed because countries like the US insist on subsidisinf their own farmers to grow it in a climate that is far from ideal because they absolutely will not allow themselves to be held to ransom by a forign producer of sugar in the same way that OPEC held them to ransom over oil.

We were doing much the same thing for the same reason until very recently by paying our farmers to grow sugarbeet - one of the most inefficient and costly ways to produve sugar that there is.

The result of these subsidies is to lower the global market price for sugar and make it impossible for small farmers in the third world to make a profit once they have covered their labour and fertilizer costs.

Exactly the same is true for cotton.

 

Interestingly, it's not just the third world countries that are impacted by American farm subsidies and protectionism. Ihe Aussies were doing their nuts over American subsidies for their beef and sugar farmers a couple of years ago.

Odd that John Howard is now George W's bestest buddy, I wonder if a quiet deal got done ?

I agree totally, Ken, but I did make the point that every country protects its own interests.

 

What I was trying to get across is that countries that can't afford to compete in global commodities markets persist in trying to produce for them, and in order to survive in them, they need to offer a 'value added element' to their product. If a desire is created, a market for the product develops and if the Africans are able to produce something with that added value, they then have the means to justify their true production costs.

[chesters1]

have you noticed how veg is shrinking ,mini corn cobs ,marble sized turnips etc etc ,hopefully the farmer isnt selling it by the weight :confused:

on the other hand theres a premium on giant spring onions ,once they were spring onions too big to be sold :confused: tiny pears and apples sold as "fun" sized and contradicting every size law brought out,i have NEVER seen "class" 2 veg or fruit despite seeing different sized and ripeness stuff in the same box (all of them cant be class 1) :confused:

 

[ 01. July 2005, 09:03 PM: Message edited by: chesters1 ]