posted by devonwhittle on Nov 24, 2007
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This wikipedia entry on Hawala is fascinating. Hawala is an “informal value transfer system” located in the Middle East, Africa and Asia that relies on the honours system to ensure money gets through and has no form of legal support in terms of contracts or promissory notes. It started around the 8th century and is still used today.
Popularity: 4% [?]
posted by devonwhittle on Nov 18, 2007
Those cheap shirts from Dimmey’s aren’t reflecting the
human cost of manufacturing. Linda Sones takes a look at what goes into that shirt, everything from children working pesticides on Indian cotton farms to garment workers in appalling conditions for little pay. It makes you realise why the extra dollars are worth it for
no sweat stuff.
Popularity: 8% [?]
posted by devonwhittle on Nov 18, 2007
This documentary, coming out in
2008, looks quite good. Tony found out about the the slave labour implicated in a lot of cocoa production and decided to hand himself to the state prosecutor for buying chocolate that he knew was involved in criminal activities. He then travelled to Africa to get testimony from former slaves and started his own “slave free” chocolate line.
Popularity: 6% [?]
posted by devonwhittle on Nov 13, 2007
The world now spends over
$1 trillion on military expenditure. A great overview from Global Issues is at the above link, it also has some good graphs too to analyse where the money/guns flow (no surprise, rich nations to poorer nations in general).
Popularity: 3% [?]
posted by devonwhittle on Nov 5, 2007
Evan emailed me
this article in The Age covering the use of child slavery in chocolate. A good reminder of the importance of fair trade chocolate and making sure what we eat is ethical.
Popularity: 4% [?]
