Well, here we are in the grand ballroom of the Holiday Inn in downtown Chicago, which appropriately enough is right across the street from the monolith of consumerism, the Chicago Merchandise Mart. We're gathered with 715 fair trade advocates, consumers, store managers, students, etc. Today's schedule includes two keynote addresses and two workshop sessions, along with a gathering in the evening featuring the Chicago Afrobeat Project.
Last night's opening address was so...satisfying. It's amazing how much it resembled a worship service in an evangelical church, with songs, a "sermon", video clips, powerpoint and lots of clapping. It's interesting that the Church struggles with questions of how to get more young people involved and how to achieve a higher degree of diversity--a large portion of the people in attendance are under 30 and the attendees come from 17 different countries. I'll let you draw the conclusions.
The keynote address last night was given by Kwabena Ohemeng-Tinyase of Kuapa Kokoo, an organization of 47,000 cocoa farmers in Ghana who united to receive a fair price for their beans. The co-op is also part owner of Divine Chocolate company, which gives them a say in the processing and marketing decisions that directly affect them. The most important statment he made was that "for people in our part of the world, fair trade is the solution to poverty." This is coming from the son of a cocoa farmer who represents small-scale farmers in a developing country. We are--the Church is--obligated to listen.
Well, this morning's activities are about to start. More later...
