Direct Action

Fair Trade Jewellery

- Adam Clare

Blood diamonds have been a part of the jewellery industry for too long, and now FTJCo in Toronto is “North America’s original certified fairtrade fine jeweller”.

It’s great to see a jeweller that understands that fair trade and social justice can be a key part of their business. If you need new jewellery you should always try to buy from sources that are people and earth friendly.

Certified participants in the Condoto Community Council’s Oro Verde initiative, the source for our metals, receive a guaranteed minimum price, a social premium, and the opportunity to empower themselves through a stronger base for bargaining, better knowledge of market values, and the possibility of sourcing pre-financing from prospective buyers.

Fairtrade Fairmined certification provides an incentive for sustainable mining, keeping communities together.

ENVIRONMENTAL GOOD
The Condoto miners use no toxic chemicals such as cyanide or mercury, key causes of many challenges associated with industrial mining and prospecting activities.

Oro Verde’s environmentally friendly approach and the Fairtrade Fairmined certification place the responsibility for land stewardship in the hands of these miners, balancing it with tangible incentives and rewards for minimum-impact practices.

Check out the fair trade jewellery here.

5 Easy Ways to Recycle Electronics

- Adam Clare 3 Comments

In the 21st century we tend to use a lot of electronics and to save the planet we should dispose of electronics properly. Lucky for us, LifeHacker has made a list of easy ways to recycle electronics.

Many towns, cities, counties, and states have their own e-cycling programs that offer convenient drop-off locations for old computers, big monitors, and other electronics. The EPA suggests a cluster of search sites for helping you find a local ecycling program, including EcoSquid and the Consumer Electronics Association’s MyGreenElectronics. And beyond the picks you see below, the EPA has a grid list of consumer-friendly e-cycling programs from stores and manufacturers.

Read more at LifeHacker.

Wikileaks Makes a Difference

- Adam Clare 1 Comment

Wikileaks is a site dedicated to getting information that is held behind closed doors into the open. The recent leak of a collection of American embassy cables has shone a lot of light on many diplomatic issues around the world.

The good news is that thanks to cables, people in oppressed regimes are seeing what the USA truly believes about their country. The most recent example is in Tunisia where an uprising as thrown out a bad dictator.

I asked our experts at Human Rights Watch to canvass their sources in the country, and the consensus was that while Tunisians didn’t need American diplomats to tell them how bad their government was, the cables did have an impact. The candid appraisal of Ben Ali by U.S. diplomats showed Tunisians that the rottenness of the regime was obvious not just to them but to the whole world — and that it was a source of shame for Tunisia on an international stage. The cables also contradicted the prevailing view among Tunisians that Washington would back Ben Ali to the bloody end, giving them added impetus to take to the streets. They further delegitimized the Tunisian leader and boosted the morale of his opponents at a pivotal moment in the drama that unfolded over the last few weeks.

This point might not be worth dwelling on, except that it suggests something interesting about how the United States, and the State Department in particular, approaches the challenge of promoting human rights and democracy in countries like Tunisia. Consider the following proposition: None of the decent, principled, conscientious, but behind the scenes efforts the State Department made in recent years to persuade the Tunisian government to relax its authoritarian grip — mostly through diplomatic démarches and meetings with top Tunisian officials — had any significant impact on the Ben Ali regime’s behavior or increased the likelihood of democratic change. Nor did the many quiet U.S. programs of outreach to Tunisian society, cultural exchanges and the like, even if Tunisians appreciated them and they will bear fruit as the country democratizes.

My personal take on this is that the people were clearly ready to act but needed a push, Wikileaks helped with that in Tunisia. Hopefully soon we’ll see other countries overthrow evil leaders and bringing more peace and well-being to more and more and more people.

Read the rest of the article.

An Awesome Foundation

- Adam Clare

The Awesome Foundation wants you to do something awesome, seriously! This is a great idea, a bunch of people put in some cash (in this case $1,000) and then others submit project ideas revolving around ways to make your city better!

The Awesome Foundation for the Arts and Sciences is an ever-growing, worldwide network of people devoted to forwarding the interest of awesomeness in the universe.

The Foundation distributes a series of monthly $1,000 grants to projects and their creators. The money is given upfront in a paper bag full of cash by a group of ten self-organizing “micro-trustees,” who form autonomous chapters around geographic areas or topics of interest.

Check out The Awesome Foundation

Students Go Green

- Adam Clare

TD Bank has historically had issues with the environment, today they are starting to reverse that attitude. Indeed, they are now encouraging students in Canada to come up with ideas on how to be more green.

TD has announced the Go Green Challenge that will have students submit videos on ways to respect the environment. Students who submit their ideas have the chance to win cash to help turn their idea into action.

Let’s hope TD starts encouraging green investments amongst its customers too!

How the TD Go Green Challenge works:

Teams of two to four students from the same school are invited to submit a short video that explains a sustainability challenge facing their university or college and how they would address it.

A panel of judges, including singer-songwriter Sarah Harmer, will select the top three teams based on their proposed on-campus environmental initiatives.

The TD Go Green Challenge is open to all legal residents of Canada who are currently enrolled in an undergraduate or graduate program, full or part-time, at an approved Canadian college or university.

Read their press release

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