B E B E R E

"Charity is Good, but Commerce is Better."

Gave a bit to the Red Cross a while ago, but was wondering if I could do a bit more to help the economies of places hit by the tsunami. My first thoughts went to Starbucks or Peets for their Sumatran coffee and Tealuxe for the teas they get from India and Sri Lanka. Ten Thousand Villages, an organisation that is a branch of Quaker ministry, also has lots of neat things that are 'fair trade.' A store that I walk by on my way to Shelley, my chiropractor, seems to sell a lot of Southeast Asian items. They're called Arawat, and I'll see on Tuesday if they have a website.

Anyway - back to the original premise, here: Truth Laid Bear has a list of other places you can frequent to help Southeast Asian companies if you'd like to help out on the commerce side of things.

I'm a firm believer in buying the fish from the fishermen, rather than giving than giving them fish. It makes people feel useful, productive and helps them to move forward after such beyond my imagination awful events.