Mozzeenet

World Vision Australia have come up with a new website called One Big Village educating about social responsibility and the impact the choices and actions made by societies and individuals have on a global level.

One area of interest is how our buying habits can influence the lives of others. I guess most people are aware that some big corporations utilise sweat shops in third world countries to produce goods at the cheapest price possible. I went to an excellent photography exhibition coordinated by John Pilger a few years ago which brought this home to me and I also became more aware of this when living in Cambodia eg brand-name clothes selling for a couple of dollars at the markets in Phnom Penh. It is horrifying to think we spend hundreds of dollars on these goods in western countries to line the pockets of big companies while people are being exploited to make these items.

There is information on the One Big Village site about making ethical decisions as a consumer eg buying fair trade coffee or tea which guarantees that the farmers who produced these products were paid a fair price and had good working conditions. Only a very few coffee and tea products are certified by the Fair Trade Association of Australia and New Zealand at the moment and they are available at limited locations. Oxfam Community Aid Abroad has information about outlets stocking fairly traded coffee and tea as well as other details about fair trade and actions we can take to campaign for increased availability of fairly traded products.

It’s so easy to become disengaged in our society from the impact our choices have but the One Big Village site definitely provides some really useful resources for responsible global citizenship.