Kerabu

The Truth About Fair Trade Coffee

The Globalisation Institute (a British think tank with ideas as fresh as my brother Din's daily brew at Ristretto Roasters) has some really interesting thinking on what the Fairtrade movement really means for growers in the developing world. Here's a snippet of what Alex Singleton has to say on the subject:

It is Fairtrade Fortnight, and we are all being encouraged to pay extra for everything from coffee to bananas. Coffee, a totemic product for the development community, is a product where many producers have suffered from lowering prices. Massive overproduction, caused largely by mechanisation in Brazil and the rise of Vietnam as a major producer, has had its effect on prices.

To read Singleton's manifesto on how to renovate the Fairtrade movement to make it truly meaningful to growers, check out Fairtrade 2.0 (n.b., best viewed while imbibing a nice cup of Ristretto's Kenya AA Katuro).

Tags: fairtrade, coffee, globalisation

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You say China, I say Rutabaga

Now that Google has agreed to block certain Chinese search terms like "e**ality" and "de***racy." The solution, it seems to me, is to take an entrepreneurial approach to helping the Chinese find work-arounds that will give them access to the information they seek.

So here's what I propose: let's look at the list of these forbidden keywords (here) and devise clever euphemisms for them, followed by descriptive definitions that make clear what the new terms denote--the list can be passed around like a chain letter. If enough bloggers posted the list, it will be impossible for google to block every site, and our Chinese brothers and sisters could simply google the new word for China--rutabaga--and find the list (along with the odd root vegetable appreciation blog, but hey, it's the most obscure-yet-ordinary, hide-it-in-plain-sight word I could come up with on short notice). 

Using the ordinary yet specific words would give them a language in which to talk about what they want and need to talk about. Seems the least we can do to help.

I'll do the first five "forbidden" search terms (some are words, others word combos). Anyone who wants to carry on down the list, take it and run with it:

"Turnip" - def.: a small, landlocked, mountainous country in East Asia where they eat a lot of potstickers and ring a lot of bells.

"Cabbage + Rutabaga" - def.: a small, isolated and highly prosperous Asian subdivision, often preceded by the words "made in" + the biggest little country in Asia.

"Jalapeno" - def: the concept of things or people being on a par with each other.

"Crabapple + Rutabaga" - def.: the theory and practice of picking a body of windbags and a chief windbag by polling all of the people who bother to show up on the designated day + the biggest little country in Asia.

"Gooseberry + Rutabaga" - def: a disgruntled person who speaks their mind + the biggest little country in Asia.

I'm going to pass this off to my good friend Jackie, who will hopefully introduce her own non-vegetative verbiage for the next couple of terms.

What works

On Saturday John Tierney (author of what I consider the quintessential debunking article, "Recycling is Garbage") had a column in the NY Times about the Acadian Ambulance company, which was unusually well prepared to respond to the aftermath of Katrina.  Owned by a tehcnology buff, Acadian had generators, sat phones, ambulances, helicopters--and clear heads.  Tierney said of the company, "It was a lonely island of competence."  Then he wrote:

As stranded patients wondered what had happened to the city's medics and ambulances, Acadian medics filled in at the Superdome and evacuated thousands from six hospitals.

While Louisiana officials debated how to accept outside help, Acadian was directing rescues by helicopters from the military and other states. When the Federal Emergency Management Agency's paperwork slowed the evacuation of patients from the airport, Acadian's frustrated medics waited with empty helicopters.

The company sent in outside doctors and nurses to the airport, where patients were dying and medical care was in short supply. FEMA rejected the help because the doctors and nurses weren't certified members of a National Disaster Medical Team.

Bureaucrats from FEMA on down not only failed to respond to the emergency, but frustrated private citizens' attempts to respond.  I guess the notion of a bureaucratic emergency response really is an oxymoron.  Private enterprise and enterprising private citizens have done a much better job responding to disaster than their official counterparts.  Another excellent example is Dr. Goodheart.  This cardiologist from California cashed in his skymiles to get to the Gulf, where he has been helping, and blogging. It's a ground's-eye view of what is and isn't happening in the relief effort, and again points up how absolutely critical individual action and initiative is to relief work.  Who else is going to do it, Big Brother?

If you really want to help with disaster relief, you can visit Acadian Ambulance's website, where you can make a contribution directly to them via the Community Foundation of Acadiana.  Consider your donation a vote for private enterprise.

Artists in Lafayette

Blogger Nancy Rommelmann writes:

Maria is an old friend who's lived in New Orleans for 15 years; she's a successful artist, her husband Jonno Frishburg a successful Cajun musician. Their home was right in the city.

"I saw a picture of my house this morning on a satellite imagery," she said. "Looks like the water might have only gotten through the first floor."

Maria and Jonno and their two kids left New Orleans, by car, at 5:30 Sunday morning; they took the back roads to Lafayette, a two-and-a-half hour drive that took seven. They've been there, staying with friends, ever since.

In the five days Maria has been in Lafayette, she has enrolled her kids in the local arts magnet school; created an after-school arts program for kids of the hurricane; contacted local restaurants and convinced them to hire the musicians who made their living playing in New Orleans--and to this end, her husband and a band of displaced musicians have formed a new group and registered their new name: The Refugees. Maria is also gathering local artists to come up with collective ways to create an economic base in Lafayette.

"Sketch pads, Prisma colored pencils, Craypas," is what she responded, when I asked what I could send in a care package. "Maybe some journals for the kids to write and draw in."

Contact Maria through Nancy if you want to help her and other Louisiana artists.

eBay store update

Cheryl Cowell, who is using her eBay store to raise money for disaster relief by selling her son Colby's school pencils for $10 each, wrote this in an email:

Colby's father "was" a resident of Gulfport and employed by one of the casinos.  I loved your idea of the coffee truck....he was in great spirits saying he would get a way back home, buy  a chain saw and ask for a job...and figure out the rest later~.  I will suggest the java mobile, that seems to fit his personality much better~

I worked in the casino industry for many years, before returning to Louisiana 5 years ago to care for my mother(the best decision I have ever made).  Many of my former fellow workers are now jobless and homeless.  I am in high hopes that neighboring casinos will offer assitance and job opportunities to their fellow industry workers.

Anyone got a java truck?  And how about work for those casino employees?

An eBay store in Louisiana

Louisiana resident Cheri Cowell is auctioning her son Colby's school pencils off for $10 each through her eBay store and donating the proceeds to the Northwest Louisiana Food Bank. In the body of the listing she writes: 

I AM A GOLD POWER-SELLER ON EBAY AND HAVE BEEN A MEMBER FOR ABOUT 4 YEARS...SELLING LINENS AND PURSES. I AM A RESIDENT OF LOUISIANA, WITH MANY TIES TO SOUTH LOUISIANA. WE ARE LOCATED IN NATCHITOCHES, LOUISIANA. WE WERE NOT AFFECTED BY THE STORM BUT MANY EVACUEES HAVE "SETTLED" HERE UNTIL THEY ARE ALLOWED TO RETURN HOME..

PLEASE USE MY REPUTATION AS A CATALYST TO OFFERING YOUR HELP, EITHER IN A MONETARY WAY OR PHYSCIAL HELP DURING THE CLEAN-UP PHASE.

Buying a pencil is a good way to make contact with Cheryl.  She won't really mail you the pencil unless you ask, by the way, but eBay requires there actually be an item for sale in order to create a listing.  Only 96 pencils are left, so hurry!

Cheryl also welcomes direct contact at [email protected]  with "Hurricane Katrina" in the subject line.

Lots of items listed through eBay Giving Works are donating some or all proceeds to Katrina relief.  Ebay authenticates charities and processes donations through MissionFish.  Look for a gold ribbon symbol.

Translation services

Michael Grant from Austin, TX writes:

Saw your blog post on help for small businesses affected by the
hurricane. I own a small translating agency near Austin, TX and would
be glad to help in any way I can. I don't have a lot of physical
assets or free cash flow that I would be able to donate, but am
looking for other concrete ideas for ways to help.

If you want to reach Michael directly, email [email protected] and your message will be forwarded to him.  ( think Craigslist has the right idea, allowing initial contact between parties to be anonymous. If anyone wants their contact info published directly, please indicate so.)

Feel free to use the comments section of this post to suggest ways Michael's business might be of help--he can also answer you there. 

Entrepreneurial Aid: Wish Lists

For entrepreneurs displaced by Katrina:  if you need supplies to get yourself back in business, create a wish list on Amazon, Target, or any other website that allows you to do so, then send an email with a link to the list, a description of your business and your contact info for verification, to [email protected], and we will post your needs in a blog category, "Wish Lists."  Other entrepreneurs and interested individuals will be able to find you there.

Donors:  this is entrepreneurial giving with zero overhead--100% of your gift will go to the recipient of your choice.  Kerabu isn't involved in the actual transactions. 

Entrepreneurial Aid: First Steps--what can you offer?

How to think of the degree of business devastation that Katrina has caused in the realm of small business:  go to the library and take out a copy of the New Orleans Yellow Pages.  Open it at random.  What do you see?  Attorneys.  Auto repair shops.  Bail bonds. Barbers. Beverage Dispensing Equipment & Repair.  Blacksmiths. Body piercing. Boiler repair & cleaning... all gone.

Now... what can you do?

If you own a barbershop in Seattle and you have a free chair, maybe you can lease it to a barber from Biloxi for a few months--with the first month gratis. And you probably have a client who would offer a guest house or rental unit for a period of time as well, if you posted a sign in your window asking as much.

If you're an Attorney in San Diego, maybe you can offer remote secretarial services to an attorney in Louisiana who has lost her office but has clients she can still serve.

While in British Columbia last month I saw two mobile espresso vans for sale for around $12K each; if you own one of these, it could probably prosper in the hands of a local selling shots of Joe to relief workers now, and rebuilding workers later--offer a local a partnership arrangement, ownership of the van vesting in exchange for payments down the line and sweat equity up front....

Entrepreneurial Aid

As I watched people being plucked from rooftops in New Orleans, and saw what looked like piles of sawdust  littering the ground in Biloxi, I kept hearing over and over about how much physical stuff had been lost to Hurricane Katrina (commentators inevitably mention family photos), but while losing a home is an awful thing to even contemplate, I've yet to hear anyone on television mention the loss of livelihoods--how many businesses were wiped out at a single stroke, taking with them jobs, incomes, health insurance and more.  And while those homes blown to smithereens were mostly insured, how many businesses that were lost will have the means to rebuild?

What we in the business community need to do now is find clever, entrepreneurial ways to offer direct aid to the region's shopless entrepreneurs.  Think about it:  are there services you could "outsource" to a displaced bookkeeper, manager, technician?  Do you have outdated or surplus computers and phones you can donate to entrepreneurs? 

Kerabu's business model is to help micro-investors connect up with micro-entrepreneurs.  And while we aren't ready to open our doors for business, the circumstances in the South have made it seem like a good idea to throw this blog open as a place for entrepreneurs to offer each-other support.  How?  Email [email protected] with your entrepreneurial needs, if you're a Katrina victim, and with your offers of physical, financial or mentorial assistance if you're an able-bodied entrepreneur.  We will post all legitimate offers of help and act as a safe meeting ground for business people who want to make connections, and hunt pathways to make those connections possible, including contacting aid societies who might be able to facilitate exchanges.

Call it an open source giving, if you will--direct aid with zero administrative costs and 100% transparency.

As for donating cash, which is the thing to do today, Kerabu recommends giving to hurricane Katrina victims through Mercy Corps, based in Portland, Or. Here's why:  one of their efforts in post-Tsunami Sri Lanka involves paying locals to do reconstruction work.  I like that dynamic.  And, the late great Worth Magazine (where I was a contributing editor) named them one of America's best charities, in part because they are fiscally responsible and have good business sense.  Only 8% of what you give will be eaten up by adminsitrative costs, which is a hell of a good rate of "return" for both you and the hurricane victims.  You can go here to drop a c-note on them.

Craigslist is also a good way to offer aid directly to individuals, if, for example, you have a granny apartment to offer as temporary housing, or temporary employment to offer, or can donate frequent flyer miles to buy someone a plane ticket to get to their Aunt Charlie's place in Minnesota....  Think creatively!