Let's talk this through.

Yesterday I got some weird looks as I bought a kid something to eat. She came begging for money but when I offered food and something to drink her face lit up. It sounds all nice and in order with my thoughts on begging, doesn't it? So why did people act like what I did was strange? I would really like some answers here, because I might be missing something! Perhaps there are factors I didn't consider.

Shape up Greece!

I found two Fairtrade labeled products in my supermarket! It's one brand of coffee and a cocoa. I was so happy to find them that it took me a while before I started thinking about why I haven't seen them before. But it's actually pretty obvious why, and the reson is annoying as hell.

These products are in the supermarket as they are organic and have been placed on the shelf with "organic foods". You can not find the organic coffee next to the other coffee brands. Only in this specific part of the store. Imagine that my supermarket is as huge as... probably 500 sq.m It has 4 floors and I don't know how many hundreds of customers in a day, and they have 2 things with a Fairtrade label. These aren't imported for the label. That I was able to find them was a total coincidence.

This article, written by Katia Antoniadi, confirms my suspicions. For those of you who don't read Greek, I can tell you that the article also says 65 % of the Greeks don't know the meaning of the words "fair trade". And that from the few Greek companies that even replyed to a survey, made by Consumers International, the commercial directors didn't know what products were in this category.

It's clear to anyone that this is an area in which Greece has to improve. I will do my part. Friends are hereby invited to my Fairtrade Coffee on Wednesday. Shall we say around seven?

Fair trade, Greece, hello?!

So I've been going a little crazy over the fact that it's so difficult to find products you can trust to not have harmed anybody in the making process. So many farmers and workers in the developing countries are struggling to get food on their tables, and the reason is unfair trading rules.

The only way I know to sort out the safe products is to look for the Fairtrade label, and that didn't seem to be available in Greece. But apparently it is! It's just not in the supermarkets. Fairtrade Hellas have got a shop in the centre of Athens, close to the Acropolis metro station, and they told me on the phone that they do have Fairtrade labeled products for sale. So for those of you who live in the center, check it out. I will when I get a chance. (Note though that Fairtrade Hellas doesn't seem to be connected to the International Fairtrade Organization in other than the name and that they sell the products.)

Still not happy about not finding something better than this. I want to see these labels in the supermarket. What am I missing? Can Greece really be so low on people caring about the world that there is no demand for these things?

Make an exception from your "silence is golden" ideas people and write a comment! Wouldn't you want the option to just pay a few cents more for coffee, for example, and know that by doing this you are preventing poverty and not harming the environment?

What if I open an e-shop. Would you buy your sugar, coffee and tea from me?

Wouldn't want to be homeless in this city

I live in Piraeus, a municipality of Greece and part of the capital. Together with the municipality of Athens 45% of the homeless people in Greece live here. I see them every time I leave my house. That is to say, if I choose to see them.

When I first came here from Sweden I was chocked to see all the homeless people, and the amounts of people begging in the street. In the city centre of Athens you can not walk down even one street without passing them. Women with babies, children, men with amputated legs, all crying out to you for just a few cents. Or just looking at you, as if they've already given up and are simply people watching, sitting on the ground with an old can next to them. I wanted to cry. I tried to make sure I had a lot of coins on me so I wouldn't have to pass any of them and not have something to give.

Since then I have changed. I almost never give anything. Why? Right now as I am thinking about this, I cannot think of a good reason. I know that most people around me seem to have good reasons not to. They talk about organized begging; that parents or other grown ups send kids out to beg for money, and then keep it all to themselves and leave the kids in poverty. And about how people from certain cultures don't want to get other jobs or houses. And then there are those who are sure that these people get so much money from what they do, that they are not to be considered poor but actually wealthy!

None of these arguments deal with my initial thought though. Which was that even if some of the money you give goes somewhere bad, it's still worth the risk as some of it might help someone survive the day. And besides, I think pretending not to see people in need is something that, in the long run, is going to make you a bad person. Getting used to not helping is something I am deeply ashamed of.

Something I am going to do from now on is to offer something to eat when people ask for money. That will help those in immediate need but won't support the asses who use children to get rich.

Oh, when I said that 45% of the homeless people in Greece live here and in the centre of Athens, I was only talking about Greek citizens. So you can save your comments on immigration to a later post (It will come up. The thousands of people living in temporary camps around the country will not be forgotten.).

Lost in translation

Oh my. Finding out about if "COOL" (Country Of Origin Labeling) exists here in Greece, and the detailes around it, isn't at all easy. My greek is very limited, and so is the english with the greeks. Help, please, someone!