change the world with chocolate…

So Cadbury’s Dairy Milk Bars will be going fair trade by this fall!  It is so encouraging to see such a large corporation taking steps like this, which will triple the amount of fair trade chocolate sourced from Ghana and will greatly contribute to the improvement of the quality of life for cocoa farmers there.  You can go here for more info: 

 

http://www.cadbury.com/media/press/Pages/cdmfairtrade.aspx

http://fairtrade.change.org/blog/view/cadbury_chocolate_goes_fair_trade

http://www.pri.org/business/Global-Development/cadbury-fair-trade-chocolate.html

http://www.cnbc.com/id/29506080/

Unfortunately, what little research I have been able to do suggests that the Cadbury Dairy Milk bars available in the U.S. have had to be reformulated due to FDA guidelines (which don’t allow products to be labeled “chocolate” if they replace cocoa butter with vegetable fat), so I don’t know what this announcement means for fair trade CDM bars being sold in the U.S.  If anyone hears anything about this, please let me know!  

While this announcement only refers to the CDM bars themselves, and apparently Cadbury’s hot chocolate beverage as well, it is an encouraging first step for a major corporation to change mainstream consumer culture, even if only in the UK.  Let’s hope they continue to follow this process through to apply to the rest of their products as well!  

Hershey, Mars, and Nestle, notorious for turning a blind eye to the labor practices of their cocoa sources, can take a lesson from this.  You can go here to send them a message.  And you can hit them where it really hurts by refusing to buy their products (I might go into peanut m&m withdrawal, but it’s for the greater good!), substituting them with the fair trade options already available in the U.S.  For a “scorecard” of US chocolate companies, go here.

 

this one’s about finding focus

I don’t really know what to do with myself.  I have all of these passions and interests, and can’t figure out where to invest my energy. 

When I work at the shelter or watch DogTown on animal planet, I’m sure I’m destined for animal rescue.

When I watch movies like War/Dance and meet with my friends in Ubuntu, I’m convinced my calling is in Africa.

When i watch the discovery channel or the national geographic channel, I’m certain I’m supposed to be a wildlife photographer/videographer.

When I read a book like “Not for Sale” or “Ending Slavery”, I’m determined to become involved in the battle against human trafficking.

Every day when I go to work, I’m pretty positive that teaching is my calling.

I want to travel all over the world and have a house in the country with lots of land.  I want to become fluent in Spanish and start learning French.  After my first snorkeling experience, I want to become a certified scuba diver, even though I’m not much of a swimmer.

So what do I do with all this??  This makes me sound fickle, I know, but I am honestly truly passionate about all of these things, and want to learn even more.  I know I have these passions for a reason, and wanting to live the life I am meant to live, I’d really like to know what I should be doing about all this! 

Lord Jesus, keep my vision vivid and my focus clear.  Direct me!

 

i’m such a freaking nerd…

Two days and counting!  We shall know the truth on January 16…  who’s the @$#^$% FIFTH???

 

Aura’s House

I just stumbled upon this organization on facebook that I’m seriously considering becoming involved with, and perhaps even involving our student council this year.  It allows you to donate toward specific items for specific families in need, and provides lots of pictures and information about the projects they are working on.  They work in conjunction with Children International, through whom I have sponsored a child for the last 10 years.  Click on the link in the sidebar to check it out!!

www.aurashouse.com

 

on being strung-along

i feel like i’m in one of those bad relationships where your friends are always telling you “he’s just stringing you along… get a backbone!  Live your own life!  You can’t wait for him to make up his mind!”. 

I just heard a rumor that BSG won’t be back until 2009.  Neither will LOST. Talk about being strung (strang? strunged?) along.  I guess waiting a year between seasons worked so well for them both last time that they decided to do it mid-season this time.  (What–did they call each other up and discuss it over dinner or something?  Come on!) Give me a freaking break.  If only I had the backbone to dump them!  I feel so manipulated, like when your favorite teacher stops at the most exciting part of the book just before it’s time to go home for the weekend and smiles at all the protests of children hanging off the edge of their seats (I know this, because I have done this with my students.  And relished it.  I’m so sadistic…).

At least Dr. Sara is returning to Prison Break… can’t wait for Hot Engineer Genius (Michael, not Sara) to return in September!

 

bono’s words of wisdom

This makes so much sense.

“The majority of people in the world no longer idolize Western ideals of justice, freedom, and equality.  They don’t believe we believe in them… I think the wider world needs to see a demonstration of those ‘American’ values, through pharmacology, agro-ecology, and technological help for those in extreme circumstances in their hour of need.” ~Bono, as guest editor of Vanity Fair, July 2007

It still confounds me that with the wealth and resources we have in this country, we continue to insulate ourselves from the responsibility that comes with it. 

 

Is it too early for a mid-life crisis?

because I think I’m having one.

I’m unsatisfied with my career.  I want to sell my house and move back into a rental.  I want to go back to school (the MLA at Baker looks good…), keep up with my Spanish and start to learn French.  I want to travel to Africa, Peru, Greece, Spain, India, and New Zealand, among other places.  And I want it all to happen right now.  Thank goodness I have the summer off–it’s going to be a  busy one. 

 

untitled

Unbelievable.  The natural world is pure art.

http://video.nationalgeographic.com/video/player/kids/animals-pets-kids/fish-kids/seahorse-pygmy-kids.html

 

Something Johnny Said.

I have to share just one of my favorite insights that Johnny wrote in his autobiography.  It reveals such a sweet simplicity in an otherwise complex human existence.  I love this.

“…I don’t believe there are any people on earth who, properly sheltered, don’t feel the peace inside a summer rain and the cleansing it brings, the renewal of the earth in its aftermath.

 For me such moments are open invitations to closeness with God.  Nature at work isn’t itself God, but it is evidence of Him, and by letting myself be drawn into its depths and intrigues, I can come near to Him: see the glory of His creation, feel the salve of His grace.”

 

Cash.

I actually finished a book this evening.  A painstaking monthlong journey through the autobiography of Johnny Cash.

I’m not a country music fan, but the richness of the culture behind it, the struggles of the sharecropper in rural Arkansas during and immediately after the depression, have brought me a new appreciation of it. 

More than that, I have a whole new understanding of the man behind the movement.  I not only feel like I know him, but I feel like we’ve been sitting on the porch evening after evening, deep in conversation.  It really was an amazing experience. 

As I continue to reflect on what I have read, what I have “experienced” in Johnny’s own words, it strikes me that Mr. Cash was the quintessential human being.  The embodiment of that daily struggle between good and evil that is the definition of being human.   I have never identified so closely with a person whose life was so fundamentally different from mine.  He was a man at war with himself, as we all are on a daily basis.  And he came out the other end with a grace we should all hope to achieve.  He could have been another Peter, or King David.  Heck, we all could.

I won’t call him my hero, because he would refuse to accept it.  But there is little I wouldn’t give just for one of those porch conversations.  It may sound strange, but I really miss him.