[Buddha-l] Re: "So much for tsunami dana"

[Andrew Skilton]

Sat, 15 Oct 2005 Benito Carral wrote:

>> Beni,   what   would  a  Fair  Trade  Federation  for
>> Disasters be? How would it work?

>   It  would  be  an  organization formed by small fair
trade  companies  that  would  provide greed-free basic
goods  and  services and infrastructures. It would help
to  redistrube  humanitarian  help (money) among needed
(unempowered)  people  and  not  among corporations and
their  agents.  It  would  be  necessary  to develop an
organization to manage such infrastructures. A powerful
UN  would  also  help  to corporations and their agents
don't get involved.

Thanks. Two questions come to mind:
1. Is this happening anywhere?  My knowledge of the fairtrade 'movement' is
minimal (coffee and bananas, basically) so forgive my ignorance if I should
know.  A brief internet search did not seem to uncover any thing like this -
just a mountain of organic bananas and coffee beans. 
2.  I'm not sure about your last two sentences - I am wary of bureaucracy in any
context (other than in my bureau). Would not a 'ground up' approach be more
suitable and in keeping with the fairtrade ethos? (And, in my view, with
Buddhist principals, insofar as it could support a greater degree of personal or
individual engagement/responsibility.  I note that the FairTrade Foundation
attempted to link FairTrade consumers with partners in Asia who could offer
direct assistance to tsunami survivors.)

Andrew