Black Gold is “a story about coffee and trade”.
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Multinational coffee companies now rule our shopping malls and supermarkets and dominate the industry worth over $80 billion, making coffee the most valuable trading commodity in the world after oil.
But while we continue to pay for our lattes and cappuccinos, the price paid to coffee farmers remains so low that many have been forced to abandon their coffee fields.
Nowhere is this paradox more evident than in Ethiopia, the birthplace of coffee. Tadesse Meskela is one man on a mission to save his 74,000 struggling coffee farmers from bankruptcy. As his farmers strive to harvest some of the highest quality coffee beans on the international market, Tadesse travels the world in an attempt to find buyers willing to pay a fair price.
Against the backdrop of Tadesse’s journey to London and Seattle, the enormous power of the multinational players that dominate the world’s coffee trade becomes apparent. New York commodity traders, the international coffee exchanges, and the double dealings of trade ministers at the World Trade Organization reveal the many challenges Tadesse faces in his quest for a long term solution for his farmers.
It looks like a fascinating film, and definitely brings light to an issue that few Americans consider while waiting in line at the local Starbucks.
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…White people like stuff?
by Cory O'Brien
Stuff White People Like is impressively accurate and incredibly funny.
Half social commentary and half social mocking, it’s a daily dose of the things that make white people white.
From coffee and wine to Barack Obama and anything Apple, the full range of interests is covered. Plus, there are reasons behind each like, and an explanation of the best way to fit in with whitey, so you can easily acclimate to being or interacting with white people.
Now where’d I put that copy of Juno…?
[Stuff White People Like]
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