Well, there’s a title to grab your attention!

Image via Smartplanet.com.

A quick whip around the office for ideas of alternative uses for this handy device brought forth various suggestions, from a primitive rafting paddle or a table tennis bat, to a cheese board!

However, this genuinely is sold as a Spanking Paddle, much to our entertainment!

You may be wondering where we found such an item, but whilst immersing ourselves in researching ethical products for ethicalsuperstore.com we stumble across many ‘interesting’ products which grab our attention. This is undoubtedly the most amusing items we’ve discovered this week - we weren’t searching specifically - honest!

So Why oh Why is this considered ethical we hear you cry?!?

Primarily it is because it was handcrafted as part of a fair trade project in India using sustainable wood, making this piece of ‘equipment’ the ultimate in eco-friendly spanking technology.

So what are you waiting for?!? The producers of these sustainable spanking paddles, Coco de Mer (NB don’t click on this link at work!) wax lyrical about the endorphins released from a good spanking, but perhaps the less said here and now about the potential associated euphoric highs the better…

I think the most important lesson to be learnt here is that whatever your hobbies, and whatever your persuasions, you can do whatever on earth it is that you do in an eco-friendly manner! And the moral of this story is that your sex life certainly should not be excluded from this. Buying fair trade condoms is a good starting point, but whether you stop there is up to you!

It’s time to wind down for the day, but there’s still time for some activist action with your cup of tea…

The fair trade fashion pioneers People Tree are petitioning the G8 to make Fair Trade a priority, which certainly makes sense to us. Follow the link below to add your own signature. You’ll have to be quick though, the last day for signatures is today!

Make Fair Trade a Priority

It is now impossible to walk down the high street or through a shopping mall without seeing the mark made by multinational coffee companies, which have in recent years made coffee the most valuable trading commodity in the world after oil.

The difference, however, in the price we pay for our latte or cappuccino, and the price paid to the farmers of the original bean, is so extreme that many farmers have been forced to give up the coffee fields as it is simply no longer viable to continue.

In Black Gold, British filmmakers Marc and Nic Francis follow the fate of Tadesse Meskela as he travels the world in an attempt to find buyers willing to pay a fair price for the coffee produced by the 74,000 farmers he represents.

Black Gold receives it’s UK network television premiere tonight (26/02/08)at 10pm on More4, and is certainly recommended viewing for anyone who cares about where their coffee comes from.

Trailer after the jump

No, it is not a competition to see who can eat the most chocolate biscuits during an episode of Eastenders. Nor who can name the most different types of chocolate bar on our supermarket shelves. Neither is it a pledge to go without chocolate for a whole day.

This week, the Archbishop of York, Dr John Sentamu, called for a boycott of all chocolate that is not certified as Fairtrade. This is “the chocolate challenge”. Recognising that we are a nation of chocoholics, - we eat more chocolate than any other nation in Europe - he urged us to always choose only fair trade chocolate and to ask for it in stores where it is not available, adding “If you keep that promise, you could be playing your part in ending a 21st-century iniquity.”

The Archbishop was speaking in Hull, the constituency of MP William Wilberforce, who put an end to the slave trade 200 years ago. What better place to point out that slavery is far from a thing of the past. According to the Stop the Traffik campaign for an end to modern slavery, more than 12,000 trafficked children are working on Ivory Coast plantations to produce 43 per cent of the world’s cocoa beans. So whilst child labour is prohibited in Britain, there is a clear link between cocoa bean production and the ongoing slave trade.

Ironically, as Ruth Gledhill, Religion Correspondent for the Times points out on 31st October, most of the leading chocolate manufacturers in Britain were Quakers, many of whom campaigned for the abolition of slavery. An additional irony: Dr John Sentamu’s archiepiscopal seat is in the same city as the confectioner Nestlé Rowntree.

Cadbury does own the chocolate manufacturer Green & Black’s, founded in 1991 and awarded Britain’s first Fairtrade mark in 1994. Nestlé also has a stake in an independent supplier of Fairtrade chocolate.

Not enough.

According to Robert Beckford in “The Great African Scandal” aired on Channel Four about a month ago, only 3% of the cocoa beans produced under fair trade conditions by the Kuapa Kokoo co-operative in Ghana are sold at the fair trade premium price. Consequently, 97% of their produce is grown under fair trade regulations - that is no child labour, fair wages for all workers - without obtaining a fair price.

So the fair trade produce is out there, but the big manufacturers refuse resolutely to pay a fair trade price. They know their have won our hearts via our stomachs. “The chocolate challenge” could be the only way to make a difference.

But can we actually do it? Do any of us have the willpower? Availability, variety, familiarity all conspire to tempt us back to our favourite brands. A fair trade choice is out there - Divine, Green and Blacks, Traidcraft, the Co-op to name a few - delicious alternatives admittedly, but still the decision involves forethought, resolve and the confidence to speak out. Not just as an occasional treat that tastes good and makes our conscience feel better for a while. This is a boycott of all non Fairtrade chocolate. Doesn’t it boil down in the end to whether any of us really care enough? Do you?

This post was first published on the Hometruth.org.uk , November 8th 2007.

Black Gold , the movie highlighting the plight of Ethiopian coffee growers, is now out to buy on DVD.

We’ve blogged about it a couple of times, but you can read Vic’s in depth review of the movie here:

EthicalSuperstore.com :: Blog :: Black Gold Review

…and you can buy the movie on DVD here:

Ethical Superstore.com - Black Gold - A Film About Coffee and Trade