Purpose

Last week I had an extremely interesting experience. In the afternoon I went to find a Cafe 生態綠咖啡，the idea is that it's a cafe importing and promoting 'Fair Trade' in Taiwan. To anyone who is unaware, Fair Trade has three main guarantees, a fair price for farmers, fair treatment for those farmers and fair treatment of that land. Why do we need fair trade? Mainly because you can imagine without these guarantees, large companies (let's take Nescafe for example) just buy coffee beans year by year from the cheapest source, doing their best to drive the price down to give them higher profit margins. Now think, a coffee grower with a small amount of land needs to make maximum use of his land, that means using any kind of fertilizers possible and it means using every square inch of land every year (a practice that is unsustainable). He needs to sell at the lowest price possible (in order to actually sell, otherwise the buyer just moves on) so his own profits just allow enough for seed for the next year. No school for his children, they need to help on the farm anyway.

Now imagine, this same farmer is given a fair trade contract. He's guaranteed a fair price for his product for a number of years in a row and he's asked to make sure that the land is taken care of in a sustainable way. Suddenly he has options. Which piece of land can take a rest this year? What kind of organic fertilizers can be used instead of chemical ones? Maybe the children should go to school, after all the money for tuition will be enough now!

I was on a trade mission to Hong Kong a couple of years ago and met a British businessman who runs a business showing company executives how to make chocolate, it's a kind of team building exercise I think. When I asked him if he used Fair Trade chocolate he laughed and said "no, I think there are some people in Europe making a lot of money out of fair trade!"

It's idiots like him that mean we need great organisations like 生態綠 to show people that Fair Trade makes a genuine difference. My dad went to Uganda a few years ago to visit a farmer who had been given a Fair Trade contract. His experience was just as described above. His children could now go to school and he could now use and invest in his land, in a way that was sustainable. If our choice of coffee, or chocolate, or something else can have this big an impact on someone so far away, then a simple choice for fair trade is just so obvious!!

今天我對我要看中文的朋友們很抱歉，用中文介紹公平貿易還是太難，所以我就很默默地給你們看這個網站orz! http://www.facebook.com/okogreen?v=app_4949752878&ref=search
www.okogreen.com.tw

Luck, Fate, Coincidence or Destiny?

我上個周末跟Diana去橋頭看看。那個地方是個日本時代的糖場，現在已經不在用但是工場大部分還在，就邊成一個觀光景點，非常有趣！我們去走一走看一看然後看天氣好像要變我們準備走。走之前她看到一個小房子，外面畫了一些我以為是人在跳舞的畫。我們往門口看一下是什麼地方（因為以前去過都沒看到），就發現是Ten Drummers Art Percussion Group新的練團／教室！她們很開心地歡迎我們進去，我很開心地跑進去看。我真的很久想打台灣專統的鼓，到那一天都沒有幾會！她們最厲害的老師‘100分’教我一點點然後讓我自己打。It was in some ways a small thing, just a chance look in to a place we'd not noticed before, but it was still my first real chance to get close enough to be able to try those kind of traditional drums and learn a little of the technique. They'd only been open for a few days, everything was brand new, it was the perfect time to have just passed by.

Actually life is full of chance meetings, timings that are just right or just wrong, situations that work like someone with a bigger perspective is controlling them, or at least influencing them. 我們可以很容易花一輩子去想為什麼生活會那一瞬間這樣發生活那時刻變成那個樣子。However, whatever I or you think, I'm grateful to have had the short chance to play some cool traditional style new drums, I think I should try learning more!

好吃好喝好聽！

Last weekend an old friend from Korea came to Taiwan (in order to play a concert actually) but he stayed on a few extra days so that we could show him around Taipei!
It was funny that everywhere we went, people would see an Asian face with some western friends and immediately speak Chinese to him, then get surprised when he didn't understand anything and we began to translate for him!
Two highlights would have been going surfing in Yi-Lan and then the next day having a jam session (as Ko is one of the top drummers in Korea)!
最近有一位韓國朋友來台灣表演然後多待幾天跟我們去玩。最好笑得是帶他去那裡，每次都有別人直接跟他說中文，然後我們回答時他們就很驚訝！！


Then it was on to Taichung for the International Leisure and Fine Food Expo! What a great chance to play music, eat food and drink healthy things. The remnants of my cold left pretty quickly!!!
這個周末Transition去台中的國際休閒美食展表演！
我本來不知道我們去台中世貿中心是要參加什麼樣的活動，所以你可以想像我們走進去就聞到那麼多很香的味道我心情突然變好！

後來我們花了三天很開心地一邊表演一邊大快朵頤！！

The final stop of the trip was to Kaohsiung (so you can see in a week I went to most of Taiwan orz) which was great when I finally got there (after a late and then delayed bus ride)!
I always enjoy the time there, although this time I had a new challenge, having got my international driving license when I was back in England, my incredibly brave girlfriend Diana had the nerves of steel to let me drive her car around the city. Taiwan's road hazards are quite different from England's, but we were both safe, so that was the main thing!

最後我去了高雄看Diana。我每次很喜歡去找她和別的朋友們，她們都很大方也很好笑！
不過這次去高雄有個新的經驗，我上次回英國的時候拿到了我的國際駕照所以很有勇氣的Diana讓我開她的車！！其實在台灣開車比在英國開車難很多！！重點就是沒出問題所以謝謝陶老師的supervision haha!! 我會習慣！