Integritea

Funny how things seem to work in endless loops in business. Something becomes popular, it becomes a success, and that success attracts big business which buys up all the little guys who made the thing popular. As the bean counters take charge, things invariably go stale when they dismantle all that made the thing a success in the first place with their love of profit … the wheel turns as along along comes a guy with passion, to start the cycle all over again. And so it is with Donald Trump and his tea, or the Emperor with no clothes.

First there was a great teaman, Sir Thomas Lipton. He and a handful of visionaries brought tea to the world. That changed a long time ago unfortunately and however much the blandly financially driven corporates who bought Sir Tom’s business insist that nothing has changed, everything has. Apart from his picture that is – that, and his story remain very much the same. The heart of his vision – tea - is irrevocably lost.

The same goes for ano...

Read the rest of this entry » Lies, damned lies and the coffee lobby
Author: Dilhan, June 23rd, 2010

Fact and fiction should contrast as dramatically as black and white. Strangely that truth does not seem to hold anymore as the world enters a state of altered reality reminiscent of that which George Orwell described in 1949. In this dimension, it is not the State that is Big Brother, but something far worse. The history of tea is marked by more than the occasional subterfuge. Since Robert Fortune disguised himself as a Chinese Peasant to learn the art of producing tea in 1842, through to the Opium Wars and Boston Tea Party, tea has been no stranger to conspiracy and conflict. However the conspiracy in which tea finds itself involved in the 21st Century is one that is against tea itself. A Georgetown University Medical Centre study presented at the Annual Congress of the European League Against Rheumatism suggests that women who drink tea are more likely to develop rheumatoid arthritis (RA). Ignoring EULAR president, Prof Paul Emery’s words, "We do assert the need for caution in the inte...

Read the rest of this entry » The Harsher Truth behind the Harsh World
Author: Dilhan, July 23rd, 2009

The global edition of today’s International Herald Tribune (July 22,2009) offers an image of Sri Lankan tea pickers in their scenic tea garden environment. The caption ‘Tea workers’ harsh world’ points to the paradox this beautiful image hides. Mark McDonald’s article goes on to explain that whilst Sri Lanka is the No. 2 Tea Exporter in the world, poverty amongst tea workers is increasing. True. Suggesting though that ‘..the fortunes of the Hill Tamil workers on its many plantations have not kept pace with the industry’s growth’ hides a much more complex reality than first meets the eye. Notwithstanding the superficial comment of the Ceylon Tea Traders’ Association representative that the workers are well cared for and not exploited, there is exploitation, but those responsible are not, as Mr. McDonald implies, the Tea Exporters and Traders in Sri Lanka. (more...)...

Read the rest of this entry » ‘Greatness’ in a cup of tea
Author: Dilhan, June 3rd, 2009

An advertisement in an inflight magazine on a trans Atlantic flight exclaims, ‘Experience the greatness of our new tea lattes’. Beneath, the advertiser earnestly underlines its claim, ‘ Yes, we did say greatness.’ And then it shows a photograph of a cup – nice, off white on green, probably porcelain – filled with a foamy, whiteness. At first glance a teaman would be forgiven for assuming that this was a case of a design error – using an image of a particularly bland cappucino instead of tea. It takes considerably less than the 7 hour flight to come to the startling realisation that this is no mistake, but the expression of a phenomenon that stalks almost every artisanal...

Read the rest of this entry » The bottom line
Author: Dilhan, April 18th, 2009

At a time when every politician and bureaucrat is more aware than ever of the plight of marginalized people in less developed countries and the need for fair trading relationships to ease the gulf that exists between rich and poor nations, there is little or nothing that is being done to address the human cost of this awful reality. Over a decade since WTO identified the need for fundamental changes in the global economy nothing has been achieved. A new President in the White House carried with him the hopes of people around the world that change would genuinely happen. Nothing yet and no sign of it in relation to fairer trade. There has to be another way. Lacking empathy, desire or commitment beyond statements of g...

Read the rest of this entry » Ethics works both ways
Author: Dilhan, January 23rd, 2009

Offered a cup of tea which prominently advertised its ‘fair’ heritage and its contribution to the welfare of the workers involved in its production, I unhesitatingly accepted. That acceptance unfortunately lasted only until the first sip when it became apparent that any claim to ‘fairness’ in this cuppa, did not apply to the consumer. The dark brown liquor hid a very old, very mediocre and very overpriced tea which seemed aligned quite unashamedly at selling on the strength of the feelings of guilt its heavily ‘fair trade’ branded packaging would kindle. Give the ‘inappropriateness’ of being too honest in criticizing a product that is so wonderfully ‘good’ it seemed that my fellow tea drinkers were quite happy to swallow the insipid brew or to douse it in milk and sugar to mask its taste. Most left the tea without complaint. There were a couple of examples of greater honesty that I found on the web though.

The thing about fairness is that it needs to work both ways....

Read the rest of this entry » From Seattle to Nowhere (via Doha) in 10 years
Author: Dilhan, December 27th, 2008

The need for equitable development to address growing poverty is more critically important now than ever before. The self interest of wealthy nations has drawn the promised free and fair trading system offered in 1999 by WTO, into a decade long catalogue of self interest and a pretence of commitment to free trade. Pascal Lamy's declaration that the next Ministerial Meeting will take place end 2009, together with the escalating financial crisis, make it likely that protectionism and with it much more intense unfairness in trade will follow. With that, the Millennium Development Goals will become more distant. Free and fair trade is the engine for growth and it is growth - not aid - that can ensure the achievement and maintenance of these goals in less developed countries. Yet US and European policymakers have opted to hide from the difficult system changes required to fix a failed financial system and instead of pandering to the excess and mistakes of the few whilst sacrificing the many. The gr...

Read the rest of this entry » Fair Trade, rhetoric and reality
Author: Dilhan, November 17th, 2008

Fairness is about justice, a basic element of humanity. In the sphere of international trade, that notion should logically be deployed simply because it is the right and only way forward. That deployment would be supported by widespread education and support from government and non governmental agencies to include as many producers, wholesalers, retailers and consumers as possible. Yet what fair trade is increasingly becoming, is a proprietary and Western defined system of determining what is and is not ‘fair’. There can of course be no right or wrong way of implementing fairness in trade, because the tiniest step towards greater fairness is to be lauded and encouraged. What is going wrong though is the manner in which the notion of fairness in trade is being defined, and controlled. The interventionist, exclusive and highly commercial form that it has assumed is severely limiting the potential of fair trade by obstructing the emergence of  more broad based, non exclusive and far reaching...

Read the rest of this entry » Quality in the age of cost cutting
Author: Dilhan, November 2nd, 2008

Fears of global recession have corporate planners scurrying to improve their financial prospects, mainly by cutting costs. The snappily titled programmes that are the outcome of these are obviously intended for the consumption of Wall Street, but are they fair on consumers and the worker? (more...)...

Read the rest of this entry » Someone’s got their hands in our crop
Author: Dilhan, September 27th, 2008