Exciting News

Just got an e-mail from International Justice Mission, one of my favorite slavery-fighting groups:

We are very excited to announce the launch of IJM’s new Web presence. The site www.ijm.org was designed to give you unprecedented access to the work and people of IJM. As we work together to end slavery and oppression, we hope this new front door to IJM provides the resources and inspiration to unite and strengthen all of our efforts.

The enhanced technical capacity of the new site provides many avenues to explore IJM’s work, including expanded multimedia options, casework stories, first-person accounts from field staff and agency information by region and casework element.

The site’s frequent updates will keep you informed of exciting developments – whether they occur in Africa, on the Hill, in a congregation or at a Campus Chapter meeting.

Go check out the new site, and if you're so inclined, sign up for an e-mail or make a donation. These folks are doing great things!

Great New Song for Free

Each week, iTunes posts one free song on their "Discovery Download" page. This week they are featuring a great song by Sara Groves, who I've mentioned recently. The song is called, "When the Saints." It's her response to the continuing problem of slavery.

The song won't be available long, so go to the iTunes store and find the "FREE on iTunes" section at the bottom of the home page and click on Sara's picture.

The entire album will be released next week. I've already ordered my copy.

Sara is one of few Christian singers who can talk about life without being preachy or trite. Even if Christian music isn't your thing, try this song. You won't be sorry.

Some day, some print will come ...

This week has been busy. And this weekend will be just as busy. But perhaps early next week I will be back with something worth writing about.

In the meantime, did you know that in Google's blog reader application, you can set up a search for blog topics? Right now, I have one set to catch posts on human trafficking. It pulls articles from sources all over the world. They're usually heartbreaking, but it drives home the scope of the problem.

A Fair Halloween

My friend Bob forwarded to me the following e-mail. This is a wonderful idea and makes me glad that I skipped the cheap, monstrous-sized bag of chocolate at Target this afternoon. The following suggestion seems so much better:

Halloween will soon be upon us. Chocolate is a favorite Halloween treat. But you may not know that MOST chocolate that arrives here in the U.S. comes from child cocoa laborers that work on family farms, even as slaves. The U.S. chocolate industry says it's working to end abusive child labor on cocoa farms, but so far little has been accomplished and their plan does NOT guarantee farmers a fair and stable price for their cocoa. There is a solution -- Fair Trade Certified Chocolate! Fair Trade guarantees farmers a fair price for their cocoa, so they can feed their families and keep their kids in school. Fair Trade does not allow abusive child labor or forced labor.

I want to share with you an opportunity to participate in making certain that farmers get fair compensation for their goods. Would you consider giving out fair trade chocolate with an accompanying note this Halloween? Click here to learn more. At this global exchange web site, you can even download Halloween cards explaining fair trade chocolate!

No one loves chocolate more than me!!! But as I consider more and more the abusive conditions under which the cocoa is harvested to give me a pleasurable treat, I want to make a difference in the process.

This Halloween campaign is a small, but significant, effort toward a day when all is REALLY fair in the world. Take a look at the website. And I hope you will choose to make a difference.

That website again is: http://www.globalexchange.org/campaigns/fairtrade/cocoa/halloween.html
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If nothing else, I will be making a trip to Trader Joe's before the kiddies ring my door bell.

UPDATE (9/27/07): I think the links had issues, but they should be correct now.

Slave Chocolate

When it comes to treats, nothing makes me smile like a block of seriously dark chocolate. So it broke my heart to hear that most of the chocolate for sale is produced by slaves, and mostly children at that.

Boycott chocolate? Will that solve the problem? Maybe not according to some articles I've read. (Click on this post's title to read one of the articles.) Still how can I eat chocolate when I know this? Just before I learned about "slave chocolate" a friend gave me a large bag of a favorite kind of chocolate. Each time I ate a piece, a mental image popped up of a child working in a field when he or she should be in school or out playing. Time to quit chocolate?

Enter free trade chocolate.

I thought it would be difficult to find, but the new Trader Joe's in town carries an affordable house brand of free trade chocolate, produced under standards similar to those that ensure coffee is grown and sold in a socially responsible manner. This means good growing practices, living wages for crops and fair worker policies.

Phew! I still get to hoard dark chocolate in my desk drawer, and it might even taste better ...

Times I Wish I Had a Camera ...

1. When I pass the "Brothers' Heating and Cooling" billboard on a 60º morning: Said billboard features a bright red LED of the current temperature and a picture of two goofy looking men wearing down jackets and earmuffs and saying, "Brrrr... it could always be better." I laugh every time, because it's rarely cold enough here for that billboard to make any sense.

2. When I pass the "MyTV12" sign: This one points to the infamous 485/77 interstate bottleneck and says, "My Traffic Jam." I spend a lot of time glaring at that sign while waiting to merge.

3. When a woman in a Subaru Outback-type, crunchy-granola-girl hatchback cuts me off in traffic: Her only bumper sticker? A blue box that says (in white letters) "Teach Peace!" She is doing a tremendous job of that with her driving.

Unfortunately, these moments often strike me while I'm driving, which does not lend itself to safe or unblurry photography. But use your imaginations and smile with me.