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yankeessuk27
Member
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# Posted: 16 Oct 2007 16:33
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This film was very informative and opened our eyes to the world of coffee trading and selling. However, we feel that this film is much too biased and only sheds light on one side of the story. The facts in this movie are not fake, they are all true and some of them are alarming. They do not include, any facts supporting the major coffee companies. These companies are portrayed as evil empires trying to rule the world. This is not necessarily true. Other things need to be considered. Some may find it alarming that the farmers are only paid 57 cents per kilo while by the time it reaches America it is raised to 230 dollars. The coffee goes through many stages. It has to be packed, shipped, treated, packed again, shipped again, then sent to a roaster. Finally, it reaches our stores. Every single step costs more and more as it goes along. These big business companies have to consider more than there own pockets. Workers need pay and a guarantee of things such as Health Insurance, a minimum wage, and retirement benefits. All of these processes are also taxed heavily. Not only that, the standard of living in developed countries such as France, Italy, and America are much higher than that of Ethiopia. Which Puts more pressure on the coffee companies. Let's face it, coffee companies aren't just the bullies towards the farmers like they are portrayed in this movie. They give jobs around the world to just as many people as the Ethiopian Farmers. In conclusion we feel that although this movie was informative and a good insight into the world of fair trade, we would also like to see the other side's point of view so that we may come up with a way to please everyone.
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concerned2
Member
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# Posted: 20 Oct 2007 02:29
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devilsadvocate,
Are you kidding? We here in America are not victims! I have not seen the film but I just returned from 10 days in Ethiopia and if I ever complain about anything again I should be shot! These people are so incredibly poor. Americans are completely spoiled. You don't have to buy that $4 cup of coffee. We have options. The Ethiopian people do not. WAKE UP! This is a country where most women walk 6 miles a day for water. And it's not even clean water. It is full of parasites and diseases. We need to become a more concerned and socially just country. As it is America is growing rich on the backs of the rest of the world's poor.
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decaf
Member
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# Posted: 21 Oct 2007 03:37
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yankeessuk27,
your post is well written and poses some very insightful thoughts. I think with respect to hearing the other side of the story we must remember the disclaimer at the end of the film which stated that large corporations such as Nestle, Sara Lee etc. were contacted for an interview and declined. I don't necessarily think that there is a way to please everyone because as it stands right now the only people that are displeased with the situation are the impoverished farmers in developing countries. From the perspective of the profiting MNC's, everything is going well and therefore why is there any reason for change. Hopefully with greater consumer education, the market will change and the WTO will resolve what is ultimatley a huge ethical issue in the treatment of our fellow human beans :).
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runn3rgrl07
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# Posted: 22 Oct 2007 02:50
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I do agree that the argument is one-sided, however, I too must be the devil's advocate. We as Americans are indeed "spoiled." We do not need to have most of the luxuries that are available. And yet we squander money on them anyway, getting our "repentance", and allowing ourselves to sleep at night by sending foreign aid. Aid is not what the Ethiopians need. Who would ever be able to live happily, knowing that they are unable to be self-sustaining, and are dependent on others for the insufficient meals that they are provided? I certainly couldn't. Charity isn't what they need, but fair trading is. They should be paid sufficient funds to compensate them for their years of labor and suffering. We are already willing to pay 4 dollars for a cup of coffee. And, even if the price is raised, people will still continue to buy it. (As with cigarettes; the price was raised to ridiculous levels, and yet sales did not and still have not decreased). In a country where obesity is considered an "epidemic," I think that we can afford to pay a little more to obtain the things that we do not necessarily need, so that others can have what they need to survive.
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abdi
Member
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# Posted: 29 Oct 2007 17:07
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Let us not blind our selves and let us face the truth, the big companies can really pay a little more to help the farmers improve their lives, coffee is their main product and if they don't get good price for it their product their living conditions will be more difficult then now, all things that you have mentioned about the long processes that the coffee takes to reach our stores are true and I agree with you but the question is can the big companies pay some more money? And in fact its yes because in the movie you see ladies picking coffee in such difficult condition but if the companies pay fare price those ladies would be able to create a good working places
In my opinion I think that these coffee companies aren't up to that, by the end of the movie you see that many of those companies where invited to be interview but the all denied so think of if they are all innocent why didn't they come and make it clear? I believe that they are taking advantage of those farmer who aren't well educated but I'm so pleased tedesse who is really doing good job and encouraging the farmers to get good price for their coffee and I hope there will be more people like him.
In conclusion I would say the only solution for this is that the coffee companies pay a fare price
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wanderman
Member
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# Posted: 28 Jan 2008 00:39
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If we were to pay the Ethiopian farmers more what would happen?
Well, one thing might be that more of them would move into growing coffee. What would be the consequences of that? Not just in Ethiopia but worldwide.
There must be a better way.
How about getting internet access spread into these poor areas of the world so that farmers/cooperatives could decide what to grow on the basis of what would be likely to get them a better price. The coffee market is obviously saturated at the moment. They'd be better off growing vegetables for local consumption I'd think. Or at least to diversify a bit. It's their reliance on a single cash crop that leaves them so vulnerable.
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kinshasa
Member
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# Posted: 2 Apr 2008 08:39
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At Bogazici University in istanbul we looked the movie in a seminar and we had to write a filmreview.
Here follows mine
The Documentary-Movie "Black Gold" shows the faces and fates behind the low prices, which are paid for Coffee-Beans in Ethiopia. The farmers, who complain about the fallen prices on the world market, are pictured as helpless victims and the movie tries to evoke sympathy for the suffering Ethiopians. In my opinion, the two filmmakers have not been careful enough to avoid polemic tools of presentation and so they disqualify their self and damage their own credibility. For example in the shown comparison of the $2.90 which are paid sometimes for a cup of coffee in the global north and the $0.54 paying for a pound of beans in the south, the two filmmaking brothers miss to remind for the row of work which is invested until an cup of cappuccino is served. In counting their price as 1000 times less as it is paid in the North, they willingly forget the other cost factors. Furthermore they portray the Farmer-Lobbyist Tadesse Meskela, who is fighting for the disadvantaged farmers and give him an inadmissible high speaking part, so that it is not really a dialectic way of analyzing a situation. The two directing brothers Marc and Nic Francis honestly explain their manipulating way of filmmaking as a way to break with the overwhelming row of bad news about Africa and Ethiopia. They want to show the beauty of the country and they followed Tadesse Meskela because they have been impressed by his personality. Obviously they did not try to bring a representative picture of Ethiopia. However the question is, if a movie can be measured by such scientific criteria and if the good intentions can justify their biased documentary. Without any doubt, it is important to show the forgotten people from the rural mountains in Ethiopia and to give the injustice of the global market a face. In my opinion it is also important to escape from the tendency of journalism, that "bad news are good news". The Francis-Brothers did this with their selection of beautiful pictures of Ethiopian landscape and population. But with the repeating of the same complaining, without giving much space to an analysis of the problem, they still follow the tradition of "bad news". More differentiated parts of the movie, where they leave the "Black and White"-order behind, are the short introductions of two personalities. On the one side the resigned Chat-addicted Ethiopian, who is not presented as a working-class martyr like the most other Africans, and on the other side the Englishmen, who pays more for the quality-coffee as the world market, because of not explained reasons. The western world is portrayed as a totally opposite to the African life. Pictures from neonlight-advertisements in NYC and strange, overfriendly waitresses in Starbucks represent a consumption-society without contact to basic needs. The Stock market and the WTO are introduced as a symbol of power, aggression and the capitalistic competition. Here the Relation between North and South is the relation between an active player with the strings in their hand and the hopeless farmers who are waiting and praying for better times. That the movie tries to bring the both sides together in showing effects of the world we know on the unknown Life in the sub-Saharan Africa, is an important step for reminding the western audience in their power and responsibility as rich consumers. The shopping cart is a powerful tool. To see Tadesse Meskela in the familiar shopping mall gives the audience a human face, which can ease their decisions between cheap and fair trade coffee. The fate of the Ethiopian population is shown in a global context. The prices for coffee and in this way the wages of many poor families are dependent from the stock markets in NY and London and the coffee-trade is dominated by just 4 multi-national-companies, which are following the principle of profit-maximation without any sense for moral questions as the hungriness of African farmers. Nevertheless the problems of Africa should not only been seen as caused from abroad. In the movie we are faced with the cruel picture of a famine. The Ethiopian population had to suffer again and again under this incredible problem. Responsible for this are not only the low prices for raw materials like coffee, but the terrible dictators like Haile Selassie and Mengistu, who ruled the country, and the long during wars in the border-regions. Droughts beset the country and it is difficult to distribute aid in this huge mountainous country without adequate infrastructure. To understand the cruelty of the African dictators, we have to imagine, that in the past Aid in times of famine had been refused by the government in Ethiopia, because they did not want to damage to the reputation of their country. Personally I was particular happy about seeing this movie, because I have been thinking about living in Addis Ababa the next winter. The pictures showed the country in a positive light and attracted me. I believe the best way to generate interest for the fate of African people is to show their joy and their daily life, not only their suffering.
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shareinfoline
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# Posted: 6 Jun 2008 07:49
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AngieM
Member
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# Posted: 1 Aug 2008 02:29
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"Workers need pay and a guarantee of things such as Health Insurance, a minimum wage, and retirement benefits."
Of course, this does not include farmers from other countries. They don't need those! In fact, it's even okay that they don't have schools, food or clean water. We good ole Americans reserve the right to keep those special privileges inside our own country and we don't let the bad third world farmers take our hard earned money to use selfishly on their children!
In fact, I think it would be fair to say, if it were the US laboring over coffee relentlessly every day, selling it to huge, rich corporations in Ethiopia we would completely understand why our children are starving while Ethiopians are breathing in the sweet aroma of big bucks every morning.
thank god for americans
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soaware
Member
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# Posted: 13 Aug 2009 00:18 - Edited by: soaware
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Which of the BIG 5 does this person who started this thread work for?
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