It’s Fairtrade Fortnight in Australia, so I thought I’d take the opportunity to demystify some of the confusion around product certification. My awareness of the issue probably dates back to 2006-07, when there was a push to end child slavery in chocolate. Cadbury committed to making its Dairy Milk bars Fairtrade, first in the UK and then also in Australia. Fairtrade coffee started to pop … Continue reading Why I’m a Fairtrade fan
I like new things but when it comes to reading, I am old school and conservative. I don’t do eBooks because I like the feel of a paperback. I don’t venture outside of my preferred genres. In fact, it’s taken me a long while to incorporate even a few innovations. Here are five ways I’ve modernised or upgraded my reading in the last couple of … Continue reading Reading revolution: 5 ways I’ve upgraded my reading
Incidental damage As a kid, I’d come across the term collateral damage but it wasn’t until I studied the “War on Terror” in high school that I learned its true, ugly meaning. A military term, it refers to incidental harm caused when attacking an enemy, especially to civilians. When you pick a military target you know there are risks of other damage being inflicted and … Continue reading Collaterally damaged, collaterally blessed
I know everybody is saying Good riddance! to 2020 but for all the chaos, I like to think last year contained more than mere silver linings. I like to think it helped us become better people, somehow. And so even as I look back, I’m celebrating and sharing five new “coronarhythms” that 2020 gave me. Coronarhythm 1: Mornings with ABC Classic FM The 7am news … Continue reading Coronarhythms
It’s one thing to love writing; it’s quite another to love editing. Editing is a passion I only discovered through a university job I picked up after my time in Ecuador and before my year in Bolivia. I always knew that I had decent spelling, punctuation and grammar but as a Research & Editorial Assistant at my alma mater, I found even fixing typos can … Continue reading How to edit your life
Cool Ridge has an ad campaign with the tagline “When you can/When you can’t”. It both offended and intrigued me. And it got me thinking about the ethics of bottled water and why we do (or don’t) good. Continue reading The bottled water ad I keep thinking about
In thinking about the year just past, my first thought was that it was a boring year. Not bad as such, but I felt like I went through the whole year without a satisfactory answer to the perennial question: “How have you been?” In other words, I constantly had nothing new to report. Whenever I responded that I’d been “good”, I meant it literally rather than as a polite non-answer.
2018 provided plenty of change in significant areas of my life so 2019 was certainly dull in comparison. And really in comparison to the whole previous decade of my life, which barely saw me doing the same thing for more than a year.
But I don’t want to be ungrateful. If I pause to ponder the last 12 months a little more, I’m able to find a few highlights. They may seem simple, but they have nonetheless enriched my life and I am thankful for these little things. Continue reading 2019: Highlights from a humdrum year
Do what gives you life. That’s what some of my expat friends used to say, with tongue in cheek, when one of us announced we were going for a coffee, or staying in for the night, or some other kind of simple indulgence. I thought it must be one of those kooky lines Americans drop, but it’s a phrase that’s stuck with me. Do what … Continue reading Do what gives you life
The 2017 Ethical Fashion Report is out today. I had the great privilege and pleasure of being part of Baptist World Aid’s research team.
Read the report … and read some of my reflections, about what I’ve learned and why ethics in fashion matters. Continue reading Making fashion ethical, and ethics fashionable
⎯suansita⎯ 