Fair traders have established a number of organisations, notably the World Fair Trade Organisation (WFTO), and national licensing bodies such as the Fairtrade Foundation in the UK, and Transfair in the USA and Canada. Transfair’s Google Earth layer has made it easy to locate fair trade suppliers.²

Above we see icons for a pair of cocoa growing cooperatives – CONACADO in the Dominican Republic and Kuapa Kokoo in Ghana. The members of the latter are (partly) direct owners of Divine Chocolate produced in the UK.³

Craft producers are not currently certified by Transfair, but many commodities are. In India (and several other countries) we can see the icons for rice – the Federation of Small Farmers – and tea – the most excellent Makaibari Tea Estate in Darjeeling, where we do get a good look at the tea terraces.

There are a large number of coffee producers, such as this cluster in Peru, where we can also see the icon for fruit growers.

The WFTO sets global standards for the operation of fair trade businesses, including fair pay, protection of the environment, gender equity and more.

The national licensing bodies certify that goods have been produced within minimum fair trade standards. They also encourage communities to promote fair trade by becoming fair trade towns, villages or cities – meaning that a certain number of qualifying businesses include some fair trade products in their offerings.

The first such community to achieve this goal was Garstang in England, which proudly shows this on the road signs at the entrance to the town.

The majority of fair trade producers in developing countries work in distributed groups, and generally at small farms or workshops, meaning they are hidden in areas where the satellite imagery is very low resolution. However, I have been able to track down one location in Bangladesh – the workshop of Biborton Handmade Paper, in the village of Agailjhara.

Biborton – part of the Prokritee agency – is a group of approximately 70 women working to create paper, which they then transform into greeting cards, gift bags and more. At the right time of day the grassy central courtyard would be a colourful field of paper drying in the sun.

The building at the top of the image is their office and workshop where final products are assembled. The building on the left is where fibres are processed into paper. They also have a number of metal-sided kilns that allow paper to be dried and production to continue even during the monsoon season.

Visit the World Fair Trade Day website to find events in your area.

Locations: Bangladesh, Dominican Republic, England, Ghana, India, Peru / Categories: Other Vehicles, Street Views

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The building and 200 acres of surrounding grounds were designed by noted architect Louis Kahn. At first glance the bare concrete walls and giant geometric shapes, along with the massive staircases leading to the main building, can cause it to appear quite imposing, but extended viewings reveal the beauty and impressiveness of the design. Some good images appear on Wikimedia.

Construction started in 1961 with the building intended to serve both East and West Pakistan. One liberation war and a couple of decades passed before the complex was completed in 1982 to house the government of the still relatively young country of Bangladesh.

The central part of the building is 47 metres tall and contains the main Parliament Chamber, while the surrounding 8 wings are 33 metres tall and include offices, meeting rooms, store rooms and all the other necessities of officialdom.

Surrounded by lush grounds, lakes and smaller buildings containing offices and residences for MPs, the whole area appears to be an oasis of calm in an otherwise very crowded and bustling city. However, despite being surrounded by a very low fence, and Wikipedia’s comment that the complex is open to visitors and ‘popular with joggers and skaters’, when I visited in early 2008 the grounds were utterly deserted. Tight security surrounding the military government means the whole area is off-limits to the estimated 20 million residents of Dhaka.

To the north, past the crescent lake lies the mausoleum of Ziaur Rahman, a revered President of Bangladesh who was assassinated in 1981.

Read more about architect Louis Kahn and former president Ziaur Rahman at Wikipedia.

Thanks to James.

Locations: Bangladesh / Categories: Buildings, Monuments

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Chittagong Ship Breaking Yard in Bangladesh is mostly in low-res, but we can see a couple of ships here which have been beached on the mud flats for dismantling. All the steel from the ships is recycled and I think these are lifeboats.

The workers here are mostly barefoot, have no safety gear and scrap the ships by hand. Greenpeace estimates that due to the potential for structural collapse on the ships, and the hazardous chemicals abound, one worker a day is likely to die. Edward Burtynsky’s photos show just how perilous it is.

There’s even more to see Alang, India, where workers can expect similarly awful conditions. Of note here’s a huge end piece of ship and an aircraft carrier waiting out at sea.

Further reading on Wikipedia and Shoback

Thanks: Nathan, John Kranick, dr_cy_coe, Glenn, Ken Przywara, russ

Locations: Bangladesh, India / Categories: Watercraft

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