Boronia Fair Trade Concert

Yesterday was the third Make Poverty History day for the year, which was to influence the World Trade Organisation while they meet in Hong Kong this week. At the Arboretum (Boronia's version of Lake Wendouree) we had a concert and a fair trade market. People could buy shoes, soccer balls, coffee, tea and jewellery that was made by people in developing countries who were actually paid a decent wage. For a while I looked after the Tear stall, where people could buy stuff like text books, goats and clean water for people overseas. (Their gift catalogue is here.)

Towards the end of the concert, John Smith talked a bit about Santa Claus, and how the original Santa Claus wasn't much like the jolly fat man we have these days. Saint Nicholas was actually a rather affluent man who gave up his wealth to help aleviate poverty.
He also talked about how it's pretty easy to give to a charity at Christmas to make us feel good about ourselves, after a year of self indulgence. It's a lot more challenging to change the way we live, particularly the way we use our wealth, from day to day.