Yesterday I sat down and watched Black Gold, a movie about Ethiopia and the international coffee trade (its easier to procrastinate my thesis if I am doing other ‘productive’ things in the place of writing). I wish I hadn’t. Not because it wasn’t good, but because it forces me again to question my increasingly frequent trips to Starbucks for my favourite bevvy: a grande, non-fat, Americano Misto. The movie does such a good job of illustrating the disparity between the lives of coffee consumers here in the West and the producers in the South (in this case, Ethiopia’s highlands), and about the effects of declining coffee prices on their ability to meet basic needs. The long and the short of it is that these farmers are unable to meet their basic needs and are converting their fields to the more lucrative production of Khat, another popular stimulant (but one that falls on the United States’ Controlled Substance list).

I’ve said before that an individual’s role in international development isn’t just in charity. It’s also in the daily choices that affect the relationships between developed and underdeveloped (whether it be individuals, states, regions). For me, this is the hardest part of being involved in development, and I continue to fail miserably at changing my consumption choices in a way that will minimize my participation in active underdevelopment.

To tune into someone who is doing a great job at participating in the “Fair” discussion, check out a friend’s soon-to-be released documentary, Threads of Wrath, questioning notions of ‘fairness’ among cotton farmers in Burkina Faso, West Africa.