The Journey Begins

In Flight: Midland, TX to Mumbai, India
19 hours flight time & total 27 hours transport time

I’m finally on my way to India. This trip has been four months in the making and it’s exciting to be on my way transcending from planning to doing. I took a leap of faith that I would get accepted into a business school and began planning “my trip of a lifetime” – at least that’s what I think it will be. Especially after working in the ‘real world’ for five years, I’ve realized the scarcity of opportunities to take months off at a time to pursue passions (outside of my career) and learn something about myself and about the world. So it is with these intentions that I am headed to India for the approximately 2.5 months prior to entering grad school.

The first project I will be pursuing is as a summer intern for a non-profit organization based in Berkley, CA called World of Good (http://www.worldofgood.org/). WoG is an advocacy group for fair trade specifically in the handicrafts sector. To be completely honest, I was not particularly well versed in fair trade prior to stumbling upon WoG’s website. However, we’ve all heard of fair trade – think Starbucks selling coffees and teas with fair trade labels. While fair trade amongst commodity products has become more mainstream (a result of the fundamental nature of commodities – tea, coffee, sugar – that allows for quality standardization and thereby easier labeling and certification) in the past few years, the concept of fair trade actually originated within the handicrafts sector and takes roots as early as 1940’s (differing sources place the origins in Europe in the 1970’s or in the US in the 1940’s).

You may be wondering what exactly is ‘fair’ trade and what does the handicrafts sector refer to. My basic and very brief interpretation of the concept is that fair trade aims to prevent the exploitation of labor in developing countries (“Southern Producers”) by developed countries (“Northern Consumers”). Humf. Sounds like world history wrapped up in one definition, eh? I’m sure I’ll have plenty of thoughts to share once I’ve been in the field about fair trade and indeed there are plenty of controversies related to this topic. But for now, I don’t wan to stray off topic. So as mentioned earlier, advocacy is not what drove me to pursue a summer internship with WoG. Below are excerpts from my internship application cover letter:

“…Through my own artistic maturation…I began to associate my artwork as not only a form of self-expression, but also as a product of thousands of years of cultural evolution.

While globalization is accelerating the advancement of many underdeveloped nations, all sectors of these nations’ economies are not growing or benefiting from this phenomenon at the same pace. This is especially true in informal economies, such as within the artisan communities. Gradually, the handmade artwork I received from India has been replaced with mass produced factory products, stripped of its artistry and stamped with a “Made in India” label. I have developed a passion for advocating fair trade practices, especially amongst artisan communities, as I recognize that global macroeconomic factors have undercut artisans’ economic incentives to sustain their trade, especially as many struggle to meet their basic survival needs. Fair trade practices are the key to the (i) persistence of cultural art, (ii) improvement of artists’ standard of living and (iii) maintenance of the integrity of a global artisan sector.“