A Cup Full of Hope

Java juice, a shot-in-the-arm, a cup-of-joe or a wickedly indulgent caramel-swirl latte, most people on the planet have to have some, and others just can't do without some. Make no mistake, I love a good cup of coffee, not the adulterated offerings with cream and syrup pouring out the top, but the real stuff, where you can almost smell the farm it came from, when you can experience authentic flavour. With my obvious enjoyment of this 'nectar of the gods,' you can imagine how my world came crashing down when, at a colleagues recommendation, I watched a compelling documentary titled 'Black Gold.' Writer for the Guardian in the UK, Peter Bradshaw, lists Black Gold in his Top 10 documentaries for 2007, indicating that it urges us to 'recognize that coffee drinking is an unexamined domestic habit which is globally constituted and globally interconnected.'

The story follows the life of one Tadesse Meskela who, armed with a passion for justice and an intimate working knowledge of global coffee trade, represents 74000 coffee farmers facing an increasingly bleak future. Meskela travels wherever and whenever he can to broker deals with traders willing to pay a fair price for exceptionally good quality coffee. What this lone crusader symbolizes for many powerless small growers is hope. Hope not just for a better price, but a much grander hope. Hope not for an insulting hand-out, but a hand-up. Hope that will see their children educated to ensure the same fate does not visit succeeding generations, hope that will allow basic healthcare to be a norm in their society.

My goal now is to not just drink any old coffee without first delving into it's source and the ethics of it's trade, but drink coffee that supports those who are getting a fair deal, and in so doing lift a cup full of hope. For more information on how vast the issues are, visit http://www.blackgoldmovie.com/.