My comment on Fairtrade

In my opinion Fairtrade is one of the leading organizations in socially responsible business programs because Fairtrade tries to give the financial and social power to the small-scale producers who historically never had it.

In this statistic we can see how much fairtrade related producers and producer organizations are in the countries all over the world. In Latin America there are Peru, Colombia and Mexico with the most fairtrade producers/farmers. In Asia there are the most producers/farmers in India.

There are more than 1.4 million farmers and workers in 74 countries.

The story of Thanksgiving

In the last english lesson, we watched the video "The story of thanksgiving" on youtube  and it talks about how this holiday was originated. I thought you might be interested because thanksgiving is an important holiday in the USA.

Basically what it says is that pilgrims left england to get independent and also because of the potatoe famine. After they arrived in autumn 1620, they suffered in the "new world" from coldness and famine. They succesfully survived winter after a native american named Squanto helped them to get through winter building wooden shelters, teaching them how to cultivate corn and by helping them to hunt.

The pilgrims were thankful and they decided to celebrate this day every year. The first thanksgiving wasn't just one big meal. It was a three day festival of eating, hunting and entertainment in honor of the first pilgrims succesful harvest.

"Gender stereotypes exist - like it or not"

I was reading an article of June 2016 by Adrian Furnham. The author gives women advices about how they should deal with gender stereotypes. I thought you might be interested because this is a hot topic at the moment.

Essentially what it says is that success at work is often associated with male characteristics. Therefore, when women show these behaviours they are often seen as tough and disagreeable.

The author mentions that studies show that if women negotiate on behalf of their family, clients or team members – they will not be met with sexist responds. To be empathic and helpful on behalf of others is seen as careful: qualities which are mostly associated with women. According to Catherine Tinsley, an expert on gender issues said that women should change the way they manage so that they work towards the advantage of the whole social group and to be seen as a team member.

Furthermore, they should repeatedly say that they are negotiating on behalf of all members, as well as using their work position as a reason for authority rather than their personality or gender.

From my point of view, women should be aware of the fact that there are and there always will be gender stereotypes about them. What they can do is face these stereotypes and tear them down from the ground up.

For that reason, Tinsley’s advice is to be pragmatic and factual.

What do you think about gender stereotypes?


(Taken from „Business Spotlight“)