On Fair Trade, Pro-Poor and Inclusivity

I went on an unexpected field trip this Thursday. I interviewed a woman from a local non-profit, a task that I thought would take up maybe two hours of my day. She is one of those higher-ups who has so much energy you start sniffing around for the crack pipe. Somehow, by the end of my day I had been fast-talked into an adventure. At 5:00 pm, I was miles outside the city near a flock of grazing sheep and a screaming donkey, out 50 JD and worried five Bedouins might jump us.

So the deal with the non-profit: they are a leading non-profit, non-governmental organization dedicated to promoting rights-based sustainable human development in Jordan and in the region. They specialize in the rural sectors of Jordan, which tend to be the poorest. This year they started a farmer's market in an attempt to allow some local farmer's market access and to promote their products and services. The farmer's market would love to be Fair Trade, i.e. no middle men or big business (among other issues), but in Jordan, upholding the tenets of rigorous Fair Trade philosophy can be next to impossible. But I'll get in to this later.

The project director and curiously (but not uncommon) white, westerner, wanted to visit a local glass blower (one of the only in the region) in order to check out his work and possibly sell it at the market. The director, myself and a Jordanian native piled in to my car and navigated our way to the dilapidated shop, with broken windows, a rusty slab of metal serving as the roof and curious children giggling behind garbage cans. Peeking inside through the filthy glass, we could see piles of trash and general disarray, as if the stove had exploded. When we were finally able to meet the glass blower, an aging man with no teeth, swollen feet and hands, who required a cane to walk when he could bare to stand, it was revealed that he didn't have the key to the pad lock denying us entry.

It turns out the glass blower has been locked out of his shop for over six months. Due to the instability of tourism in Jordan, his sales had declined. It probably didn't help that his shop was in the middle of nowhere. The glass blower had been unable to pay the landlord the 120 JD per month rent, which had accumulated into 2,200 JD. Getting the landlord, a Bedouin decked in a long black robe and white head dress, to unlock the door was a family affair where five of his sons eventually stood watch while we chose different pieces of glass to buy and sell at the market.

As we prepared to leave, a fight broke out between the glass blower and the owner of the store, who was demanding the rent be paid. The owner started kicking the boxes we had collected, and only surreptitiously were we able to get them into my trunk. The fight escalated as the brothers began to encircle and the old glass blower appeared as if he were gathering his energy for a heart attack. I really believe the only reason the situation was diffused was because of the non-profits's Jordanian representative, an amazing, petit and eternally good-humored woman who sweet talked the fuming old man into the car, which we immediately locked and started.

On many levels, this is a typical situation in Jordan. The landowner was a Bedouin, the merchant a Palestinian refugee. The good samartins swooping in to help were demanding Westerners who didn't speak a lick of Arabic and knew very little about the background of the situation. The merchant was from Hebron and fled in 1983. He had a 5 year passport with no national number. So there again is our generalized condition of homelessness. This man has no rights in ANY country. He is not a citizen. This is true for around 7,000 Palestinians in Jordan and approximately 500,000 Iraqi refugees. So this man has no recourse for getting locked out of his shop, fair or unfair. I sympathize with both men. The situation is just crummy.

Two days later, this man's work was sold at the farmer's market. Through the director's marketing, almost everything was bought. However, during the market, a forum was held where passionate internationals and development agents, many Jordanians, discussed fair trade and its limitations. Technically, had this market been fair trade only, the glass blower most likely would not have made the cut. He probably uses his kids to help with his work, which violates child labor standards. And most likely his work isn't environmentally friendly. But it becomes a question then of inclusivity and pro-poor, because the glass blower could be further marginalized for his inability to meet Fair Trade standards. So this non-profit's philosophy is that first you have to elevate people to a point where they can even meet Fair Trade standards.

Anyways, I'm digressing and I don't even have a poignant way to finish this story. I just have questions. For example, when we dropped the glass blower off at his house, which was multi-storied and well-kept, I heard the director gasp from the backseat "he's not even poor." It didn't seem like the non-profit truly knew the background of the situation. The glass blowing could easily have been the old man's hobby, although his enfeebled condition bore the markings of a hard life. As well, the situation was directed by the Westerner. The Jordanian representative mainly served as a translator and both the glass blower and the shop owner seemed intimidated to stand up to the Westerner....Oh the complexities of "development".