Fair Trade - Jim Carrey for an MD?

May 10, 2008 - Today is the start of National Tourism Week. Though I live in one of the most popular tourist destinations, I would love to be on a plane traveling to some other tourist destination. Somewhere warm with a great golf course. But I am here, and will be so for the entire week. But if you are interested - Vancouver is a fabulous destination. Come visit.

So what about today? Well, there is so much to choose from. How about Astronomy Day? This just does not make sense to me. Wouldn't Astronomy Night make more sense? You don't gather up your telescope and gaze sunward... The stars come out at day? No matter. Maybe we are meant to start this one at 0001 hrs. In which case, this post may be a bit late.

On a socially responsible note, today is World Fair Trade Day. In this consumer focused society, we are always seeking a 'good deal', but often those good deals come at a cost. For corporations, profit is good, but often at any cost. To satisfy our need to consume consume consume, communities around the world are being marginalized. Their security and livelihoods are at risk, yet, these are often the same communities of people who have the smallest carbon footprint of all. World Fair Trade Day takes aim at these issues by paying a fair price for goods such as coffee - that quite honestly, we can't live without drinking, and many communities can't survive without producing. I am already willing to pay $2.00 a cup for regular coffee, and large coffee companies like Nabob and Starbucks are surely making a big enough profit on to pay a fair price. It is perhaps time for me to do more that write about it. After all, it would be just as easy to buy fair trade coffee - provided I was awake enough. I wonder if we could have a Fair Trade Deal between Canada and the US... for every comedienne we send south we get a tall single doctor?

Today is also the Saturday before Mother's Day, or, Florists' Bonanza Day. Indeed tomorrow is the biggest day in the flower industry, and I have once again failed to send my mother flowers. I don't think the local flower shop will suffer much. What about those mothers that, because of circumstances, just could not be mothers themselves and instead, did the selfless thing and gave their babies to another - a gift of motherhood? Today is Birthmother's Day.

Birthmother's Day started in 1990 by a group of women in Seattle who were themselves birth mothers. They chose the Saturday before Mother's Day - because for adoptive families, there was first the birth mother, and then the mother. Today, I see this day as a celebration not only for birth mothers, but also to draw attention to the importance of adoption - locally or internationally.

There are so many good reasons to give a home to a child that needs love. If ever I decide to have children in my life, adoption is the route I would choose. Of course, I like the adopt a college graduate program. Preferably a PhD grad... about 6'2", dark hair, green eyes... Who's your Mommy?