To view the range of Fairtrade chocolate choices available, including a range of Easter eggs, visit http://www.fairtrade.com.au/get-involved/campaigns/make-fairtrade-choice-easter

Here’s a Fairtrade locator for Australia and New Zealand:
http://locator.fairtrade.org.nz/locator

For more information about Fairtrade visit the following sites:
http://www.globalpovertyproject.com/howto/buy_fair
http://www.fairtrade.com.au/about-fairtrade/faqs
http://www.oxfam.org.au/explore/trade

I’ve pasted this information from the Fairtrade Facebook page, but I’ll have more to say in my radio comments this Sunday. So as they say, stay tuned.

GANDHI: How did Gandhi morph from commercial lawyer into a human rights advocate and then into a political strategist? http://is.gd/aph4v

SOCIAL JUSTICE: Tzvetan Todorov argues for an Enlightenment approach to developing an open and just modern society: http://is.gd/apiiw

HISTORY: Richard Allsop assesses the work of octogenarian and prominent historian Geoffrey Blainey: http://is.gd/apiWk

ETHICS – BIBLICAL: Christopher Hitchens fancies he’s up to the job of rewriting the Ten Commandments: http://is.gd/apn2W

WAR: Simple-minded moral posturing on Darfur by celebrities and rights activitsts has made the conflict worse: http://is.gd/aprqk

Each day delivers more

At breakfast time there’s only two

By lunchtime there are four.

By dinnertime there will be eight

At bedtime there’s sixteen;

So many, many outcomes and

I don’t know what they mean

And so we live our lives away

With outcomes big and small

Until the final outcome comes

With no outcome at all.

From a cartoon by Michael Leunig, Sydney Morning Herald, 13-14 March 2010, News Review 14.

Authorities in Uzbekistan recently sentenced Tohar Haydarov to ten years in jail on drugs charges, after he allegedly refused to renounce his Christian faith. Local Baptists insist that police planted drugs on him at the time of his arrest, and claim he is “a man with a pure conscience and an honest Christian.” Haydarov remains in detention, and has appealed against his sentence.

Uzbek authorities have long imposed restrictions on religious activity.  The 1991 constitution guarantees freedom of conscience, but it remains illegal to share one’s faith, religious meetings in homes are banned, and there are frequent police raids on churches.

Thank God for the freedom we enjoy, and spare a thought and a prayer for Mr Haydarov and others like him.

Broadcast on 2CH Sydney, Sunday 14 March 2010.

But how did the Roads and Traffic Authority reward 150 of those young people who signed the pledge?  By inviting them to a Twenty/20 cricket match, and plying them with free food and alcohol.

Yes, it’s good to reward people, especially young drivers, who take road safety seriously.  But not with free alcohol at taxpayer expense. The RTA should have thought more carefully about the message its action would send to the young drivers, and their friends, and the wider community.

And I’m sure the families and friends of young people killed and injured in alcohol-related road crashes will not think well of the RTA. Alcohol and driving don’t mix.

Broadcast on 2CH Sydney, Sunday 14 March 2010.