The credit crunch, breakdown of banks and merging of Halifax and Lloyds TSB seems to have dominated our news the last few weeks…alongside this it seems to be becoming more and more ‘fashionable’ to recycle plastic bags…buy cotton bags instead of using plastic bags and living life in a more ethical manner.
Last year I transferred my bank accounts over to Smile (The Co-op Bank) from Natwest (crapwest) for two main reasons…firstly Natwest were annoying me and secondly the Co-op has a very clear ethical policy which includes making sure that they do not invest in the arms trade, businesses involved in animal testing or goverments/businesses do not support human rights.
Amongst this they also do not invest in companies which have a bad impact on the environment or business which are involved in genetic modifications.
Since this move I have been pondering the implications of ethical banking as a Christian, should there be a link between the bank/building society we use and our faith?
The answer I’ve concluded is yes…let me explain.
If we accept that as Christians the impact of Christ is meant to effect every aspect of our lives then part of our lives is our money and investments. If a Christian operates a business you’d expect them to treat their customers and staff in a way which would reflect the way Christ treated everyone.
The same way (in my opinion) if as Christians we can make sure that we can reflect these views and morals Jesus set out within our banking and investment principals then we should. If we decide that as a Christian war is wrong then is it right to be investing in the arms trade through our banking?
I know that it’s impossible to know what the big high-street banks like Lloyds, Halifax, HSBC, Barclays and Natwest do with our money but it is possible to know what certain banks such as The Co-operative bank, Smile and Triodos don’t do with our money.
So I put it to you that as Christians Christ should be the centre of every aspect of our lives right from the way we treat people up to the way in which we shop and bank.
Remember banking is important to Jesus…’Jesus saves!’
June 26th, 2008 by Mark Tiddy Posted in Ethical Living/ Fairtrade
This article on the metro website details some of Tesco’s pay-rates to people in other countires…can’t say I’m surprised at Tesco…
Link
For more information on supermarket’s and sweatshops see this link
March 4th, 2008 by Mark Tiddy Posted in Ethical Living/ Fairtrade
If you like the idea of fairtrade cola join the facebook group for the campaign
Link
March 1st, 2008 by Mark Tiddy Posted in Ethical Living/ Fairtrade
So there you have it…in Sheffield I found, purchased and drunk Ubuntu fairtrade cola…if you have no idea what I’m on about scroll down and read my previous blog.
Many people have commented in the past that fairtrade versions of things tend to be worse…however fairtrade cola is actually nicer than coke or pepsi (both myself and Jo agreed on that)…it has a nicer smell, it’s just the right level of fizziness and it’s not too sweet.
Now it’s time to spread the word, if you click here you can download a pdf letter which you can print off, fill in and hand to your local shops/supermarkets/cafe’s etc…it would be great if you can get loads of people to do this and get fairtrade coke into shops!
February 28th, 2008 by Mark Tiddy Posted in Current Affairs, Ethical Living/ Fairtrade
Since blogging this morning on fairtrade cola I have since discovered that by going onto the ubuntu cola website - click here for link. You can print off a letter which you can fill in and give to your local supermarket…can I encourage everyone who reads this blog to go to the site, print off say five for each supermarket you regually visit and give them to friends and family asking them to hand the letters in to the supermarket.
Also I’ve discovered that Sheffield University sell it, so tomorrow (I’m in Sheffield for the day) I shall go in search of it and tell you if it tastes good or bad….fairtrade cola here I come…
February 28th, 2008 by Mark Tiddy Posted in Current Affairs, Ethical Living/ Fairtrade
If you don’t know we are into the first week of fairtrade fortnight…Sainsbury’s are currently offering triple points on fairtrade products and in the last year we’ve seen more and more fairtrade products hit our shelves…however not enough!
I’d like to encourage you to all try and buy fairtrade where possible, most supermarkets now have fairtrade bananas, grapes, coffee, oranges, tea, fruit juice and chocolate with others (namely sainsburys) now including individual chocolate bars on the end of aisles, clothing, sugar and other products…
Most of the fairtrade support comes from Sainsbury’s and The CO-OP with ASDA and Tesco doing the bare minimum…for example all the hot drinks in Sainsbury’s Cafe’s are now fairtrade as are ALL of Sainsbury’s bananas.
In the news today (the metro) I’ve read that Fairtrade Cola is becoming available…which is brilliant because the ethics of Coca Cola and Pepsi are pretty bad…Pepsi being the better one.
Although at the moment I cannot find anywhere online to buy this other than The Drink Shop (link), I’d imagine that Ethical Superstore will be stocking it soon - link to ethical superstore
In the mean time I think it’s time to start pushing our supermarkets to start stocking it…why not write to them? or if you see me regually I have lots of ‘Dear store manager’ fairtrade postcards which I can pass on for you to bombard your supermarket with.
Finally if you go to The Ethical Superstore you can buy Fairtrade Easter Eggs…and actually they’re pretty much the same price as Supermarket Easter Eggs…so buy someone a fairtrade easter egg!
February 3rd, 2008 by Mark Tiddy Posted in Ethical Living/ Fairtrade, Joanna, Just For Fun
I’ve just been linked to this site by Jo (in a jokey way of course, however she will hate me for putting this blog in the ‘Joanna’ category!) http://www.frenchlettercondoms.co.uk/ this site makes and sells fairtrade, ethical condoms which I think is genius!
The site that links to these fairtrade condoms is also christian: link!
Disclaimers: I do however believe that if you are planning on buying these you should be married ideally and I have no intention on buying them for a while!!!
December 20th, 2007 by Mark Tiddy Posted in Ethical Living/ Fairtrade, Just For Fun
If you’re reading this welcome to my new blog/website…it’s been a while in the making but I finally seem to have completed a full circle, having started off with a blog away from blogger, then gone to blogger I’m back again without blogger. The new blog allows me to be much more dynamic, publish more things easier and have everything that used to be scattered around different blogs etc in one place!
If you normally subscribe to this blog via RSS use the link on the right and update your RSS Feed now!
The rest of the navigation is simple…along the top you have a list of links as it stands ‘Home’ is the blog & everything else is fairly self explanatory. As you navigate through the links on the top the ‘Menu’ to your right will display more pages…for example on the Christian Reviews section it will expand to show the reviews etc.
Also on the right if you scroll down you’ll find the blogroll (a list of blogs I read) alongside some other links, you’ll see a list of categories allowing you to view my previous blogs by category and you’ll also find an archive and the all important fairtrade link.
I hope you like the new site and find it easy to navigate…posting comments is just as easy as on blogger…in fact it’s easier…no need to login just place your name, website (ie your blog) etc and post a comment!
Enjoy himynameismark.co.uk
PS. Special thanks to Gareth who was on hand to repair any code I couldn’t fix…
October 24th, 2007 by Mark Tiddy Posted in Ethical Living/ Fairtrade, Just For Fun
October 24th, 2007 by Mark Tiddy Posted in Ethical Living/ Fairtrade, Just For Fun
In Sainbury’s Great Yarmouth yesterday I was impressed to see ‘Dubble’ Bars alongside the mars bars and cadbury bars at the end of the aisle by the checkout, for those who don’t know what a Dubble is it’s a very good fairtrade chocolate bar!
And to the left is a picture! Check the end bar!
June 19th, 2007 by Mark Tiddy Posted in Ethical Living/ Fairtrade, Uncategorized
There’s now a fairtrade link/ logo on the blog to the right…everyone go fairtrade…and whilst you’re at it abandon the big banks and go with the CO-OP or Smile, they tell you what happens to your money and it’s not mean, doesn’t involve making weopons and is generally much better!
April 23rd, 2007 by Mark Tiddy Posted in Ethical Living/ Fairtrade, Uncategorized
Tonight at Doodles I had invited Laura Fenson to come along and lead the evening on fairtrade/justice, a topic which I don’t know huge amounts about and I felt really challenged by what she had to say.
I think more and more I’m coming over to the fair-trade side of things and beginning to think that as Christians we should support fairtrade, after Jesus told us to help the poor and because of big corporate companies such as Nestle cocoa farmers have become poor.
I also think that I am going to try and avoid things like chocolate which aren’t fairtrade and probably boycot Tesco…I can’t quite bring myself to destroy my clubcard but it’s a potential.
