BLACK GOLD: A New Film by Nick Francis and Marc Francis

THE SYNOPSIS

As westerners revel in designer lattes and cappuccinos, impoverished Ethiopian coffee growers suffer the bitter taste of injustice. In this eye-opening expose of the multi-billion dollar coffee industry, Black Gold traces one man’s fight for a fair price.

THE STORY

Multinational coffee companies now rule our shopping malls and supermarkets and dominate the industry worth over $80 billion, making coffee the most valuable trading commodity in the world after oil.

But while we continue to pay for our lattes and cappuccinos, the price paid to coffee farmers remains so low that many have been forced to abandon their coffee fields.

Nowhere is this paradox more evident than in Ethiopia, the birthplace of coffee. Tadesse Meskela is one man on a mission to save his 74,000 struggling coffee farmers from bankruptcy. As his farmers strive to harvest some of the highest quality coffee beans on the international market, Tadesse travels the world in an attempt to find buyers willing to pay a fair price.

Against the backdrop of Tadesse’s journey to London and Seattle, the enormous power of the multinational players that dominate the world’s coffee trade becomes apparent. New York commodity traders, the international coffee exchanges, and the double dealings of trade ministers at the World Trade Organisation reveal the many challenges Tadesse faces in his quest for a long term solution for his farmers.

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Original source : http://gay_blog.blogspot.com/2009/07/black-gold-ne…

‘Saint Johanna’, Iceland’s gay feminist PM

Reykjavik – Social Democrat Prime Minister Johanna Sigurdardottir, who swept to victory in Iceland’s snap election this weekend, is a gay feminist seen as one of the country’s most skillful politicians.

“Our time has come,” the 66-year-old Sigurdardottir told cheering supporters in her victory speech after Saturday’s general election, called just seven months after Iceland’s economic meltdown.

Nicknamed “Saint Johanna” for her relentless defence of social causes, she was appointed prime minister on February 1 after the previous government led by the conservative Independence Party resigned amid massive protests over the financial sector crash that pushed Iceland to the brink of bankruptcy. See ‘Saint Johanna’, Iceland’s gay feminist PM

Independent Online