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…

Coffee Bean’s ‘Free wifi’ Blocks Gay Blogs

Despite advertising the availability of free wireless internet access at Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf coffee shops, the connection comes at the cost of “technical” discrimination. Philip Minton, who runs the Unite the Fight LGBT equality blog, couldn’t get internet connection at home, so he went to the Coffee Bean on 3rd and La Cienega, in West Hollywood, CA, to do his blog posting from there using their free Wi-Fi service.
Coffee Bean is another chain coffee shop, like Starbucks, with free Wi-Fi service for customers to use while sitting around drinking coffee and doing work, just relaxing, or meeting with people.

When Minton set up his computer and started to go through his news feed, accessing various other blogs, he got a message: that Pam’s House Blend is blocked due to “sexuality.” (Same thing for Towleroad among others.)

See Coffee Bean’s ‘Free wifi’ Blocks Gay Blogs SheWired

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