BBC Fair on Trade? (From York Press)

BBC Fair on Trade?

11:47pm Monday 18th February 2008

• Print
• Email

I watched "Make Trade Fair" (BBC Sunday night) and am appalled! Not in the way I suspect I was supposed to be appalled, but because of the total lack of intelligent questioning to highlight any issues that do or don't exist.

The three children from an English School "interviewed" children happily picking cotton, looking suitably horrified that the Indian children were doing this all day rather than going to school, totally missing the point that it was harvest time! Harvest time is not something many children are aware of these days, living in cities where they are totally disconnected from fruit and vegetable seasons. Everything is available all year round because of well-planned and well co-ordinated global supply chains.

Indian children don't do this all year round, they do it for a short period and get paid. Just like I used to do when it was time to harvest the potato crop in England. I used to get paid peanuts for working long days because farmers needed cheap abundant labour. As children we were ideal because we were cheap to employ, worked quickly and enthusiastically, and didn't need to be kept on for the rest of the year. We just went back to school having enjoyed our time in the fields.

If anyone cared enough about what was going on to do a bit more research they might discover that India is a bit more developed than that. Children do go to school and that is why India is developing fast into one of the World's largest and most powerful economies. Children have been a massive asset at harvest time for thousands of years, as they were in England before gradual mechanisation and finally EU limits made them obsolete. Children everywhere helped by upping the labour force for short periods to help bring in the harvest.

I'm sure that farmers in America who pick cotton with machines, but still can't compete with the price of cotton from places like India, will be very happy if Indian prices are forced up. They'll be able to out-compete the competition again and who will the winners be?

It is the responsibility of Programme Producers to make sure that a balanced view is obtained and broadcast. Otherwise the results may not be in the best interests of those we "think" need our support.

I must confess I gave up on the programme at this point and turned over to find something a little more intelligent. Sorry BBC, 1 out of 10, could do very much better if some proper research was carried out!