My Basis of Thought….And Why Someday I Might Buy This Coffee..

Response to the Coffee Company with a preface about my personal views, in general.

As a proud Zionist, I have followed Meir Kahane and his group for over 20 years. I am anonymous to the organization. They request support regularly which they definitely deserve. I openly market their webpage and message to others. I have video taped their show and collected articles about them for years. I felt my position was expressed by my profile (on this blog page) but no information about how I came to it. Here is a picture of two books in my possession authored by Kahane and autographed. The group has been media blitzed as a lunatic fringe or maybe as an equivalent to Hamas or Hezbullah. These accusations are ridiculous! The two Muslim “freedom fighter” groups are unarguably terroristic organizations based on their tactics and ideology. The JTF have used discretion at every opportunity to push their cause without the murderous actions and torturous shenanigans that are commonplace elsewhere.

My life experience traveling to Israel, living in New York, and Florida, combined with speaking with Holocaust survivors and living amongst people from across the country and globe of all faiths allows me a unique insight. School, way back when, encouraged someone to look inside and out in order to make a proper and profound conclusion, not a prejudicial one.
When peace-loving, anarchist, liberal, elitist say they want everyone to love one another, I get frustrated because fantasy-land ideas have never prevailed. For example, people are jealous of their own neighbors from time to time! How could anyone expect all the world’s people are to peacefully coexist?! It’s a lofty goal, but virtually unattainable! The same people that spin this message of universal love usually state that the “hatred for others” is entrenched in traditional religious based books and beliefs and change is necessary in the religious institutions themselves if universal love is to be achieved. (Using past wars as examples here.) Bullshit!! Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor…is the bread-and-butter of the doctrines of the world’s religions. Hindus and Buddhists treat all life as sacred. Jews preach the practice of mitzvah, to do something for another without expecting compensation of any sort. Christianity states “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.” Islam asks their believers to do the same…but only to other Muslims. All religions except Islam preach love and tolerance for others. All the great moral ideas that exist today are rooted in those same religions. While some have partially changed over the years, which is Testament (no pun intended) to the tolerant nature and inclusiveness they always taught, the overall ideas remain unchanged. Intolerance of other people is the consistent message of Islamic culture and leadership (both cleric and governmental). Where are the Muslim entrepreneurs looking for universal love. (silence) I am not a pessimist nor am I cynical. I choose to make my opinions based in reality, not hope. I hope companies like this coffee company prevail in proving me wrong and world peace is the final result. On the other hand, sticking my head in the ground is no way of looking to the future. Everyday, terror attacks perpetrated by Muslims all over the world kill and maim others. Families celebrate the malicious attacks, rejoicing with candy and much fanfare. Maybe condemnation by some groups associated with the same religion which perpetrated the attacks would provide some solace and give Leftists ammunition for there insane position. Working together on coffee is so far from making world peace, its not even a small step.
I noticed that the company was formed by Americans with Jewish and Christian backgrounds. Why did no Muslim organizations pitch the idea? Why have all philanthropist ventures hoping to improve life in impoverished areas of the world stemmed from Western countries? Islamic people usually benefit the most from these ventures whenever they are tried. Little is done to reciprocate this from wealthy Muslim countries. Do the Saudis try to help Hindu people in poverty? Do the Iranians help Israelis? Islamic countries do little to help their poor? They hold multiple seats in the UN yet waste valuable time condemning Israel for defending itself. Israel has given land to the Arabs multiple times in good faith with NO success in peaceful, final negotiations. Israel has helped the Jordanians in utilizing the Dead Sea for economic prosperity. The cold peace they share is little consolation in my view. Pakistan is the Hindu “land for peace” deal that only lead to war over Kashmir. The lust for world domination is insatiable for Muslims. This is apparent by their actions in the past AND present. No outcry for the victims of Islamic aggression by Islamic groups, only jeers.
I hope your coffee company is the beginning of a great capitalist venture that does bring world peace. As a matter of fact, I will do a commercial for the company if it ever begins to change any minds at their request. I want the entire world to be a John Lennon metaphor. But I have my doubts. While Hindus, Jews, Christians and others get the flack from living on the global front of the modern street-to-street third world war that is Islamic conquest rooted in Khilafah dreams, I hold out our cynical hand to your company: I am buying the coffee as soon as I see it in stores! GOOD LUCK!!

But..if you stick your head in the ground when events happen to justify our position, I am sticking my size 13 boot in your ass-sumption that everyone respects one another!

Ronald Reagan said, ” Trust but verify.” He held the communists to this and they complied. I hold the terrorists who say they want peace to the same standard.

Links
Muslim attack 7/30/08
Islamic attack on Hindus
Islam in Russia

My Basis of Thought….And Why Someday I Might Buy This Coffee..

Response to the Coffee Company with a preface about my personal views, in general.

As a proud Zionist, I have followed Meir Kahane and his group for over 20 years. I am anonymous to the organization. They request support regularly which they definitely deserve. I openly market their webpage and message to others. I have video taped their show and collected articles about them for years. I felt my position was expressed by my profile (on this blog page) but no information about how I came to it. Here is a picture of two books in my possession authored by Kahane and autographed. The group has been media blitzed as a lunatic fringe or maybe as an equivalent to Hamas or Hezbullah. These accusations are ridiculous! The two Muslim “freedom fighter” groups are unarguably terroristic organizations based on their tactics and ideology. The JTF have used discretion at every opportunity to push their cause without the murderous actions and torturous shenanigans that are commonplace elsewhere.

My life experience traveling to Israel, living in New York, and Florida, combined with speaking with Holocaust survivors and living amongst people from across the country and globe of all faiths allows me a unique insight. School, way back when, encouraged someone to look inside and out in order to make a proper and profound conclusion, not a prejudicial one.
When peace-loving, anarchist, liberal, elitist say they want everyone to love one another, I get frustrated because fantasy-land ideas have never prevailed. For example, people are jealous of their own neighbors from time to time! How could anyone expect all the world’s people are to peacefully coexist?! It’s a lofty goal, but virtually unattainable! The same people that spin this message of universal love usually state that the “hatred for others” is entrenched in traditional religious based books and beliefs and change is necessary in the religious institutions themselves if universal love is to be achieved. (Using past wars as examples here.) Bullshit!! Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor…is the bread-and-butter of the doctrines of the world’s religions. Hindus and Buddhists treat all life as sacred. Jews preach the practice of mitzvah, to do something for another without expecting compensation of any sort. Christianity states “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.” Islam asks their believers to do the same…but only to other Muslims. All religions except Islam preach love and tolerance for others. All the great moral ideas that exist today are rooted in those same religions. While some have partially changed over the years, which is Testament (no pun intended) to the tolerant nature and inclusiveness they always taught, the overall ideas remain unchanged. Intolerance of other people is the consistent message of Islamic culture and leadership (both cleric and governmental). Where are the Muslim entrepreneurs looking for universal love. (silence) I am not a pessimist nor am I cynical. I choose to make my opinions based in reality, not hope. I hope companies like this coffee company prevail in proving me wrong and world peace is the final result. On the other hand, sticking my head in the ground is no way of looking to the future. Everyday, terror attacks perpetrated by Muslims all over the world kill and maim others. Families celebrate the malicious attacks, rejoicing with candy and much fanfare. Maybe condemnation by some groups associated with the same religion which perpetrated the attacks would provide some solace and give Leftists ammunition for there insane position. Working together on coffee is so far from making world peace, its not even a small step.
I noticed that the company was formed by Americans with Jewish and Christian backgrounds. Why did no Muslim organizations pitch the idea? Why have all philanthropist ventures hoping to improve life in impoverished areas of the world stemmed from Western countries? Islamic people usually benefit the most from these ventures whenever they are tried. Little is done to reciprocate this from wealthy Muslim countries. Do the Saudis try to help Hindu people in poverty? Do the Iranians help Israelis? Islamic countries do little to help their poor? They hold multiple seats in the UN yet waste valuable time condemning Israel for defending itself. Israel has given land to the Arabs multiple times in good faith with NO success in peaceful, final negotiations. Israel has helped the Jordanians in utilizing the Dead Sea for economic prosperity. The cold peace they share is little consolation in my view. Pakistan is the Hindu “land for peace” deal that only lead to war over Kashmir. The lust for world domination is insatiable for Muslims. This is apparent by their actions in the past AND present. No outcry for the victims of Islamic aggression by Islamic groups, only jeers.
I hope your coffee company is the beginning of a great capitalist venture that does bring world peace. As a matter of fact, I will do a commercial for the company if it ever begins to change any minds at their request. I want the entire world to be a John Lennon metaphor. But I have my doubts. While Hindus, Jews, Christians and others get the flack from living on the global front of the modern street-to-street third world war that is Islamic conquest rooted in Khilafah dreams, I hold out our cynical hand to your company: I am buying the coffee as soon as I see it in stores! GOOD LUCK!!

But..if you stick your head in the ground when events happen to justify our position, I am sticking my size 13 boot in your ass-sumption that everyone respects one another!

Ronald Reagan said, ” Trust but verify.” He held the communists to this and they complied. I hold the terrorists who say they want peace to the same standard.

Links
Muslim attack 7/30/08
Islamic attack on Hindus
Islam in Russia

My Basis of Thought….And Why Someday I Might Buy This Coffee..

Response to the Coffee Company with a preface about my personal views, in general.

As a proud Zionist, I have followed Meir Kahane and his group for over 20 years. I am anonymous to the organization. They request support regularly which they definitely deserve. I openly market their webpage and message to others. I have video taped their show and collected articles about them for years. I felt my position was expressed by my profile (on this blog page) but no information about how I came to it. Here is a picture of two books in my possession authored by Kahane and autographed. The group has been media blitzed as a lunatic fringe or maybe as an equivalent to Hamas or Hezbullah. These accusations are ridiculous! The two Muslim “freedom fighter” groups are unarguably terroristic organizations based on their tactics and ideology. The JTF have used discretion at every opportunity to push their cause without the murderous actions and torturous shenanigans that are commonplace elsewhere.

My life experience traveling to Israel, living in New York, and Florida, combined with speaking with Holocaust survivors and living amongst people from across the country and globe of all faiths allows me a unique insight. School, way back when, encouraged someone to look inside and out in order to make a proper and profound conclusion, not a prejudicial one.
When peace-loving, anarchist, liberal, elitist say they want everyone to love one another, I get frustrated because fantasy-land ideas have never prevailed. For example, people are jealous of their own neighbors from time to time! How could anyone expect all the world’s people are to peacefully coexist?! It’s a lofty goal, but virtually unattainable! The same people that spin this message of universal love usually state that the “hatred for others” is entrenched in traditional religious based books and beliefs and change is necessary in the religious institutions themselves if universal love is to be achieved. (Using past wars as examples here.) Bullshit!! Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor…is the bread-and-butter of the doctrines of the world’s religions. Hindus and Buddhists treat all life as sacred. Jews preach the practice of mitzvah, to do something for another without expecting compensation of any sort. Christianity states “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.” Islam asks their believers to do the same…but only to other Muslims. All religions except Islam preach love and tolerance for others. All the great moral ideas that exist today are rooted in those same religions. While some have partially changed over the years, which is Testament (no pun intended) to the tolerant nature and inclusiveness they always taught, the overall ideas remain unchanged. Intolerance of other people is the consistent message of Islamic culture and leadership (both cleric and governmental). Where are the Muslim entrepreneurs looking for universal love. (silence) I am not a pessimist nor am I cynical. I choose to make my opinions based in reality, not hope. I hope companies like this coffee company prevail in proving me wrong and world peace is the final result. On the other hand, sticking my head in the ground is no way of looking to the future. Everyday, terror attacks perpetrated by Muslims all over the world kill and maim others. Families celebrate the malicious attacks, rejoicing with candy and much fanfare. Maybe condemnation by some groups associated with the same religion which perpetrated the attacks would provide some solace and give Leftists ammunition for there insane position. Working together on coffee is so far from making world peace, its not even a small step.
I noticed that the company was formed by Americans with Jewish and Christian backgrounds. Why did no Muslim organizations pitch the idea? Why have all philanthropist ventures hoping to improve life in impoverished areas of the world stemmed from Western countries? Islamic people usually benefit the most from these ventures whenever they are tried. Little is done to reciprocate this from wealthy Muslim countries. Do the Saudis try to help Hindu people in poverty? Do the Iranians help Israelis? Islamic countries do little to help their poor? They hold multiple seats in the UN yet waste valuable time condemning Israel for defending itself. Israel has given land to the Arabs multiple times in good faith with NO success in peaceful, final negotiations. Israel has helped the Jordanians in utilizing the Dead Sea for economic prosperity. The cold peace they share is little consolation in my view. Pakistan is the Hindu “land for peace” deal that only lead to war over Kashmir. The lust for world domination is insatiable for Muslims. This is apparent by their actions in the past AND present. No outcry for the victims of Islamic aggression by Islamic groups, only jeers.
I hope your coffee company is the beginning of a great capitalist venture that does bring world peace. As a matter of fact, I will do a commercial for the company if it ever begins to change any minds at their request. I want the entire world to be a John Lennon metaphor. But I have my doubts. While Hindus, Jews, Christians and others get the flack from living on the global front of the modern street-to-street third world war that is Islamic conquest rooted in Khilafah dreams, I hold out our cynical hand to your company: I am buying the coffee as soon as I see it in stores! GOOD LUCK!!

But..if you stick your head in the ground when events happen to justify our position, I am sticking my size 13 boot in your ass-sumption that everyone respects one another!

Ronald Reagan said, ” Trust but verify.” He held the communists to this and they complied. I hold the terrorists who say they want peace to the same standard.

Links
Muslim attack 7/30/08
Islamic attack on Hindus
Islam in Russia

Thanksgiving Coffee Company responds…

Paul Katzeff, CEO of the Thanksgiving Coffee Company, and Holly Moskowitz, the Director of National Sales and Outreach of the Thanksgiving Coffee Company commented on my post below, as did others affiliated with the company. I appreciate everyone’s comments. I certainly think the most effective way to combat poverty is through supply and demand, as opposed to simply throwing money at the problem like government likes to do.

Anyways, the first comment is from Paul and the second one is from Holly. I thought their comments were worth putting up as separate posts.

“It is interesting to note the original comment that started this discussion. It was [American Confucius] that could not believe that something good was not something either fake or a lie to make money. It speaks to the depths our society has sunk . Good news has been co-opted so often by multinational corporations that we have begun to suspect anything that is done in the business sector is a ruse on the American People.

When I got the call from Uganda describing the multi racial make up of the coffee coop I believed it immediately. Because it was too good to be true, I explored it further and decided to purchase the coops entire crop which was then(2004) 37,500 pounds. I purchased it without tasting a sample because I believed that people with so much love to share, would be people who would give much attention and love to their coffee trees. It is that attention and love that creates good coffee . I flew to Uganda and met the farmers, signed a long term contract and began to spread the word about them and their amazing story of religious tolerance and love. This for me was the moment I had been unknowingly waiting for. The chance to use coffee to promote peace through prosperity. I thought I was God’s gift to this coffee but I soon discovered that this coffee was God’s gift to me and that I needed to consider just how important it was to market this coffee in a way that respected the intrinsic values it contained. It was not about the product, but about the people.

Who ever you are and where ever you are [American Confucius], it can be said that you have a deep rooted cynical bent that may be a healthy way to live in our demoralized society, but to really be effective in helping you become the righteous person you wish to become, you will be best served by leaning a bit more to the optimistic and do us all a favor and use your voice to help my little company of 30 people sell this coffee for the farmers who now produce 112,500 lbs yearly. Last year we were able to sell 25,000 lbs as Mirembe Kawomera and that generated $25,000 extra for the cooperative’s members. Help us with your voice. This economic model is a fair and honest one you can trust.

Paul Katzeff
CEO,
Thanksgiving Coffee Company”

*************************************

“Thank you for responding to the posts. First to comment on Marsha’s comment, I think her point is that the $1.61 is the “fair” cost of the coffee. If you buy conventional coffee, which is not certified Fair Trade, or if the farmers don’t have a Fair Trade buyer which means they end up selling at the local market to a middleman, the farmer could be making as little as 25 cents a pound for their coffee. So the fact that TCC pays above FT market price, it sort of is altruistic. It’s unfortunate that the rest of the world doesn’t pay a fair price, but we are trying to raise awareness. If you haven’t already done so, you should watch the movie “Black Gold.” It is about the international coffee trade and price crisis.

To answer your question, yes, the Muslim, Christian, and Jewish farmers work together on a regular basis. Each faith is represented on the Cooperative’s executive board. Through our profit-sharing partnership, the community built a school together, which children of the Cooperative, regardless of their faith, can attend. Earlier this year, the Peace Kawomera Cooperative and Thanksgiving Coffee Co received The Tufts Institute for Global Leadership’s Dr. Jean Mayer Global Citizenship Award. The award was given for innovative and powerful efforts on behalf of alleviating poverty, creating accountable and sustainable trade practices, encouraging community peace and promoting interfaith harmony.

This link is to the trailer of a documentary that is in progress on the coffee project. It’s 7 minutes long, and gives insight to what happens on the ground. http://www.mirembekawomera.com/movie”

Holly Moskowitz
Direct of National Sales and Outreach
Thanksgiving Coffee Company

Thanksgiving Coffee Company responds…

Paul Katzeff, CEO of the Thanksgiving Coffee Company, and Holly Moskowitz, the Director of National Sales and Outreach of the Thanksgiving Coffee Company commented on my post below, as did others affiliated with the company. I appreciate everyone’s comments. I certainly think the most effective way to combat poverty is through supply and demand, as opposed to simply throwing money at the problem like government likes to do.

Anyways, the first comment is from Paul and the second one is from Holly. I thought their comments were worth putting up as separate posts.

“It is interesting to note the original comment that started this discussion. It was [American Confucius] that could not believe that something good was not something either fake or a lie to make money. It speaks to the depths our society has sunk . Good news has been co-opted so often by multinational corporations that we have begun to suspect anything that is done in the business sector is a ruse on the American People.

When I got the call from Uganda describing the multi racial make up of the coffee coop I believed it immediately. Because it was too good to be true, I explored it further and decided to purchase the coops entire crop which was then(2004) 37,500 pounds. I purchased it without tasting a sample because I believed that people with so much love to share, would be people who would give much attention and love to their coffee trees. It is that attention and love that creates good coffee . I flew to Uganda and met the farmers, signed a long term contract and began to spread the word about them and their amazing story of religious tolerance and love. This for me was the moment I had been unknowingly waiting for. The chance to use coffee to promote peace through prosperity. I thought I was God’s gift to this coffee but I soon discovered that this coffee was God’s gift to me and that I needed to consider just how important it was to market this coffee in a way that respected the intrinsic values it contained. It was not about the product, but about the people.

Who ever you are and where ever you are [American Confucius], it can be said that you have a deep rooted cynical bent that may be a healthy way to live in our demoralized society, but to really be effective in helping you become the righteous person you wish to become, you will be best served by leaning a bit more to the optimistic and do us all a favor and use your voice to help my little company of 30 people sell this coffee for the farmers who now produce 112,500 lbs yearly. Last year we were able to sell 25,000 lbs as Mirembe Kawomera and that generated $25,000 extra for the cooperative’s members. Help us with your voice. This economic model is a fair and honest one you can trust.

Paul Katzeff
CEO,
Thanksgiving Coffee Company”

*************************************

“Thank you for responding to the posts. First to comment on Marsha’s comment, I think her point is that the $1.61 is the “fair” cost of the coffee. If you buy conventional coffee, which is not certified Fair Trade, or if the farmers don’t have a Fair Trade buyer which means they end up selling at the local market to a middleman, the farmer could be making as little as 25 cents a pound for their coffee. So the fact that TCC pays above FT market price, it sort of is altruistic. It’s unfortunate that the rest of the world doesn’t pay a fair price, but we are trying to raise awareness. If you haven’t already done so, you should watch the movie “Black Gold.” It is about the international coffee trade and price crisis.

To answer your question, yes, the Muslim, Christian, and Jewish farmers work together on a regular basis. Each faith is represented on the Cooperative’s executive board. Through our profit-sharing partnership, the community built a school together, which children of the Cooperative, regardless of their faith, can attend. Earlier this year, the Peace Kawomera Cooperative and Thanksgiving Coffee Co received The Tufts Institute for Global Leadership’s Dr. Jean Mayer Global Citizenship Award. The award was given for innovative and powerful efforts on behalf of alleviating poverty, creating accountable and sustainable trade practices, encouraging community peace and promoting interfaith harmony.

This link is to the trailer of a documentary that is in progress on the coffee project. It’s 7 minutes long, and gives insight to what happens on the ground. http://www.mirembekawomera.com/movie”

Holly Moskowitz
Direct of National Sales and Outreach
Thanksgiving Coffee Company

Thanksgiving Coffee Company responds…

Paul Katzeff, CEO of the Thanksgiving Coffee Company, and Holly Moskowitz, the Director of National Sales and Outreach of the Thanksgiving Coffee Company commented on my post below, as did others affiliated with the company. I appreciate everyone’s comments. I certainly think the most effective way to combat poverty is through supply and demand, as opposed to simply throwing money at the problem like government likes to do.

Anyways, the first comment is from Paul and the second one is from Holly. I thought their comments were worth putting up as separate posts.

“It is interesting to note the original comment that started this discussion. It was [American Confucius] that could not believe that something good was not something either fake or a lie to make money. It speaks to the depths our society has sunk . Good news has been co-opted so often by multinational corporations that we have begun to suspect anything that is done in the business sector is a ruse on the American People.

When I got the call from Uganda describing the multi racial make up of the coffee coop I believed it immediately. Because it was too good to be true, I explored it further and decided to purchase the coops entire crop which was then(2004) 37,500 pounds. I purchased it without tasting a sample because I believed that people with so much love to share, would be people who would give much attention and love to their coffee trees. It is that attention and love that creates good coffee . I flew to Uganda and met the farmers, signed a long term contract and began to spread the word about them and their amazing story of religious tolerance and love. This for me was the moment I had been unknowingly waiting for. The chance to use coffee to promote peace through prosperity. I thought I was God’s gift to this coffee but I soon discovered that this coffee was God’s gift to me and that I needed to consider just how important it was to market this coffee in a way that respected the intrinsic values it contained. It was not about the product, but about the people.

Who ever you are and where ever you are [American Confucius], it can be said that you have a deep rooted cynical bent that may be a healthy way to live in our demoralized society, but to really be effective in helping you become the righteous person you wish to become, you will be best served by leaning a bit more to the optimistic and do us all a favor and use your voice to help my little company of 30 people sell this coffee for the farmers who now produce 112,500 lbs yearly. Last year we were able to sell 25,000 lbs as Mirembe Kawomera and that generated $25,000 extra for the cooperative’s members. Help us with your voice. This economic model is a fair and honest one you can trust.

Paul Katzeff
CEO,
Thanksgiving Coffee Company”

*************************************

“Thank you for responding to the posts. First to comment on Marsha’s comment, I think her point is that the $1.61 is the “fair” cost of the coffee. If you buy conventional coffee, which is not certified Fair Trade, or if the farmers don’t have a Fair Trade buyer which means they end up selling at the local market to a middleman, the farmer could be making as little as 25 cents a pound for their coffee. So the fact that TCC pays above FT market price, it sort of is altruistic. It’s unfortunate that the rest of the world doesn’t pay a fair price, but we are trying to raise awareness. If you haven’t already done so, you should watch the movie “Black Gold.” It is about the international coffee trade and price crisis.

To answer your question, yes, the Muslim, Christian, and Jewish farmers work together on a regular basis. Each faith is represented on the Cooperative’s executive board. Through our profit-sharing partnership, the community built a school together, which children of the Cooperative, regardless of their faith, can attend. Earlier this year, the Peace Kawomera Cooperative and Thanksgiving Coffee Co received The Tufts Institute for Global Leadership’s Dr. Jean Mayer Global Citizenship Award. The award was given for innovative and powerful efforts on behalf of alleviating poverty, creating accountable and sustainable trade practices, encouraging community peace and promoting interfaith harmony.

This link is to the trailer of a documentary that is in progress on the coffee project. It’s 7 minutes long, and gives insight to what happens on the ground. http://www.mirembekawomera.com/movie”

Holly Moskowitz
Direct of National Sales and Outreach
Thanksgiving Coffee Company

Marketing Ploy: "It’s for a Good Cause."

Just for a a little context, my liberal friend recently sent me an e-mail with a link to the Thanksgiving Coffee Company, which purports to better the lives of poor African coffee farmers by buying coffee from them at the Fair Trade price and to bring together Christians, Muslims, and Jews by having them plant coffee together. She wanted me to start buying my coffee from this company because it was for a “good cause.” Below was my reply:

“This is interesting Laurie. Well, as sort of a coffee snob, I’m always looking for great coffee. I visited the website more out of an interest in the coffee than out of an interest in the company’s purported “good cause.” My government taxes me aplenty and sends much of it as aid to Africa and beyond, and obviously, no one appreciates our generosity, so, forgive me if I’m not constantly looking for ways to give away my hard-earned money.

At any rate, I noticed a couple things about this company. But here’s my preface: I praise the creative entrepreneurial spirit of the CEO. It seems these days, for good or ill, companies are finding that a great way to sell a product (that perhaps wouldn’t survive in a competitive market that runs purely on quality) is to tap into people’s conscience. As a free-marketeer, I don’t have any qualms about that. A great example of such a company is the Ethos Water Bottle Company recently bought up by Starbucks. It purports to give “a portion” of the price to help a “good cause.” Well, the founders got a huge payout by Starbucks when it was bought out. (But I’ve always wondered whether they knew that their plastic bottles were a large contributing factor to the world’s pollution problem.)

Anyway, you can correct me if I’m wrong, since I only briefly perused the website, but they purport to purchase a pound of coffee (16 oz) from the cooperative at the Fair Trade price of $1.61. And they also purport to send the cooperative an extra $1 for every pound as part of their profit-sharing plan, which, by the way, they make it sound like the farmers are seriously partners to this enterprise (uh, not quite).

The company then sells 12 oz (less than a pound) at a range from $10.50 up to $25! So, looking at this in the light most favorable to the company, for every 12 oz of coffee they sell at $10.50, they’re giving back less than $1. Don’t forget the $1.61 is their overhead. So in essence, the company is marking up their product almost seven-fold! Just to put this in perspective, this mark-up is very similar to how much big (bad) multi-national companies like Walmart and Nike mark up their products after buying them from third world countries like Africa. What would people say if the CEO of Nike said, well, we’re giving jobs to these poor indigents, giving them a better life, so buy from us. People would laugh.

Moreover, they have a coffee bag with Che Guevara on it, and appear very proud of it. I mean come on, he was to Castro what Himmler was to Hitler – his chief executioner! He killed hundreds and thousands of people with his travelling death squad. He set up death camps where he killed gays, dissidents and people with AIDS. To spin it in another way, he was a miserable failure. He was Castro’s bitch his whole life and nothing but a wanna-be revolutionary. I mean, if you want to lionize a totalitarian on your coffee package, put Stalin, or Mao, or Hitler.

Point being, don’t get sucked into their marketing campaign. Like all other marketing campaigns, this one is solely to turn a profit, and a big one at that. Again, I’m not saying there’s anything wrong with turning a profit, but, I do have a problem with companies feigning righteousness and trying to pull a quick one over consumers, when, in fact, they’re like any other company operating out of self-interest and profit. For these reasons, I won’t buy coffee from this company. But who knows, their coffee could be really really good, in which case, they don’t have to feign anything! Sad…

By the way, this is good material for my blog. 🙂 Thanks.”

Marketing Ploy: "It’s for a Good Cause."

Just for a a little context, my liberal friend recently sent me an e-mail with a link to the Thanksgiving Coffee Company, which purports to better the lives of poor African coffee farmers by buying coffee from them at the Fair Trade price and to bring together Christians, Muslims, and Jews by having them plant coffee together. She wanted me to start buying my coffee from this company because it was for a “good cause.” Below was my reply:

“This is interesting Laurie. Well, as sort of a coffee snob, I’m always looking for great coffee. I visited the website more out of an interest in the coffee than out of an interest in the company’s purported “good cause.” My government taxes me aplenty and sends much of it as aid to Africa and beyond, and obviously, no one appreciates our generosity, so, forgive me if I’m not constantly looking for ways to give away my hard-earned money.

At any rate, I noticed a couple things about this company. But here’s my preface: I praise the creative entrepreneurial spirit of the CEO. It seems these days, for good or ill, companies are finding that a great way to sell a product (that perhaps wouldn’t survive in a competitive market that runs purely on quality) is to tap into people’s conscience. As a free-marketeer, I don’t have any qualms about that. A great example of such a company is the Ethos Water Bottle Company recently bought up by Starbucks. It purports to give “a portion” of the price to help a “good cause.” Well, the founders got a huge payout by Starbucks when it was bought out. (But I’ve always wondered whether they knew that their plastic bottles were a large contributing factor to the world’s pollution problem.)

Anyway, you can correct me if I’m wrong, since I only briefly perused the website, but they purport to purchase a pound of coffee (16 oz) from the cooperative at the Fair Trade price of $1.61. And they also purport to send the cooperative an extra $1 for every pound as part of their profit-sharing plan, which, by the way, they make it sound like the farmers are seriously partners to this enterprise (uh, not quite).

The company then sells 12 oz (less than a pound) at a range from $10.50 up to $25! So, looking at this in the light most favorable to the company, for every 12 oz of coffee they sell at $10.50, they’re giving back less than $1. Don’t forget the $1.61 is their overhead. So in essence, the company is marking up their product almost seven-fold! Just to put this in perspective, this mark-up is very similar to how much big (bad) multi-national companies like Walmart and Nike mark up their products after buying them from third world countries like Africa. What would people say if the CEO of Nike said, well, we’re giving jobs to these poor indigents, giving them a better life, so buy from us. People would laugh.

Moreover, they have a coffee bag with Che Guevara on it, and appear very proud of it. I mean come on, he was to Castro what Himmler was to Hitler – his chief executioner! He killed hundreds and thousands of people with his travelling death squad. He set up death camps where he killed gays, dissidents and people with AIDS. To spin it in another way, he was a miserable failure. He was Castro’s bitch his whole life and nothing but a wanna-be revolutionary. I mean, if you want to lionize a totalitarian on your coffee package, put Stalin, or Mao, or Hitler.

Point being, don’t get sucked into their marketing campaign. Like all other marketing campaigns, this one is solely to turn a profit, and a big one at that. Again, I’m not saying there’s anything wrong with turning a profit, but, I do have a problem with companies feigning righteousness and trying to pull a quick one over consumers, when, in fact, they’re like any other company operating out of self-interest and profit. For these reasons, I won’t buy coffee from this company. But who knows, their coffee could be really really good, in which case, they don’t have to feign anything! Sad…

By the way, this is good material for my blog. 🙂 Thanks.”

Marketing Ploy: "It’s for a Good Cause."

Just for a a little context, my liberal friend recently sent me an e-mail with a link to the Thanksgiving Coffee Company, which purports to better the lives of poor African coffee farmers by buying coffee from them at the Fair Trade price and to bring together Christians, Muslims, and Jews by having them plant coffee together. She wanted me to start buying my coffee from this company because it was for a “good cause.” Below was my reply:

“This is interesting Laurie. Well, as sort of a coffee snob, I’m always looking for great coffee. I visited the website more out of an interest in the coffee than out of an interest in the company’s purported “good cause.” My government taxes me aplenty and sends much of it as aid to Africa and beyond, and obviously, no one appreciates our generosity, so, forgive me if I’m not constantly looking for ways to give away my hard-earned money.

At any rate, I noticed a couple things about this company. But here’s my preface: I praise the creative entrepreneurial spirit of the CEO. It seems these days, for good or ill, companies are finding that a great way to sell a product (that perhaps wouldn’t survive in a competitive market that runs purely on quality) is to tap into people’s conscience. As a free-marketeer, I don’t have any qualms about that. A great example of such a company is the Ethos Water Bottle Company recently bought up by Starbucks. It purports to give “a portion” of the price to help a “good cause.” Well, the founders got a huge payout by Starbucks when it was bought out. (But I’ve always wondered whether they knew that their plastic bottles were a large contributing factor to the world’s pollution problem.)

Anyway, you can correct me if I’m wrong, since I only briefly perused the website, but they purport to purchase a pound of coffee (16 oz) from the cooperative at the Fair Trade price of $1.61. And they also purport to send the cooperative an extra $1 for every pound as part of their profit-sharing plan, which, by the way, they make it sound like the farmers are seriously partners to this enterprise (uh, not quite).

The company then sells 12 oz (less than a pound) at a range from $10.50 up to $25! So, looking at this in the light most favorable to the company, for every 12 oz of coffee they sell at $10.50, they’re giving back less than $1. Don’t forget the $1.61 is their overhead. So in essence, the company is marking up their product almost seven-fold! Just to put this in perspective, this mark-up is very similar to how much big (bad) multi-national companies like Walmart and Nike mark up their products after buying them from third world countries like Africa. What would people say if the CEO of Nike said, well, we’re giving jobs to these poor indigents, giving them a better life, so buy from us. People would laugh.

Moreover, they have a coffee bag with Che Guevara on it, and appear very proud of it. I mean come on, he was to Castro what Himmler was to Hitler – his chief executioner! He killed hundreds and thousands of people with his travelling death squad. He set up death camps where he killed gays, dissidents and people with AIDS. To spin it in another way, he was a miserable failure. He was Castro’s bitch his whole life and nothing but a wanna-be revolutionary. I mean, if you want to lionize a totalitarian on your coffee package, put Stalin, or Mao, or Hitler.

Point being, don’t get sucked into their marketing campaign. Like all other marketing campaigns, this one is solely to turn a profit, and a big one at that. Again, I’m not saying there’s anything wrong with turning a profit, but, I do have a problem with companies feigning righteousness and trying to pull a quick one over consumers, when, in fact, they’re like any other company operating out of self-interest and profit. For these reasons, I won’t buy coffee from this company. But who knows, their coffee could be really really good, in which case, they don’t have to feign anything! Sad…

By the way, this is good material for my blog. 🙂 Thanks.”