Wake up and smell the coffee....

Black Gold tells the story of Tadesse Meskela, on a one man mission to save his 74,000 coffee farmers in Ethiopia from bankruptcy, and follows Tadesse as he travels the world in an attempt to find buyers who will pay a fair price for his coffee.



The film was released on 8th June in the UK, and is showing at the Ritz Cinema in Belper on 30th June and 4th/5th July, and at the Nottingham Broadway from 6th to 12th July.

More information about the film and other screenings here...

Go and see it, and leave a comment to tell us what you thought!

Sim Sweatshop

Earlier in the year, Yr9 had a look at "sweatshops" - the factories in LEDCs where workers are paid very badly and worked very hard, often in pretty grim conditions - usually producing garments for big multinational companies like Nike and Adidas.

Lots of geography teachers are blogging about Sim Sweatshop at the moment, and I've finally got round to having a look at it this evening... The game gives you a bit of an insight into the hardships that these sweatshop workers face on a daily basis, and if you click on "What's the Story?" there is lots of information about sweatshops, why they exist, the companies that use them, and what can be done about them.

The picture below will take you to the game, where you are a worker in one of these sweatshops - making sports shoes. If you work hard all day (12 hours), you will be paid your full wage of $6.05. Making mistakes will cost you dear.

Fancy some sheep's feet for tea? Or perhaps fresh turtle hotpot?

...then get yourself off to Tesco! In Beijing!

Just days after fears about Tesco taking over Britain and putting local shops out of business, Tesco opened their first Chinese store this morning.

Click on the picture for the story from the BBC, or here to visit the new Beijing store!