From the Editor - Joni Hillman

Welcome to the autumn edition of the Development in Action. With a focus on some of the leading issues in international development and India, this issue hopes to bring to attention the importance of global awareness, and how DiA views the problem of global awareness amongst young people in the UK.

Fair Trade is one of the fastest growing markets in Britain, with an ever-expanding range of products that span honey, flowers and clothes, as well as the ubiquitous coffee and chocolate. But why is it so important to put our money where our mouths are at the checkout? Does fair trade actually provide a realistic alternative and allow producers in the developing world to make a better life for their children and communities? More importantly, what is the World Trade Organisation doing to make fair trade the norm, rather than the exception?

A former DiA volunteer provides a ground level report of the real state of HIV/AIDS in rural Gujarat, bringing in to doubt the Indian government’s protestations that the subcontinent is not suffering from an epidemic of the virus.

This year India held general elections, summer volunteer Suhrid Patel reports on the perceptions of young people in Mumbai about the BJP “India is Shinging” election campaign, the Congress party vicotry, Italian born Congress Party leader Sonia Ghandi’s choice of Manmohan Singh as prime minister, poverty and globalisation.

Cycling Around the World, Al Humphries has been in the saddle for three years. He writes about the experience of being a rather sunburnt Englishman biking through the villages of Ethiopia in comparison to neighbouring Sudan and how it challenged his opinions about poverty, begging, the role of foreign aid, the purpose and justification of his journey....

I buzzed to the challenge of being an Ethical Coffee drinker for a day and share my discoveries of style and content in the sale of Fair Trade coffee in Britain’s capital.

I look forward to receiving your feedback on this edition. If you would like to receive regular editions of Development in Action.

Joni Hillman – Editor

newsletter@developmentinaction.org