'Taste the World' festival at St James tomorrow

A "Taste the World" fair trade festival is being held at St James Cavalier tomorrow between 10 a.m. and 7 p.m.

Harini Narayanan and Carol Wills are the main foreign guests and will be the main speakers at a seminar to take place between 4 and 5.30 p.m.

The programme also features free coffee tasting, live music, the selling of fair-traded crafts, musical instruments, CDs of world music, food from the southern hemisphere and creative workshops for children and adults inspired by the world of fair trade.

Entrance is free and everyone is invited to attend.

During the festival, the organisers, Koperattiva Kummerc Gust, will be launching a membership scheme that allows the public to join this fair trade social cooperative and thus support small, disadvantaged producers in poor countries in a very concrete way.

Harini Narayanan works with the Gandhi Rural Rehabilitation Centre in Alampundi, India, an organisation that sells its fair-traded products in shops like L-Arka, which are spread all over Europe.

Carol Wills has been executive director of the International Federation for Alternative Trade since January 1998. IFAT is a North-South networking body extending to 52 countries in Asia, Africa, Latin America, Europe, the Pacific Rim and North America, working to improve the livelihoods and well-being of poor people through trade. KKG has been a member of IFAT since 1999.

Live music during the festival will be provided by singer-songwriters Walter Micallef and Vince Fabri, who will be playing between 10 and 11 a.m. followed by flutist Robert Calleja and a host of other young musicians who will also be using fair-traded instruments from around the world.

The Katambù Sound Factory will be playing at 6.30 p.m. Led by Maltese multi-percussion player Renzo Spiteri, this group is not just a percussion ensemble. It is a concept that brings together different forms of artistic expression, such as music, design and physical action. The Katambù Sound Factory's repertoire includes original compositions by Renzo Spiteri on materials that are more commonly found in industrial plants such as oil tanks, car rims, metal sheets, scaffolding piping and so on.

Between 2.30 and 4 p.m., James Farrugia will be leading an interactive workshop on "Coffee and your Power to Choose". The choice of coffee made by the consumer has a profound impact on the millions of people around the world who depend on coffee production for their livelihood.

Maltese coffee drinkers, says architect James Farrugia, "have two choices".

"They can either buy coffee produced under a traditional trade structure and support a system that concentrates wealth into a few hands. Or they can drink fairly traded coffee, and support democratic control, fair wages, and sustainable development, without sacrificing quality".

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