World Ark Magazine - January/February 2009 - (Page 39)

trademark bluntness, “i’m sure most american families would be very embarrassed to know at what price they put sugar in their coffee every morning.” (and if you think this is unduly picking on americans, consider that the u.S. imports more sugar from the dominican republic than from any other country.) but do documentaries like The Price of Sugar do any measurable good? other recent documentaries tackled similarly large topics—health care, environmental destruction, torture. but while they may have sparked a brief conversation, all failed to bring about any real change. if this is their fate, these documentaries become little more than voyeurism, a deplorable form of entertainment. Someone else’s suffering becomes a cinematic experience for us. i cannot believe that this is the filmmaker’s intent. The Price of Sugar leaves no doubt as to what we, the viewers and consumers, should do: we should consider the consequences of our consumption. we should put the lives of others above our own venal pleasure. but awareness alone is not enough; we must act. we must demand fair wages and decent working conditions for cane cutters in the dominican republic, and we must be willing to pay the true price for sugar. n five favorites on: women and development In Her Hands: Craftswomen Changing the World by Paola Gianturco and Toby Tuttle Women in the Material World by Faith D’Aluisio and Peter Menzel new and noteworthy Toolbox for Sustainable City Living: A Do-It-Ourselves Guide by Scott Kellogg and Stacy Pettigrew South End Press, 2008 Paperback | $16 Engendering Development: Through Gender Equality in Rights, Resources, and Voice A World Bank Policy Research Report you don’t have to live in the country to produce some of your own food and live responsibly. This book is full of ideas on everything from chickens to composting to rainwater collection. Women Empowered: Inspiring Change in the Emerging World Photos by Phil Borges Foreword by Madeleine Albright Hot, Flat and Crowded: Why We Need A Green Revolution—and How It Can Renew America by Thomas L. Friedman Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2008 Hardcover | $27.95 Gender, Development, and Poverty Edited by Caroline Sweetman The Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist follows up his best-seller The World Is Flat with a call-toarms for confronting global climate change now. w w w. h e i f e r . o rg januar y/f e bruar y 2009 | wor ld a r k 39 http://www.heifer.org

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of World Ark Magazine - January/February 2009

World Ark Magazine - January/February 2009 Contents Letters For the Record The Good Life Asked and Answered Microfinance: A Lot for a Little Business is Buzzing in Honduras The World Grows Smaller Mixed Media Heifer Spirit Heifer Bulletin Calendar First Person

World Ark Magazine - January/February 2009

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