Fair Trade and Carpet Ed

A nice start to the day with a trip into Banbury for the Fair Trade Fiesta as part of Fair Trade fortnight. It was a fairly small affair, with only about 12 stalls but we enjoyed it. Charlie bought a few things with his pocket money, a hand crafted box, bookmark and a covered notebook. We were accosted by a guy selling soap nuts who wanted to know if we'd heard of them and looked most surprised when I told him we used them. He asked if he could send a few potential customers to us so that we could assure them that they did work, so we may have converted a few peeps.

A trip to the bank to move some money around and a scout around the local toy shop which showed some shocking prices. 125pc Panel Geomags for £36.99 - that's 300% mark up on the trade price!

Onto Sainsbury's for some bits and pieces and then home. I did some grilled Haloumi and Greek salad for lunch, which was yummy and reminded me so much of "home", sitting by the pool with a drink before going into the next village for a meze, and then into Limassol for the night and leaving a locals only club at 4 in the morning and walking along the beach with friends and watching the sunrise before going home and jumping in the pool as it was already so hot. Those were the days.

Charlie did some maths, choosing to lie on the landing for some reason and then he checked out a website from a business card he bought back from the Fiesta. Crystals/stones and wands were the goods I believe.

In town there was a gentleman on the main shopping street with a microphone. He was expressing pretty extreme Christian beliefs which made us really uncomfortable to the point I felt like covering Charlie's ears. Just as we went into the bank, where lots of people appeared to have gathered to avoid him, I saw him point at a woman with two boys, around 4 and 6 and yell something along the lines of "you haven't embraced him and you shall all go to hell and die a horrible death, you are all sinners". Predictably, he then started on about homosexuals and adulterers.

I'm all for freedom of expression, but I do not in any way believe that pointing at point and saying such things is a) acceptable, b) necessary or c) going to recruit more people to your cause. I do not see the need to be announcing your beliefs in the middle of a town center and saying such nasty things to people and children. It's not fair, particularly to the children who can understand him, it scared Charlie for one, and he isn't easily scared by such things.

I understand that many Christians and leaders are concerned about attendance figures and what they perceive as the moral decline of the world, but it is precisely these kind of actions that scare people away.