officially an e-reader

I am a 22year old today, and I will celebrate by adding as many free books as possible on my new amazon kindle. A big thank you to my cousin, auntie, and uncle for the thoughtful gift!

For anyone considering purchasing one, true the functionality isn't mindblowing, but I love how the kindle does not have a normal screen. The e-ink is amazing, allowing me to see in direct sunlight without glare and with little battery use.

Currently, I'm reading the original Twilight, that is Bram Stoker's Dracula. And I'm wondering, what you reading and do you have any suggestions for fun summer reads?

(and thank you all for the kind birthday wishes)

we'll take it from here, king george

Wishing you happy fireworks, tangy bbq sauce, and time well spent with family and friends.

hot air balloons and cotton bouquets

I'm so excited to be attending several weddings this summer, especially to see my friends all grown up, and being able to celebrate their new lives. Plus, nothing tells me I'm an adult now like shopping for china on Crate and Barrel registries.

With thoughts of weddings and summer romance on my mind, I am so inspired by Lauryl Lane's work--unconventional, pretty settings that remind me of childhood, playing in the backyard making up stories about princes and princesses.

things from my grandparents' house

Summer nights make me wish I was still in Shanghai, at my grandparents' house.

Na bu (grandma) cutting a melon, na gong (grandpa) poring over his books, laundry swaying on the balcony next to some ferns, and my grandfather's trademark long jing (Dragon Well) tea. 

He drinks it just like this everyday since he was 20 years old. There's a funny story in my family that when my cousin and I were little, our grandfather took us to an amusement park. While we were playing, he sat on a bench drinking this tea from a jam jar. A stunned, little boy came up to him, pointed to his jar and screamed to his father, "Look dad, LEAVES!" My grandfather, always stoic never fazed, simply stared at the boy and kept drinking his tea. It wasn't until much later that I learned of such things like tea filters or teapots.

[marketplace] why I love the shoes of tomorrow

Finally, a TOMS post! When I was an undergrad a couple years ago, a friend of mine introduced me to an up-and-coming organization with an interesting idea, buy a pair of shoes and they'll give another pair away to a child in South America or Africa. Since then, Blake Mycoskie's TOMS Shoes has absolutely exploded. In New York, I see them everywhere, even being sold in stores like Neiman Marcus. They have a commercial with AT&T, which is pretty cool. Plus, a few years ago I had to Google "toms shoes" now just "toms" is enough. That's how you know you've made it.

So here are five reasons why I love TOMS:

1. They are truly stylish and comfortable. I love how they are simple in style, perfectly fitting your feet without the bells and whistles, and that they are inspired by Argentinian cloth shoes. My pink and canvas classic TOMS (shown above) have lasted me through trips in West Africa and Asia, from the dusty trails near Cape Coast to the wet fish markets of Hong Kong to the mall (and trust me, I don't really take good care of them).

(that's me and my TOMS in Northern Ghana. photo by Jaimie Shaff, 2008)

2. Cordones. I just tried on my cousin's charcoal pair a few days ago, and they are unbelievably comfortable, like wrapping your feet in soft, downy cotton. Add a moleskin notebook and a well-trimmed mustache, and you're instantly a 1950s ex-pat poet living in a balmy, tropical place!

3. When their lives as shoes have run their course, you can take the leather soles and do a little diy crafting. Leather bracelet with a TOMS logo? Cute! I've even seen a TOMS soccer ball made entirely out of those soles. Awesome!

4. It's fun wearing and seeing others wear their convictions on their feet. True, the world is full of huge problems, and we often feel powerless to do something, to help people "over there." But as consumers in the US, we have incredible power everyday just by what we choose to purchase. The fact that TOMS is so trendy now shows that consumers care, and are willing to pay a little extra to do some good. More and more I'm able to be pleasantly surprised when I look down because I see people wearing TOMS--it's such a great feeling, being proud of complete strangers.

5. The final and best reason, the One for One Movement. Go to their YouTube channel and watch a shoe drop, your heart will just lift. I remember when CHILD(not)SOLDIER at NYU hosted a TOMS "design your own shoes" party, a volunteer told me that in many places like Sub-Saharan Africa and East Asia, there are soil-transmitted diseases that are just devastating for the people living there. It prevents adults from working and children from going to school, and all it takes to combat these parasites are shoes. Giving shoes to children who don't have them protects their feet, protects their bodies, allows them to go to school, and of course, lets them play!

(cordones and smiley kids)

the ol' aid shuffle

Ten years ago we were made a promise by world leaders that in 2015, poverty and its fellow demons like infant mortality would be eradicated. With only five years left to the Millennium Development Goals and the recent end to the 2010 G8 summit, that promise is looking pretty bleak.

Oxfam International's Mark Fried has reported:

“This year the headline is maternal health, last year it was food. With overall aid frozen, the G8 are just shuffling the same money around to different pots,” said Fried. “The only promise that counts is the Gleneagles one to increase aid by $50 billion by 2010 and that is the one they have abandoned today.”

At the last G8 Summit, donors pledges $22 billion over three years to support agriculture in developing countries, but Oxfam calculates that at most $6 billion of this is new money and they are double counting it to pay for other initiatives, such as helping poor countries cope with climate change.

“There are a billion hungry people in the world but it seems the G8 are out to lunch. Instead of new money for old promises, we got old money, re-pledged, recycled and renamed.”

I find it extremely troubling how aid is shuffled from one project to another, depending on what the "hot" issue is this season. This year, it's maternal and child health. Ideally, initiatives for this cause would start right now, but if there's one thing that aid agencies never fail to produce, it's bureaucracy, which is let's be honest, necessary most of the time. But what happens when 2011 rolls around, and these projects for maternal and child health, which have probably just gotten off the ground, haven't yet "solved" the problem? The process starts all over again.

If none of these vague, overly-ambitious projects like "ending world hunger" is seen all the way through, no amount of billions of dollars will be enough.

And double counting aid? That's like writing bad checks to the world's poor.

With the financial downtown in Europe and the US and the Gulf Coast spill, can we expect our president and other leaders to fulfill their commitments?

[marketplace] fair trade Haitian mangoes

The last post got me thinking about mangoes from Haiti. As their main cash crop, with the most potential for market growth, mangoes present a way for farmers to rebuild their country's economy.

Most mango farmers in Haiti have a couple of trees, but as illustrated in the podcast from the previous post, there just isn't enough profit to help them expand their production. What they need is pretty simple like washing stations, irrigation, and plastic bins to keep the harvested mangoes from being bruised.

A huge fan of fair trade, I came across TransFair mangoes. TransFair USA has teamed up with Whole Foods to get those Haitian mangoes certified. By helping these farmers sell their goods "fair trade," those mangoes sell at a premium in exchange for organic, higher quality fruit (just like fair trade coffee), which helps to buffer the prices against volatile markets. Additionally, those farmers are able to organize themselves into democratic co-ops, essentially cutting out the middle-men. (No need to worry about those guys though, they usually get absorbed into the chain some other way, often even becoming farmers themselves).

In the end, the farmers benefit by having more funding to improve their business, the communities benefit through projects created from the premiums like new clinics or schools, and the consumers in the US benefit with higher quality goods and more importantly, knowing where our products come from.

Sometime in the near future, I'll definitely devote a whole post to what fair trade is (not free trade, that's something very different). In the meantime, a photo of just-harvested Haitian mangoes from TransFair USA: