On Fairtrade and Black Babies.

When I was a small child I was encouraged to bring pennies into school to give to the 'black babies'   Of course it was a very patronising description and today would not pass the PC test.  But it was well meant as an encouragement to us to give to the poor.   I am beginning to feel this patronising aspect  when it comes to Fairtrade.  Yes, how good of us to buy jams and sweets and trinkets from Africa and feel very good about ourselves, but I once asked if they had any African Computers or Tablets.  It drew a blank and that is what is bothering me.   I could have equally asked for an African car or washing machine which would also have drawn a blank.   Africa has few large factories or manufacturing industries and has never caught up with the technical advances of our time.  But why when it is rich on resources or should I say fossil fuels should the continent be so backward?    Why are the people much poorer than we are?  The answer is the Industrial Revolution.  Let me quote something I learned by heart in my schooldays.  'The essence of the Industrial Revolution was the adoption of large scale production by means of power driven machinery in large factories which could only be established and be maintained by a large expenditure of capital and could only be worked by organised crowds of wage earning hands'   It was in the eighteenth century that this Revolution began and men with money decided to exploit the earths resources in Britain and Europe and provide jobs for millions of people.  It was at this time that Catholic Social Teaching began emphasising as Rerum Novarum did that Capital needs Labour and Labour needs Capital.   It was not a battle between those with money and those without money, the rich against the poor, as the Communists taught and  today they are  rearing their heads again in the Global Warming debate.   Sure there were exploitations and injustices but we would not have the standard of living we enjoy in this country today without that Revolution. Eventually a wage earning population began to spend and businesses sprung up to supply what the consumer wanted.  The worker had also become the consumer.    But let us get back to Africa.  There were no Capitalists investing their money there and indeed when resources were exploited it was for the good of the Western economy and not the good of the African.  In other words resources were taken from Africa and the well being of the natives was given no consideration whatsoever.     So when will Africa enjoy its Industrial Revolution?  Just follow the debate on Climate Change the answer is never for Africa will not be allowed to pollute the air with Carbon.    So you can take those claims about an 'option for the poor' within Christianity with a pinch of salt.    If the UN manages to control economic development it will not be in a Christian way and the Vatican and groups like CAFOD will have no say in the matter whatsoever - except of course to carry on with Fairtrade and feel good about the Black Babies.