Feel like taking a stand? Here’s our monthly round-up!

Feel like taking a stand? Here’s our monthly round-up!

STAND UP: Yoga for Choice takes place on Saturday 5 August in the Dublin Holistic Centre. All money raised from this yoga class will go towards funding the Abortion Rights Campaign’s sixth annual March for Choice on the 30th September. Find out more on their Facebook event page.

STAND AGAINST: The National Animal Rights Association (NARA) is holding a protest on Saturday 12 August against Laois-based fur farm Vasa Ltd. A 2012 report from the Department of Agriculture confirmed that the five licensed mink farms in Ireland kill up to 225,000 mink a year, with the Vasa farm responsible for 50,000 according to media reports. More details on the NARA Facebook page.

STAND WITH: Celebrate LGBT storytelling at the 25th Gaze International LGBT Film Festival from 3-7 August at the Light House Cinema in Smithfield. The full line up of films, exhibitions and events is available at gaze.ie.

 

Nu Ethical

Nu Ethical

Clothes, we love them. We love having loads of them. They are the skin we choose, they show our personality, they are our identity. They make us look good, they make us feel good. We love new clothes, we love keeping up with the latest trend. We love deals, we love sales, we love bargains. So we love our clothes for a while, but we don’t mind too much when they’re no longer in fashion, or get worn-out, or are fit for the bin.

However, behind the glossy magazines, the internet shopping, the “must-have” items and whatever is the “new black”, our clothes are doing an awful lot of unnecessary harm. It is precisely our love of constantly changing, disposable, cheap fashion that is creating and supporting a system that is polluting our planet, denying millions of workers their human dignity and locking them into poverty. There is nothing sexy about fast-fashion.

 Fast-fashion is a relatively new phenomenon which has escalated over the past 30 years. In the past clothes were an investment, trends lasted longer and quality was the paramount consideration. Now clothes are so cheap that it is often easier to buy a new dress for a night out than to get it cleaned. And facebook and instagram creates the idea that once photographed you can never repeat an outfit. Fast-fashion stores release new trends almost weekly.

Globalisation has led to outsourcing production to developing economies. Big brands have disproportionately benefitted from the low cost of labour and minimal levels of regulation in these states. Indeed, the governments of these states are often themselves powerless in the face of these multinationals, frequently engaging in a “race to the bottom” in terms of regulation and safety standards to attract more foreign direct investment. The terrible conditions of the factories was most recently exposed in the Rana Plaza disaster factory collapsed, killing 1,129 garment workers and injuring hundreds of others. The terrible and shocking reality is that our cheap clothes are subsidised by these workers lives. Despite regulatory reform in some states, problems persist with the implementation and enforcement mechanisms. Many factories engage in outsourcing to avoid scrutiny of their practices, this often means child labour.

Next there’s the environmental cost. Take a cotton t-shirt for example. To make one this will require 600 gallons of water, that’s 22 bathtubs, and 6 lbs of carbon dioxide, that’s like driving a car seven miles. So that’s how clothes are made, and yes, it’s awful, but it doesn’t stop there.

 High street brands are clever, and to make the profits they make they need us buying a lot, so they make it cheap, and they make it change so we think we can and need to buy more. So as we buy more we throw out what we already have, and that ends up in landfill. Tonnes and tonnes of clothes landfill every year! So we have a situation where one piece of clothing is made for one person to wear a couple of times, then it ends up in a dump. Where is the sense in that? Who came up with that idea and thought, ‘yeah, this system won’t impact the world irreversibly’? The other option is to give clothes to charity shops, but were still stuck in a vicious cycle, because not all of those clothes will be sold and many of them are sent back to developing countries where they are sold at a knockdown price, undercutting the local garment economy… and eventually once again ending up in landfill.

So what’s the alternative? Ethical fashion brands are a step in the right direction, but we’ve found they are few and far between and tend to be too expensive for a student budget! Fast-fashion has changed the way we approach clothes for ever. The super cheap, super convenient and super stylish fast-fashion brands have revolutionised fashion. So we decided to try and come up with a new system that allows consumers to look great, have an affordable and constantly changing wardrobe – without the environmental and social costs.

After months of brainstorming and talking to people in fashion we came up with Nu. We are an ethical fashion community that rejects fast-fashion but refuses to compromise on style. We aim to facilitate clothes swapping and sharing to reduce consumption and use every item to its full potential. When you’re done with clothes you can give them away to others in the nu. community. They won’t get worn in landfill! We run creative and fun events in Dublin to raise awareness and show alternatives, like swap-shops, upcycling and repair workshops. In the future we will be helping our members shop ethically by allowing the cost of the clothes to be spread throughout the community. We are creating a “public wardrobe” of exclusively ethical brands from which our members can rent items, meaning that you still get a changing wardrobe without having to dispose of clothes. We are currently developing our website and app but in the meantime we’d love if you’d like to get involved.

Find out more: Sign up to our mailing list at www.nuethical.com (stay tuned for the release of our ethical E-zine)

Take action: bop along to the nu. launch event in Workmans, Dublin 2 at 5:30pm on November 22nd: https://www.facebook.com/events/201881746810164/

Authors: Ali Kelly and Aisling Byrne
Ali and Aisling are two recent Trinity graduates trying to reinvent the way we shop encouraging people to move away from the fast-fashion model by creating a more ethical and sustainable way to shop. Our aim is to create a system whereby it is as profitable to treat all involved in the fashion cycle right as it is to exploit people. Gone will be the days where one piece of clothing is made unethically for one person to wear a limited number of times before it is thrown into landfill. The future is in sharing high quality ethical clothing, we’re going to make that easy so you can have a changing wardrobe for a cheap price without having to dispose of clothes.

Writing workshop for Stand

Writing workshop for Stand

Would you like to contribute articles to Stand? Join our writing workshop on Wednesday 1st April to learn the skills you need.

We are running a writing workshop on Wednesday  1st April from 6-8pm for people interested in writing articles for the website.

What will the workshop include?
During this practical training session, you will learn how to write clear, compelling copy that engages readers, gets them thinking and calls them to action. The focus will be on writing for stand.ie, but will also discuss good general practices.

The workshop will be conducted by Kathy Foley. Formerly a columnist at the Sunday Times (Ireland), Kathy has written  for many publications, including The Sunday Business Post, The Irish Times, The Irish Examiner, The Guardian, The Observer and the Irish Voice. She has also lectured in journalism skills at postgraduate level.

Stand.ie
Stand provides a platform to read, write and talk about global issues. We are looking for new contributors to get involved and contribute to the site.

Register your interest
The workshop is free to attend but spaces are limited. If you are interested in taking part in the workshop please confirm by emailing [email protected]. The workshop will take place in the Suas office at Block A, 10-12 Hogan Place, Dublin 2.

Africa Day 2014

Africa Day 2014

Africa Day returned to Farmleigh Estate in Phoenix Park on Sunday for the annual celebration of all things African.

The threatening skies meant the possibility of a repeat of the previous year’s blissfully sunny day out was unlikely. This uncertain outlook led to a reduction in the attendance from over 34,000 down to 27,000. However, those who did take a chance on the rain god’s mood were treated to as fine a helping of the continent’s music, food and culture as ever.

Colonial Pasts and Present Craic

Formerly known as African Liberation Day, May 25th marks the founding of the Organisation of African Unity (OAU). On that day in 1963, leaders of 30 of the 32 independent African states signed a founding charter at Addis Ababa in Ethiopia. In 1991 the OAU became the African Union.

In Ireland, this commemoration of African Unity has become a nation-wide programme of festivities. Maybe it’s the shared history of colonialism which has seen us take the day to our hearts. Or maybe it’s the old-fashioned Irish love of a bit of craic and any excuse for a party. Whatever the reason, the day goes from strength to strength every year and on Sunday similar events to those in Dublin took place in Cork, Galway, Limerick and Waterford.

From Kidddiemanjaro to Zimbabwean Sculpture

My own duties at Africa Day involved working as a volunteer/photographer at GOAL’s stall in the Phoenix Park event. We were tucked away in the brilliantly named Mount Kiddiemanjaro section, away from the bustle of the Kwassa Kwassa Main Stage and the Marrakech/African Bazaar. Any passers-by that did come by were snapped up to write notes on their impression of Africa/Africa Day for our Message Wall. One such punter was our own Minister for Trade and Development Joe Costello.

Messages gathered varied from affirmations of the benefits of cultural exchange and diversity to the special nature of Africa and its people.

Other NGOs such as Trocaire and MSF also provided stalls as did many African countries. Irish Aid, the main driver of Africa Day, ensured a strong art and crafts presence too. The Baraza area featured a striking photography project from Plan Ireland as well as an exhibition of Zimbabwean sculpture.

Then of course there were the stalls for one of the day’s main attractions – African cuisine. Every kind of African delicacy was on offer, from biltong to falafel, Nigerian meat pies and more.

Music and Sunshine

The winding up of the Festival of World Cultures in 2010 left a gaping hole in the Irish summer festival circuit. Fortunately, it seems now that Africa Day has taken up the multicultural mantle and run with it. Along with the Kwassa Kwassa main stage which featured African and Irish musical groups, this year’s event also included a stage for urban music and DJs, with one for gospel choirs and musical collectives, all with an African influence.

After the inevitable downpour, the sun came out with a vengeance for Kila’s headline set on the main stage. The Irish group’s high tempo set of traditional folk tinged with more global influences was as good an advert as any for one of Ireland’s own main contributions to world culture. The sax-led rhythm and funk of Colours Afrobeat Foundation didn’t let the energy drop a jot and finished off another Africa Day with a flourish.

Find out more information about GOAL’s work at www.goal.ie

Author: Cian Doherty

Cian is a Dubliner working for GOAL as a Donations Officer. He studied arts in UCD and completed an MA in International Relations in DCU. Cian has volunteered in Mexico,  Mozambique and as a United Nations Volunteer in Malawi.

Photo credit: Lamif, Seena, Sartuf, Magarsa, all from Oromo at the GOAL message wall, Africa Day 2014, Cian Doherty