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Online Fair Trade 在线公平贸易平台

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A new partnership between eBay and an unusual social enterprise aims to give the world’s artisans access to a bigger market – and a fair share of the revenue  eBay和一家独特的社会事业携手合作，旨在让全球手工艺者能触及更广大的市场──同时也能获得公平适当的收入

In 2004, Robert Chatwani, an eBay marketing executive, visited India with his family, saw some women making jewelry in a market, and had a brainstorm. “I bought some on consignment, and a small team at eBay put them up on the site just to see what would happen,” he says. “Seven hundred dollars’ worth of products sold for $1,200 in just a few weeks.”

二００四年eBay营销主管罗伯．查特旺尼全家到印度旅行，结果在市场中看到一些妇女在制作珠宝首饰，他突然灵机一动，「我用寄售的方式帮他们贩卖，接着eBay的小组员工再把这些商品上架，想看看结果如何，」他说道，「结果价值七百美元的产品，在短短几周内就卖出一千两百美元之谱。」

Inspired, Chatwani got eBay’s blessing to build a business around socially positive, “fair-trade” imports. The company launched a new partnership and online marketplace that promises to sell more fair-trade goods than have ever been sold in one place. EBay is trying to do for the mothers of Asia, Africa and Latin America what it did for their U.S. counterparts, with a goal of penetrating a gifts market worth $65 billion each year. Those numbers sound tantalizing, yet can a big brand help small businesses grow without undermining their fair-trade values?

从这次经验大获灵感的查特旺尼，获得eBay首肯创立一家事业，专门交易具有社会正面意义的「公平贸易」进口商品。这家企业推出一个新的合伙公司，以及在线交易平台，宣称后者将是全球公平贸易商品交易量最大的单一据点。EBay希望能为亚洲、非洲和拉丁美洲（译注：经营手工艺副业）的婆婆妈妈们，谋取到和美国妇女们一样的福利，目标是希望能扩大在每年总值六百五十亿美元礼品市场的渗透率。不过，虽然市场总值的数字高得诱人，但像eBay这种大品牌的企业，是否真能帮助这些小生意成长茁壮，同时却不至于破坏其公平贸易价值呢？

Connecting the world  全球心手相连

Between 2004 and 2006, Chatwani did some serious moonlighting, studying how to structure eBay’s newest enterprise. He talked to the World Bank. He met with NGOs. He made field visits to villages in rural India.

二００四年至二００六年间，查特旺尼很认真地又在正职工作之余额外下工夫，研究该如何架构eBay的新事业。他不但和「世界银行」谈过，也和一些非政府组织会晤，还实地探访印度乡下一些村落。

He says he found “a lot of players focused on supply [but] … the big void we felt was somebody driving large-scale consumer demand.” Then he met a social entrepreneur named Priya Haji, who had founded a group called World of Good, which focused on just that.

他表示，结果他发现，「业界有很多人都把焦点锁定在供应的层面上，可是…我们感觉业界很大的缺口却在于，欠缺推动消费者需求的人。」之后，他和社会事业家琵雅．哈吉会面，后者创办了「良善世界」团体，而该组织正是这类推升消费者需求的幕后推手。

On a trip abroad in 2004, Haji conceived the idea of connecting the artisans she met, most of them women, with the American market. Along with one of her best friends from business school, Siddharth Sangvhi, she started World of Good to market fair-trade products through displays at stores. She still has an undergraduate’s wide-eyed intensity: “We’re trying to get consumerism to be a force for good.”

哈吉在二００四年赴海外旅行途中，想出了一个点子，那就是何不把她认识的一些以女性为主的手工艺者推介到美国市场。于是她就和商校同学兼好友希达斯．桑维合作成立了「良善世界」，以营销公平贸易产品，方式是在各商家货架上陈列贩卖。她仍洋溢着大学生特有的天真浪漫的热情：「我们想让消费主义也成为推动良善的一股力量。」

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on consignment 以寄售的方式(货物售出后始行付款) on the understanding that payment will be made for goods only after they have been sold 

consignment [kənˋsaɪnmənt] n. 委托；交付

blessing [ˋblɛsɪŋ] n. 同意，允许

fair-trade [ˋfɛrˋtred] n. 公平贸易; adj. 按公平规则进行贸易的 a movement to encourage fair prices and reasonable conditions for producers in developing countries

moonlight [ˋmun͵laɪt] v.【口】做兼職 to work at an additional job, sometimes without telling your main employer

moonlighting [ˋmun͵laɪtɪŋ] n. 兼差

NGO 非政府组织 abbreviation for a nongovernmental organization

void [vɔɪd] n. 空间; 空隙, 空处

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“Fair trade” has typically meant commodities such as coffee, tea or chocolate with the TransFair USA label, guaranteeing minimum prices for farmers. But for handicrafts, fair-trade standards are looser. Groups such as Novica and Ten Thousand Villages work oversea to ensure improved labor conditions and fair prices, with more of the proceeds going to local craftspeople. World of Good shares the goal of raising artisan income, but rather than monitor production itself, it markets other organizations’ fair-trade products.

一般来说，「公平贸易」意味着透过获得「美国公平贸易组织」认证标章的商品，如咖啡、茶或巧克力等，确保最低收购价格，以保护农家。不过，在手工艺品方面，公平贸易的标准就较为宽松，不够严密。包括「诺维卡」和「万村会」等团体都积极在海外运作，以确保劳动条件和公平价格都能获得改善，以求手工艺者能获得更多收益。虽然「良善世界」也同样抱持着提升手工艺者收入的目标，但并不会直接监控生产的环节，而是协助营销其他组织的公平贸易产品。

The pros and cons  正反意见

WorldofGood.com by eBay, its new online superstore, is its biggest platform yet. The point, of course, is to sell more goods made by small-time artisans, and for Haji, eBay is a fine place to do that.

由eBay推出的新在线超大商店WorldofGood.com，是历来规模最大的平台，而目的无疑是希望能帮小规模手工艺者售出更多产品，而在哈吉眼中，eBay这个据点再适合不过了。

But the question of scale is challenging. At one World of Good presentation I attended, a staffer from another development nonprofit asked whether suddenly upping the number of orders to a cottage producer might lead her to press her children into service – a truly perverse consequence.

只不过，产品数量的规模问题可能会相当棘手。有次我出席「良善世界」举行的简报会，在场来自另一家非营利发展组织的员工问道，如果某位农家生产者突然收到大批订单，会不会导致她逼迫自己的孩子也加入制作行列──这恐怕会引发违反人常的后果。

International Fair Trade Association president Paul Myers counts himself among Haji’s fans. Yet he says he’s “not sure” about World of Good linking up with such a large company while leaving its monitoring to third parties such as Novica.

「国际公平贸易协会」主席保罗．迈尔斯自认也是哈吉的拥护者之一。不过，他表示，「良善世界」和像eBay这样的大型机构携手合作，却把监控相关环节的责任交托给如「诺维卡」等的第三方，他对这种做法感到「不太确定」。

“One of the concerns some people have about the World of Good/eBay relationship is that it’s going to give eBay an opportunity to unintentionally put the fair-trade label on things that aren’t fair trade,” he says. As World of Good listings mingle with others on eBay, a halo effect could extend to the larger company.

「一些人对『良善世界』和eBay合作关系的疑虑之一，就是这可能会让eBay有机会在非故意的情况下，把公平贸易的标签贴在根本并非公平贸易的产品之上，」他如此说道。而当「良善世界」的商品清单被其他eBay贩卖的产品鱼目混珠之后，可能就会使得规模较大的eBay坐收「良善世界」的光环加持。

But Haji believes she must think big. If fair trade is actually going to pull more people out of poverty, she argues, World of Good must reach beyond the elite, affluent shopper. “If we don’t let in Joe American, … who has never traveled internationally, but who … would like to think about things he buys differently, this can’t grow.”

不过，哈吉坚信，她必须从大处着眼，她指称，如果真想透过公平贸易来拯救更多人脱离贫困，那么「良善世界」就必须超越菁英、富裕的购物客层，并扩大到与其中…那些从来没出过国、但…也希望能用不同的角度来看待所购买的东西（译注：指买东西时不再不加思索，而是希望能买促进社会公义的公平贸易商品）的这些人，因为如果没有这些人的加入，则上述理想就无法成长壮大。」

−by Anya Kamenetz

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TransFair USA 美国公平贸易组织认证标章 a certification that ensures fairness guidelines, including the guarantee that producers of goods will be paid a fair price

loose [lus] adj. 松的; 宽的; 松散的

proceeds [ˋprosidz] n. 收益，收入

the pros and cons 赞成和反对的理由

small-time [ˋsmɔlˋtaɪm] adj. 小规模的, 三流的, 卑贱不足取的 insignificant or unimportant; minor

count [kaʊnt] v. 认为；看作[（+as/among）]

mingle [ˋmɪŋg!] v. 使混合，使相混 [（+with/together）]

halo effect 光环效应 the transfer of positive feelings about a product or person to another, possibly unrelated, person or thing

halo [ˋhelo] n.（基督及圣徒像头部的）光环

Joe American 一般的美国人 US and Canadian a man or fellow; the ordinary person in the United States

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Vocabulary Focus

artisan [ˋɑrtəzn] n. 工匠；技工 a person who does skilled work with his hands

counterpart [ˋkaʊntɚ͵pɑrt] n. 对应的人（或物）a person or thing which has the same purpose as another one in a different place or organization

penetrate [ˋpɛnə͵tret] v. 扩散于；渗透入 to move into or through something

tantalizing [ˋtænt!͵aɪzɪŋ] adj. 逗引的; 诱人的 attracting someone by offering or suggesting something that is unlikely to be provided or is not enough

wide-eyed [ˋwaɪdˋaɪd] adj. 天真的 too willing to believe and admire what you see or are told

commodity [kəˋmɑdətɪ] n. 商品；日用品 a substance or product that can be traded, bought or sold

perverse [pɚˋvɝs] adj. 违反常情的; 错误的; 不正当的，有悖常情的 having the effect of being, or intended to be, the opposite of what is ordinarily expected or considered reasonable

Why Fairtrade?