12 December, 2005
This was the forth edition of Taste the World for KKĠ. The slogan used during 2005's Taste the World was "Colour the difference" and indeed there were many contrasting opinions during the debate, unique Fair Traded goods on display and a warm and friendly environment.
Fair Traded Goods: Colour the difference
In the morning volunteers setup several large Fair Trade stalls at St. James Cavalier. The three distinguished stalls sold handicrafts, costumes, jewellery, textiles and accessories from the Asian, South American and African. Close by where other stalls selling food items and musical instruments. Products by refugees who are in Maltese detention centres were being sold in a small stall, amongst other fair traded products. During the day there was free tasting for a selection of food products sold at l-Ħanut L-Arka.
Seminar on international trade: Colour the difference
Between 9 and 12 a seminar on International Trade was organised by StoPoverty! (www.stopovertymalta.org), a coalition of Maltese NGOs, whose job is to lobby the local authorities to do their part in the brining an end to extreme poverty.
The spokespersons at the seminar were Mr. Richard Adams, H.E. Sir Vincent Fean, Mr. Vince Caruana, Dr. Vanessa Camilleri and Mr. Stephen Sultana. Mr. Caruana, the speaker of the seminar, started the debate by the screening of a short film entitled "WTO: Reality Check", a film calling for a reform of the current global trade practices, especially within the WTO.
The film provoked a debate between the attendants and panel of speakers. The later believe that no radical change in global trade needs to take place. While some like Mr. Richard Adams, advocate for fairer values in trade, other like Dr. Camilleri and Mr. Sultana are strong supporters of the WTO.
Fair Trade in Sri Lanka: Colour the difference
Isabelle Żammit and John Axiak, two members of the cooperative's committee visited Sri Lanka in September 2005, on a Tsunami Disaster Development Project. The two are working on the establishment of a fair trade factory with partners in Sri Lanka for Tsunami Survivors. In the evening Isabelle and John gave a short presentation about different Fair Trade producers in Sri Lanka.
Live Music
The concert of live music starts at 8.00pm and features Zizza Ensemble and Stilair. Zizza Ensemble was formed two years ago by young musicians who wanted to experiment with jazz. The band is made up of four musicians: Mark Abela on drums, Ruth Abela on saxophone, Steve Delia on guitar and vocals and Chalee Cassar on bass guitar. The musicians come from different musical backgrounds including rock, classical and jazz. Their music is a fusion of jazz and funk.
Stilair's front man is Gilbert who also plays guitar and keyboards; Trevor is the second guitarist and keyboardist; Sylvan the bassist; and Karl's the drummer. In his review of their debut EP, Michael Bugeja highlighted "the band’s preference for glacial sonics, a characteristic that defines the Stilair sound" whilst Wayne Flask described the debut EP as "less downward Radiohead planking onto Achtung Baby-ish U2". The band aesthetics have also been compared to those of Joy Division and Echo & the Bunnymen. In 2004 Stilair signed a licensing deal with Indy Hits & Bandpromote resulting in "Kravis" being featured on the Bandpromote Compilation and gaining considerable airplay on KNRK - a major FM radio station covering Portland and Vancouver in the past months. Stilair will release their debut album "White Paris Lights" early next year.
