My, oh my, I was just going over my blogs and realized that I may have left you hanging w/ a blog entitled disillusionment. Apologies, apologies, how completely horrific is that? Admittedly, I’ve been a slacker as my writing has been a bit on the back burner since the tailors went back to their villages – have I taken you down that little saga journey??? Don’t let me get ahead of myself – first things first.

On a positive note, it’s all about fair trade. Have I mentioned that before? Well don’t forget it amigas. No seriously, after a million and one follow up phone calls regarding the World of Hope Campaign (what have you got to lose??? – remember that CSN number? Okay really I’m not delusional – just facing it all with a bit of rhythm and beat my friends), I have discovered some very interesting if not shocking (that’s probably where I fall into the delusional category, the fact that these things still SHOCK me) information and statistics.

If you phone normal children’s clothing boutiques in the USA and try to talk to them about a fair trade charitable cause, only 50% will give you the time of day. NOW if you call fair trade stores you can get 90% of the people to listen. That’s a huge a difference. And fair trade stores often don’t normally carry children’s clothing. Not only will they listen, they’ll throw out suggestions or let us know what items they could use in their stores so that they can have the opportunity to work together with us. The contrast in attitude is frankly baffling. So obviously we’re switching gear, switching focus, being a bit more tactical. Not the normal Gina-style, come in like a stomping elephant (ie. Global Groove [may she rest in peace] stores parked right next door to Abercrombie and Fitch or the GAP)

AND OF COURSE I have my opinions on the listeners and the non listeners. But you’ll need to stay tuned for that theory because my brain is short circuiting at the moment, something that is happening quite frequently under the current circumstances.



And in closing, what exactly is it that I do when I’m neglecting the HOPE blog? Well, I do things like get a crazy urge to paint my kitchen. I dug out Greg’s teeny tiny acrylic tubes and got to painting a black and hot pink border around the tile. Yes! ABSOLUTELY in honor of the pink and black checkerboard Vans that I really wanted when I was thirteen!! And no, I wasn’t rocking out to the Violent Femmes, I had a date with Natalie Merchant. And I feel much better now—-Clearly, since I managed to pick up my computer again!

Cheers & Ciao for now,

Gina