Well, yesterday I went to visit a church in a small village of the mountains of Chiappas, Mexico. For the biggest surprise the village was a tourist bazar, the main road was full of little stalls and shops, food served on the pavement, children selling handmade bracelets, begs and belts, tickets for the church entrance. As I set on the stairs just front of the church - watching the life of the square and the bazar passing by - I felt more in a bussiness market town with all its acient past and traditions mixed and offered to courious tourists and travellers who pilgrame there to see the old church with traditional ceremonies still kept alive.
I tryed to take in and understand this modern mixture of worlds and see the value and meaning of hand crafts offered all around. Locals selling the same things on different stalls, run by different families - what is really noticable is the coorporation between them - like a community market, helping and selling in peace next to each other. This is a great quality that is missing in the caspitalist set up - be good in what you are doing, live and let live!
A fifteen years old girl crocheting next to me asked what I write and why i seemed to be sad… was hard to answer as i looked around people smiling at me, “Are you happy here?” - I asked - “yes, Im very happy. And even if I dont sell and dont have money” answer was so honest and simple, shocked me - knowing all the complicated life we make to ourself in the west, created problems that we complain about so much..
I started to seen the square differently around me - filled up with different lifes of the montains of Chiappas, where art and craft became the link to the new modern world of tourism, where local people use traditional skills to participate in the globalied world we all live in. These business model is more personal - the life of the family or a community- every peso they make goes to live their everyday lifes.
A sudden rush in my head again, how to help, what should i buy?¿ And answer i had by the time i said good bye to Rosa and the town - heading back on the back of a collectivo -
in the western world we see and live different ways and opportunities. Many people come to buy on these lovely local markets - many people work with communities and families in a great ethical model. On the west we need to unite and form strong foundations of self-organizing communities, talk about what is really happening - as people do it in their culture, communities and villages of their ways. And by the end of the day, different worlds will have connections and synthesis on many levels, mainly between individuals - and as fast running time goes by more and more links and contacts are built on various channels that gives to the ethical exchange of cultures.
What i still see as a mission of ETIC is to connect and start dialoug online between traders of the “developed world” , those who will bring their voice to small towns - on a personal level.
Eszter Kun