Cancun: i Coldplay cantano il commercio giusto

«Per noi commercio voleva dire solo una serie di numeri in Borsa, poi siamo andati ad Haiti e abbiamo capito che danneggia milioni di persone». Parola dei due attivisti di cui ieri parlava tuta Cancun, Chris Martin e Jonny Buckland. Rispettivamente cantante e chitarrista dei Coldplay. La band inglese da tempo testomonial della campagna per il commercio giusto di Oxfam che è volata a Cancun per testimoniare la sua opposizione alla politica dei sussidi.

«È difficile trovare parole che fanno rima con North American Free Trade Agreement», hanno dichiarato i due musicisti a un giornalista del Guardian ricevuto in uno degli hotel più modesti del famoso resort turistico, «ma siamo qui per dire no alle regole del commercio globale che schiacciano i Paesi poveri».

I due musiciti hanno inoltre consegnato al numero uno del WtoSupachai Panitchpakdi oltre tre milioni di firme raccolte dalla campagna di Oxfam per il commercio giusto.

Riportiamo di qui seguito, in inglese, l’intervista che hanno rilasciato al Guardian

Q: Why did you choose initially to get involved in the Fair Trade campaign? Was there any particular event that grabbed you or were you always interested in it?

JB: We started to learn about it and then realised that it was a pretty huge issue which affected so many people. It was really important issue that was very under-publicised as well.

CM: We went on a trip to Haiti with Oxfam and when they said: “Do you want to get involved in this fair trade campaign?” they may as well have been speaking Japanese. We did not know what that meant. Then we went to Haiti and saw the effects of unfair trade on rice farmers and cotton farmers and the economy in general and then we realised that most countries in the world are struggling with it and so we thought “Well shit, we should probably become a little more interested in this. Maybe even try to advertise the idea of sorting it out.”

JB: We are trying to make it more known to people like us because we did not know about it.

Q: What was your perception then – that trade was an exercise for pointy-headed bureaucrats or something?

CM: Well yeah. And then someone comes in and tells you that the problems with trade are one of the three biggest causes of poverty in the world. I think everybody agrees with the idea of fair trade; it’s just that no-one really knows about it.

JB: For us trade was just figures on the stock market and little more than that.

CM: If you say to anybody: “Do you think that a man who grows something and does some work should be rewarded fairly?” then 99 out of 100 people would say “yes”. And yet most of us aren’t really aware that that doesn’t go on.

Q: I read that you were going to give part of your income to charity. Is that something you have done and is it something that you would encourage others to do as well?

CM: We don’t really like to talk about that. Only because it could sound cheesy.

Q: What contact do you have with politicians at the moment?

CM: Today is our first lowering into the world of actual politicians. We have been happy in the last 18 months to just talk about this website www.maketradefair.com and go on a few trips to Mexico, the Dominican Republic, Haiti.

JB: Hopefully getting more people interested.

CM: Then Oxfam said maybe the next step is to start meeting people who can actually do something about it. And now is the first time that we as a band have been in a position to get those meetings. Today we are meeting Dr Superchai [Panitchpakdi, WTO director-general] and hopefully that will be the first of many.

Q: How do you see it going from there?

JB: Hopefully it will continue. Hopefully we will have more of a real effect.

CM: We as a band can’t change anything but if we are doing well as a band, more people know about us, which means if we are advertising, people will know about that.

Q: On a personal level: people make choices, They go to the supermarket and buy whatever. Is there something you have found yourself in every day life that you choose differently from what you did before?

CM: Back in the 80s people started learning about CFCs and this is exactly the same. There are only a few products now where you can make that choice – coffee and bananas and chocolate. On those products you can make the choice between Nescafé or whatever, and something which says this is fairly traded, people have been paid what they should be for it. You make that choice when you can but you can’t make it on everything. Yet.

Q: Do you think doing this has inspired some others in the record industry to come on board?

CM: I’m sure it makes some people cringe beyond belief, but with other people I think it does make a difference. The lady who got us involved with Oxfam was at Glastonbury the other day and said that more bands were interested.

We only got into it because of people like Radiohead, U2 and Blur. We saw what they were trying to do and thought it was a good idea. Most people care about things, but it is a fine line between coming across like you are preaching and coming across as being concerned about something.

JB: I mean we’re in an incredibly privileged position and it is hard not to be hypocritical about some stuff, and come across as a complete hypocrite.

Q: If in your fantasy you had Tony Blair and George Bush in the same room as you what would you?

CM:That would be great.

JB: We were just talking about that.

CM: How many records do you think we would have to sell to get a meeting with George Bush though. I would think probably a few more. If you said “you have three wishes” I would say, if you are going to have free trade – which is what all these guys preach – can you actually go through with it and make it apply to your own country as well as everybody else’s ie: other than markets and non-important export tariffs.

Also can you please stop over subsidising your richest farmers who then export all the surplus very cheaply into countries where it destroys their own economies because their farmers are then unrealistically undercut. And the third wish would be some beach holiday – but the first two would be nice.

Q: What do you think of Cancun?

CM: I think the trade ministers have got it right. This is what is so farcical. You come to a beautiful beach resort to talk about the talk about the world’s poorest people. And we are as guilty of that as anyone else.