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LONG ago, when time still moved slowly.
BEFORE excessive profiteering became a way of life
to some. (Not others, mind). Before electricity,
before water shortages even before long-drop toilets. Before cars,
Sandton yuppie 4x4's and Clarins rejuvenation of buggerall was
invented. Just the land existed. And people.
And each person was dependent upon his or her own survival.
Life was good. Life was fair. If it rained, you drank water and
stored some for next time. Now it came to pass
that, for sake of simplicity (which all will understand), time
passed by.
The one man called himself a 'farmer' and started growing carrots.
The other man called himself a 'farmer' and started growing
potatoes. Thus, the carrot farmer reaped his
harvest (earned fairly) and his family ate
carrot stew, boiled carrots, fried carrots, raw carrots - they
sliced them, they diced them,
they cut them into cute dinosaur shapes and ate them and peace was
all around. Similarly, the potato farmer reaped his
harvest (earned fairly) and his family ate
potato stew, boiled potatoes, fried potatoes, (could this have been
the birth of 'pomme frits' ?
known today by some normal people as 'slap chips')
- they sliced them, they diced them,
they cut them into cute dinosaur shapes and ate them and peace was
all around. But, as the scorpion said, here's the
tale - and the purity of fair transacting. One
day, farmer Matt met farmer Martin at where their properties
met,
down at the end of the field
and their conversation went something like this:
Matt: Grunt (which meant Hello in those days)
Martin: Grunter (which meant Howzit in those days)
With this, farmer Matt held out TWO handfuls of freshly plucked
carrots as an offering.
Understanding immediately, without the waste of further words,
farmer Martin in turn
held out two handfuls of the most beautiful potatoes in earth,
freshly plucked. And so, a FAIR TRADE was born.
The first farmer was overjoyed as his family would now have:
carrot stew with potato, boiled carrots with potato, fried carrots
with slap chips,
similarly so for the second farmer - where both parties had gained
without the
NEED -the GREEDY URGE to steal something from the
other.
Oh how I miss the pure honesty of those days...
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martin@martins.co.za
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