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Flashing, feeling stupid and fair trade.
Once everyone had been introduced, the artists made their way into the room, where the press were waiting. It was just like I imagine film premieres are - suddenly a hundred flash bulbs went off and the photographers were shouting at the stars to look their way, or smile, or move a little this way or that. Everyone wanted Chris to do something different, so that in the end he hid behind one of the Oxfam Intermon displays to get away from it all!
When the photographers were happy, things calmed down a bit - we all returned to our seats and Chris, Jonny, Eva and Amparo joined Paloma (Campaign Manager for Comercio con Justicia at Intermon) on the front row of seats. The rest of the artists sat behind them, all sporting Make Trade Fair T-shirts.
Paloma began proceedings, speaking passionately about the campaign, the WTO Ministerial and the involvement of artists in the campaign. Paloma is incredible - everyone in the room was hanging on her every word. Obviously it was all in Spanish, so it wasn't always easy to know what was being said, but Paloma did a great job of translating for Chris and Jonny (and the few other English speakers in the room!).
 Chris then spoke about his own involvement, talking about his various trips with Oxfam to Ghana and Mexico amongst others. He said that he drew his motivation for the band's involvement with the campaign from meeting people in those countries face-to-face and learning of their plight. He said that he met one young man, a sugar farmer, who was exactly the same age as Chris, but simply because of where he was born he was struggling to survive.
A journalist asked him how he felt when he met people on the trips. One word: "stupid". He also felt angry, that world trade should be so unfair. Jonny echoed Chris' words. The two of them spoke so well, and are obviously very knowledgeable on this subject. But what really endeared them to the Spanish press was the jokes and laughs which they managed during the press conference. Chris, in his self-deprecating way, was particularly adept at making everyone in the room feel at ease, and had us all in hysterics at some points.
More about Chris' trip to Ghana >>
posted at 3:00 PM
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