This is Streeming Directly from NPR
You might need Real Player or click the "Set Player Preferances" button
Then click on "windows midia player" option.

Some other Interesting articals
i have found That You might like:
http://www.watchtower.org/e/20010508/article_01.htm

Panama hats: made in Ecuador, undercut by China
By Christian Oliver
http://www.boston.com/news/world/lat...rcut_by_china/

The last straw
By Hal Weitzman
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/c0c336fe-a18...0779e2340.html

Keep your hat on!
Georgina Guedes
http://www.news24.com/News24/Columni...020828,00.html


Primo Panama Hats, a Dying Art in Ecuador
by Lourdes Garcia-Navarro
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/s...toryId=4683911

Hope you enjoyed that :)

I though it was great !

Update: some have mentioned they think this may be talking bad about companies like ours??
Did you get that impression?

I certainly did not, but some have written me saying that.

When the Narrator says that the weavers get little recognition that is true but is not anyone’s fault it is just the way it goes with any product! We will in te future post pictures of weavers and try to get the signature of each along with their picture so you can see inside your hat who wove it acording to the signature inside but many weavers do not sign their work or like their picture taken. Only the most notable ones are used to it and dont run from the camera.

As far as little paid that has to do with the ratio of which the hats are sold for in the states in comparison to what the weaver gets paid, the difference appears to be very little but the figure of $150 to $200 is not correct in this audio, perhaps at one time it used to be but in the last few perhaps 8 – 10 years they are receiving as much as $500 per hat for the very fine hats and the finest possible  even more, even a lot more!

If the weaver was not getting enough money for his work he simply needs to ask for more his work, is not easy to get the fines woven hats and he can ask whatever or however much he feels is fair and he will get paid what he asks!
Unfortunately people will exaggerate things and the weaver that was interviewed either exaggerated a bit or he doesn’t weave the finer of the hats and his work is not worth as much, but on the other hand it is far faster to produce.

Also keep in mind the fact is that everything is "relative", and that "Truth" is generally somewhere in between 2 opposing sides or 2 points of view. 

You cannot imagine living on $200 a month because in your economy it wouldn’t even pay the gas in your car. But in this economy it is an average wage for any worker and everyone lives and gets by just fine. Transportation cost les then 20 cents for a bus ride through the city,  rent can be as little as $20 a month or in the case of the weavers nothing since they live in the countryside and according to the law in Ecuador whoever cultivates the land is automatically the owner of it legally,  they become the owners without paying anything for it, (as far as country side land is concerned.)

So the term for this is  it is all "Relative"

 Considering the economy and the cost of living in Ecuador The weavers are not badly paid, some of cores think that if they complain a little they can get more epically if they complain to a foreigner.
 but considering the life of most Ecuadorian countryside people they earn only what they can get from what they grow and cultivate on their land and that is far less then what weavers make so they are high paid from that perspective.

as far as panama hats direct goes we do not barren the price down we pay what they ask. Really we provide a way for them to sell their hats and if we did not exist it would be far harder for the weavers to sell to only high priced companies of panama hats that do not sell in volume like we do at Panama hats direct. So what really helps the weavers is simply to do as we do and purchase the hats ALL of the hats that come our way all year round! That is what they need seedy income that they can count on no matter if the hats are selling or not because of the time of year it may be, and that is precisely what we do, i cannot say what other sellers do but as far as we are concerned we defiantly help the weavers to a very great extent in many ways, we encourage the Panama hat industry and thus their product and livelihood. Of cores we do benefit as well but that is just the way it has to be for business to function properly and smoothly.

Hope you enjoyed it because despite the little inaccuracy it was very well done! That is why I shared it with you :)