injustice & exploitation continued

In an effort to further elaborate my confusion and rapidly expanding pessimism, I thought I would share an account of something that appeared to be of no consequence at the time, but has since thrown a spanner into my [limited] worldview.

Whilst attending a conference in kelowna a couple of months ago, I purchased several cups of fair trade coffee. (Regular free coffee was also available).
Again, I just want to pretext this by acknowledging my support for all forms of fair trade and justice initiatives, regardless of whether they appear to be fashionable.
However, I still reserve the right to question such efforts, as I am about to illustrate.

On one such occasion as I purchased a cup of (rather excellent) coffee, I was also given a small white wristband emblazened with the "Make Poverty History" campaign logo that was being sold at the time.
"I know what this is." I thought, as my mind located images of celeberities such as Claudia Schiffer and Tony Blair sporting theirs with unabated verve and enthusiasm.
I thought nothing more of it and slipped the little accessory onto my wrist and continued to slurp on Dave's rather delicious Fair Trade coffee.

Little did I know the journey and origins of the wristband itself.
Had I have known that it may have been produced in a sweatshop in Fuzhou China, at the expense of slave labourers being paid as little as 9p (18 cents) an hour, I probably wouldn't have been so quick to slip it on.

After all, how was I to know?
The very least I could expect from a fair trade initiative is for them to produce their promotional tools without undue exploitation.

Which I believe only adds to my suspicions that I am a subconsciously willing exploiter of many, and to what degree, I have no idea.
But I does disturb me.

Perhaps it is time to look at our current methodology in dealing with poverty and injustice.
Does the way that we spend funds in Africa placate short term problems in return for ensuring long term agony?
Does the root and source of the pain (political corruption more often than not) have to be dealt with first and foremost before we begin continue to throw cash at the problem?

What is the best way to do that?

(For those more interested in corporate accountability, this is a good site).