so, i'm in safeway the other night getting a few things and i shop the way i normally do - one aisle at a time, trying to remember what i wasn't supposed to foget to get
then it strikes me - something i've always known but this time it made me sad because it reveals my realistic attitude that we are doomed
it was the aisle - the one in every major supermarket - with pop down one side and chips down the other
i realized how absurd that is - the amount of materials and energy used to produce those products and bring them to the store, along with the gazillions spent on marketing them; yes, marketing empty calories and carcinogens
in western society, where obese people make up a quarter of the population, do we really need a whole aisle to sell coke and doritos?
imagine if just half the resources to produce these products were used to promote healthier options and organic production of food
anyways, the next step for me is to put my money where my mouth is and eventually eliminate my use of these products - much like quiting smoking, this could be a difficult task, especially when there isn't a patch...
Thursday, October 18, 2007
Tuesday, October 09, 2007
as i get older
last thursday (october 4) i went to see a talk/interview with a maasai warrior whom was visiting north america for the first time mostly to raise awareness of the issues that his people were experiencing
one of the main things was their cows were going 'crazy' (BSE?) - cows are the lifeblood of the maasai people; the other issue was the deforestation of their lands as trees were used as fuel and building material
the maasai people had to go outside of their traditional boundaries to seek work and food; there was also a push to educate themselves so that they could learn how to interact with the outside world
learning swahili, a money economy, tree planting and other skills have allowed the maasai people to survive but there is a gradual erosion of their culture that is occurring
the false promise of a better life through technology is creeping into their world and i felt a bad for what is one of the few remaining cultures that exist more in tune with nature then the rest of us
the thing that affects me is the fear of loss and failure to remember; it was a concern of jane jacobs - the problem of forgetting what we have forgotten - an obliteration from our consciousness that something else actually existed
it reminds me of a scene from the movie 'knocked up' where two of the characters were quoting lines from 'back to the future' while the two women at the table had these big looks of 'huh?' on their faces; it made me scared to think that a reference to movies from the 80s are no longer relevant to people in their 20s
it seems that the younger generation spends more time focusing on the present and the gizmos of the present rather than learning about the past or even having a sense of curiosity of the past which constitutes the cultural memory of their parents/aunts/uncles/teachers
it may be the same old complaint but this text messaging/ipod/virtual world generation is losing touch with the real world with it rich texture and timelines
when the spice girls reunion is a big thing i have to wonder....
one of the main things was their cows were going 'crazy' (BSE?) - cows are the lifeblood of the maasai people; the other issue was the deforestation of their lands as trees were used as fuel and building material
the maasai people had to go outside of their traditional boundaries to seek work and food; there was also a push to educate themselves so that they could learn how to interact with the outside world
learning swahili, a money economy, tree planting and other skills have allowed the maasai people to survive but there is a gradual erosion of their culture that is occurring
the false promise of a better life through technology is creeping into their world and i felt a bad for what is one of the few remaining cultures that exist more in tune with nature then the rest of us
the thing that affects me is the fear of loss and failure to remember; it was a concern of jane jacobs - the problem of forgetting what we have forgotten - an obliteration from our consciousness that something else actually existed
it reminds me of a scene from the movie 'knocked up' where two of the characters were quoting lines from 'back to the future' while the two women at the table had these big looks of 'huh?' on their faces; it made me scared to think that a reference to movies from the 80s are no longer relevant to people in their 20s
it seems that the younger generation spends more time focusing on the present and the gizmos of the present rather than learning about the past or even having a sense of curiosity of the past which constitutes the cultural memory of their parents/aunts/uncles/teachers
it may be the same old complaint but this text messaging/ipod/virtual world generation is losing touch with the real world with it rich texture and timelines
when the spice girls reunion is a big thing i have to wonder....
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