Blog 2

One of the readings this week that really stood out to me was the article in Environment "Ken Saro-Wiwa, from Genocide in Nigeria: The Ogoni Tradegy." What a sad story! My heart goes out to these people. The article puts most or all of the blame on the Shell company, which I thought was a good company (though this article is from 1992). The pollution caused by the oil and gas extraction is essentially acting as genocide for these Ogani people. It was the numbers that really got to me.
- Shell spent one million pounds on a new theatre. No money to help the people they are destroying.
- Chevron pays more in rent in one year for ONE two-bedroom flat for one of it's middle level employees than it has paid in a total of 10 years to Ogani landlords.

The Ogani people have no electricity, no pipe-borne water, no hospitals, no schools

What is going on here? Do we not hear about/care about/notice these things becuase they are happening so far away? These people are suffering so I can drive my truck... I don't know what to do about it but there's got to be a better way. O wait...there is. All that crazy new techology about hybrids, hydrogen cars, fuel cells, and green energy. Let's do that.

Globalization links

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NAUdUi4hisk&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AHJPSLgHemM&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uHm-GePYTP0&feature=related

http://www.pbs.org/newshour/video/module.html?mod=0&pkg=23032007&seg=2

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-1EHTt4HFng&feature=related

http://www.oikoumene.org/en/resources/documents/wcc-programmes/justice-diakonia-and-responsibility-for-creation/climate-change-water/02-globalization-and-climate-change.html

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L_B1Iybufic&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ze5rnVYlpxw&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-1EHTt4HFng&feature=related

The Want of Peace

a poem to share...

The Want of Peace - Wendell Berry

All goes back to the earth,

and so I do not desire

pride of excess or power,

but the contentments made

by [those] who have had little:

the fisherman's silence

receiving the river's grace,

the gardener's musing on rows.

I lack the peace of simple things.

I am never wholly in place.

I find no peace or grace.

We sell the world to buy fire,

our way lighted by burning men,

and that has bent my mind

and made me think of darkness

and wish for the dumb life of roots.

where did THAT come from?

Wow, I wasn’t expecting such an intense visceral reaction to the conversation in class yesterday! I mean, I’ve always believed in the importance of non-violent resistance, of active pacifism. I’ve always believed that there are alternatives to the use of violence to resolve conflict. (Granted, this doesn’t mean I’ve never yelled, never fought with my big brother while growing up, never felt like committing violence!!) But why was my stomach churning for the whole class time? Why did I need an hour in my office after class to quietly and thoroughly come unglued? Why did it take me hours of time with a long hike in the sunshine and quiet of the woods, some helpful listening by coworkers and family, playtime with my children and a glass of good wine before I felt remotely “normal” again?

In hindsight, some of this internal tension started developing earlier. Last week I was pre-reading/screening a book for Benjamin about a Jewish family escaping from Russia during the pogroms. (Some of Phil’s/Benjamin’s/Alta’s ancestors were Russian Jews). Then on Thursday as I was reading for class, I ended up reading details about the Vietnam War, specifically about the My Lai massacre by US soldiers. Both of these moved the whole topic out of the nicely intellectual level of the readings and started putting real people into it for me again - both people who were behaving horrifically, people who were dying in terrible ways and people who were putting their own lives in danger to protect others.

War is always such a waste! What a waste of lives – people killed, people who have to deal for the rest of their lives with the killing or torturing they’ve done or the things they’ve seen & experienced. What a waste of money! What a waste of so many beautiful and amazing places, plants and creatures!

I think part of what really topped it off for me yesterday was thinking again about the ways I contribute to this horror while saying I’m a pacifist. Through the portions of my taxes that go into the military budgets, through my taxes that go to pay Israel $7 MILLION each day in spite of the systematic marginalization and dehumanization of the Palestinian people, through my use of gasoline and motor oil that pours money into governments that abuse many people within their countries, through my taxes that are sent to Colombia to pay the salaries of soldiers who torture and murder First Nations people there… and through NOT speaking out more strongly to my family, friends, community, church, government against these things.

God forgive me and give me the strength to do what I can from here on out.

Blog #2- Globalization

So I have recently watched a couple of documentaries- The World According to Monsanto and Food Inc. for now. I am working on a couple more soon. I then just read our reading for Paul's class on Monday, and I think it is ironic how much of a correlation our reading is to what I have watched. The reading mentioned how the farmers in India purchased this magic cotton to grow in there fields to make money. It also talked about how people are growing monocultures to supposedly "make it" in the global market. I had no idea how much of a negative impact that the global market had on people. I knew that it was bad, but I never stopped to think that it really effected many people, the poor mainly, and only benefits a few rich people. These multinational corporations purposely lie to these people because they want to make money. These countries want to make money as well so they exploit their resources in order to make money. These countries could be sustainably farming and living well, many of them, because of their resources, but because these corporations have in a way "duped" many of them with the example of the golden cotton, these countries are now hurting and are living on untillable land because of the pesticides and are suffering many consequences because of this. I am right now not sure how we can fix this but we need to. It is sad that there are players in the governments and the world organizations that will side with these companies and not with the people. What happened to the good of the people? Where ARE our morals? I am very sad that I have been so sheltered all of my life. Seeing the reality is really upsetting, and to think that in a way I am contributing to this madness because of my purchasing many of the items that are being made in these poor countries and hurting the people and the land because of my purchasing products such as Dole bananas and Dove products. I then noticed though from Food Inc. that many of our products that we consider "green" are now owned by these big non ecofriendly companies, such as Tom's of Maine is owned by Colgate! What are we to do?

Grassroots efforts vs. top-down policies (revisited)

Oops! I didn't clarify myself well enough. To better clarify:
Ideas that are not our own--what I mean is that the ideas (especially for energy use) are top-down policies, not coming from the majority of people...at least that is what I feel is being said when I hear so many people argue against these top-down policies like taxes.
How does driving my car affect kids in Boston--we have fallen into the trap of expecting exact proof, we argue against strong correlations. It's the prove it syndrom. Science only finds correlations, not proof, isn't that what we learned from Lisa's class?
Okay, please read the rest of the blog with this revised comments in mind. Sorry for the confusion. K

Grassroots efforts vs. top-down policies

Does anyone else feel frustrated and discouraged from these classes? It seems like every initiative that is suggested is shot down right away...I'm trying to remember what we talked about in Luke's class, but it is difficult. Why are all these ideas so controversial? I think it is because it is not our own ideas.

How did the tree planting initiative in Kenya become so successful? Wasn't it because 1) Dr. Maathai listened to the concerns of the people, 2) she helped local communities understand the importance of the trees and then how it will benefit the communities, and 3) she got the communities involved in the planting of the trees? This grassroots effort is starting to affect a nation and even the rest of the world. Pretty amazing for planting a few trees.

So what about energy (i.e. oil use, nuclear power, coal, etc.)? Why is this so contentious? I think a big part of it is that it is difficult to see the negative effects of all this rampant oil use right in our own communities. Sure, the kids in Boston may be suffering from childhood asthma, but how does that relate to my heating my house, driving my car? We still think and act very locally, though the rest of our true actions are very global.

I agree with LaToyia's comments in class this week. We expect people to agree to a tax (and let's face it, who really enjoys having their money taken away from them. Even I don't like it, though I agree with it), but don't have anything for them to be involved with. With respect to energy savings/reduction, we don't have a grassroots movement that stirs up camaraderie between people, we don't have something to talk about over the water cooler. "Guess what I did this weekend! I changed my lightbulbs to compact fluorescents!" That really doesn't inspire many people to join in. David Suzuki has advertised the CFLs a lot, but even a very motivating person like him has not created a big social movement. Even more difficult is when you hear reports saying that changing the lightbulbs doesn't do much in the grand scheme of things. So what can I do if my actions really don't make a difference? Defeat is sometimes too easy to accept (and my cynical, conspiracy theory side would say that is what "Big Brother" wants us to do).

So what can we do? I think we do agree that uncontrolled resource use can lead to environmental and social degradation, and maybe even war. Not good. Now this is where I feel like I am lost. I want to create a grassroots movement that helps people understand that energy conservation and alternative energy use is effective in my community and the world and that also is motivating to others to join in. No small task. I think policies need to made to conserve energy, but we need to expend more energy as educators on motivating citizens, because then the government will definitely follow.

So what can we do? Any ideas? I'm still brainstorming, I'd be happy to have more people join me brainstorm.