“According to a global survey, three out of four of the happiest people groups in the world are not rich consumers. Using a scale where 7 marks the maximum of happiness, Forbes magazine’s richest Americans came in second (5.8), tied with the Pennsylvania Amish. Close behind them (5.7) were the Masai of East Africa, a tribe without electricity or running water who live in huts made of dung. Happiest of all - ahead of America’s richest - were the Inuits of Greenland (5.9).
All this research suggests that a climate of warm, cohesive community and its attendant values are more important than material comfort or other external factors (like climate - in view of the Inuits!) in producing happiness.
Even seeing the numbers, though, how many of us believe what they’re telling us?”
– Brian McLaren, from a preview of Everything Must Change
Posted in Economics | 6 Comments »Shopping is a drag, and that is not just because of my gender. For example, take our regular food shopping. We believe in co-ops, so we foresake the local equivilent of Walmart and head for a local food shop owned by our regional food co-operative. There is no parking. There isn’t much choice on the shelves.
One of the reasons we buy from a co-operative is that it has a policy of aggressive labelling. They tell me things other supermarkets keep silent about.
We have several things to check. First we engage in active boycotts of some brands, most importantly (and perhaps most ineffectually) the longstanding Nestle boycott. Next we girlcott products we really like - most notably fairtrade labelled products. We then look at other products and weigh up whether the distance travelled justifies their purchase so the breakfast cereal containing chinese strawberries is left behind. Wherever possible, UK or at least local European products are bought.
Clothes shopping is somewhat simpler: as we are disgusted by the behaviour of most clothing brands and on a limited budget, 90% of our clothing comes from charity/thrift stores. We figure that although we can’t be any more sure of the origins of the stuff from thrift stores, at least someone benefits from our purchasing.
Our approach is that although we cannot totally change ourselves overnight, we can make continual improvements. Each year we conduct a family audit where we identify more things we can focus on and change.
In truth, we have a long way to go to reach the goal of personal sustainability. The more you think about it, there more there is to change.
Here are some useful resources:
Food shopping: The LOAF principle
Ethical living: Do-able hints
Clothing: All you never wanted to know about cheap clothing.
“As part of this insane and suicidal economy, we act as though the resources we consume are infinite and the wastes we deposit are invisible. Just as our bodies consume food and produce excrement, in this economy we consume trees and produce smoke, consume clean air and produce smog, consume clean water and produce sewage and toxic waste, consume rock and produce radiation, consume oil and coal and produce gases that turn our planet into an overheating oven in which storms boil and oceans rise and deserts spread and forests wither. Our prosperity system thus becomes an excrement factory.”– Brian McLaren, from a preview of Everything Must Change
This article was originally posted on Dave Richard’s blog in February 2006 and he has graciously given his permission for us to repost it here. Dave is a co-founder of Off The Map and a microfinance expert. Dave cares passionately about economic empowerment and you can learn more about innovative solutions for ending global poverty on his blog.
I discovered a new microfinance service called Kiva which is attempting to truly enable person-to-person loans between a loan provider in developed countries and a low-income borrower in developing country.
I am very interested in these kind of innovations because there are currently very few options for middle-class North Americans to invest (not donate) their money in helping very low-income microentrepreneurs start or expand their microbusinesses in order to grow their income and break cycles of generational poverty.
Kiva is using technology to keep the costs of this kind of personalized service to a minimum. Here’s how it works. You go to the Kiva web site and browse through a selection of pre-reviewed loan applications. You get to read an overview of the borrower (including photo), what business they want to invest money in, what size of loan they are requesting and how much they have raised so far. Once you’ve found someone you’d like to make a loan to, you can instantly (using Paypal) make a loan for a portion (minimum $25) or all of the remaining loan ask size. All of the money is managed by Kiva’s web service with human intervention so it is very cost efficient and scalable. Read the rest of this news item »
Found this today from wikipedia:
A warmonger is, pejoratively, someone who is anxious to encourage a people or nation to go to war. It is often used to describe militaristic leaders, or mercenaries, commonly with the implication that they either may have selfish motives for encouraging war, or may actually enjoy war.
By etymology a warmonger is literally a seller of war, from monger used as a transitive verb, meaning a peddler.
The etymology bit is fascinating. Fishmongers sell fish, and warmongers sell war. Selling things is partially about dollars. Have you all seen this counter?
Read the rest of this news item »
Excerpted from Sojourners magazine May 2007
Ethical shopping alone is not a “magic bullet.” We still need to think about our level of consumption, period. The New Internationalist suggests asking these questions before making a new purchase.
1) Do I really need it? Or can I do without? If I really need it, then…
2) Can I avoid buying a new one? Can I borrow, share, swap, grow, make or find it secondhand? If I really need to buy a new one…
3) Can I find one that doesn’t damage people or the planet? Or can I at least try to minimize my impact? After I’ve bought a well-made product…
4) How can I look after it to make sure it lasts as long as possible? What maintenance should I do, and how can I mend it if it breaks?
Posted in Economics | No Comments »“Fair trade needs to move from guilt to solidarity. Guilt is a demeaning emotion. It’s another way of exerting one’s superiority. And it’s repulsive to the recipients. Pity doesn’t recognize the humanity, the equality, of working people. They don’t want pity. They don’t want a special break - they want an even break.”
- Adam Neiman, founder of No Sweat Apparel
This quote was excerpted from the May issue of Sojourners magazine in an article entitled What Would Yeshua Wear?, which also mentions our very own Joe Turner. Hurray for Joe!
Posted in Economics, Quote for the Day | 7 Comments »Over this last week I’ve had a couple smallish opportunities to do something smallish and been encouraged in both of them. First of all I finally followed up on a suggestion from Julie Clawson, and bought fair trade sugar from Amazon. We had run out of sugar (probably not a bad thing) and so I though it an ideal time. However, I was feeling a little guilty, because this sugar costs 4 times “normal” sugar, and we are not exactly in brilliant financial straits at this time. My friend Karl (a Mennonite, interestingly), encouraged me in this. He said that I am simply assuming the full fair price of the sugar, instead of outsourcing that full cost to someone else who is actually a lot worse off than me financially. This made me feel good. I also felt stoked when I actually received the box full of 10 one pound boxes of sugar via Amazon. I read the little blurb on the back about the Alter Trade Foundation and their Alter Eco Products, and I felt rather proud of myself.
The other thing I did this last week was inspired by Anna and by something Brian Mclaren said at an event I recently went to. He said that one of the evil results of nationalism is that nobody cares about any place. That is, we think of ourselves as Americans, and thus not as a member of this little neighborhood above Nathan Hale High School. Brian said “Learn your address–not your street address–your environmental address. You live in a watershed. Something is happening in terms of water geographically and environmentally where you live. Check it out on google earth.” This got me to thinking about my particular watershed, and little old Thornton Creek down there and how stuff moves at various rates down into that, and gradually out into Lake Washington, Puget Sound, and the Pacific. And it made me notice litter. So I grabbed a plastic bag when my girls and I walked down to the park next to Thornton Creek, and we picked up litter along the way. My two preschool girls really got into. It became “It’s *my* turn to hold the bag” and “Look, there’s some more garbage–I’ll get it!”. Made me feel really good in lots of ways. Read the rest of this news item »
Here is the latest installment in our series from artist Tim Nyberg.
Our industrialized economies are based upon the idea of continual economic growth. The advertisers generate need and the consumers buy ever more goods and services. It seems quite subversive and counter-cultural to question or challenge this system.
“Globalization isn’t just an aggressive stage in the history of capitalism. It is a religious movement of previously unheard-of proportions. Progress is its underlying myth, unlimited economic growth its foundational faith, the shopping mall its place of worship, consumerism its overriding image, ‘I’ll have a Big Mac and fries’ its ritual of initiation, and global domination its ultimate goal.”
- Brian J. Walsh and Sylvia C. Keesmaat in Colossians Remixed: Subverting the Empire
Posted in Economics, Quote for the Day | 4 Comments »