Voluntary Simpleton

Buy Nothing Day

2006-11-23T11:28:00.000-08:00

Tomorrow, 24 November is International Buy Nothing Day.
It really gets most support in Canada and the U.S. In the latter, today is Thanksgiving and tomorrow one of the biggest shopping days of the year. The juxtaposition of the two is interesting.
I have come to understand that learning to be grateful for what we have - no matter how little - is the secret of true happiness and the ability to show gratitude and give thanks for one's life and the people in it is a great blessing.
It is such a pity that in our culture holidays like Thanksgiving and Christmas have been hijacked by commerce and people feel that unless they spend a lot of money they are not showing true love or care for those nearest to them. It is particularly difficult for those who have children and do not wish to deny them the expensive toys that their offspring have been manipulated into wanting by the manufacturers.
I am feeling the pressure too from my family who really do go overboard at this time of year and who seem to think that the bigger the heap of presents under the tree on 25 December the better a Christmas it must be. To show any lack of enthusiasm for this consumerist feeding frenzy is to be likened to Ebenezer Scrooge. I am not a christian but I can only commiserate with those christians who lament that the true message of Christmas is lost.
Still, while it is good to give presents as tokens of our love to our nearest and dearest, it is more important to show that love all the year round in moral as well as financial support. The consumerist orgy that we indulge in pretty much nearly 365 days a year is putting us all in peril - including those to whom we wish to demonstrate our devotion.
Do something really nice and really necessary for someone you love tomorrow and buy them nothing.

Meat and the emotions

2006-11-16T10:42:00.000-08:00

I was involved in a debate the other day with some people on vegetarianism. I was not being, I hope, in anyway judgemental or pushy about my own refusal to eat animal products but I noted there was a distinctly hostile emotional reaction by a couple of the carnivores to my decision to avoid meat and dairy. I was a bit taken aback.

Eating meat has a particular significance for men in many societies. It would appear that meat is associated with virility and not eating meat is considered, in some circles, unmanly.

I think some people also feel they are made to look uncaring or morally inferior for eating meat and so react dismissively to any suggestion that eating meat is not a good thing to do.

To be honest though, I think most of the hostile reaction come from guilt. I think most people know that meat, dairy and egg production causes massive suffering, ill-health and environmental damage. However, they love the taste of meat and cheese etc. so much that they prefer to shut that reality from their minds. The last thing they want is to be reminded that the lovely food they enjoy is bought at a cost to others and, ultimately, to their own health. We all like to tell ourselves that we are not selfish and uncaring but we all know (or should know) that our indulgence in certain foods often has terrible consequences for other beings.

I think, in a way, for some people meat is like a kind of drug. They know that eating it is not good but what the hell, it tastes soooo good - bugger the consequences!

River Cottage again

2006-11-09T13:23:00.000-08:00

Just saw the 2nd episode of the River Cottage Treatment. It is one of the best food shows I've ever seen - even though it contains no recipes or how-tos. This week's bunch of ready-meal addicts get not only to learn to cook but to see how a couple of sheep they have helped look after are slaughtered on a visit to an abattoir.

This is very interesting stuff. Not only has the show identified the problem that people are distanced from their food and need to understand where it comes from, how it lived and died as well as how to prepare it. I especially like the way in which they go into supermarkets and disparage the crap supermarkets sell. The show also points out how the same dishes can be made from organic produce for the same or less money than the additive-ridden slop that appears in microwave ready meals.

In this week's episode those taking part actually and I think genuinely understood that cooking was a joy not a chore and that cheap pre-prepared meals are nasty and harmful for everybody concerned (except perhaps the manufacturers). What was especially good to see was one person - a month after appearing on the show - having resolved to avoid eating meat now that she knew how it was reared and killed.

Interesting TV series

2006-11-08T12:32:00.000-08:00

Channel 4 here in the UK is showing an interesting food series at the moment. I caught last week's episode on YouTube (proabably illegally and so it won't be there for long). It's called The River Cottage Treatment and is hosted by Hugh Fearnley Whittingstall. He's a chef and advocate for organic and real food. He invites each week a group of fast/convenience food addicts to his farm and teaches them to cook and appreciate real food. It's on Thursdays at 8pm.

He also takes them to a factory farm and lets them see how the cheap chicken they eat is produced. Of course they had never seen or never even stopped to consider where they meat they eat comes from or why it is so cheap (apparently the factory farmers make only 3p a head on each chicken!). They also kill a (fully-grown, organically reared) chicken, pluck cook and eat all of it. This last is yuk but at least they are aware of the full process of how the food they eat is produced.
Hugh FW is a convinced carnivore but refuses to eat factory farmed meat - which, if you gotta eat meat, is the only way to do it, in my book. It is also interesting that a TV chef is actually going against the big supermarkets - one scene has him wandering around appalled at the cheap and nasty food gunk for sale in his local big store.

Interestingly too, he emphasises the using of every part of a plant or an animal that is edible - it's a great money saving tip and a way to make organic produce more affordable. it's amazing though how resistant some of the people on the show were to eating fresh vegetables - they probably had never actually tasted real food and where addicted to the chemical flavours of junk food. I wonder it'll make anyone watching think or have any effect on sales in the supermarkets?

Quarterly Accounts

2006-11-04T08:29:00.000-08:00

For the last 3 months I have been keeping tabs on what I spend. Today, I am trying to look at what I have spent. From just a brief analysis of what I squandered money on, here's a rough breakdown:

Total Spent: £2062.19
Rent: £1260.00 (c.60% of the total)
Bus Fares: 197.40 (nearly 10% of the total)
Broadband: £74.97
Calls: £51.00
Organic goods: £43.70
Electricity: £40.00
2nd hand goods: £19.78
Fairtrade goods: £17.30

Well, the above suggests a few things that I could help organise my finances. First, might be find somewhere cheaper to live. Second might be to get rid of the phone - I don't use it very often. Third, would be to get off my butt and start cycling more to work. It'll be interesting to see how next quarter's figure tot up - especially since Christmas is coming soon.

No hope for fat kids

2006-10-26T10:08:00.000-07:00

I heard a thing tonight on the local news that depresses me. Following a very public campaign by celebrity chef Jamie Oliver, schools in the UK started to make a concerted effort to cut out junk food and actually start spending money on decent grub for school kids. At last, I thought, we are trying to do something to do combat childhood obesity and bad eating habits.
And are the little buggers grateful? Not a chance!
Some schools have lost up to a third of their children who had previously eaten schools dinners and who now go off to fast food outlets to get their saturated fat fixes. There had been reports in England of doting parents passing chips and doughnuts to their health averse offspring through school railings.
Since taking up my current simple living kick I thought seriously about my diet - for reasons of my own health and the effects of what I consume on others and the planet in general. I have become more and more convinced that the most sustainable and ethical diet I can adopt is a vegan one.
I think that it is a viable diet for most people and a general adoption of it would help a range of social and ecological problems. However, with news like that above, I wonder if I am on a road to nowhere. Are people in general, and especially young people, so shortsighted and focussed on personal gratification that they are unable to adopt new habits that will benefit themselves most of all?

The Politics of Voluntary Simplicity

2006-10-22T02:51:00.000-07:00

I have been kicking around the idea for a while of whether living a simple life is enough. I have lived simply in one way or another for several years but, until recently, have not really seriously tried to distil the reasons for what I am doing into a cogent philosophy. Here's what I have come up with so far:

Taking responsibility: I suppose from the the standpoint of moral philosphy I am a consequentialist because I believe it is important to be aware of and take responsibility for the harm one actions may do - whether to people, animals or the environment. A simple life therefore means minimising suffering to others even at the cost of some added inconvenience to oneself.
Promoting health: A concern for staying healthy is important for everyone - but often our desires lead us to do things that although short-term are enjoyable will, if over-indulged, will harm our quality of life. Simple living, for me, involves eating better, perhaps eating less and getting more exercise.
Independence: We are told that we must have or do so many things to live a meaningful life by those who wish to sell us these things. In order to get these unnecessary things we sell our time and energy for money. However if we see through the marketing hype we realise we do not need to buy into other people's ideas of what constitutes a good life. Free from the desire to possess these lifestyle objects we see we need less money and so we can afford to sell less of our time and energy.
A more informed life: Living simply means you have to know more about what impact your life has on everything around you. You need to educate and inform yourself about issues you may never have considered before. You spend less time living a fantasy fuelled by your own desire and media marketing.
Appreciating life: With more time and more emphasis on see the world as it is that comes with living a simpler life one also comes to appreciate what one has. If your life is spent chasing a dream, living for the future instead of in the present, life can slip buy without ever having been truly lived. Living simply is a decision not to put life on hold.

The above is all fine and dandy but my question is - is it enough?
We live at a time where consumption has put the whole planet at risk and I would go as far as to say that simplifying one's life is no longer a just an option for individuals but an imperative for the whole of society if we wish to avoid the collapse our entire civilisation.
On a individual level, a person living the simple has very little impact on the factors which are leading us into the possible social chaos that global warming and other phenomena will bring. Simple living needs to become a popular movement - not just because it is the best way to live but to salvage our future as a society.
Voluntary Simplicity is no longer just a personal issue but a political one. My thinking on my own motivation is clear enough now that I can try to communicate it to others. There is already a a growing understanding that we need to change our consumption patterns and reign in the power of transnational corportations if things are not to get very ugly in the future. I think I should turn my attention to trying to persuade others of the benefit simple living.
The question is how?

Eating Simply II

2006-10-13T13:34:00.000-07:00

So what does eating simply involve in my humble opinion? Well it may well differ for you but here are my ideas:

Inform yourself about what you eat: This might seem obvious but many people just eat what they like (hence the high rates of obesity, heart disease and food-related cancers in the UK ). Find out what is good for you and what is not. Be interested in what you eat.
Avoid processed foods as much as possible: Get your food in its most basic forms. The less processing has gone into it the fewer nasties such as preservatives, artificial colours, hydrogenated fats, added salt, added sugar etc. will be found in it. Generally, processed foods are heavily packaged, avoiding them will cut down on waste too.
Buy organic: Cut out the amount of pesticides and other chemicals that end up in your food because of industrialised farming processes. Sure it costs more, but the food value is higher and the flavour is much better.
Buy local: It will be fresher, support your local economy and be better for the environment. Supermarkets will fly in produce from the other side of the world that can be grown locally in order to sell it more cheaply. This is a false economy. Exotic foods might be a nice treat but make them an occasional one. You might even consider growing your own.
Eat seasonal produce: Learn what food is available when and try to eat with the seasons. Buying out-of-season food is a luxury that our environment cannot sustain much longer. When I lived in Italy many years ago I remember that people would simply not buy vegetables out of season. It was idiomatic that they would be no good.
Learn to cook: This is perhaps the most important step. Ready meals and convenience foods have separated us from the food we eat. Many people rarely see their food in its basic form anymore. And if they did they would be at a loss how to deal with it. We need to reconnect with our food again and take control of how it is prepared. Be creative with food - a producer of fine cuisine rather than a consumer of unhealthy slop.
Eat fairly-traded foodstuffs: Most of the tea, coffee, chocolate, bananas and other tropical fruits are cheap for us because of the exploitation of workers in the third world. Do not let your addiction to coffee or chocolate or whatever be at the expense of someone else's standard of living.
Eat sensibly: It goes without saying that health benefits of a simple diet will be lost if you overeat or do not eat a balanced diet.
Cut out or cut down on meat: It takes 100kg of vegetable protein to produce 9kg of meat protein. The area of ground it takes to feed one carnivore will feed twenty vegans. We could feed the world easily if we gave up less than half of the meat consumption of the developed world. One could also add the terrible conditions for animals endemic to factory farming, the chemicals deleterious to health and the environmental damage. Meat production is a miserable business. Dairy and egg production are no better.
Buy Quality: Don't go for cheap all the time. Cheap food is usually less good for you, the environment and the producer. I think it is important to try to spend less on many things but not on food.

Eating Simply

2006-10-13T12:25:00.000-07:00

One thing I've noticed wth regard to trying to live simply is how much of my thought and practice of simple living revolves around food. For other things I consume, there are few choices. For travel, I can only go on foot, by bike or public transport (I don't know how to drive in any case). For clothes, I generally try to get as much as possible second hand and avoid cheap clothes from chain stores. Books, I try to always buy second hand too. I've gotten my electricity switched over to eco-friendly sources and am working on getting my house better insulated and energy efficient. All of these things are relatively easy and actually cost less than the full-fat alternatives.

Food, however, is a different matter. I reckon I spend more on food than I ever have before. Granted I have been a veggie for many years and so spent less on food than full-blown carnivores but my insistence on trying to eat organic, avoiding supermarkets and processed food is costing more. But that is as it should be. We should spend more on food. Especially in the UK, we care in general less about the quality of our food than in continental Europe. Consequently we have the highest obesity rate in Europe. In some towns in Northern England one third of adults are obese and overall the figure is one quarter. We could be looking in the coming decades at the first decrease in life expentancy in 200 years!

Changing peoples attitude to food I think would go a long way to creating a shift in other areas that we need to make if we are going to survive global warming and alleviate global poverty. The topic of food impacts in so many ways: personal and public health, the environment, animal rights, social justice. Even without adopting a vegan diet as (arguably) an optimum diet for healthy and ethical living people should at least care about the quality of the food they eat. Factory-farmed food is poor-quality food. Convenience ready-meals are also generally made from poor-quality ingredients. Processed food stuffs are generally not made from the best ingredients - or why would you need to process them?

Cookery programmes are common fare on our TVs but it is usually mostly just gastro-porn - like consumers of pornography, people who watch it just like watching it but rarely get to do it for real themselves. Maybe one of these campaigning celebrity cooks like Jamie Oliver or Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall should take up the cause of the horrendous eating habits we indulge in and the terrible consequences for it. Not many supermarket product spin-offs though in that.

Voluntary Simplicity- it's a whole other world

2006-10-12T12:54:00.000-07:00

I've blogged before about the perceived weirdness of trying to live a simple live- especially in an urban environment but as I get deeper into my commitment to try to live as ethically, healthily and consciously as I can, I feel as if I am moving into another world. Mostly it has to do with my motivation, many people can see something in it but nearly nobody I know would care enough to try to do some of the things I do.
Refusing to eat meat, refusing to shop in supermarkets, insisting on paying more for food to ensure it organic or fairly-traded or - worst of all - refusing to watch television. But there is a little subculture out there of cranks and weirdos all trying to break free from the consumerist nightmare. It is still possible, if you are diligent, to live outside of the ambit of corporate influence but it is a life very different from the mainstream.
I can see my life becoming more engrossed in this new way of thinking. Maybe working less and living on even less but living a life rich in ideas and in control of the humble necessities of what I eat, what I wear, where I live and how I make my living. Not many people have control in all or even any of these areas of their lives so that the few who are seem strange and possibly dangerous. Voluntary Simplicity is, surprisingly and shamefully, almost an act of civil disobedience. Our society is so centred on the notion of consuming that to wilfully opt out can be likened to entering the cloister.
As someone who spent a couple of years as a Buddhist monk there is nothing new to me about adopt a lifestyle that seems to run contrary to the mainstream but it is also strange to live such an existence at large in the world. I wonder how many other people trying to live the simple life find this strange sense of detachment?

Taking the red pill

2006-10-08T11:57:00.000-07:00

In the last few months in which I have been stumbling towards a new way to live my life I have been struggling to put into words what sort of life it is I want to live. I've been looking through the posts I've written and a theme I think that comes up again and again is the necessity not just to live simply but consciously. Voluntary simplicity is an integral part of living a conscious life but not all of it.

There are many factors in our society which wish to influence us to do things that are not good for us as individuals and for wider society. Don't get me wrong, I do not believe in a conspiracy just that in a capitalist society there are business, media and political forces who are forever trying to get one to live a life that suits them - to turn one into a passive consumer instead of an autonomous individual. It is the nature of the beast.

The more I have seen of the way we are sedated by television, socially acceptable (and illegally available) drugs, cheap goods with which to amuse ourselves while other human beings are exploited to make our consumer goods, animals forced to live hellish existences and the countryside poisoned to provide us with cheap food, and our entire plant rapidly approaching a point of no return that will see the quality of life of future generations seriously impaired, I am not longer able to distract myself with what the consumer society offers.

We are drugged by the comforts of our lives and do not see the harm our comfortable lives do to others and to ourselves. Somewhere along the way I, like Neo in the Matrix, seem to have swallowed the red pill and cannot go back to sleep. I think most people who are turning to a life of voluntary simplicity these days are no different. We should be awake to what we do. We muddle along in a selfish dream concerned only with fulfilling a fantasy given to us by people who do not have our best interests (or indeed their own) at heart. It is no way to live.

I found myself weeping...

2006-10-07T07:35:00.000-07:00

Maybe I am getting sentimental in my old age but I came across something that made me cry involuntarily during the week. It was to do with the terrible murders of Amish school girls in Lancaster county in the US.

It was not the senseless waste of five innocent lives by a poor, twisted individual, tragic and worthy of tears although that is, it was the story that members of Amish community had opened an account and were requesting donations from within their community for the family of the murderer.

Although the Amish live a form of voluntary simplicity there are probably many aspects of Anabaptist belief which I would not agree with (their rejection of technology, for example) but this act shows that some of them at least have a clear perspective and an admirable understanding of what is really important. Rather than using this tragedy to reject others and justify revenge, they used their own suffering to connect with and reach out to the suffering of others. Whatever religious or secular belief system you hold, if it cannot do this it is not worth following.

I found myself weeping with gratitude that such people exist in the world.

Buying Strategies

2006-10-01T04:28:00.000-07:00

This follows on from the last post. Marketing is a way to get us to buy stuff we usually do not need. I am going to suggest a form of "counter marketing", a series of buying strategies that are designed to encourage conscious consuming and a means of undermining the sales strategies that corporations and big retailers engage in - to the detriment of us all.

Think Small - Try wherever you can to avoid big chains and supermarkets. Use small local retailers. Refuse to use huge retailers on principle - or at least as little as you can. It may cost more sometimes but you are getting more back in value for your community and environment.
Buy Local - Try your best to get what you buy produced as locally to you as possible. Buy seasonal produce. Cut down on exotic products that have to be shipped vast distances. Support producers in your local community.
Buy Second-Hand - There are many, many charity shops in every town in the UK and Ireland. It may take a little more work but you can be sure that buying 2nd-hand books, clothes, furniture, kitchen wares is a winner all-round. It cuts down on waste, the profits are used to benefit society, you know that the producer (the person who donated the goods) is not exploited in its production.
Shop for Value - buy with an eye to longevity and repairability. Don't fall into the trap of being cheap and buying often.
Shop Less Often - Plan and think about your shopping. Buy in bulk if you can. It is usually cheaper. The most important thing is to think about what you need and leave yourself less open to impulse buying. It is also a big time saver.
Buy More Basic Goods - Especially where food is concerned, buy basic ingredients and fewer processed and "convenience" goods. If you can make your own clothes or travel under your own steam - this too provides a means of shopping at a more basic level.
Boycott - Simply do not buy products (or from retailers) who do not do meet your ethical standards. The growth in the market for Fairtrade coffee is due to a growing boycott of unfairly-traded brands.
Buy nothing day - Set aside one day a week or even one day a month when you will not buy anything. And if you can do it for one day, see if you can do it for two. You can plan your purchases so you do not need to consume every day.
Chart your own consumption - Do what the marketers do! Keep tabs on how much and what you spend stuff on. Look at what were impulse buys and what is stuff you actually needed. Know your own consumption patterns and see what you can do buy less and buy more wisely.

In order to live simple, in my opinion, you need to take responsibility for your consumption. You need to consume consciously and not let producers push stuff onto you. You need to dictate what you consume and not let others decide (by whatever means) what you should be buying.

Countering Marketing

2006-10-01T02:31:00.000-07:00

What marketing segment do you belong to? According to the VALS market analysis system invented by the Stanford Research Institute there are 8 social/personality types which are convenient market archetypes. Most simple livers would belong I guess to the market segment called Makers who "unimpressed with material goods" and "buy basic goods". There is also something of the Thinker in the typical simple liver as they looking for "functionality, durability and value", and possibly something of the Survivor who are "cautious consumers".

The premise behind this and other market research systems is that we all have values and needs which can be identified and used as the basis to sell us stuff. I have already talked about another market segment LOHAS (lifestyles of health and sustainability) which marketers have identified as a target. I thought I would like put forward a few ideas about how to foil marketers and make your purchases conscious rather than automatic response to marketing stimuli.

A few basic ideas:

Possessions don't bring happiness - This is the foundation of simple living. An understanding that whatever you acquire can only serve a limited purpose.
Buying is a moral act - All marketing is aimed at the individual - it's about convincing you that your personal satisfaction is the most important thing at this minute and a certain product can provide that. But everything you purchase has consequences and implications for the producer and for the environment and society at large. Bearing this in mind, you will question every penny you spend.
Inform yourself about marketing and sales techniques - if you know how a con trick works you will not be fooled by it. Marketing is a con trick. It attempts to persuade you that a product can do more for you than it actually can. The internet has all the information you need.
Buy less - No matter whether marketers are trying to sell you cheap goods in quantity or make you spend more on higher quality goods, foster the determination to buy less - you actually need less than you think. The first question about any purchase should always be "Do I actually need this?". The aim of marketing is always to get you to buy more even if you don't need it and the best thing you can do to counter it, is simply buy less.
Cut out the propaganda - Advertising comes into our lives in all sorts ways. You can't avoid it. But you can do some things. Ban the TV - even if only from certain rooms in the house or at certain times of the day. It is the main way we receive marketing messages.

We live in a market economy, we need to buy stuff and I suppose we need people to tell us about new products and ideas. What we need though is a shift in the balance where we make conscious decisions about they way we consume and what producers provide.

Are we screwed, then?

2006-09-30T05:04:00.000-07:00

I have just watched a series of interesting documentaries by Adam Curtis called The Century of the Self (4 hour long episodes orginally broadcast on BBC2 now available on Google Video). They look at the rise of Marketing and Public Relations - principally based on the work of Sigmund Freud's nephew Edward Bernays.

The thrust of the programmes is that though the development of psychological techniques for marketing Big Business has radically changed the social outlook of Western society. Rather than selling us what we need, our most basic desires can be explored and products produced to meet them - and, of course, our desires can be aroused too so that we are more open to the marketers' message.

We are reduced from citizens to consumers kept under control by inflaming our desires through advertising and then providing the material means of (temporarily) satisfying them. It is a modern version of the Roman policy of panem et circenses - bread and circuses - bemoaned by the poet Juvenal.

I've been wondering recently, after having seen An Inconvenient Truth, if we will be able to make the paradigm shift, the change of societal mindset, necessary to meet the challenge of combating the effects of global warming. To be honest, I am not optimistic. Bernays and his followers have helped form a society where the vast majority are primarily concerned with convenience, personal comfort and short-term gratification.

Are we screwed, then? I am in my early forties so I don't think that I will live to see the very worst effects of global warming in my part of the world. As its effects become ever more apparent, more, of course, will be down to help slow down the process - but it may well be too late. I have a couple of neices, both toddlers, and I wonder what the world will be like when they are old ladies. Warmer, more fractious and a lot more dangerous, I suspect.

An Inconvenient Truth II

2006-09-26T12:25:00.000-07:00

I finally got to see Gore's movie after work today. It's very good. Al Gore is a first-rate orator and the PowerPoint presentation around which the film is based is pretty impressively put together. For someone who has had an interest in global warming, a lot of what he says is not new but it is perhaps more persuasively put than I have seen it before. A really powerful use of graphics - and even graphs and bar charts which will often kill a presentation.

I found the last quarter of the movie the most inspiring - and that was what it was intended to do. It is a call for action and a mass movement to get politicians to put voters concerns before those of big business. However there were only a dozen or so people in the theater. I suspect, unfortunately, that Gore is doing most of his preaching to the choir - but maybe he can inspire some of the choir to do their own preaching.

One other funny thing happened today - I got a phone call from a TV chat show researcher who has seen the blog and asking if I would come on the show in London on Thursday. I said OK but I would not fly. They seemed to think that making me go overland would be too much and so demured. The show was a afternoon popular (as opposed to highbrow) debate about branding. I don't really think I understand why anyone is stupid enough to spend a fortune on certain brands and probably could not have contributed much more than this in any case. I don't think they would have been really interested in the real reasons for people living the simple life. The show's producer is Endemol who make the ghastly Big Brother here in the UK.

And, in any case, I don't even own a television!

An Inconvenient Truth

2006-09-24T04:27:00.000-07:00

Al Gore's climate change movie, An Inconvenient Truth, finally hits Belfast this weekend. It's much anticipated and the local press and radio has been trotting out local pundits on the pro and con side of the global warming argument. I haven't seen it as yet but intend to go during the coming week.

I am at a loss though to understand the vehemence with which commentators have opposed the climate change arguments put forth by Gore et al. Certainly, there are oil (and other fossil fuel) company goons who are paid to foster doubt on these issues but there are others - perhaps just political conservatives - who disbelieve the evidence just because it comes from the mouth of Al and any other liberal/left-of-centre figures.

The American neo-conservative group Project for a New American Century in an infamous paper Rebuilding America's Defenses have said that a catalysing event, a "new Pearl Harbour", will be needed to build public support behind its (corporatist and colonialist) agenda. Some conspiracy theorists see this event as being the 9/11 attack and an "inside job" by neo-conservative elements. I think that a similar paradigm shift is needed to wake people up to the reality of man-made climate change. In some respects the "new Pearl Harbour" of the left was the devastation wreaked by Hurricane Katrina on New Orleans in 2005. But there will be other disasters that do not need to be organised by shadowy political or religious organisation. Just how many will there be before we can really get the leaders of the right to start worrying for the future of their own children?

I hope that the growing reality of climate change will also bring about a rethink in world politics. I hope people will soon see that it is due to effects policies that play to corporate interests that natural disasters are increasing in intensity and the fragile ecology of the planet (and some say even the human race as a whole) is threatened. Indeed such a paradigm shift has got to happen but just how long it will take and at what price will be paid for delay?

More Philanthropy

2006-09-23T10:15:00.001-07:00

It was announced this week that the British billionaire Richard Branson has decided to donate all of the profits from the travel companies in his Virgin Group to research into sustainable energy and global warming over the next 10 years.

In many ways this is indeed great news - big business is waking up to the fact that oil is running out and trend for dirt cheap flights is destroying the planet. Branson has even gone as far as saying that short haul flights should be phased out where a train service existed. Branson's move will mean something around $3 billion dollars going into research into green airline fuel.

Branson is of course to be commended - I certainly could not see that awful gobshite Michael O'Leary of Ryanair doing anything as farsighted. But will he actually cut the number of short flights? We have got to cut down on these inexpensive short hop journeys. Branson, since he also owns a train company, will not lose out as much as some of the other low-cost airline bosses if the market is curtailed.

Personally, I think the day of low-cost flights is nearing its end - the reason is not of course that people are waking up to the tons of CO2 they pump into the atmosphere, but to the fact that oil will become so expensive over the next few years that flying will once again become an occasional luxury rather than as cheap as taking the bus. Unless, of course Branson comes up with the goods and some kind of "bio-kerosene" will fuel airplanes in the next decade.

A couple of interesting sites

2006-09-22T11:43:00.000-07:00

Listening to the local radio news during the week I was pointed to a couple of interesting websites. despite my recent whinging about the lack of ethical programming around I do think that my local BBC station - Radio Ulster - does do a pretty good job with covering ethical issues.

The first site I came across was travelwiseni.com - a website that promotes carpooling in Northern Ireland. The idea is that people cooperate with neighbours to drive into and from work. The passengers share the fuel costs and it means there are fewer cars on the road and it costs all involved less. The show mentioned that 48% of people who drive to work do not need their car for their job. I know from cycling into work that the vast majority of cars that pass me only contain the driver. I mentioned to a colleague at work who has to pay a lot to park while he is at work that he could carshare or at least take the bus. He agreed that it would be cheaper and probably would take less time to get to work but he just couldn't give up the convenience of his own transport. It gives rise to the question of how expensive is fuel going to get before people can be weaned off their comfy automobiles into more environmentally-friendly modes of transport?

The other site that piqued my interest is entitled Food4thought - a site promoted by the British Heart Foundation. It is aimed at children and early teens. It offers basic information on the content of junk food and even suggests healthy recipes for kids to make themselves. I think this last item is very important - until people begin to care what they eat and to cook for themselves again, health problems in families and obesity in the young will not abate.

Among the interesting statistics that the site puts forward is that anyone who consumes one standard 50g bag of crisps a day will have consumed 4 1/2 litres of cooking oil over a one year period - yeuuuchh! Great promotional image too!!

Political Will

2006-09-17T05:33:00.000-07:00

I was writing yesterday about the poor health of the less well-off here in parts of Belfast and the near impossibility of changing peoples attitudes to what they eat and consume generally. Thinking it over I realise how badly served we are by the political class in Northern Ireland (and I'm not just talking about politicians but political journalists too). Everything is reduced to fighting for tribal territory, community identity and all of that. And what is absurd is that in the end it does not matter a damn - any of it. Yet, parity of esteem, cultural recognition and so and so forth are what elections around here are fought on.

The Green Party is seen as a joke. Maybe it is, I have not lived back in Northern Ireland long enough to really see if that is the case but I am probably going to vote for them in the next election simply because no other party seems to be concerned with things like global warming, community health, erosion of the economic base by multi-nationals and the other issues I think are pressing.

In times gone past, people of a left-wing political persuasion protested that N.I. politics furthered tribal warfare when it should have been involved in class warfare. And indeed, there is truth in it - the poor of both communities were being shat upon in identical fashion. In the last few years the 'Troubles' have thankfully finally petered out and Belfast is a fairly normal place with only the kind of problems you'd find in any other regional large town in the UK or Ireland. Why then have the politicians not moved on? Why is the same sectarian tripe still being trotted out? Is it not time we began to force our politicians to rethink their priorities and look at what really matters? A united Ireland or a strengthened union with the UK will be the last of our worries if we cannot get global warming, growing obesity rates or state-sponsored corporate power under control.

Changing Attitudes

2006-09-16T10:20:00.000-07:00

I came across an interesting tidbit of information on the radio this week. If you live in North or West Belfast you will, on average, die three years younger than if you you live in South or East Belfast. Tribal affiliation has nothing to do with this even though West and North Belfast are predominantly Nationalist and South and East predominantly Unionist. Though even this may be changing - South Belfast returned a Nationalist MP which shows a growing Nationalist population and West and North Belfast contain some significant Unionist enclaves.

No, the reason for this more likely has got something to do with class - East and South Belfast are home to the majority of the cities middle-class population. Notice I did not say that this problem is to do with poverty. Rather, the real cause of this is ignorance.

I've bemoaned before the fact that even the poorest in this city have enough to live a healthy life yet it is among the disadvantaged that smoking, alcoholism and obesity are highest. The St George's Market I wrote about last week is frequented nearly exclusively by the middle-classes from East and South Belfast and those recent immigrants who come from countries where the supermarket culture has not yet taken over and where people still buy their food from local growers. There are few or no members of the working classes of the North and West (or any other) quarters of the city. The immigrants (and perhaps even some of the middle-class shoppers) are not well-off, yet they care what food they eat and what is good for them.

Why does a whole section of our community (perhaps the majority - even the vast majority) no longer care what it eats or the harm that is done by overindulging (in food, alcohol or tobacco)? This is same in the UK and the US (although perhaps not in continental Europe so much). More inportantly, what will it actually take to wake people up to the fact that they are cutting years off their lives?

LOHAS and Voluntary Simplicity

2006-09-12T11:43:00.000-07:00

When surfing recently I came across term I had been heretofore unfamiliar with: LOHAS (Lifestyles of Health and Sustainability). This is a term used by some marketing people to refer to a (supposedly) growing sector of the population of who seek to live said lifestyles and who can therefore be sold stuff to.

In many ways this is positive in that there is a recognition by at least some members of the business community that there is a market for sustainable and healthy products and an understanding too I hope that such a "market sector" will demand business be done in a just and environmentally-conscious manner.

However, I wonder if this is also not a sign too of the way in which capitalism manages to turn even its enemies into a business opportunity. It seems if we are going to combat third world poverty, global warming and factory farming there has to be a viable way for somebody to make money out of the process.

A rejection of consumerism lies at the heart of my conception of voluntary simplicity. I hate the way in which mulitnational corporation and their lapdogs in government are trying to reduce us to automata who work all there hours there are to buy what we are told we should have. I hate too being lumped into a marketing sector - reduced from a citizen to a salesman's mark.

Maybe I am being hopelessly idealistic but I do not think social justice can really become a widespread phenomenon in all our lives while there is this widespread tendency to reduce people to mere consumers. I'd love to be considered as someone who marketing goons viewed as unreachable. Some chance!

St. George's Market

2006-09-09T07:45:00.000-07:00

I was down this morning at the Saturday "City Food and Garden Market" at St. George's Market on May St. in Belfast. It runs from c.9am to 3pm. If you haven't been, and you are in the area, it's really worth a visit. The atmosphere is so good. I bought some organic veg and fruit very cheaply - including some beautiful apples. More cheaply I reckon than the organic veg sold in the supermarkets - and you get to meet the people who grow the food you eat! I am going to do my weekly veg shop there every week.

They sell all sorts of stuff - not just veg but organic meat and locally-caught fish and seafood (if you have to eat meat and fish), Irish cheeses, olives and antipasti, all kinds of wonderful-looking bread and cakes, fair-trade teas and coffees and other fair-trade goods. There is plenty of space and lots of tables. There is even a tight little jazz band playing! Lots of people seem to come down and have breakfast before doing their Saturday shop. It's a real find!

Eco Energy

2006-09-09T06:33:00.000-07:00

I finally got myself converted over to eco energy. No, I have not built a windmill generator in the back garden or lined the roof of my house with solar cells (we don't get enough sun here to run a 40 watt light bulb!). I'd love to do all these things, and more, but the lack of technical know-how and the lack of cash for the substantial capital outlay for systems like these, means it remains a pipe-dream for the moment anyway.

There is an alternative though. Northern Ireland Electricity has an eco energy scheme in which you can choose to have your energy supplied by a wind farm rather than a coal-fired power station. I imagine what they actually do is simply buy more wind power and feed it into the grid to the amount of electricity you use. The great thing is that it costs the same as conventional dirty energy (11.02p per unit)

A common way to buy electricity in NI is via a keypad meter. You can buy a certain amount of electricity in advance from your local corner shop (say £5 or £10) you are given a 20-digit code which you enter into the keypad and it credits you the amount. The keypad is very handy also for telling you how much you electricity you use per day, week or even month (last month I used £13.45). You can even tell the amount of Kw being used at any given time and so work out how much your individual appliances use.

It costs nothing to sign up. If more people sign up to this they power companies will begin to get the message. If you live in NI, see www.nie.co.uk to change your energy use over.

Bike Update

2006-09-07T12:08:00.000-07:00

Well I finally did it. I finally cycled the 5 miles into and 5 miles back from work today - hopefully the start of a regular daily routine.

This may be mildly comical to seasoned simple livers and health enthusiasts but it is an important step for me in trying to live simply and ethically. Most of the things I embrace as an part of voluntarily simple life like vegetarianism, recycling, getting rid of the TV etc.are all things that have cost me little effort and I have done them on and off for years anyway. But, getting regular exercise and putting up with the discomfort of cycling (my backside is still somewhat tender as I write) is new to me. It is the first barrier I have come up against. The first time I've had to grit my teeth and refuse to give in.

Taking to the bike for me is a no-lose situation. I am a couple of stone overweight and chronically unfit. I am hoping the daily bike ride will help with that. I will be able to eliminate even the relatively small carbon debt I incur through taking public transport. Biking is free - no bus fare (which cost me c.£16.00 a week). The bike was a gift and l though I have had to buy some gear (helmet, rainsuit, puncture repare kit, lock etc.) for it, I will be able to recoup the money spent on that in a couple of week on bus fares saved.

Providing I can avoid getting myself run over, I will actually making a real lifestyle change instead of just talking about it.