The Concrete Gardener

Take Back Your Time, John de Graaf, Ed

2008-07-12T11:20:00.000-07:00

Jo Hunter Adams

This book consists of a series of chapters by participants in the Take Back Your Time movement. Each chapter stands alone, there's a tremendous amount of information to be gleaned from each individual's perspective on time poverty, particularly in the United States.

When I first arrived in Boston, after growing up in South Africa and having spent two years in Wales, UK, my greatest adjustment was undoubtedly in changing the way I spent my time. I felt tremendous time pressure, and came to value time completely differently. I chose to read this book because I think it is extremely relevant for understanding the challenges facing westerners who would like to live more simply, more affordably, and with more free time.

Americans work more than any other nation in the industrialized world. Although, as a nation, work has become far more productive, it has done so without a corresponding decrease in work hours or increase in vacation time. Interestingly, where jobs have switched from an hourly-based work week to a productivity-based work week, people have actually gotten MORE done.

Although the U.S. in particular has this problem, it is surely a theme that resonates globally-- rather than decreasing work hours, people choose to continuously increase their standard of living. And this is definitely not always a choice-- decreasing work hours has not traditionally been an option.

There are many, many consequences to increased work and decreased leisure and vacation time.
1) Decreased time with children. Take Back your Time described a study that found that the greatest determinant of a child's success was not the number/breadth/depth of activities they took part in, but the number of dinners the child ate together with their family.

2) No time to exercise.

3) Increased time in front of the television. Time spent in front of the television actually increases with time spent at work, rather than being a measure of leisure time, it is a measure of how brain dead one is when one arrives home at the end of the day.

4) No time to cook. One article described how families with less time had a far greater environmental impact-- they ate out more, threw away a lot more packaging/etc, and didn't even feel they had time to recycle.
There is enough land on earth for each person (excluding all the natural habitat that we share with other species) to have an impact of about 5 acres. The average American uses up the resources of the equivalent of 25 acres. This book thus becomes extremely relevant for those of us who are thinking of how to-- individually and collectively-- tread more lightly on the earth.

The list goes on.

My take home message was this: It is possible to be less dependent on a salary by decreasing my standard of living, and one can be as productive with fewer hours-- it seems very positive for American companies to switch from model that rewards hours to a model that rewards certain results that improve the quality of service, management, or product.

Giving for Beginners

2008-07-10T17:17:00.000-07:00

Jo Hunter Adams

I'm working on my first e-book, "Giving for Beginners" (or a title that reflects this kind of content, the title itself is open to debate.)

I generally sit down, write a few paragraphs that hopefully fit into a general structure, and then get stuck, because the subject just seems to get bigger and bigger. I would benefit a lot from hearing other people's stories and experiences.

I'm very interested in finding out which organizations you give to, and why, for this e-book. When it's finished I'll link it to this site so that anyone who would like to can download it.

If you have stories, beliefs or struggles around the subject of giving, please let me know by leaving a comment or e-mailing me, so we can communicate further outside of this blog. Thank you so much.

The Worms, After 2 Short Weeks

2008-07-08T17:56:00.000-07:00

Jo Hunter Adams

I recently started an indoor composting bin, and wrote about it here.

The last push towards composting came when my sister-in-law assured me that it doesn't smell. "Just put your scraps in, and they'll turn it into compost in a week!" I thought, since she was with us and not with the worms (in Minnesota) they were probably low maintenance, also. Almost like having a really useful pet. If you don't have space for a hamster.

So I went to the baitshop and picked some up. The advantage was that whatever happened to my worms, it couldn't be worse than the fate that would befall the other bait shop worms. For the most part, I was right.

But I didn't realize how their little bodies could squeeze into really tiny spaces. Tiny spaces drilled by me. So I lost a few. Well, 9. or 10. I think they left because it got really hot and they were trying to find somewhere cooler.

So, my advice when pursuing a worm solution: make the holes small and try to keep your babies cool.

That said, despite a heatwave here in Boston the surviving worms seem to be working very hard (well, at the worm work of eating) and the scraps are clearly being processed. And my sister-in-law spoke the truth when she said there is no smell.

Justice Part 4: Jubilee

2008-07-04T11:13:00.000-07:00

Jo Hunter Adams

Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs- 1 Timothy 6:10

Themes: Wealth should be justly distributed, wealth as a deceptive master.

The concept of jubilee is introduced in Leviticus 25 in the Old Testament. Every fifty years, all debts were to be relieved, all slaves to be set free, all fields to lay fallow, and all lands be returned to their owners (this would apply to people who had lost land as a result of debt). It was meant to prevent extreme inequality (that we see today) from developing. This concept of finances doesn't necessarily seem fair for those who worked really hard to get what they had, but I think it speaks to the fact that often, what we have is not actually a result of our own hard work. Rather than advocating slavery for a generation, I would argue that the jubilee year was a reminder from God of how things were meant to be.

Today, many faith-based organizations are advocating for economic justice based on exactly this concept. And many Jewish organizations have practiced this concept for a very long time.

Thinking about how it applies in our life may be tricky. Maybe it means our inheritances could be given away, maybe it means that we should campaign for the cancellation of all third world debt, or maybe it just means being aware that we are seldom the master of our own situations.

When I'm thinking about justice and about giving money or other resources away, it's easy to feel a bit self-righteous. In a way, this is not surprising because it is always empowering to be able to give, particularly out of generosity rather than obligation.

This feeling of superiority is set against my own romanticization of people who live a simple life, with few resources. I dream of that simplicity, I say naively! However, simplicity should be a choice; extreme poverty is extreme stress, it is a life that is more complicated than any life anywhere.

These two feelings-- and my gut reaction to them-- can prevent me from being generous with my resources. However, just because financial support often comes with strings attached, that doesn't mean my giving must necessarily mean westernization or support of extremely unjust trade.

It could be different. It could be my response against those things, with the recognition that jubilee is slow to come unless I recognize I am the one who is to set the slaves free, I am the one who must return land, and I am the one who must cancel debts, even when it hurts.

Slow Food: A Case for Taste, by Carlo Petrini

2008-07-01T17:20:00.000-07:00

Jo Hunter Adams

This quick read lead me through the history of the Slow Food movement-- from it's motivations in the 1980s to the global movement it is today.

The Slow Food movement is at one level a response to the Fast Food movement. Where fast food is about uniformity, predictability, and speed, the Slow Food movement wants to fight back with variety, surprise, and intentionality. It's about a lifestyle, about training tastebuds, and about placing food back into the hands of the masses. The Slow Food movement is not about emphasizing super-expensive cuisine. It's about upping the overall quality of food, and teaching people how to taste quality.

My only reservation reading Slow Food was the sense it didn't quite fit the paradigm that I sit in. It presented a fast-food slow-food dichotomy, where I would argue, that is only one of the dichotomies around food and food production. In North America and much of Europe, it fits perfectly. Yet I feel as though for the most part, Africa has long sat outside this way of thinking-- food is central, yes; I miss South African foods, yes; but something other than food, something I can't exactly put my finger on, is the fulcrum of changing society. Whereas much of what is happening in North America, particularly (simplistically: individualism, speed, quantity over quality) can be viewed through the lens of food, I am not sure this is universal.

That said, a great introduction to the history of a powerful movement.

Encounters with "Half of a Yellow Sun" by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

2008-06-29T14:28:00.001-07:00

Jo Hunter Adams

(My recommendation of an amazing book, and one that gives the reader infinite opportunities for thought, and new ways to think about Nigeria in the 1960s)

"There are some things that are so unforgivable that they make other things easily forgivable"

Half of a Yellow Sun describes the lives of three people in the midst of the Biafran war of the 1960s.

Adichie readily acknowledges that this is firstly a novel, and only second a snapshot of an actual historical period, one of the most painful and poorly understood wars in African history.

Historians often ask: "what is the best way to teach history?" It's clear that history books that are only read by a few people have an important place, particularly if the process and multiplicity of voices leads to truth and spirit that filters down into our daily life (our response to our histories) and literature (and vice versa). But what if these accurate books never gain traction? If an imaginary history is lived as reality and passed down for decades, does that history get power despite not representing truth? Absolutely! Lies and truth are quickly mixed together, and are used to empower those who control it.

I mention this because there is a tension between representing history in depth for a few people, and representing history in the form of a story, for the masses. In a way, the second relies on a deep level of comfort with the first (the ways that people are juggling different sets of facts).

Adichie uses her talents powerfully to make one dimension of the Biafran war accessible to those far removed. I am not sure whether the history in Half of a Yellow Sun is fully accurate, but what if the history that we need to understand most is the history of relationships in the context of the war? If so-- and I believe it is-- then that is the most potent part of this story.

I recommend the book for a specific reason, also. It's very difficult to understand what changes when someone is displaced (or what doesn't change). I have spent a lot of time with refugees (with the qualification that a "lot of time" is very relative to my age), but I have never known someone before they were forced to move, during and afterwards. A fictional character can never be completely animated, but Adichie's words allowed a longitudinal view of individuals, in a way that is incredibly challenging to do in real life.

Perhaps this was most powerful because the three main characters, and their relationships with one another, did not seem too far removed-- history that makes us understand one another might always be better than history that makes us alien and exotic to one another.

A Beginner's Guide to Vermicomposting (with photos)

2008-06-28T15:05:00.000-07:00

Jo Hunter Adams

Living in a small apartment, I've wished that there was a way to create compost and avoid throwing away peels, scraps, and other easily degradable trash. As a result of a bad (smelly) composting experience in our house in UWC (Morgannwyg, you guys remember what I'm talking about), I didn't think there was a way to do this indoors unless I was really, really uh... alternative.

I discovered that this process was a lot easier than I thought. Essentially, you need good aeration, some worms, a non-extreme temperature, and you'll have compost in as little as a couple of weeks! I decided to have two containers that I expect will full up about every 4 weeks. Ideally, while one fills up, the other will sit, so that I might have a continuous supply. It may be too late for this to be a great benefit to our garden for this year, but I heard that there are people who go around the neighborhood with a little compost, "guerilla composting" if they have too much for themselves. So it won't go to waste!

What can you put in your compost?
You can put almost all non-animal related scraps in the compost. This includes clean eggshells but you should never put in scraps of meat or dairy, because they'll smell really badly. You can put in paper towels, or if you find yourself with a paper coffee cup at the end of the day, you can also tear that up and put it in (the worms will eat everything except the wax, drastically reducing the size of the trash ending up in a landfill). And the things you would expect-- vegetable peels and ends, bread crumbs, old greens, etc.

Remember that the smaller things are, the more quickly they can be digested down. If something is larger, the worms may wait longer for it to rot before starting to work on it. So if possible, do some of the work for the worms.

Although you can put almost anything in the composting bin, there should be a variety in the bin at any time. For example, the worms will happily digest orange peels, but if there are too many orange peels in the compost bin, this may make the bin very acidic.

What tools do I need for this process?
You need four main tools for this process:

1) A container with a lid. I used a 16qt container, which cost me US$2.99. The container doesn't need to be very big, but you want it to be wider than it is high, as the worms don't like to travel vertically as much as they like to travel horizontally.

2) Worms. You specifically want red wiggler worms. These worms are really great for working through soil. I got these from the local bait shop, where they cost $2.50 for 24. I bought two containers-- I'll have to see if this seems enough or not. These worms don't sleep, they eat all day and all night.

3) Paper I used some newspaper-like junk mail.

4) A drill to make holes in the container. I want the worms to have plenty of air, so I made holes about every square inch, with about my fifth smallest drill bit (1/8). I wanted to make the holes so that they were only slightly too small for the worms to get out.

Next steps: Making sure the worms are not too warm, have enough air, moisture, and food.

1) Shred the paper Remember it's easier to go with the grain to make long thin strips.

2) Set about half of the paper aside.

3) Wet the remaining paper
Dip the paper in water, and then wring it out. You don't want it to be so wet that it's dripping everywhere.

4) Add whatever scraps you have onhand
This doesn't need to be much, you can add scraps as you go along.

5) Add your worms

6) Add the remaining dry paper, to give the worms added air.

7) Snap on the lid and put the compost bin away!

Total Cost: US$8 (or about the cost of one fairly cheap restaurant meal in Boston)

Justice Part 3

2008-06-26T16:33:00.000-07:00

There seems to be every indication that wealth is a awesome gift before it is anything else. This is the first theme in the Lazarus at the Gate Curriculum.

Faithfulness with wealth doesn't mean feeling guilty about wealth. It seems to me that living really abundantly may mean figuring out where abundance and generosity meet. In every person it's likely to be a different place because God calls us to different things at different stages-- and perhaps different lifestyles make us into growing, strong people. It seems to be essential that when we give (financially or personally) that our giving is not about sacrifice, it's a response to abundance. That guards against looking back with a sense of regret or self-righteousness.

Having a sense of God's blessing on us may be a really good way of enjoying what we have in the moment.

Here are are a few verses from the Bible about abundance:

Every good and perfect gift is from above—James 12:1

Genesis 1
God blessed them and said to them, “Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and over every living creature that moves on the ground.” Then God said, “I will give you every seed-bearing plant on the face of the earth and every tree that has fruit with seed in it. They will be yours for food. And to all the beasts of the earth and all the birds of the air and all the creatures that move on the ground—everything that has the breath of life in it—I give every green plant for food.” And it was so. God saw all that he had made, and it was very good.

Deut 28, excerpts
If you fully obey the Lord your God and carefully follow all his commands I give you today, the Lord your God will set you high above all the nations of the earth... The Lord will send a blessing on your barns and everything you put your hand to. The Lord your God will bless you in the land he is giving you..

Coming up/Not Forgotten
Health care in the United States
Plant updates-- tips on growing food in a/n (small) apartment

MLK on being tied together (and that was in the 60s)

2008-06-25T04:12:00.000-07:00

We are tied together in life and in the world. And you may think you got all you got by yourself. But you know, before you got out here to church this morning, you were dependent on more than half the world. You get up in the morning and go to the bathroom, and you reach over for a bar of soap, and that’s handed to you by a Frenchman. You reach over for a sponge, and that’s given by a turk. You reach over for a towel, and that comes to your hand from the hands of a Pacific Islander. And then you go to the kitchen to get your breakfast. You reach on over to get a little coffee, and that’s poured in your cup by a South American. Or maybe you decide that you want a little tea this morning, only to discover that that’s poured in your cup by a Chinese. Or maybe you want a little cocoa, that’s poured in your cup by a West African. Then you want a little bread and you reach over to get it, and that’s give you by the hands of an English-speaking farmer, not to mention the baker. Before you get through eating breakfast in the morning, you're dependent on more than half the world. That's the way God structured this world. So let us be concerned about others because we are dependent on others.

From Martin Luther King Jr. "The Three Dimensions of a Complete Life" April 1967.

A Quote by Garrison Keillor

2008-06-24T12:38:00.000-07:00

I wanted to share a quote that I read in Immigrant Medicine (Walker & Barnett, Ed. 2007), particularly as the U.S. begins to resettle many Iraqi refugees. They are subjected to a lot of prejudice and yet have experienced real, recent, trauma as a result of the Iraq war. Although I may be preaching to the choir, I’d like to add my voice to those who are advocating on the behalf of this group of people. They are not terrorists. Many placed their lives at risk by working for American forces.

Garrison Keillor, Newsweek July 4, 1998

Heroes, all of them – at least they’re my heroes, especially the immigrants, especially the refugees. Everyone makes fun of New York cabdrivers who can’t speak English: they’re heroes. To give up your country is the hardest thing a person can do: to leave the old familiar places and ship out over the edge of the world to America and learn everything over again different than you learned as a child, learn the language that you will never be so smart funny in as your true language. It takes years to start to feel semi-normal. And yet people still come – Russia, Vietnam and Cambodia and Laos, Ethiopia, Iran, Haiti, Korea, Cuba, Chile, and they come on behalf of their children, and they come for freedom. Nor for our land (Russia is as beautiful), not for our culture (they have their own, thank you), not for our system of government (they don’t even know about it, may not even agree with it), but for freedom. They are heroes who make an adventure on our behalf, showing by their struggle how precious beyond words freedom is, and if we knew their stories, we could not keep back the tears.

Economic Justice at a Personal Level: Part 2 of Reflections on Lazarus at the Gate

2008-06-23T17:19:00.001-07:00

Jo Hunter Adams

A course called Lazarus at the Gate has been helping me think about the contradiction I described yesterday. The course title is taken from Luke 16 in the Christian New Testament (Copied below).

With credit to Gary Van Der Pol, who wrote the curriculum I wanted to share some of my experiences in this group for two reasons. Firstly, to verbalize and make my experiences concrete. Secondly, some of my readers are friends and family in South Africa, and I feel amazed by the possibility for those who feel this is something that is close to your hearts, and want to encourage and support you. In South Africa (as in Boston), the time for economic justice comes every single day.

It’s a twelve-week course walking a small group of individuals through what God has to say about economic justice, and about wealth in general. In response, each individual thinks of one way to live more simply, one way to change one habit to promote justice, and at the end each group chooses to give a certain amount as a concrete step towards economic justice. These are the big possible impacts of Lazarus here in Boston (taken from week 12 of the curriculum):

If each Lazarus group continues to give on a yearly basis, over a quarter of a million dollars will be given to the poor in the next five years.

If each Lazarus group continues to give on a yearly basis and launches one new Lazarus group, over $1 million dollars will be given to the poor in the next three years.

If each Lazarus participant asks their local grocery to carry fair trade, basic items such as fair trade fruit, sugar, and rice could be widely available in stores in Greater Boston.

So at it’s core, Lazarus is about big things being accomplished with baby steps. By August, I will upload an e-book that talks about giving in depth.

In the next installment I will discuss the theme of "Wealth as a Blessing".

---
The Rich Man and Lazarus (Luke 16)
19"There was a rich man who was dressed in purple and fine linen and lived in luxury every day. 20At his gate was laid a beggar named Lazarus, covered with sores 21and longing to eat what fell from the rich man's table. Even the dogs came and licked his sores.

22"The time came when the beggar died and the angels carried him to Abraham's side. The rich man also died and was buried. 23In hell,[c] where he was in torment, he looked up and saw Abraham far away, with Lazarus by his side. 24So he called to him, 'Father Abraham, have pity on me and send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue, because I am in agony in this fire.'

25"But Abraham replied, 'Son, remember that in your lifetime you received your good things, while Lazarus received bad things, but now he is comforted here and you are in agony. 26And besides all this, between us and you a great chasm has been fixed, so that those who want to go from here to you cannot, nor can anyone cross over from there to us.'

27"He answered, 'Then I beg you, father, send Lazarus to my father's house, 28for I have five brothers. Let him warn them, so that they will not also come to this place of torment.'

29"Abraham replied, 'They have Moses and the Prophets; let them listen to them.'

30" 'No, father Abraham,' he said, 'but if someone from the dead goes to them, they will repent.'

31"He said to him, 'If they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, they will not be convinced even if someone rises from the dead.' "

Progress report on Tomatoes and Strawberries

2008-06-22T13:22:00.000-07:00

Economic Justice at a Personal Level: Part 1 of Reflections on Lazarus at the Gate

2008-06-22T08:55:00.001-07:00

Jo Hunter Adams

If you’re like me, you are trying to work out how to live your ideals in the context of the constraints on your time and money. For me, a rift developed soon after I finished United World College. As a Christian, there didn’t seem to be a way to combine my faith with all that I had learned at United World College.

What did I learn at UWC? It’s hard to summarize, but it was a kind of awakening—I discovered Christians weren’t the only ones working for justice, in fact, historically there seemed to be evidence of the opposite—Christians as perpetrators of injustice. I was young enough for this to result in fairly deep confusion, and I held the two ideas in tension without really resolving them. In Wales (and beyond) I had the opportunity to serve in different ways—usually with people who had genuinely different beliefs. Looking back, this began an inconsistency. Apart from with a few close friends, in justice settings I kept my faith fairly a little removed, and in faith settings I kept my feelings about injustice—and what I felt was the correct response—private.

There’s nothing wrong with this, except that I believe God is justice. Justice (and mercy) are God’s agenda, not only the domain of a bunch of people. And so justice and faith should interact. That doesn’t mean that people who have a heart for justice need me preaching to them. Nor does it mean that I take this agenda to all faith interactions. I think it means that there’s no contradiction within myself, and the rest will work itself in time.

Over the next few days and weeks, I'll be thinking about a course I recently took part in, and the types of things it's made me think about. Up to now a lot of my thoughts on economic justice have been at a structural level (how do we change the system) whereas recently my thoughts have been more focused on starting small-- economic justice as acted out as an individual. Please join me on this journey!

P.S. And I hope to keep updates on the plants going, as well as a few other things...

Unexpected News: Reading the Bible with Third World Eyes by Robert McAfee Brown (1984)

2008-06-16T06:37:00.000-07:00

Jo Hunter Adams

If you are neutral in a situation of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor. If an elephant has his foot on the tail of the mouse, and you say you are neutral, the mouse will not appreciate your neutrality (Desmond Tutu)

A summary in one sentence: developing a perspective on economic justice from the Bible. For those of you who are coming from different place spiritually, please feel free to let me know what you think. I'm just learning how to express my faith as it relates to economic justice, so if it is alienating, please bear with me. I'll get better at it!

This book was written during the Cold War by a North American, and that comes through in the book. It is also clear that it was written during the eighties, when certain terms (including "Third World") were used but have since been replaced by new words.

Leaving Egypt (Exodus 1:8-14; 2:23-25; 3:7-10)
The beginning of the book described the Israelites oppressed as slaves in Egypt. It is clearly a story about justice, struggle, and where God stands in situations like this. McAfee Brown makes four really clear points, extrapolated from this text:
1. A class struggle is going on.
2. God is aware of the struggle.
3. God takes sides in the struggle.
4. God calls people to join in the struggle.

Important and powerful stuff, right? From here it's definitely important to think about what "taking sides" and "joining in" means in our lives and in our family and community's lives. Even if it's not clear what to do next, it's very powerful to remember this reason for changing our lives or behavior, even before we know exactly how to change. That is, justice is God's agenda before I knew what justice was.

Personally, in our lives this June/July, this means deciding where to give money and how much to give away each month. I'll speak more about this later this week.

There were two points in this book that I thought would be great to repeat:

Nathan and David
The story of Nathan is a powerful one in the context of how we respond to things that are clearly wrong. I'll summarize the story as told in 2 Samuel 11 and 12:
David sees Bethsheba on a roof, and he wants to sleep with her. There aren't a lot of details about how it happens, but basically, he gets what he wants. Her husband is away fighting in David's army when Bethsheba becomes pregnant. Rather than face up to what he's done, he decides to bring Uriah home for a visit, so that it won't be clear that the baby is not Uriah's. However, Uriah doesn't feel write enjoying time with his wife when his army is in battle. So he doesn't sleep with her during his time at home. David, fearful and threatened, orders Uriah to the frontlines of battle, where he is killed. Then David brings Bethsheba into his home.

Nathan, a prophet at the time, knows all of this. He has incredible wisdom to know how to bring David's wrongdoing to David by telling a story. Through the story, he confronts David and puts his life at risk. He does it in such a way that it is clear the wrongs that have been done. David realizes fully what he has done, and changes completely.

The message here is that when there is a clear case of wrong, God uses people to take this message to those who have done wrong, so that they can once again be in relationship with God. They use those without power to tell those with power that they have done something wrong.

Blessed are the poor... in Spirit?
Luke 4:18-19 "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release of the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord."

In today's church, we tend to look to the sermon on the mount and think of the phrase "blessed are the poor in spirit" rather than "blessed are the poor". For those who aren't poor and want blessing, the former is an easier promise. However, with the concept of jubilee, it's clear that Jesus is also saying the latter, very pointedly.

I sometimes wonder in response to this promise of blessing-- why are the poor still suffering? I'm not totally sure, but I think Jesus is acknowledging the dignity and humanity of each individual, with special reference to those who have/are suffered/ing. I think we're also seeing a promise for the future. And, perhaps, the blessing that is on each of us if we are part of that vision to bring the acceptable year of the Lord (jubilee) a little bit closer.

Progress Report: Our Garden

Pictured below: Lemon balm, tomatoes, bell peppers, spring mix, strawberries, mint, eggplant

Making the Most of being a Two-income Family

2008-05-30T17:39:00.001-07:00

Jo Hunter Adams

I recently began a new job, and it's been busy adjusting to a new day and new schedule. It's the first time we're a real two-income family, and the first time I've been working regular hours indefinitely. There are a couple of amazing opportunities in my new job.

I am able to drive through a variety of different areas of the state, most of which have a completely different feel to Boston. A few times a week I meet people who are committed to the health of potentially vulnerable populations, and to better serving these populations. There are people all over the state who are working on individual and collective health of whole populations in a superbly down-to-earth way.

There are also new decisions to be made. On the one hand, we still have my student loan to pay off, but on the other, we have relatively more wiggle room because the rate at which we pay off the loan is up to us (although we would obviously pay a different amount of interest). We are committed to living simply, but what does that actually mean?

During the past few months we've had the opportunity to talk about our resources regularly in a group setting, through our church. What has been striking is that money is usually something that we're not used to talking about-- whether we have a lot or a little. I think part of the reason is you don't want people to feel pressured to change their behavior around us (or perhaps, we don't want to shift our behavior to suit other people's financial positions). Although choices about money are extremely personal, I think one way of keeping money from having too powerful a hold is by being really transparent on how it is being spent, and what we have or do not have. In the context of openness, even if someone disagrees with your decisions they know you better through understanding your priorities, and you can hear their perspective on priorities, rather than on one specific financial decision. I reserve the right to find out I'm wrong in the future.

Three resources have been really helpful in this financial transition to two incomes:

1) Boldergiving.org
This website offers insights on how to step out bravely financially. What I like about the website are stories that describe people with different resources, giving for a whole variety of reasons. In those stories I was able to better articulate my own motivations, priorities and desires right now.

2) Inspired Philanthropy: Your Step-by-Step Guide to Creating a Giving Plan
(By Tracy Gary and Melissa Kohner)
This book offers very practical advice on how to be deliberate in your giving. In a way, it assumes you are deliberate in your spending generally and from there you can be decisive and make incredible choices about where to give, how to give, and when to give based on your priorities.

The most illuminating section of this book was the pyramid of giving. It explained that most people give most of their money towards obligations, or socially (forming the base of the pyramid) and far less on transformational giving. Inspired giving turns this pyramid upside down, where far less money is spent on obligations (helping in family settings, etc, or treating people to dinner) and far more is spent to empower or be part of specific organizations. That is not to say that you care less about your family or other obligations. Rather, you are deliberate in how much you allocate for expressing your support for the people in your life. I believe this may mean you are able to make that money go further and be more creative in the ways you express support and love.

3) Related to finding creative ways to show your support for those you love, we discovered Ten Thousand Villages here in Boston. It is a wonderful organization, with two shops in Boston and great quality, unique fairly trade gifts.

More to come! Hopefully more quickly. Our plants are doing really well, and we're starting to enjoy salad for lunch and dinner.

A New Tomato

2008-04-15T18:47:00.000-07:00

Jo Hunter Adams

Meet one of many new babies.

New Job, New Resident

2008-04-13T11:53:00.000-07:00

Jo Hunter Adams

A few people commented that they missed my old blog, which was more personal. I figured since this blog is not exactly bursting at the seams with readers who are tied only to ethical consumption (as far as I know), I'll just use this blog to write both personal and "of interest" things right here. I also have been finding it hard to divide content that seems to fit here, from content that would be better suited somewhere else, so it's naturally becoming more of a mishmash of things. (did I mention I welcome contributions? I will turn the comments section on so it's easier to get in touch with me.) So although I'll not to be extremely personal, as I've chosen to have my name linked to the blog, I'll also try to speak more about the kinds of things I've been learning/working on.

I recently began a new job, working for a government agency and continuing to work on refugee issues in Boston. It's exciting and wonderful for me. I believe that refugees may be uniquely suited to understanding many of the trends we see globally. Refugees are uniquely able to be bi or tricultural. This, with the qualification that most refugees have been through really difficult events. But, as after WWII, refugees may be able to be the visionaries who see societies and communities from the inside AND from the outside, simultaneously. I've always been struck by the gallery of Prominent Refugees, found on the UNHCR homepage. I past one extract from that resource, below.

It's getting warmer here, and flowers are getting ready to come out. Boston feels more like home now that I have a Green Card (thanks be to God) and can stay pretty much indefinitely. The process of getting permanent residence was MUCH easier than expected. Though expensive, it was very fast. With that optimism, here is one short piece from the UNHCR gallery:

Philip Emeagwali

A "father of the Internet", sometimes called the Bill Gates of Africa, computing superbrain Philip Emeagwali spent years of his childhood in a refugee camp before he went on to become, in former US President Bill Clinton's words, "one of the great minds of the Information Age".

Emeagwali grew up in Onitsha, in south-eastern Nigeria, one of nine children of Ibo-speaking parents. He showed early promise at school, even though he often had to work to help support his family. He was nicknamed "Calculus" by classmates for his extraordinary abilities in maths. His father, a nurse, would quiz him with 100 maths problems and leave him only an hour to find all the solutions. By the time Emeagwali entered fifth grade, his teacher would let him take over the class when he was absent.

In 1966, fighting erupted between the central government and the ethnic Ibo population. In the Biafran civil war that followed, the south-eastern region attempted to secede from Nigeria, and Emeagwali spent most of the period from 1967 to 1970 in a refugee camp. The Nigerian government restricted food importation to Biafra, starving nearly one million refugees to death.

In 1974, Emeagwali went to the United States on a scholarship with $140 in his pocket. Fifteen years later, he graduated in mathematics, civil, coastal and marine engineering and computer science. In 1989, he won the computing world's Nobel Prize, the Gordon Bell Prize, for solving a problem that had been classified by the US government as one of the 20 most difficult computing problems ever. Using 65,000 processors, he was able to perform the world's fastest computation at 3.1 billion calculations per second. His invention is widely used in programming and building the world's most powerful supercomputers and has also been used to maximise petroleum extraction.

Emeagwali has been living in the US since 1974 and underlines the huge contribution that immigrants have made to America. "Third World countries are giving technological aid to the United States that is worth about 12 billion dollars a year. One in 20 Americans was born abroad. Two thousand Nigerian doctors practice in the United States. There are more Sierra Leonean doctors in Chicago than in Sierra Leone," he says.

At his own website, emeagwali.com, he welcomes browsers to "the first personal website on the Internet." He has helped promote Africa ONE, a project to loop the entire African continent with 30,000 km of fibre-optic cable lines so that phone calls from one African country to another will not have to pass through Europe.

When Emeagwali was asked what qualities he would like to pass on to his son, he replied, "I want him to be inspired by the fact that I was a high school dropout and an ex-refugee who overcame racism and made scientific contributions that benefited mankind."

Beginning the Growing Season in Boston

2008-04-13T11:46:00.001-07:00

We've been trying to grow plants from seed this year, and right now we have a set of really tiny tomato plants (2 different species), a couple of tiny bell peppers, and some rosemary. The Rosemary is excellent because potentially it'll be around for years to come. We decided to buy and Early Girl Tomato seedling so that we could start our tomatoes early, and we also bought 2 strawberry plants, which are productive for 2 to 3 years.

So far this season we've spent US$50 on seeds, soil, and seedlings. We used gift cards for most of this amount. And this cost includes a blueberry plant that we've given to my mom-in-law. I'm trying to keep track of money spent on the garden so that we really know what having a garden means financially.

I hope to post pictures mid-week. Please stay tuned!

Ten Good uhh... Habits?

2008-04-07T11:18:00.000-07:00

Jo Hunter Adams

These are some (disjointed) ways we're making our lives simpler in the context of life here in Boston. Some are big, some are small, and some might not make sense given your life circumstances.

Small adjustments can translate into a lower-environmental impact life, and a sustainable set of habits where we don't feel deprived, either.

1) Investing in a chest freezer. It's much easier to eat at home when the basics are already in the freezer. And it's much easier to cook for several meals. Because it's not always clear how much we'll eat in the space of time it takes for vegetables to go off, we can also keep some frozen vegetables, pasta sauce, etc. Ours cost $100 second-hand.

2) No TV. I'm not sure we watch less, but watching shows/movies is a choice because we get the DVDs from the library. We also have more space.

3) Growing as much as you possibly can every spring and summer, even if you're in an apartment and it's a freezing climate. I'm going to try to keep track of the cost of this. We're growing primarily from seed this year. Growing your own food means you don't have to consider whether something's local, in season, or organic. It just is. It's also a good way to eat a wide variety of vegetables.

4) Investing in a bread maker (if you don't have time to make your own bread from scratch). It really helps to know what goes into what we eat: bread in regular supermarkets can be either very expensive or very filled with strange substances. We also make our own pizza at least once a week. The cost of a loaf of really good bread is reduced exponentially as the bread maker gradually pays for itself. In our case, the bread maker was a gift.

5) Even though I'm reading a lot these days, I've stopped buying books altogether.. But books were a source of clutter and expense for me-- The libraries in Boston are generally amazing. If I'm tempted, I order the book through the library network.

6) Living in a small place. Its pretty obvious when we have too much stuff, which is helpful. We do have a huge cupboard though, which is also helpful.

7) Eating breakfast. I don't try to keep it super-healthy, I'm still at the point where just making sure I eat something is a good enough step.

8) Weighing in every morning. Sounds weird, but it's much easier to see a trend and make small adjustments if necessary. The aim is just to avoid getting in a rut that's hard to see the way out of. It actually makes me far more able to eat what I like.

9) Knowing our finances. For a while, I wasn't sure how to understand our financial state, and as a result I was just trying to infinitely cut costs. It's really helped to know where we stand so that I can feel safe and make good decisions about whether/when to buy what. For example, if I know we've had a good month financially, I feel pretty comfortable buying more expensive vegetables, or even more able to be generous.

It really helps to have a plan, so that reducing your environmental impact and reaching your financial goals (getting out of debt, giving away a larger percentage of your income, etc) don't seem at odds with one another.

10) Taking my own travelling mug/nalgene everywhere. I'm hoping to do this 100% of the time by the end of this month.

Hanging Around: Somali Americans in Boston

2008-04-04T16:43:00.000-07:00

I wrote this because I am starting a new job this coming week, and wanted to look back in preparation.

My new job is in Refugee and Immigrant Health, but not specifically with Somalis. I wanted to thank my coworkers and those who helped me to get involved at the organizations I've been involved in. I learned very much from you.

---

Jo Hunter Adams

I've been told that one can learn by "hanging around," and my own experience agrees. I owe much of my personal and professional growth to the Somali community in Boston, where I've been hanging around since 2001. I've measured the years by the events in the community—Somali National weeks, the end of bilingual education in Massachusetts, the arrival of Somali Bantus to the state, Somali women's nights, weddings and births. Somali-American perspectives became my lens: on the impact of colonialism and civil war, on the ways history is lived out, on being a "new American", and on being a refugee. The reality of my own growth does not diminish the pain of the civil war that sit at the foundation of the very existence of a Somali "community" in Boston.

My knowledge of Somalia was very limited when I first met Somali children in West Roxbury, Boston. Like many sub-Saharan Africans (and particularly white ones), I didn't know where Northeast Africa fitted in the history of the continent. Why do Northeast Africans look different? Are they still African? Were they colonized too? What did it mean for Africans to be Muslim? I was eighteen, idealistic and excited about what was before me in the United States, and quickly volunteered to tutor Somali youth in a bilingual program. It was a way to get off campus once or twice a week, and stay connected to Africa. But it was an Africa I had never been exposed to before. I began to discover that there are many Africas. My experience as an African didn't bring with it much advantage for understanding other parts of the continent.

My learning began soon after 9/11/2001, and so I caught glimpses of the prejudice that had resulted from 9/11, through the experiences of Somali middle-schoolers. Schoolmates targeted Somali girls particularly—who were usually wearing the hijaab—with taunts and racial slurs. The relevant questions in response were obvious: Why should refugee children, some right out of Dadaab camp, be associated with extremist bombers? Is the hiijaab inevitably a controversial statement?

Just two years later, Governor Mitt Romney signed away bilingual education. Somali children would now be immersed in English. Yet some Somali children weren't just struggling with English. They couldn't sit still because they hadn't been to school before age ten. They were living with families that were not their own. Being a refugee didn't only mean first-hand experience of violence. It meant missed educational opportunities, divided family, convoluted identity, and often, difficult adjustment.

A student once revealed that she wore a headscarf at school only, by her parent's directive, so that she didn't seem irreligious to the other students' parents. Another student said the same thing. These 10-year-olds abided by their parent's decision even when it resulted in significant prejudice against her.
By the time the after-school program faded with the end of the school bilingual program, I had insights as to what it meant to be a "new American". I also had an abiding interest in Northeast Africa. I had begun to work at the Refugee and Immigrant Assistance Center, a Somali-run community-based organization. I have been involved in this organization for over five years (a long time for a 24-year old).

It's clear that being Somali in 2008 is not always exotic or beautiful. The community can be suffocating or supportive. Not all Somali young people are doing well. I'm not certain that Somalis in Boston are doing better than they were a few years ago. But the Somali organization I work for is certainly much more deeply connected to other "new American" communities than it was in 2003. And if community members are able to reach out to those beyond their horizons, surely they will be able to negotiate more consciously between their Somali and American worlds.

After studying African history, I went on to study Forced Migration in South Africa, and Public Health in Boston. I believe this path was largely because I found an accepting space in the Somali community. This space was the end of white South African guilt, because I knew if I could contribute to one community, I could contribute as an African. Maybe I can even reach out beyond my community and negotiate more consciously between my own South African and American worlds.

--

3 tomato babies emerged this week, although there were still times when the temp went below freezing (I think). Also, 3 lavender, and there's evidence that a bell pepper seed is seriously considering life.

A First Call By the President to Address Xenophobia

2008-04-02T09:03:00.000-07:00

This is a great step for South Africa.

From Mail and Guardian

South Africa needs to address the issue of xenophobia, President Thabo Mbeki said on Wednesday in the National House of Traditional Leaders in Pretoria.

"Much has been mentioned by yourself concerning foreigners in our areas. I'm very glad that this matter will be addressed naturally together with the relevant government departments.

"I noted what you have said about our tradition with regards to welcoming foreigners ... but [we] need to ensure that treatment was acceptable and that indeed they should not be above our own people," said Mbeki.

This was in response to the house chairperson Peter Kutama's comment on the need to assist foreigners coming into the country.

Kutama said traditional leaders were aware of the problems facing the country, including service delivery, poverty and the influx of foreigners into South Africa.

Mbeki said he was aware of the conflicts, even in Tshwane, involving foreign nationals.

"I remember even the mayor of the city was raising this matter of conflicts that have taken place in the Tshwane area between South Africans and foreigners, which is something that we want to avoid," he said.

On the establishment of a department for traditional leadership, Mbeki said the Cabinet had approved this on March 5. The Provincial and Local Government Department would facilitate the process.

On the issue of the Nhlapo Ccmmission, Mbeki said the first report of the commission had been finalised. The commission was established to investigate traditional claims and disputes.

He said traditional leaders would be informed of the commission's findings.

This process was expected to be completed at the end of April.

The debate was attended by, among others, Minister of Provincial and Local Government Sydney Mufamadi, Tshwane mayor Gwen Ramakgopa and chairperson of the KwaZulu-Natal house of traditional leaders Mangosuthu Buthelezi.

Buthelezi, however, said that he was "disadvantaged" as he was not present when Mbeki addressed the house in February.

"This has deprived me the opportunity of debating the speech that President Mbeki delivered when he officially opened the house," said Buthelezi. -- Sapa

Obama on Race

2008-03-20T13:29:00.001-07:00

The New York Times has the transcript of Barack Obama's recent speech on race in the United States.

I was really impressed by how clearly Obama addressed the issues: the challenge of being "too black" or "not black enough", being considered by some people as an affirmative action candidate, the fact that his background is extremely racially diverse. He admits that he has friends who are more radical than he is, and that he has purposely distanced himself. By addressing issues head-on, he avoids rumours and suppositions.

I believe in the way he speaks about race, and I am encouraged by the way that he makes his faith personal, powerful and active.

I don't have any eloquent additions to the speech, but as a white South African (and Wellesley alum) living in the United States, Obama is the candidate who represents the world I most believe in. He has hopes and dreams that I understand, and speaks in a way that makes me listen.

If he can surround himself with wise advisors and change the exclusive and oppositional stance of the United States towards the rest of the world, I really believe that he may help the rest of the world heal after the various wounds-- to our dignity and to our countries-- inflicted by the United States over the years. If the world becomes more international, then the United States NEEDS to have this relationship with the rest of the world.

Concrete Gardener Interviews Katie

2008-03-12T08:59:00.000-07:00

Katie is a friend from Wellesley who has been doing amazing things after Wellesley. She is currently an VD/PhD student at UPenn. I asked her some questions and I quote her answers, in full, below, for your inspiration! Katie, thank you so much.

For more information on what the Watson is and what Katie did on her Watson, check out http://www.zooark.com/, Katie's website during the Watson year of supported travel.

On the Watson:
There is nothing quite like having a year of travel and independent study to change the way you see the world and the way you lead your life. I met so many fascinating people and was introduced to so many wonderful cultures that I have this general feeling that the world really is a wonderful place- and there are many many individuals working to make it more so. Since I am only 3 years out from my Watson, maybe I can tell the story of a friend who did the Watson 12 years before I did to drive home the point of how poignant it can be to see the world and have time to develop as a person. Jeff Miller biked around the world for his Watson, and when he came back, he joined the bike coalition of Maine, growing it from a group with a few hundred to several thousand members. Jeff rides his bike everywhere, and his playfulness and enthusiasm for biking is contagious. Recently, Jeff was appointed president of the bike coalition for America. With all of his energy, excitement and enthusiasm, I am sure he will continue to do many wonderful things. I am not sure if Jeff’s story is simply because Jeff is so marvelous or if the Watson gave him a take-off platform, and after he started, he could not stop. In any case, it is truly empowering that the Watson Foundation had enough belief in me and my ideas to support me to do what I care deeply about: Architecture for Animals.

I am trying to figure out a way to incorporate all that I learned about animal welfare and animal housing into some future career. Right now, I am involved in the Master Planning committee for the veterinary school- and I am getting more into design for food-animals (there are robotic milkers, manure harvesters, methane harvesters, and solar-powered dairy farms out there ... there ought to be a way to integrate these concepts for a greener, more healthy farm). In short- the Watson was inspiring. It allowed me to inspire myself! I feel emboldened to seek my own path and I have had time to carefully consider what role I want to play in this world.

Universities and Energy:

The problem, as far as I understand it from UPenn, is that there is no incentive to save energy. Often, large universities are divided up into colleges, and the colleges never see their own energy bill. This is bad. To get the ball rolling, the universities could put each college in charge of their own energy bill. That would at least give the colleges pause when they decide to install energy-saving light-bulbs, light-timer devices, or simple things like printers that can print double-sided (currently NONE of the UPenn libraries offer double-sided printing!). On the flip side, it is hip to be green, and a lot of new building projects are aiming to become LEED certified (eg. a new student dorm at UPenn), or at least install solar paneled roofs. It is a frustratingly ironic though that Universities tend to be full of liberals and preach green- yet overlook their own energy waste. There are a million small projects that would be easy to implement- but students need demand the small changes since more institutions are blind to them.

Making a Change:

Individuals can certainly make a change. I think the best way to make a change is to get on a committee where there are faculty and staff directly involved. Bring ideas about greening to the public's attention. Talk about it. Come up with suggestions, and be tenacious enough to continue to remind the university what needs to change and how to change it- until it is done. Another thing to keep in mind is to change some small things first: recycling options, double-sided printing, and light-bulbs. From there, you can get involved with bigger projects like motivating green space and purchasing clean energy. Additionally, get the institution to look at their carbon footprint and ways that they can reduce it. Make a plan of action, and measure the progress so that everyone involved feels they are working towards a goal, and accomplishing lots of small tasks on the way.

Sweden:

Living is Sweden was wonderful on so many levels, and there is so much that I learned there which I hope will transfer to life in the US. I will just list a few of the concepts that I enjoyed.

5 weeks: there is a minimum of 5 weeks of vacation in Sweden for everyone. People have more leisure time, and they tend to take advantage of it. Spending time in nature and with family is highly valued. It sometimes feels like we Americans have too little time to enjoy our families or to get out into the great outdoors. That means that protecting wildlife and enjoying parenting doesn’t come naturally in our helter-skelter culture, which is a shame.

Mamaledig/Papaledig: Another thing the Swedes have is “mamaledig” and “papaledig” – that is a term for vacation time issued when you have a child. I believe both parents get 14 months of paid vacation to share. Each parent has to take at least 2 months, or that vacation time is lost. This means that there are heaps of fathers who stay home with their kids. It is common so see dads out in the park playing soccer with their kids, or dads pushing strollers and meeting up with friends at cafes for lunch. I wish my father were allowed the time to play with us. The other side-effect of allowing equal time off for child-rearing is that it has become impossible for work places to gender-discriminate as men and women are just as likely to take time off for having a baby. And the perk is that, with designated amounts of time off, mothers and fathers are likely to come back to work too instead of being stay-home parents forever.

Designated inner-city bike lanes: In Gothenburg, where I lived most of the time I was in Sweden, there are separate lanes for pedestrians, cars and bikes. This required some infrastructure planning on the Swede’s part, but it makes biking to work so much easier and safer. People are outdoors, interacting with each other, and value air cleanliness and exercise more simply because they have the option. I look around in Philadelphia for this same phenomenon, and I see it only along the Schuylkill River. The only designated bike-path in Philadelphia lines both sides of the river, and it is always in heavy use with joggers, rollerbladers, and bikers. I with implementing designated bike paths, the rule in the US is: if you build it, they will come. I just wish there were more bike paths so that more people could bike to work. It would green the city, and make us healthier (plus, it takes my husband 15 minutes to bike to work- it would take 30 minutes if he were to drive- so biking is a time-saver).

Health care: And since you asked: yes, universal health care in Sweden is wonderful. The interesting thing about it though, is that the Swedes are not alone. Austria, Belgium, Bosnia, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, Estonia, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Malta, the Netherlands, Norway, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Russia, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, Canada, Iceland, Brunei, India, Kuwait, Qatar, UAE, Saudi Arabia, Israel, Japan, Malaysia, New Zealand, South Korea, Seychelles, Sri Lanka, Taiwan, and ThailandSingapore, Thailand, India and Australia all have universal health care. The list is long, and the outcome successful.

Current plans:

After the Watson, I did a little zoo consulting work in Sweden and completed a Masters program in virology. I have always known that I wanted to be a veterinarian, and so Jonas and I moved back to the US for school. I hope to combine my veterinary degree with a degree in architecture so that I can continue to work in the field of animal design. I find out in April if I am accepted to the architecture program, and if not, I will go back to the drawing board and perhaps do a PhD in conservation.

To be honest, I think you can do a lot of work in the field of conservation and energy policy without a graduate degree. All you need is experience and networking. In my case, however, because I come at the issue of conservation and environment with a special interest in animal welfare, I need a medical degree to make judgments about environmental impact and the health of the animals under our direct or indirect care. At this point, I have several scenarios for my future: designing green barns for livestock, managing a zoo and educating about local wildlife, or working on conservation projects with the Smithsonian, American Zoo Association, or the World Health Organization.

My advice to others is to find your niche by volunteering and working-then evaluate if you need a graduate degree to get to the next step. There are so very many ways to get involved: working a campaign or in local government, blogging ( J ), volunteering with your local bike coalition, research, or implementing simple changes in your workplace and home. Just think about those researchers whose passion it was to evaluate chunks of ice- they have a very definite role in bringing global warming to the limelight.

Generational Dreams:

I have so many dreams for our generation- and I have a really good feeling about us! For one thing, there are so many of us getting involved in something bigger than the American dream (career, family, house, car). A lot of people, even if they do not take time off to travel and think about what they want from life, they take a year to do something different: the Peace Corps or Teach for America, for example. It seems our generation is motivated to make a difference in our communities. We value grassroots movements and our neighborhoods. I think our generation also values free time, which goes hand-in-hand with traveling and volunteering.

My hope for our generation is that we demand to have more than 1-2 weeks of vacation a year; when we get more time off, that we use it to better our local communities by being involved in Habitat for Humanity, Big Brothers-Big Sisters, humane societies, etc. I hope that we can enjoy time outdoors- hiking, working in out urban gardens, or helping out at a local farm. I hope we get from point A to point B by biking, walking, rollerblading, or dancing- so that we are healthy and aware of the route between work and home. I also hope that we take time for the next generation- be that simply planting a tree with neighborhood kids, or showing a school group around a nature reserve.

Oxfamming the Whole Black World

2008-03-07T08:37:00.000-08:00

Oxfamming the Whole Black World

I wanted to introduce you to Binyavanga Wainaina, one of the best columnists on Mail and Guardian. I thought a bit about a recent article "Oxfamming the Whole Black World", and thought this the perfect opportunity to speak about the topic he introduces. I copy the article in its entirety at the end of my comments.

Wainaina captures the absurdity of the current "development" paradigm, and more broadly, the attitude of the "developed" world towards the "developing" world. There's a tension. The absurd imposition described is a valid way of life in the developed world--empowerment, becoming carbon neutral, eating organic food. Moreover, would it not be absurdly condescending to say that priorities should be different because people are "different" in the economic south? No, it would not be.

What is problematic about development is that we believe we have answers (that we are the mommy, the carer, you are my pet) and the agenda. We believe it passionately, to the point that we have to take a gulp and think of ourselves as extremely understanding before trying to think we don't. And there are things that are working much better in the west and the north than in the south and east. We cannot get our heads around this being historically rooted inequality and injustice, pure and simple. It's really hard to imagine a completely different way (communism hasn't worked). So we keep on with our crazy park ideas, our crazy orphanages, our crazy definitions.

It is not to say that having parks, eating organic food, etc, doesn't make a difference where we are in the economic north (and the economic north certainly includes many South Africans). I believe learning to decrease our impact also leads to a 200% more profound understanding of how gigantic our impact is, and how much it takes to keep us warm and well-fed. And it actually decreases our impact. It means we may engage with people (more and less powerful) in less confusing and absurd ways. That's how I reconcile my priorities living here in Boston.

--

“Among white Americans the average IQ, as of a decade or so ago, was 103. Among Asian-Americans it was 106. Among Jewish Americans it was 113. Among Latino Americans it was 89. Among African-Americans it was 85. Around the world studies find the same general pattern: whites 100, East Asians 106, sub-Saharan Africans 70.” -- “Created Equal” by William Saletan in Slate magazine

Hello kitty kitty kitty … Are you an orphan? Are you Sudanese? Chadian? Are you a sub-Saharan African suffering from mild mental retardation? Are you an African woman suffering from the African male? Would you like an Oxfam biscuit? Organic antiretrovirals? Have you been raped? You might not know it, but you are an orphan, a refugee. Can we fly 103 of you to France to be loved? We can breastfeed you. We can make you a Darfur orphan. Even if you are not. If you are black and under 10 years old, please come talk to us.
Come kitty kitty.

We can save you from yourself. We can save ourselves from our terrible selves. Help us to Oxfam the whole black world, to make it a better place.

We want to empower you. No, your mother cannot do this. Your government cannot do this. Time cannot do this. Evolution, it seems, cannot do this. Education cannot do this. Your IQ cannot do this.

No one can empower you except us. And if you don’t listen to us, our bad people, those RepublicanToryChineseOilConcessioningIanSmithing racists will come to get you: your choice is our compassionate breast or their market forces.

In our loving breast you will be a vegan. We will eliminate your carbon footprint, your testosterone, your addiction to religions. You will be kept away from bad bad people, like ALL MEN.

We don’t live in harmony with nature and we are farting greenhouse gases all over the place. We will teach you how to live without farting greenhouse gases.

We will shut all your industries and build our organic Jeffery Sachs-designed school inside your national parks, where you can commune with nature, grow ecologically friendly crops, trade fairly with eco-tourists and receive visitors from the United Nations every month who will clap when you dance.

Instead of sweatshops, we will have Ubuntu shops where you can arrive in biodegradable loincloths to make bone jewellery for caring people who earn $1million a year, live in San Francisco or Cape Town and feel bad about this. In our future world you will have three balanced meals a day.

In the afternoons Jeffery Sachs will come and show the boys how to build a gender-friendly communal anti-poverty village where all base human emotions -- lust, greed and competition -- will be sustainably developed out of your heads, along with truly dangerous ideas such as rebellion. After playing non-violent games (rope-skipping and hugging), you will write letters to your loving step-parents in Toronto. For an hour a day we will teach you how to make clothes, shelter and shoes out of recycled bottle tops in Ndebele colours.
We have learned from people and bonobos living in harmony in forests and deserts what your fate is and we will help you fulfil it. By the time we are done you will all be having non-sexist multiple orgasms, you will be pacifists (we make and market organic pacifiers), you will dance and make merry with stone-milled, recycled mango wines that contain herbs to make you experience sudden and overwhelming universal love.

Some of us believe that if you all abandon industries and grow gentle herbs, your IQs will increase by 30%, because you are not eating toxins. Others believe that if the high IQ of the West is unsustainable, it is important to lower the level of world IQs.
Whatever side we are on here, we think you are special. If we are chimps, you are bonobos. Chimps are violent because they are smarter than bonobos.

For those of you with crude oil, we will help you use this resource -- sustainably, mind you -- to light your eco-candles and to make locally produced hair oil. The rest of the oil is bad bad bad. Leave it alone (we’ll take it).

We will keep the Chinese out. Look how they are suffering because they abandoned Buddhism. We will allow only eco-tourists and poverty tourists in your countries.

Trust us. You can’t do it yourselves. We have dedicated our lives to you. Come kitties, come to mummy.

Rising World Food Prices

2008-03-04T08:19:00.000-08:00

From BBC.com:
Rising World Food Prices

What is going on?

Prices are increasing sharply for some of the most basic foodstuffs traded on international commodity markets.

The price of wheat has doubled in less than a year, while other staples such as corn and soya are trading at well above their 1990s averages.

Rice and coffee prices are running at 10-year highs, and in some countries, prices for milk and meat have more than doubled.

Why are we seeing these increases now?

It could be the breakdown of the "Goldilocks era" for global commodities - a period stretching back more than 30 years, during which the price of basic foodstuffs has been neither too high nor too low, but remained relatively constant.

For most of this period, the cost of staples such as wheat, corn and soya has actually fallen in real terms.

But it seems this long period of stability is coming to an end. Most commentators believe we are on the cusp of a new era of volatility and rising prices.

What are the main causes?

The first reason why prices are rising is growth in the world's population, which is expected to top nine billion by the middle of the century.

That is an incredible number of mouths to feed and will put pressure on a range of resources, including land, water and oil, as well as food supply.

But lurking behind the headline figures for population is an even more significant factor pushing up prices, and that's the economic miracle driving emerging economies such China and India.

To put it bluntly, rich people eat more than poor people, and all this economic growth is generating a whole new tier of middle-class consumers.

What other factors are involved?

There is also the added environmental pressure all these extra people are loading onto the planet, as well as the impact of climate change.

Desertification is accelerating in China and sub-Saharan Africa, while more frequent flooding and changing patterns of rainfall are already beginning to have a significant impact on agricultural production.

And global warming has played a significant role in another driver of rising prices: the shift in agricultural production from food to biofuels.

Ethanol production is on course to account for some 30% of the US corn crop by 2010, dramatically curtailing the amount of land available for food crops and pushing up the price of corn flour on international commodity markets.