Coming soon: How much waste is necessary after your FEMA managed disaster?

This is just a tantalizer...

Look for our article coming soon: How to lower waste after your disaster.


We have been astounded by the number of lots across south Mississippi which are filled with decaying 'FEMA' mobile homes for sale. Remember how these travel trailers were rushed to the Gulf Coast only to sit in lots of up to 40,000 trailers unused for months after the disaster? Remember how the first 18month life from purchase by our government through maintenance contract meant that average unit costs of $120-180k more than doubled the cost of complete renovation estimates per New Orleans' native 'double' family home?

But, in the USA when we have a disaster our government does not allow that recovery produce permanent solutions such as restoring existing housing - only temporary patches allowed.



Years after these trailers were determined unsafe to live in (due in part to being constructed with high concentrations of formaldehyde) they are being offered as reused, cheap, housing. They now fill plastic lots with signs asking potential customers to 'make offer.'

How the US wasted resources and other opportunities to use the disaster of Katrina continues to astound us almost 6 years since our disaster. But, how are our lessons being applied? How have we used the opportunities for teaching, learning, and being more humane in the disasters which have occurred since the Gulf Coast and Katrina? How has Haiti, by example, benefited from histories of New Orleans and Gulf Coast (non)recovery and/or (lack of) human restoration? Has the US/FEMA, Red Cross, or NGO community changed significantly how it expenses limited resources since Katrina's gross misuse of funds and misrepresentation of aid or assistance?

We are investigating. We are going to visit the FEMA parks and share our images. Did you have a FEMA trailer? Can we share your story? When you share it can help defend others. Your story matters; What we do now in sharing the truth defends the next disaster community.

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Traveling Abroad the Fence

I.

This blog is titled "Traveling Abroad the Fence" which means you can travel anywhere!

[If you haven't read this blog for a while, you may begin to notice that certain themes appear and we deal with them for a while - say over a couple weeks or a month. Themes that are not always clear or straight forward themes; but, like some of us, are good for thinking about problems or opportunities; they develop in us over a long time.]

Being from Gulf Of Mexico/Mississippi River Bottom culture - we stew everything a long time.

This week, as the season got frosty for us (lows 49' F - 10' C) we started using our big Crock Pot as an ambient heater. The idea of greens in a pot is quintessential southern Autumnal food life; sweet potatoes, green and cabbages - all these point to changes of season on our food calendar.

We cooked Beans, eggplant dips, and sweet potatoes literally for days: Leaving a simmering pot of cinnamon potatoes cooking is so much nicer than just burning gas or electric!

Turn your crockpot into a RockPot of good tastes this winter and reduce your heat bill!

We decided long ago that when we got back to the USA after a ten month round-the world adventure we would adopt a mantra of traveling in your own backyard. The truth for us was that even as we have passed through and visited the furthest foreign lands; we did not want everyone to set their expectations that high. We do not expect everyone to have the possibility to travel as we have. We want to share our experiences and help others gain some lessons if they are interested. Food and lifestyle are very natural places to start. Living in Louisiana we can be engrossed in our native cooking styles. However, for the most part, our ideas of food all come from somewhere and were imports like all of us living here.

In addition to fine local sweet potatoes, we have been eating rice. We have not given up pasta, tortillas, or bread - though we are eating much less; but, the world eats lots of rice. We like rice. If you eat rice, you eat what most of the world eats (including south LA.) It is easy to make; and leftovers keep well. So, we bought the 25 lb. bag and are happy. We are also eating most of our meals (not po-boys) with chopsticks. For me, chopsticks slow down eating helping to savor food.

Here are some fun crockpot recipes to get your winter home-cooking season started.

[Save your rice. You can make delicious rich rice pudding with cardamon like we have done with cardamon we brought back from the Himalayas; or, even more authentic, make some Creole Calas - foods sold sweet on the street and one of the ways during New Orleans' 'code noir' law these famous calas helped many slaves who bought their freedom.]


II.

What is travel after all? Traveling is experiencing something new, in a way you have not known it, from a point of view you have not yet discovered it. By this definition, we can very easily travel by choosing to do things we have not done before; and, by being intentional to enjoy their newness and appreciate what we are learning in the process.

So, I have tried this concept on. I have visited some places that had been right in front of me. And,
I have scheduled or begun the planning to visit other new and obvious

And when I write about these markets as I already have, I get great feedback and new ideas like these great green market and collective farming ideas from my dear mother-in-law in Oregon.

Shopping is a very easy way to make a sustainable idea a reality. When we support local markets, we realize our connectedness to what we are buying. It degenericizes life!

This blog reminds me that the internet is such a fascinating way to visit places (virtually), to make long-distance 'pen pals,' and to learn about foreign places. We have many friends who would love to connect with you. If one of the countries we have visited or written about particularly speaks to you, please write us - we can put you in touch with one of our friends who would likely love to learn about you.

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China to New Orleans: mental health treatment issues that thwart democracy

One thing I have trouble doing is separating what I know about people and what I feel about them. I can understand whole peoples and how societies behave without being able to separate what I feel I understand from what I do not.

So, I read about different peoples. I keep up on news.

I read about China a lot. I do not know the makings, the inner workings, or the decision making process of how things get done in China. I would never propose I do. But, I am interested.

I do know that what I read about Chinese treatment of marginalized populations, of the mass poor, the least educated, of handicapped and mentally ill; it sounds deplorable. I am no expert on jails nor mental illness: Yet there must be some kernel of truth to these awful reports.

So, this blog is a conglomeration of articles I have compiled. It is a strange confluence of events.

Ultimately, what I have been discovering also is that where I live, New Orleans, and other U.S. cities have similar treatment of marginalized populations (especially mentally ill) as in China.
We have similar models of therapy. Therapy through incarceration means 'cleaning our streets' of today's mentally ill. These are the emerging trends of mental health diagnosis and treatment in our western world and in the east. (Are these trends offshoots of the privatization of prisons?) Hopefully, these are outlier trends which are justly in need of being challenged here in the USA. But, only the fact that these trends of incarceration as therapy exist is putrid evil to me.

Similarities with political repression and mental illness designations between China and New Orleans are scary!

We live surrounded by an epidemic of diagnosis and an utter dearth of treatment. And, we pass this tragedy off to our incarcerating powers when our lack of resource and will allows these our poorest and least confident amongst us to fall out from society.

How far are we really from diagnosing difference and political independence as 'evils?'

I see the same deplorable actions by local governments in my own community back home in the USA. In New Orleans, we already incarcerate insanity into jails. The mentally ill have a cell and very limited resources. Families are not encouraged to be committed and involved in finding a long-term cure for ill family members. Medications are inefficient and restricted due to costs.

A link to Nola.com about controversy around rebuilding OPP Jail was not a very helpful one in explaining the debate. 'Katrina Time' and OPP seem synonymous with Jail Expense Abuse.

This one is better:

The Incarceration Capital of the US
A struggle over the size of New Orleans’ jail could define the city’s future
By Jordan Flaherty
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jordan-flaherty/the-incarceration-capital_b_781150.html

But, as I started out saying, I have no first hand news. I have not been inside these places. And, I want to find less partialized news. I want more open access and exchange between peoples. Allowing reporters access is essential.


Democracy really does mean an opening up of channels of belief and communication between all peoples. It cannot work in isolation. If it is true that China routinely locks up politically assertive petitioning citizens to reduce participation, this is not helpful. It hurts world democratic health.

It was with great pain that I got through this interesting NYTimes series which you may have already seen on mental health treatment issues in China. The area featured in the article on the border of Vietnam is relatively near Changsha (about 12-18 hours by bus - China is very big!). This is where my grandmother was born and grew up. Her father a doctor; I have to ask myself - in conditions of sanity and treatment of the insane; how much has really changed?

I remember my grandmother's opinion about health care. All people deserved access, attention, dignity, therapy. Good Health care should be a national priority in the USA and in China.

Is it not still the case today that the way we treat the weakest, the most hopeless, the destitute, the least among us, is a perfect reflection of our society in terms of our general mental health?

A new NOLA.com article come out just after this blog was published seeking public participation in the shaping of this decision. Does the Sheriff really want informed participation and approval?

Read more...

10,000 blog views by December 14 or by year's end (whichever one happens first)

Ok, we are about to get back to this thing.

We have been missing the blog. We talk about it. But somehow we are TOO BUSY and too whupped to ever have the energy at the end of the night to ever have what it takes to give back.

So this is about to change. One Goal to make this change is new: "10,000 blog views by December 14" or maybe New Year's. As our Year of the Honey Service Year comes to a close we want to remember, recant, reenlist, and reinvigorate the goals, activities, partners, and people we came to know, love, work with, or call friends.We are back in the USA. Very busy - working; yet, determined to stay true to principles from our trip and principles grown up in this blog.

What better way to do that than these short 'shout out' blogs.

So here goes. We are in New Orleans heading back to Colombia New Year's Eve. A lot has happened. This week was VOODOO EXPERIENCE in our neighborhood. Nathan's childhood music mentor Mr Payton passed away, it finally rained.

Spread the love. Help us make "10,000 blog views by December 14 or year's end" a reality.

Share our blog with those you know, love, are firends with who can benefit from its story.

Soemtimes it is an odd struggle finding home again...

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Half a week after the Round the World Trip

We understand space ship reentry. We feel we just went through that this week as we are home just half a week after the Round the World Trip.

Honey Service Year year-end count down 50 days left.

We are home. How will our Honey Service end in the USA?


2.

New Orleans




Poplarville is calling....

3.

If anyone thinks we are slacking here or that we could have been more directed abroad this year, you would be right. But, there is a different impetus at home. Things soar. You know where things are and where they should be.

Our car (truck) was that sort of a story.

But... we are home. Indeed, it feels good to be home. We are carrying forward so many lessons learned meeting new cultures and absorbing good ideas; while, at home, applying ourselves very much at the here and now of what we do that impacts our world.

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Vignettes on Returning I.

From a small garden planted in late Tokyo Autumn to edits on a new friend’s photography book in Scotland, we have embedded memories from travel filled with positive interactions of service, exchange, collaboration. What we can offer from our travels are the vignettes of shared wisdom, mutual interest, cross pollinated efforts gained along the way.

What we do not record in our blog here, gets picked up by us organically in conversations and virtual updates. A tale to ramble out of us in springy passion whenever we reencounter family and friends.

Returning home causes a turn inwards. We celebrate and find new excitement in our country reflecting on its past, more hopeful than ever for its useful and meaningful future.

Here in New England our own family histories and current family engagements allow for soft reentry coming back from United Kingdom and Ireland. Climate, habitat, society and aesthetics all closely mirror where we recently visited - from Derbyshire to Hume, from Kennington to Dublin’s Four Courts.

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Vignettes on Returning III

What we enjoy in travel lives at home in networks which bring our disparate connections closer.

As we return to mainstream purchasing norms, we want to emulate and support the kinds of projects, at home and abroad, that build positive connections. Thus far, since we have been home and purchasing, we have bought what we were going to immediately consume; bought small gifts for friends; or, purchased reusable/recyclable items at thrift stores.

Wherever possible, we would prefer to buy locally, or when necessary, from projects like Café Congo.

Our connectivity which we realize is a mere six-degrees or less of a connection to every person we met along our trip abroad is heightened as we meet and solidify relations which are changed since we left almost a year ago. There are new characters and welcome additions. As we celebrate one year of our commitment to each other, our relationships to friends and family broadens. I have met Aunt Liddy and Uncle Dykestra on my wife’s side. We both made lots of new relations attending cousin-in-law Isaac’s birthday celebration. Finding new connections through family which drew us back to Colombia, Italy, and Iowa meant a lot to us.

Sometimes these connections are born without any immediate knowledge of who these new peers and friends will be - solely based on our attitude of acceptance of our connectedness alone. Our degrees of separation grow fewer.

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Vignettes on Returning IV

This morning at breakfast, we drank coffee imported from Nicaragua. We want to promote fair-trade and community self-sufficiency through relations between the USA and abroad. A friend of a cousin’s of Brittany offers her own branding and message to us through her coffee. She has a virtual coffee import business - ‘Café Congo’ working with a group in Nicaragua named Brothers and Sisters in Reconciliation.

Café Congo uses first-hand knowledge of producer/consumer behavior to promote global initiatives locally. Profits raised by Café Congo’s grassroots efforts develop into ongoing projects for local villages in Nicaragua. These sustainable eco-friendly projects convert manures to natural gases, build grey water systems, install compost toilets, and distribute water filtration systems to shade grown organic crops.

These grassroots projects contribute to growth of organic farming, restoration of biodiversity, fight poverty, restore the cultural and environmental region, and prevent global warming. Through the purchase of her coffee, “you are reconciling [the farmers] goals with your own; your world with theirs.”

The use of coffee trade as a tool for building cultural, social, and economic resiliency is one which we seek to promote and teach. It is but one example of many.

The farmers of Hermanos y Hermanas para la reconciliation - or Brothers and Sisters for the Reconciliation is a new example we like. They are a very small rural cooperative associated with the larger Compas de Nicaragua (www.compas1.org). These rural farmers are working to broaden local goals and unite them with larger communities. They seek, “to reconcile polarized political ideologies, a turbulent history, and Nicaragua’s environment, health, and national quality of life.”

Organizations like Café Congo often come about locally just as relationships. Sometimes Britt and I use this type of micro-enterprise initiative by buying larger than needed organic coffee, in Minca, Colombia near our hotels in Santa Marta and Taganga. We support local organic growers union by purchasing extra coffee from them directly instead of through second party distributors. We then transport coffee to the USA.

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You look Egyptian

We could not have known, before coming here, that there are so many different looks of people in Egypt. Suddenly, we see the faces of so many people we have known. Blue, brown, and green eyes, blonds and brunettes, very pale and jet black complexions, broad, flat, and hooked noses. This is not how media or education portrays middle easterners.

Differences of appearance are not only visible in skin, eye, or hair colors but also in how people choose to express themselves. For women, by example, style can be totally western - make-up and a perm with jeans and high heels, or, more commonly, western clothing with a head scarf. Also common here are full body covering robes with gloves and socks. Older women are generally covered, (as they are married); importantly, though, all these women are interacting with each other without any overt disagreement or dislike.

While we realized quite early that greetings of, ‘You look Egyptian,’ on the streets was just a common catch phrase to get your attention to buy tours, miniature plastic pyramids, or papyrus paintings; with a decent repertoire of Arabic and proper head covering, anyone could ‘go Egyptian.’ In addition to ‘European’ looking passerbys we see plenty of Asians from Muslim countries walking the streets here. Our country, the USA, and Europe, like to hold themselves up as melting pots; but the Mediterranean still fosters the exchange of cultures, looks, and camaraderie for which it was know millennia earlier.

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Thailand is Booming with Tourism

I can say with certainty that I already love Thailand. Calm, friendly, honest people. A land of Buddhism that entices you quickly with its sweet flavors, fragrance of flowers, polite and gentle landscapes. It is entirely nonabrasive (we have stuck mostly away from the tourist path - 'walking streets,' the seedy brothel lore, the tired 'Cancun' and Disneyesque resort beaches to the south). Anyone with imagination or a taste for its rich history can easily see a charmed past and feel in its recent history, echoes. This is not a blog about that Thailand. This is what I wrote spontaneously on a slow diesel trawler as we crawled along the coast back to the furthest edge we could find away from Thai 'civilization.' After nearly two weeks on islands and in serene mangrove estuarine enclaves along the Thai Cambodian border here it is what I wrote. If it is for anyone, it is for the thoughtful and compassioned traveler. And, it is for the governments of Thailand, her neighbors, and the world community that flocks here. It is not meant as unfriendly. It is meant as a reminder to all of us who can ignore what role we play in the way the world develops.

It goes like this...


What would fix our world: By example from Thailand

Life has only ever taken me to moments.
In clarity in Evolutions.
I would see in a place all I loved and all at once.
Nothing like this ever came to me in Thailand.
Here, a debate with self, of new purpose, new pursuits.
China, India, Louisiana, ancestry vastly more polluted
These all ring with Life for me. Poor Thailand.
I am understanding very little here.
It sticks to my soul like a skin's lesion.

Thus, I reflect on other places, other times.
A first epiphany in Omaha, Nebraska. I am 17.
A urchin's port in Panama's Casco Viejo. I am 29.
Acrid sulfurs of country roads back home.
Distances of time. Memories held still.
Photographic emotional stillness.
Friends and acquaintances long gone.
Distances grown to revolutions.

Thailand, as ill as the planet we are healing.
Now, but now, but NOW, must remain sick, bedridden.
Venezuela, USA, The Indian Res
And all the old Colonies hovering below remark for it.
Darkness, falsely lit, in phantom shallows. A putritude.
Holding good which was evil disguised as good without evil.

A lost time. Dead monks littering roads between Buddhist countries.
Greeds, Pollutions, Degraded, Degrading.
Falsity, lacklusterness, undefined ruination with no common purpose.
Results of organized religion - Capital wealth.
King's of Ancient Nations trading arms and lands and death.
Kunckledusters who let ruin the golden gates.
What would fix our world? By example from Thailand...
"Kill the Buddha!"

....

To our lovely friends and all her kind people, forgive a wit in wrath.

This blog is going to be followed by a short series of positive inspirations about eco tourism, public environmental art, service projects that are self-starters (and work), green development lessons, new friendships and the like. But, I have to get this out there to get started on the rest.

We have two days until Calcutta, India. What can await us there?

Wrapping up Thailand, we have been enjoying the long New Year's celebrations, visiting craft, music, and food bazaars and festivals and wishing we had many of our good friends and family along to enjoy this place and make sense of what is happening here so that we should all become better stewards of the world our children's children and their children's children might one day inherit.

Thailand is Booming with Tourism. What can we learn from their losses and their fate? (A sad and deadly sickness of selfishness and mad advantages)

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