What will replace the notion of a land of plenty? A fiction.

I.

This is a fiction.

Our destruction, my Gulf of Mexico, La Louisiane, Luisiana, Land of La Cadie, the lands I grew up in, it sickens me.

I know intimately and love dearly, how our destruction came. It came by truck, by an avoidable human waste called oil slick that imitates life... disaster hits the swamps. It makes me want to ask the world a question: What will we do to replace the notion of our planet as a land of plenty?

This land was named after the Micmac word for, “land of plenty.” Yet, we have took more than land could bear. It was new land. It was land for unkempt flood and excessive natural wealth. Our land - Louisiana.

News and continuing shock comes from another disaster in our homeland. Tears of mine reflect on me in the oil sheens of streetlights. The reels turn. Where will our lands rise hence?

II.

Life here mirrors the suffering of our city and countryside in small but no less absolute terms.

Children dive off rocks and swim in to a harbor that glistens with the coat of motor oil exhausted by the boats at anchor. Near the 400 year old Portugese fort there is a sheen that coats plastic bottles and washed up detris along with a thick grass in bright green algae and mosses.

On top of a brutal hard breakwater six small children are playing, they look up to me on a wall and smile… the sharp jetty will not cut their feet.

We never leave where we are from, where we are conscious, when we are from here.

III.

Valdez. Perhaps this one place where I gained my first memory expectation of the disaster. A human disaster in gold rush following a real disaster (black gold - slickening our natures)!!!

Louisiana and Alaska share much in common for being world’s apart. They are colonies in impossible to reach lands found critical for natural resource and natural human pathways.

....

I am walking the otherside. Beaches in Africa. Yet, their brutality and hard living make for only a small number of residents who can ‘make it’ where others try and give up. The salt air curls.

IV.

Martha Serpas, in her beautiful opinion article is summarizing the sweep of environmental, cultural, and economic destruction brought on us all with the most recent BP oil spill disaster. Her biases refer us to our state flag of Louisiana - where a pelican tears at its own flesh to feed its young. She writes - this 'message... stood too long.'

“Ecological self-sacrifice is not pious; cultural self-destruction is not our duty,” she says.

This is an analogy which I find applicable to the place where the world stands today.

Our citizens and civic leadership ready and willing to lend hands as stewards of our planetary health - but under what conditions? When will our efforts begin? Who will shepherd the costs?

V.

Pictures, images, stories from home are always so valued to us as we are off in these distant lands. When we read about what you are reading, when we hear the local anecdotes and your news, it reminds us of the similarities which all of us share with the world.

This week in Morocco, we were invited to attend a wedding, we visited festivals, passed funerals, saw school groups taking field trips to the sea. If you are involved with something special, please share it. We love to hear about you. Many other people do to. You are the shepherds of our trail.

This was my excerpt, a personal fiction, devised for response to a very nice piece of Louisiana literature. ‘Well done, Well said,’ I say. Beautiful Op-Ed by Martha Serpas.

....

It is also a beautiful and morbid reminder of how environmental degradation, human oppression, sordid incongruous power histories - through them all - that it is human resiliency which has overwhelmed the events of disaster. We are the caretakers because we contain a memory of soul on planet Earth. I can remember. I was in VALDEZ, AK, just after the oil spill. It was external and internal. There was a convergence of the sacred, the profane, and our time.

Read more...

Global Harvest - Entrepreneurial Energy Bears Fresh Crops of New Ideas/Actions

Everywhere we have been, entrepreneurial energy bears fresh crops of solutions to emerging opportunities and constraints that our world community bears together. We have to continually relearn that we have enough products/projects here on the planet already to serve as remedies. for our hardest problems. There are ideas which need refinement, updates, distribution - but, we have only to scientifically rearrange conditions/circumstances to save our planet. We are finding our resolution. We are acting with fresh energy and actions.

As Brittany and I make our circumnavigation of the planet this year, we have encountered many friends and colleagues old and new who illustrate for us a great creative propensity. to use their skills and resources for the benefit of the world. In 20th and 21st Century fashion, these creative entrepreneurs exist independently, working at existential projects. They act as individual units (though some manage people and 'portfolios'). Each are radicalizing responsibility in their own way - but not as hermits or recluses. They are generally aware of coexistence and cooperative ideas - they self-market and microenterprise as individual actors - economically competitive yet aware of collective self-interests.

We are more aware than ever of what a powerful group of friends we have made. These are the change agents of the world: While their aims can solve many societal social, environmental, and economic problems (if and when they would be organized) the psychology of their core business principle is a new interest - to act collectively; and save the planet.

The people we have met are a new power base - their efforts are in producing bi-products to save the planet.

Take Benson, an industrial engineering production specialist in China - he helped us to understand the power of science and sources of energy. His proposal to prevent catastrophe from global warming - giant ice generators pointed at the Greenland Ice Cap.

Jessica and Martin. Jessica can manage consumers, labor, and the internet. Her other half Martin can create a capitalist world trading net tying consumers in China and the West to purchasing in ways that build actions of sustainability and fair trade economics.

Roddy is training our governments to accept LBGT human rights campaigns and tying these rights and freedoms to liberation of other marginalized and repressed groups in Asia and worldwide.

Rajib Roy is extending life through inventions in health and green urban sciences.

Perry is connecting volunteer labor to new and emerging markets of western economy to build new responsible forms of tourism and retirement.

All these friends came before our recent entrance and subsequent rush across Europe from Cyprus through Turkey, the Balkans, and the Mediterranean Riviera to Gibraltar. It is expected in our western economies that we share efficiencies, values, and critical analysis. Because of our mutual assumptions, we can work off of each other.

Since then we have met Tim in Bulgaria, trying to find time between starting and running small businesses to applying himself to really learning to live by the rules from the 4-hour Workweek. There is Clivia in Marseille producing functional purse art from tape (mostly duct tape). Or Mohamed, in Marrakesh, who is not only an importer of unique quality Morrocan products to USA; but, in either country he is surrounded and admired by other entrepreneurs, industrialists, biotech start-up chiefs, and local sales and tour vendors - trying to scratch off a little of his huge luck and charisma. So many different ideas for businesses that are connecting to each other. Our friend Natalie in France, for example, would help us to link programs we hope to create when we get back home, Ashrams of service, voluntourism, ecotouristic business enterprises.

Between us all we can close the loop. As we develop new economies of mutual collective self-interest, our business ideas and productivity grow together.

What do we all have in common? In a tiny taste of an immense world of dense hardworking and compassionate human societies, we have met Turkish land tycoons, evangelist collectivist socialists, microimperialists, postmodern economists. Taken as individuals, they were all devoted believers in doing the most good with what they had each been given. But, taken as a group, and, moreover as a random sampling of ethics, values, efforts, and attitudes, they are a remarkable and forceful lot with a message to share with the world... [**** Footnote #1]

Maybe you know an unrecognized entrepreneur whose day in the spotlight has not come. Write about them here. Tell them you admire them. Threaten to tell the world how brilliant their ideas are if they don't make them public. Social network them. Suggest to them that they should connect, distribute, self-promote, integrate and collaborate these good ideas and projects with others. There is a rising tide of good works. Our acts are becoming increasingly interconnected.

**** Footnote #1
...as we rushed, we did so at times with a Zen footing. Forgetting the stones and shale, we ran blindly on the edge of an impossible steep precipice. The Abyss, Death, would not accept us. Our (ill) communication blindly driving the sands of our fates in front of us. Blind, our shadows, ran.

Read more...

Imagining Backpacking Without Plastic

Today I tried to imagine a backpacker without plastic…it’s hard to do! So much of our journey depends on plastic: purified water, laminated passports, debit cards, 3oz conditioner and sunscreen and insect repellant bottles. I would be nearly blind without my big plastic sunglasses in the bright Mediterranean sun. Our camera records visual memories, and our external hard drive stores writings and music and digital maps. Imagine trading in our laptop for a pencil (no rubber eraser) and un-bound paper. Imagine a sketch pad and paintbrush instead of a Sony cyber shot. Imagine toting ceramic or glass containers instead of Tupperware for leftovers and meal prep. Imagine no zippers on our backpacks or buttons on our pants. No swimsuits, no headphones, no Bandaids, no duct-tape, no sleeping bags, no playing cards, no headlamp. How drastically our trip would change if we culled everything that contained plastic.

And that extensive list simply encompasses just some of the material things that we carry with us. Our everyday travel consumes plastic at an alarming rate, even with a conscientious effort to decrease our usage. We carry extra plastic bags so as not to accumulate more, but shopkeepers all around the world like to double and triple bag things. Even if we purchase home-made, natural chips, they come in a bag, which is then placed in a bag. With a frequent language barrier, a request or charade that indicates, “please, we don’t need a bag” is lost in the gap. When we try to hand the plastic bag back, it usually is just thrown away, unused.

Although we have traveled through a few regions of the world that have placed a ban on plastic bags (Mussoorie and Jabalpur, India), and though many places choose to use alternatives (oftentimes in India we received nut mixes in handmade paper bags, served delicious beans in biodegradable bowls shaped from leaves, and handed FanMilk ice cream wrapped in sections of paper while in Ghana), efforts are not global. Sometimes it feels that the efforts of some are overshadowed by the inattention of others.

But the solution seems too simple not to be widespread….just stop using plastic bags! Place a huge tax on plastic bags, make them more expensive, charge people for them. Is it really so hard? Are we really so addicted to thin, easily-torn, completely disposable plastic bags? It seems that we are.

We are all connected, sometimes in positive ways, sometimes in negative ones. The plastic pollution of our seas and airspace impacts the entirety of our species. Last night we watched a documentary called “Addicted to Plastic.” While not the caliber of a Michael Moore or Lolis Eric Elie documentary, the movie makes you think. It makes you reflect and increase your awareness (and so associated impact) of plastic use.

It’s good to be cognizant and aware, even if you can’t completely change your behaviors. Make a list of all the plastic in your bathroom. In your kitchen. In your car. Simply think about it, for that is a step in the right evolutionary direction. And, when you are thinking green, think outside of the box. Shortly after Hurricane Katrina, when our green friends and architects were disposing of newly found wealth, many chose to trade in gas guzzling SUVs for hybrid green vehicles. While their intentions were good, the truth is that the environmental cost of manufacturing that new product is much, much higher than simply driving the ‘older model’ another few years.

Some plastic parts of our lives are nearly impossible to change: wooden cellphones, or fred-flinstone, tire-less style cars are *slightly* impractical. But other simple solutions make a collective difference. Wooden reusable chopsticks are way cooler than plastic sporks. Canvas shopping bags are much classier than plastic ones. Try eating at the restaurant instead of getting take-out. Have you ever been to a store that has bulk shampoo instead of buying a new bottle every two months (shout-out to Periwinkle Provisions in Sweet Home, Ore.)?

Please share your tips and tricks to avoiding unnecessary plastic use. The comment feature in blogger is very tricky, using the “Anonymous” option for leaving a comment seems to have the best results.

Addicted to Plastic mentions several very cool companies, more information and links can be found below (but seriously, watch the movie on your plastic DVD player if you get the chance):

TieTek, LLC in Houston Texas: when the city stopped recycling, this company came up with a solution. TieTik takes any and all waste plastic (from tires to household plastics), melts it down, and turns the product into plastic railroad ties. These ties are then sold to railroad companies all over the country. TieTek ties last longer than wood, are impervious to termites, can be melted down and used again and again, and because all railroad ties are uniform in size, only one mold is used.

Agri-Plas, Inc. in Oregon: focuses especially on the agriculture waste products like baling twine, plastic flower pots, plastic sheeting. It processes 15% of the state’s waste. Baling twine is melted down to make truck bumpers, while flower pots are turned into more flower pots.

Interface, Inc. in Georgia: Recycles any and all plastic components into new carpets, efforts are powered by methane from the local landfill. “Landfills are the oil mines of our future!” the CEO says hopefully.

UniquEco in Nairobi, Kenya: Knits plastic bags into purses for resale. Employs locals and pick up plastic bag trash. Flip flops are collected from beaches and towns and then cored out to make curtains, jewelry, and knick-knacks.

Global Mamas in Ghana: recycles plastic water bags and other disposable trash into a variety of resale items.

Read more...

Disaster responses: Centralized and uncentralized government - Comparison of Sichuan and Katrina

We had thought to visit earthquake areas of China's Sichuan province to contribute and exchange on what our experiences and work after Katrina taught us. Upon reflection, sharing lessons learned in China with peers and friends in social networks seems a more useful and valid deliverable from our research and encounters here. This is not to say that we are not seeking and learning much each day in first and second hand ways; rather we can ‘shrink our footprint’ of impact by transmitting lessons from China in ways we can explain and define by reflection. So, what worked here and what could have worked better?

Our world has begun to grapple with enduring evidence of greater impact disasters may have on global societies, (as we are interlinked through economics, political thought, media, environment, and so on). Remarkable juxtapositions between Katrina and the Sichuan Earthquake are plainly manifold both in execution and outcome of government intervention and civic responsibility.

In scope of global impact, no disaster has had such immediate repercussions as Katrina. Within hours of impact, financial distress from Katrina was felt globally. Initial estimates predict that Katrina wiped close to a trillion dollars off global markets. Environmentally, Katrina cautioned of cataclysmic effects from global warming, rising seas, and strengthening weather patterns. More than 400 square kilometers of important alluvial wetlands disappeared from the US Gulf Coast almost in the blink of an eye. Politically, while 73 countries stood ready to offer comfort and aid to the USA, political isolationism (or, abjectly self-righteous national leadership?) prevented all but six of these countries from aiding injured and suffering Gulf Coast victims. Canadian ‘Mounties’ snuck in to Chalmette, LA. to rescue helpless citizens. Local and Federal blockades prevented aid from reaching flood waters; eleven days after levees broke the first federal convoys began to enter New Orleans to impose a strict martial law - 22,000 troops were sent to forcible remove 2,000 hold-outs who refused to leave homes and properties.

[Trouble the Water, a film about one family’s experience, before during and after the hurricane, shows the experience of what many poor families have gone through. A recent New York Times article discusses how people are coping today, (and, which programs have worked to assist the most injured and destitute.]

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/29/us/29trailer.html?pagewanted=2&_r=1&hp

China’s use of martial law following the earthquake was expected and unilaterally condemned from abroad. China has no restrictions on the use of federal forces within its borders. Aid organizations and western governments moved quickly to condemn China for not doing enough to get aid to far flung regions. We are learning first hand how the centralized form of government in China, its army structures and ability to martial armed forces to aid citizens affected by disaster, as well as the strength of patriotism. While it is correct to debate the benefits of restricting our armed forces abilities within the USA - it may be time for the US to revisit which arms of government local, state, or national, have the capacity to assist in cases of large scale disaster. China is by no means alone in using its military to assist during disasters. Many countries, if not most, use their armed forces in dual roles of defense and national service. Colombia, where we live when we are not in NOLA or on our honeyserviceyear does not have local police forces, instead it uses the Army as local police in all its forms. So, we are used to federal army being used as police.

Do not read the above as an endorsement of China’s vast public power structure, nor a top down disaster implementation response. But, measured on the success of its heroic recovery, China’s disaster response apparatus is noteworthy. The speed of its planning, design, and implementation of a recovery plan; and, how within one-year there is a near full physical restoration of communities affected by the earthquake, proves China is leading the world in terms of total disaster response output (especially in relation to the absolute scale of their disaster). We are waiting for stories that paint this story differently.

China has a venerable history of disaster. Earthquakes in China have been thoroughly documented for almost 500 years. The three greatest disasters in Chinese history are all earthquakes.

China’s remarkable earthquake rebuilding strategy has ingredients for types of rapid recovery progress which had been thought only attainable in wealthy western societies. While we are debating everyday here the difficulties and benefits of a highly structured and centralized governmental system, in China, for disaster recovery, the proof is in the pudding.

In Nanjing we had the great fortune of visiting the Nanjing Institute for Planning and Urban Design. Here we learned first had how Nanjing, like every province of China, participated in the recovery of the Sichuan Earthquake region.

In Nanjing, there is an ‘Earthquake Museum’ we thought would be dedicated to explaining earthquake history and scientific origins. This is where we went today. After trying to follow maps and asking directions, we went off-road and found the Nanjing Seismological Observatory office - which was interesting but not a museum. [Rule #1 for traveling in China - do not count on shortcuts or appropriately named places leading to what you are searching for. Chinese cities are made up with superblocks. While alleys winding into them are inviting because they are often the sources of authentic, ’cheap eats,’ there has yet, in our experiences., been an exit to the other side.]

China is thus far not as easy as Japan for finding ways to plug into community and contribute. We have set our expectations low because we do not want to be ‘voluntourists’ taking away from local community efforts by demanding huge amounts of time and energy it takes to give bearings and background to some completely uninformed and underequipt foreigners such as ourselves; [we saw after Katrina the great efforts locals constantly had to make to help volunteers join in on rebuilding efforts]. Worse yet, we do not want to be ’disaster tourists’ seeking out examples of other peoples’ suffering. The busloads of people who shuttled through our neighborhoods in New Orleans became a very untidy industry while people were still reeling with loss and coping with PTSD.

Additional links to information on Earthquakes in China are:

2008 Sichuan Earthquake

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2008_Sichuan_earthquake

And 1976 Tangshan Earthquake

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1976_Tangshan_earthquake

Blog on China’s real Earthquake Memorial Museum - mostly negative with disturbing images.

http://www.chinasmack.com/stories/sichuan-earthquake-memorial-museum-to-cost-23-billion/

Of particular note to us was how the Qinglong county in the Tangshan area prepared the community when signs of the earthquake became evident - greatly reducing fatalities.

Flooding in China has produced the greatest recorded disasters in history including the 1931 Flood in which at least 4 million Chinese lost their lives through drowning and flood related diseases.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1931_China_floods

As we are following the recovery of the Gulf Coast of the United States following Katrina, there is much to learn about the history of flooding in China. Could flooding such as the 1931 floods occur again here?

Due to restrictions on our blog posts, we will insert links, photos, and video when we leave China.

Thinking ahead to Africa and points east, please take a look at this map of ‘food insecure areas on Earth.

http://www.fews.net/Pages/default.aspx

Water is also an immediate concern for much of the globe, This article in Washington Post points to challenges which have caused mounting concerns in the Middle East and Yemen.

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2009/nov/15/yemens-capital-running-out-of-water/?feat=article_top10_shared

Water blog 'blue living ideas' -

http://bluelivingideas.com/topics/drinking-water/will-yemens-capital-run-out-of-water-growing-a-drug/

Read more...