Friday, March 14, 2008
Wednesday, February 27, 2008
little town full of little people...
i stole this off my cousin's facebook - it's too good to keep to myself:
http://little-people.blogspot.com/
oh yeah, and check this new song. gosh i adore that little pixie.
http://little-people.blogspot.com/
oh yeah, and check this new song. gosh i adore that little pixie.
Sunday, February 24, 2008
apparently i have asian roots...
so, i was reading eben's blog about the root of harmony's name and decided to look up my own name. i was surprised to find that kerria is not only a flowering japanese bush (kerria japonica) but also a resin-secreting insect (kerria lacca, also known as kerria lacca lacca, or lakshadia indica). its secretion, 'lac', is used to create a scarlet (like my hair!) pigment and the end product of shellac for varnish. it is also used as an anti-obesity drug. this insect is native to India, China and South East Asia.
According to the ever-reliable wikipedia, "[lac] has a mention in the ancient Vedic book called the Manusmrti, or the 'Laws of Manu'. This book is the source of all the laws regarding caste in India. It lays down who can eat with whom, who can marry whom, who can touch whom; and it also lays down how those who infringe those laws should be punished. Thus, for example, it is decreed: "XII. 4. If the shudra [a member of the labouring caste, or an Untouchable] intentionally listens for committing to memory the Veda, then his ears should be filled with molten lead and lac; if he utters the Veda, then his tongue should be cut off; if he has mastered the Veda his body should be cut to pieces."
hmmmm...
i also spent some time a couple of months ago searching for other kerrias on facebook, and found that it seems to be popular in the states as a middle name or in an altered state: sha'kerria, for example.
maybe i should change my name to sha'kerria.
According to the ever-reliable wikipedia, "[lac] has a mention in the ancient Vedic book called the Manusmrti, or the 'Laws of Manu'. This book is the source of all the laws regarding caste in India. It lays down who can eat with whom, who can marry whom, who can touch whom; and it also lays down how those who infringe those laws should be punished. Thus, for example, it is decreed: "XII. 4. If the shudra [a member of the labouring caste, or an Untouchable] intentionally listens for committing to memory the Veda, then his ears should be filled with molten lead and lac; if he utters the Veda, then his tongue should be cut off; if he has mastered the Veda his body should be cut to pieces."
hmmmm...
i also spent some time a couple of months ago searching for other kerrias on facebook, and found that it seems to be popular in the states as a middle name or in an altered state: sha'kerria, for example.
maybe i should change my name to sha'kerria.
Friday, February 08, 2008
sow your seeds, little ones...
school at once inspires and repulses me. i love some things, i hate others. i hate the meaningless discussions of structure and theory, when it doesn't come hand in hand with some sort of reality to ground it in. what is the use of discussing a theory without asking how it fits into the world?
maybe this is why i love my environment classes. some of it is observational - earth crusts and wave motion and the movement of sediment from one side of a continent to the other and how the ocean revolves around us and gives us life(amazing!). some of it is how to take the theories and thoughts and ideas of hundreds of years and use it for something positive. funny how unique this seems in university. i don't seem to recall any other realm that ever said "ok, let's discuss compassion and how to make this world more compassionate and gentle", rather than merely "let's discuss theories of ethics, development, poverty, health...". perhaps it is a given that you will use this knowledge to change the world around you. but should this be a given? should we be able to gnaw our ways through four years of university classes without once being told - "this is not for naught! take this and sow it, use it to make the world a more beautiful place!"
perhaps that would not be a good thing either. in fact it sounds downright evangelical. and of course i realize that 'good' is subjective and has been twisted for nefarious purposes. but perhaps compassion and generosity are better words. perhaps this is what is lacking: i rarely heard anyone discuss those words in university, nor their importance - not in a classroom setting, anyway. i just remember a book my mom and dad used to read me called 'the lupine lady', in which the main character is taught as a little girl by her grandfather that in order to live a full life she must leave the world a more beautiful place than before. and she spends many years doing exciting things and traveling the world and living a happy life, but never feels that she has left a more beautiful earth behind her. so finally she decides to plant lupines everywhere and leave the hillsides blue-purple-pink.
i guess what i mean by all this is that university seems to teach us, for the most part, how to make our own lives better. it gives us 'tools' (as they say) for the 'real world' (as they say). it gives us a zingy resume, the ability to think quickly and sharply and sometimes critically so that we are wonderfully 'hireable'. it gives us the ability to regurgitate a million times over the thoughts of others, but for the most part our own thoughts and creativity are not seen to be part of the process. and simplicity is never rewarded. nobody ever says that it is admirable to be without ambition, that planting flowers and trees and food is a noble pursuit, or that gentleness and kindness and a compassionate ethic is more important than personal success.
and i guess that a book i read when i was five left me a more generous person than unviersity ever did, and this seems sad. something so simple can make the world more lovely for others, but i feel like all we ever think about (myself included) is how to make the world better for ourselves. so yeah, i'm stoked that i'm taking classes that discuss how to bring compassion and empathy back into a world where the dominant and applauded ideology is individual gain. and the people in my class are all so excited, so involved, so young and wide-eyed and kind. we are being asked in a 200 level class to examine our desires and needs, to examine how we treat the world around us and finally to use this knowledge to build a noble life. i feel inspired by this.
i can't wait to be a farmer.
maybe this is why i love my environment classes. some of it is observational - earth crusts and wave motion and the movement of sediment from one side of a continent to the other and how the ocean revolves around us and gives us life(amazing!). some of it is how to take the theories and thoughts and ideas of hundreds of years and use it for something positive. funny how unique this seems in university. i don't seem to recall any other realm that ever said "ok, let's discuss compassion and how to make this world more compassionate and gentle", rather than merely "let's discuss theories of ethics, development, poverty, health...". perhaps it is a given that you will use this knowledge to change the world around you. but should this be a given? should we be able to gnaw our ways through four years of university classes without once being told - "this is not for naught! take this and sow it, use it to make the world a more beautiful place!"
perhaps that would not be a good thing either. in fact it sounds downright evangelical. and of course i realize that 'good' is subjective and has been twisted for nefarious purposes. but perhaps compassion and generosity are better words. perhaps this is what is lacking: i rarely heard anyone discuss those words in university, nor their importance - not in a classroom setting, anyway. i just remember a book my mom and dad used to read me called 'the lupine lady', in which the main character is taught as a little girl by her grandfather that in order to live a full life she must leave the world a more beautiful place than before. and she spends many years doing exciting things and traveling the world and living a happy life, but never feels that she has left a more beautiful earth behind her. so finally she decides to plant lupines everywhere and leave the hillsides blue-purple-pink.
i guess what i mean by all this is that university seems to teach us, for the most part, how to make our own lives better. it gives us 'tools' (as they say) for the 'real world' (as they say). it gives us a zingy resume, the ability to think quickly and sharply and sometimes critically so that we are wonderfully 'hireable'. it gives us the ability to regurgitate a million times over the thoughts of others, but for the most part our own thoughts and creativity are not seen to be part of the process. and simplicity is never rewarded. nobody ever says that it is admirable to be without ambition, that planting flowers and trees and food is a noble pursuit, or that gentleness and kindness and a compassionate ethic is more important than personal success.
and i guess that a book i read when i was five left me a more generous person than unviersity ever did, and this seems sad. something so simple can make the world more lovely for others, but i feel like all we ever think about (myself included) is how to make the world better for ourselves. so yeah, i'm stoked that i'm taking classes that discuss how to bring compassion and empathy back into a world where the dominant and applauded ideology is individual gain. and the people in my class are all so excited, so involved, so young and wide-eyed and kind. we are being asked in a 200 level class to examine our desires and needs, to examine how we treat the world around us and finally to use this knowledge to build a noble life. i feel inspired by this.
i can't wait to be a farmer.
Tuesday, January 08, 2008
birthdays are for suckers
t'is the new year, and a new school year, and a new age that sounds much too old. twenty five. yuck. apparently this is the year my metabolism will shut down and i will acquire a booty and some hips. crossing my fingers.
anyways, had a nice birthday. the weather was veritably balmy here; we walked all the way downtown and i even felt a bit overheated. weird. but anyways, matt and i wandered around and decided to stop at the National Film Board 'Cineroboteque', where you watch movies on a robot! well, sort of. but they have all the NFB films you could ever desire to see and you just scroll through and watch whatever yer heart desires. and it was free! (we watched a really good animated short - 'the danish poet', as well as a rather odd and creepy one called 'madame tutli-putli'). when we finally emerged from the belly of the robot we were itching for some caffeine, and what beverage is more potent than the thick deliciousness of vietnamese coffee, complete with a fat dose of sugary sugary condensed milk? mmm. we then spent some time perusing indigo's travel section, where we oohed and ahhed over pretty pictures and dreamed about a life without exams and work and hot water. oooooo. ahhhhhh. damn my life.
anyways, the caffeine hangover kicked in about an hour later and the store became a bit depressing, so onto beer! had a few drinks, a delicious indian dinner, then some mojitos, some hanging out, some bed. then a nice short nap, and then a rather abrasive phone call from some drunken hippies, then back to sleep. happy birthday me.
and now school has started, and the twenty-five-years-old-and-what-the-eff-am- i-doing-with-my-life doldrums have started too. goddammed expensive bloody mcgill. godamned pessimist me.
anyways, had a nice birthday. the weather was veritably balmy here; we walked all the way downtown and i even felt a bit overheated. weird. but anyways, matt and i wandered around and decided to stop at the National Film Board 'Cineroboteque', where you watch movies on a robot! well, sort of. but they have all the NFB films you could ever desire to see and you just scroll through and watch whatever yer heart desires. and it was free! (we watched a really good animated short - 'the danish poet', as well as a rather odd and creepy one called 'madame tutli-putli'). when we finally emerged from the belly of the robot we were itching for some caffeine, and what beverage is more potent than the thick deliciousness of vietnamese coffee, complete with a fat dose of sugary sugary condensed milk? mmm. we then spent some time perusing indigo's travel section, where we oohed and ahhed over pretty pictures and dreamed about a life without exams and work and hot water. oooooo. ahhhhhh. damn my life.
anyways, the caffeine hangover kicked in about an hour later and the store became a bit depressing, so onto beer! had a few drinks, a delicious indian dinner, then some mojitos, some hanging out, some bed. then a nice short nap, and then a rather abrasive phone call from some drunken hippies, then back to sleep. happy birthday me.
and now school has started, and the twenty-five-years-old-and-what-the-eff-am- i-doing-with-my-life doldrums have started too. goddammed expensive bloody mcgill. godamned pessimist me.
Monday, December 17, 2007
walking even with the builder of the universe...
From Walden:
"beware of all enterprises that require new clothes, and not rather a new wearer of clothes."
* * * *
"...if one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life which he has imagined, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours. He will put some things behind, will pass an invisible boundary; new, universal, and more liberal laws will begin to establish themselves around and within him; or the old laws be expanded, and interpreted in his favor in a more liberal sense, and he will live with the license of a higher order of beings. In proportion as he simplifies his life, the laws of the universe will appear less complex, and solitude will not be solitude, nor poverty poverty, nor weakness weakness. If you have built castles in the air, your work need not be lost; that is where they should be. Now put the foundations under them."
* * * *
"The cost of a thing is the amount of life that must be exchanged for it."
* * * *
"When I had caught and cleaned and cooked and eaten my fish, they seemed not to have fed me essentially. It was insignificant and unnecessary, and cost more than it came to..The repugnance to animal food is not the effect of experience, but is an instinct...I believe that every man who has ever been earnest to preserve his higher or poetic faculties in the best condition has been particularly inclined to abstain from animal food, and from much food of any kind... Whatever my own practice may be, i have no doubt that it is a part of the destiny of the human race, in its gradual improvement, to leave off eating animals."
* * * *
"If the day and the night are such that you greet them with joy, and life emits a fragrance like flowers and sweet-scented herbs, is more elastic, more starry, more immortal - that is your success. All nature is your contgratulation, and you have cause momentarily to bless yourself. The greatest gains and values are farthest from being appreciated. We easily come to doubt if they exist. We soon forget them. They are the highest reality. Perhaps the facts most astounding and most real are never communicated by man to man. The true harvest of my daily life is somewhat as intangible and indescribable as the tints of morning or evening. It is a little stardust caught, a segment of the rainbow which i have clutched."
* * * *
"Only that days dawns to which we are awake. There is more day to dawn. The sun is but a morning star."
"beware of all enterprises that require new clothes, and not rather a new wearer of clothes."
* * * *
"...if one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life which he has imagined, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours. He will put some things behind, will pass an invisible boundary; new, universal, and more liberal laws will begin to establish themselves around and within him; or the old laws be expanded, and interpreted in his favor in a more liberal sense, and he will live with the license of a higher order of beings. In proportion as he simplifies his life, the laws of the universe will appear less complex, and solitude will not be solitude, nor poverty poverty, nor weakness weakness. If you have built castles in the air, your work need not be lost; that is where they should be. Now put the foundations under them."
* * * *
"The cost of a thing is the amount of life that must be exchanged for it."
* * * *
"When I had caught and cleaned and cooked and eaten my fish, they seemed not to have fed me essentially. It was insignificant and unnecessary, and cost more than it came to..The repugnance to animal food is not the effect of experience, but is an instinct...I believe that every man who has ever been earnest to preserve his higher or poetic faculties in the best condition has been particularly inclined to abstain from animal food, and from much food of any kind... Whatever my own practice may be, i have no doubt that it is a part of the destiny of the human race, in its gradual improvement, to leave off eating animals."
* * * *
"If the day and the night are such that you greet them with joy, and life emits a fragrance like flowers and sweet-scented herbs, is more elastic, more starry, more immortal - that is your success. All nature is your contgratulation, and you have cause momentarily to bless yourself. The greatest gains and values are farthest from being appreciated. We easily come to doubt if they exist. We soon forget them. They are the highest reality. Perhaps the facts most astounding and most real are never communicated by man to man. The true harvest of my daily life is somewhat as intangible and indescribable as the tints of morning or evening. It is a little stardust caught, a segment of the rainbow which i have clutched."
* * * *
"Only that days dawns to which we are awake. There is more day to dawn. The sun is but a morning star."
Sunday, December 16, 2007
Alone, alone, about a dreadful wood...
well, it seems that exam period turns me into a daily blogger, with or without an audience.
So, i am officially the queen of procrastination. three exams to go before thursday, and i have spent most of today reading the newspaper, baking goodies, daydreaming, watching the snowstorm ebb and flow outside, playing scrabble on the internet, looking up useless facts, checking my email, and occasionally reading over old ones. I found a gem of an email from this wonderful japanese guy i met in thailand, where, among other awesome things, he wrote:
"You have splendid sensitivity and good looks like a fairy"
how can a gal not be flattered by such compliments?
oh engrish.
oh asia...
So, i am officially the queen of procrastination. three exams to go before thursday, and i have spent most of today reading the newspaper, baking goodies, daydreaming, watching the snowstorm ebb and flow outside, playing scrabble on the internet, looking up useless facts, checking my email, and occasionally reading over old ones. I found a gem of an email from this wonderful japanese guy i met in thailand, where, among other awesome things, he wrote:
"You have splendid sensitivity and good looks like a fairy"
how can a gal not be flattered by such compliments?
oh engrish.
oh asia...
Saturday, December 15, 2007
Thursday, December 13, 2007
bringin' back sweet memories...
so, i spent a good hour or two last night reading old emails from asia, up late and unable or unwilling to sleep. little bits of inspiration have come over me this week, probably because i finally have a bit of breathing room, what with classes over and my next exam not until monday. school simultaneously inspires and quashes inspiration; i am too busy for any thought-out-thoughts of my own, but also forced to devote myself to one topic for a length of time, which rarely happens when left to my own scattered and indecisive devices.
reading those emails brought a lot of things to the forefront. there was a lot of warm laughter, a lot of nostalgia, but also a lot of reality. distance makes the heart grow fonder, and often the sweetest memories are the ones i remember from traveling while i forget about the month of invalidity, of lying sweat-soaked on mysteriously stained sheets staring at dirty walls and dreading my next questionably sanitary meal, dreading my next violent bout of vomiting. and i forget those long days of loneliness when i would read book after book, write email after email, trying to fill the void where friends were lacking.
but the good memories are so very good. i feel like i don't have such good stories to tell here, because people - strange ones, boring ones, wild ones alike - simply don't reach out in the same way, and nor do i have the push to do so. i find it hard to reach out here, i find it hard to quickly match steps with someone, to relate. i also find myself turning a bit cold and hardened - perhaps it's all this snow. i was told that i recently seemed "bitter and not too friendly" towards a friend, and this has really made me think. this is not the person i want to be, and this is not how i was feeling at the time, despite outward appearances - in fact mostly i was feeling really happy to have a close friend around. but this is something i have recognised in myself lately: a sort of coldness directed towards the world, and a pendulum of emotions that come out as drastic ups and downs. i have been feeling something changed in me, some warmth is seeping out, perhaps because i don't have as many places to put it these days - only so much of your love can go to a single person, no matter how great that person is, and friendships are so important to me as a solid foundation for everything else.
i think what all this is pointing to is my need for a solid sense of groundedness. slowly but surely i am feeling more at home here, making small friendships here and there, but what is lacking is a commitment to this place. i think a lot lately about packing up my bags and flying off to some place or another again, to live that uncertain but ever-exciting life; and maybe i will, but i also feel the need for a change here, o an eventual return to my life in b.c., whether in vancouver or victoria, a return to that foundation of family and friends and those that are somewhere in between. or maybe just start trying harder to make that here, to get involved and be part of this place instead of feeling like a passer-through, a tumbleweed, a complete unknown with no direction home...
i wish i knew how to start that process in a meaningful way, and i wish i knew how to turn off this coldness that occasionally rears its head, but hey, life is for learning. i'm sure we all go through these phases of wondering where exactly our lives are at, where they are going, and what it all means anyway. oh life.
reading those emails brought a lot of things to the forefront. there was a lot of warm laughter, a lot of nostalgia, but also a lot of reality. distance makes the heart grow fonder, and often the sweetest memories are the ones i remember from traveling while i forget about the month of invalidity, of lying sweat-soaked on mysteriously stained sheets staring at dirty walls and dreading my next questionably sanitary meal, dreading my next violent bout of vomiting. and i forget those long days of loneliness when i would read book after book, write email after email, trying to fill the void where friends were lacking.
but the good memories are so very good. i feel like i don't have such good stories to tell here, because people - strange ones, boring ones, wild ones alike - simply don't reach out in the same way, and nor do i have the push to do so. i find it hard to reach out here, i find it hard to quickly match steps with someone, to relate. i also find myself turning a bit cold and hardened - perhaps it's all this snow. i was told that i recently seemed "bitter and not too friendly" towards a friend, and this has really made me think. this is not the person i want to be, and this is not how i was feeling at the time, despite outward appearances - in fact mostly i was feeling really happy to have a close friend around. but this is something i have recognised in myself lately: a sort of coldness directed towards the world, and a pendulum of emotions that come out as drastic ups and downs. i have been feeling something changed in me, some warmth is seeping out, perhaps because i don't have as many places to put it these days - only so much of your love can go to a single person, no matter how great that person is, and friendships are so important to me as a solid foundation for everything else.
i think what all this is pointing to is my need for a solid sense of groundedness. slowly but surely i am feeling more at home here, making small friendships here and there, but what is lacking is a commitment to this place. i think a lot lately about packing up my bags and flying off to some place or another again, to live that uncertain but ever-exciting life; and maybe i will, but i also feel the need for a change here, o an eventual return to my life in b.c., whether in vancouver or victoria, a return to that foundation of family and friends and those that are somewhere in between. or maybe just start trying harder to make that here, to get involved and be part of this place instead of feeling like a passer-through, a tumbleweed, a complete unknown with no direction home...
i wish i knew how to start that process in a meaningful way, and i wish i knew how to turn off this coldness that occasionally rears its head, but hey, life is for learning. i'm sure we all go through these phases of wondering where exactly our lives are at, where they are going, and what it all means anyway. oh life.
Sunday, December 09, 2007
holidays are made for reading and remember things that are worth repeating...
so, i'm here in the thick of final exams, staring furiously at this computer screen, my prison. trying to write a take home exam about globalization, markets and states in africa, about the human development paradigm and the informal sector and gender inequalities and displaced people and so much more, all fit nicely into twelve pages. how can i possibly be expected to understand all of these complex issues (each of which we spent three one hour classes on) into twelve pages? it is not that it isn't interesting - it is - but just that it's such a vast topic and i am such a small little person.
well, ok, i'm also just tired of doing homework, but seriously. university is so crazy - we are given so much information that we must absorb in under four months, and then we move on to the next topic. obviously there are themes that run along like little mountain streams between classes, but still. Inequality and Development, in 3000 words or less. Society and Environment. Health and Development. Global Earth Systems. How can i even begin to understand anything, and why do we all try so hard to do so? we are not very humble animals, are we?
and all i can think about today is how i bought my ticket to vancouver for december 24th and how, now that i have done it, i am overwhelmed with how much i want to be in B.C., even just for a short while. as i mentioned before, i saw my parents and sister for a few days in november and was overwhelmed with how good it was to see them. there is nothing like parental love of the unconditional kind, and i missed it, despite the many idiosyncrasies of our little family unit. and B.C., oh B.C... i've been thinking a lot about the ocean and about the mountains. it's beautiful here, much more beautiful in an urban way, but it is no match for vancouver when it comes to scenery. and i love living here, i feel totally invigorated by its alive-ness and the thousands of young people who all seem so involved in their community. but i think i've been so busy and so overwhelmed that i haven't spent too much time thinking about home. and now that i get to have a visit i can't stop thinking about it. close friends! homecooked meals! reading (fiction!) in front of the fireplace! no fear of freezing to death on the way to the grocery store!
well, what can i say, the grass is always greener. probably when i land in vancouver i will miss the nightlife, the row houses, the french language, the cheap beer in every corner store. all the things that make this place sooo montreal.
also, i will miss my matt, whose entire family now thinks i am the most cold-hearted witch of a girlfriend, leaving their matthew out in the cold eastern winter to brave the holidays alone. which i guess i kind of am, but we all gotta look out for ourselves, right? isn't that part of the whole christmas spirit thing?
hm. well, maybe what i am most looking forward to is being done with these pesky exams. speaking of which...
well, ok, i'm also just tired of doing homework, but seriously. university is so crazy - we are given so much information that we must absorb in under four months, and then we move on to the next topic. obviously there are themes that run along like little mountain streams between classes, but still. Inequality and Development, in 3000 words or less. Society and Environment. Health and Development. Global Earth Systems. How can i even begin to understand anything, and why do we all try so hard to do so? we are not very humble animals, are we?
and all i can think about today is how i bought my ticket to vancouver for december 24th and how, now that i have done it, i am overwhelmed with how much i want to be in B.C., even just for a short while. as i mentioned before, i saw my parents and sister for a few days in november and was overwhelmed with how good it was to see them. there is nothing like parental love of the unconditional kind, and i missed it, despite the many idiosyncrasies of our little family unit. and B.C., oh B.C... i've been thinking a lot about the ocean and about the mountains. it's beautiful here, much more beautiful in an urban way, but it is no match for vancouver when it comes to scenery. and i love living here, i feel totally invigorated by its alive-ness and the thousands of young people who all seem so involved in their community. but i think i've been so busy and so overwhelmed that i haven't spent too much time thinking about home. and now that i get to have a visit i can't stop thinking about it. close friends! homecooked meals! reading (fiction!) in front of the fireplace! no fear of freezing to death on the way to the grocery store!
well, what can i say, the grass is always greener. probably when i land in vancouver i will miss the nightlife, the row houses, the french language, the cheap beer in every corner store. all the things that make this place sooo montreal.
also, i will miss my matt, whose entire family now thinks i am the most cold-hearted witch of a girlfriend, leaving their matthew out in the cold eastern winter to brave the holidays alone. which i guess i kind of am, but we all gotta look out for ourselves, right? isn't that part of the whole christmas spirit thing?
hm. well, maybe what i am most looking forward to is being done with these pesky exams. speaking of which...
Wednesday, November 14, 2007
Friday, November 09, 2007
some more hard issues...
so, in light of some rather contentious debates in my last class, i just want to put this out there:
what do you think about the idea of moral relativism? do you think that it is wrong for we in the proverbial west to say: "hey, female genital mutilation is wrong!", or "stop killing women for the honor of your family" or "get that woman to a god-damned hospital before she gets fistula, yo!"
i mean, y'all probably know where i stand, but i'd like to know what everyone thinks. to me the idea that as a woman, as a person i can't say that doing something potentially devastating, brutal, violent against the will of another is wrong is infuriating.
a guy in my class today actually compared female genital circumcision to that of male circumcision - i can see his point in the fact that this is done without consent, but to compare a procedure that is done in adulthood and takes away any and all sexual pleasure for the rest of one's life to a procedure that, as far as i can see, is essentially aesthetic seems a bit stretched. but then, i've never been circumcised. anybody out there that has been: any thoughts? i think the part that riled me up was that his intention was not to point out agency but to say that we shouldn't judge or try to change another culture, because this is their choice.
to me this seems irrelevant - to my sensibilities it is NOT a cultural issue, it is an issue of agency, of power, of human rights. if there is a single woman out there who does not want this procedure, who does not want to give birth alone, who does not want to be killed for the honor of her family then it is an issue of equality and of choice.
the way i see it, if i were a young woman living at any period in the past when the only options open to me were marriage and motherhood i would want support in fighting this. i would want this support whether or not i chose to take advantage of new avenues open to me, whether i decided ultimately to commit my life to motherhood and marriage or to a career as a friggin' brain surgeon or astronaut. because equality is the main issue here.
i am feeling today a lot of what i often felt in india: this gap between fury and confusion; this gap between my tie to indian women through gender, and my inability to understand their circumstances because of differences in background, culture, class. but even just as a human there is a tie in the desire for choice; for the power to choose how one lives their life, who controls that life, who decides what does and doesn't happen, and the power to live a life free of subordination and violence.
does this make sense?
i know i've gotten in a lot of heated debates about this before: whether as so-called westerners we should stand up for issues that go against someone else's "culture". my stance has often been that perhaps our role is not so much to go out there and say "you're wrong, i'm right", but instead to be there for support of whoever may desire equal choice, equal treatment. do we have a role at all to play?
to me saying that we can't stand up for an issue because we are not involved is the same as saying that men shouldn't fight for women's rights because it is a woman's issue, that humans shouldn't defend animal rights because we can't possibly know what they want. but isn't it an equality issue instead, and an issue of violence? shouldn't we have the obligation to stop suffering? can we ever know whether someone is suffering if they don't tell us?
and what of inequalities here in canada? how much representation do we truly have in politics? how much do we make in comparison to men? and if there are indeed still institutional inequalities then who are we to go off to sub-saharan africa to change someone else's culture?
well, i'll leave you with that. there are a lot of different ideas battling it out in my brain, so let me know how you feel.
what do you think about the idea of moral relativism? do you think that it is wrong for we in the proverbial west to say: "hey, female genital mutilation is wrong!", or "stop killing women for the honor of your family" or "get that woman to a god-damned hospital before she gets fistula, yo!"
i mean, y'all probably know where i stand, but i'd like to know what everyone thinks. to me the idea that as a woman, as a person i can't say that doing something potentially devastating, brutal, violent against the will of another is wrong is infuriating.
a guy in my class today actually compared female genital circumcision to that of male circumcision - i can see his point in the fact that this is done without consent, but to compare a procedure that is done in adulthood and takes away any and all sexual pleasure for the rest of one's life to a procedure that, as far as i can see, is essentially aesthetic seems a bit stretched. but then, i've never been circumcised. anybody out there that has been: any thoughts? i think the part that riled me up was that his intention was not to point out agency but to say that we shouldn't judge or try to change another culture, because this is their choice.
to me this seems irrelevant - to my sensibilities it is NOT a cultural issue, it is an issue of agency, of power, of human rights. if there is a single woman out there who does not want this procedure, who does not want to give birth alone, who does not want to be killed for the honor of her family then it is an issue of equality and of choice.
the way i see it, if i were a young woman living at any period in the past when the only options open to me were marriage and motherhood i would want support in fighting this. i would want this support whether or not i chose to take advantage of new avenues open to me, whether i decided ultimately to commit my life to motherhood and marriage or to a career as a friggin' brain surgeon or astronaut. because equality is the main issue here.
i am feeling today a lot of what i often felt in india: this gap between fury and confusion; this gap between my tie to indian women through gender, and my inability to understand their circumstances because of differences in background, culture, class. but even just as a human there is a tie in the desire for choice; for the power to choose how one lives their life, who controls that life, who decides what does and doesn't happen, and the power to live a life free of subordination and violence.
does this make sense?
i know i've gotten in a lot of heated debates about this before: whether as so-called westerners we should stand up for issues that go against someone else's "culture". my stance has often been that perhaps our role is not so much to go out there and say "you're wrong, i'm right", but instead to be there for support of whoever may desire equal choice, equal treatment. do we have a role at all to play?
to me saying that we can't stand up for an issue because we are not involved is the same as saying that men shouldn't fight for women's rights because it is a woman's issue, that humans shouldn't defend animal rights because we can't possibly know what they want. but isn't it an equality issue instead, and an issue of violence? shouldn't we have the obligation to stop suffering? can we ever know whether someone is suffering if they don't tell us?
and what of inequalities here in canada? how much representation do we truly have in politics? how much do we make in comparison to men? and if there are indeed still institutional inequalities then who are we to go off to sub-saharan africa to change someone else's culture?
well, i'll leave you with that. there are a lot of different ideas battling it out in my brain, so let me know how you feel.
Thursday, November 08, 2007
what i'm learning at university...
today in class we discussed the grisly details of a maternal disease called fistula, a scarring and killing off of tissue around the pelvis because of obstructed and therefore grossly prolonged labor (ie a baby being forced against your pelvis) - usually more than 48 hours, sometimes up to 12 days. if this prospect isn't enough to turn you off motherhood, the actual effects of this condition are to create a permanent and constant condition of incontinence, urinary and anal; in other words a relentless stream of urine and feces coming out of you for the rest of your life. it can also cause something called "foot drop" where the deformity of your pelvis causes you to drag one foot. both of these symptoms usually result in a woman being disowned by her husband, sent back to her family and alienated by her entire community, often ending up as a beggar. Fistula is most common in girls under 16, since it is most likely to occur when the pelvis is not yet fully developed and therefore not big enough to fit a baby, and it will last indefinitely if not surgically remedied. it is not uncommon in girls as young as ten. this disorder is actually extremely rare in wealthy nations since a c-section can easily treat obstetric obstructions and thus prevent fistula from ever happening.
have i mentioned that my program is occasionally depressing? other bright topics this week were killings of women in pakistan by family members when they left abusive husbands, the long term and unforeseeable effects of carbon in the atmosphere, the huge ratio of men to women in many countries due to selective abortion and infanticide, the widespread chaos and destruction of ecosystems that exotic species are causing around the globe, germany under hitler, and the spread of multi-drug resistant tuberculosis as well as its prevalence among marginalized and impoverished groups.
is it any wonder i'm so cynical?
have i mentioned that my program is occasionally depressing? other bright topics this week were killings of women in pakistan by family members when they left abusive husbands, the long term and unforeseeable effects of carbon in the atmosphere, the huge ratio of men to women in many countries due to selective abortion and infanticide, the widespread chaos and destruction of ecosystems that exotic species are causing around the globe, germany under hitler, and the spread of multi-drug resistant tuberculosis as well as its prevalence among marginalized and impoverished groups.
is it any wonder i'm so cynical?
Monday, November 05, 2007
london, ontario
spent the weekend in london. ontario. it was one of those towns that feels oppressive in its shittiness, in its lack of life or community or culture, full of ghost-stores long abandoned and consistently bad restaurants. it was a pretty unpleasant place, but i got to spend the weekend with my family, including my 95 year old grandma. she is still looking good, though she is a little deaf which makes conversations tricky. ("HI GRANDMA, YOU LOOK NICE!!!" "Oh, no ice thank you dear") made me think a lot about getting old, and what it would (will?) be like. imagine being 95! she has no living siblings, her parents and husband are long gone, and of course most of her friends died a long time ago (but she still has all her teeth, as she will tell you). it seems so lonely to me, but i guess everyone has a desire to live, no matter what the circumstances. i wonder why? what is it about being alive that's so great? or perhaps conversely what is so frightening about death? will i accept my mortality by the time i'm that age? does anyone ever accept it?
ah well, i can't help but believe that it is unlikely i'll make it that far, what with the million different ways we've fucked up the planet.
ok, anyways, i'm done with the doom and gloom. onwards and upwards.
it was really nice to see my family over the weekend and it made me realize that i really miss the company of people i feel comfortable around. i've been so busy that i wasn't feeling it too much, but that warm fuzzy feeling of family was enough to make me very homesick (despite the usual madness that is the gray family together in one room). and not just homesick for close friendship but homesick for that feeling of being surrounded by people who know your history and understand your humor, your asides. i dunno, i think a lot of the time too my sadness is more for things in the past than for things at a geographical distance. being at university surrounded by undergrads makes me miss that excitement of my first time around, before i realized that i would indeed have to leave school at some point and that it wouldn't be pretty. i miss my rose-tinted glasses! where did they go??!!!
ah well, i can't help but believe that it is unlikely i'll make it that far, what with the million different ways we've fucked up the planet.
ok, anyways, i'm done with the doom and gloom. onwards and upwards.
it was really nice to see my family over the weekend and it made me realize that i really miss the company of people i feel comfortable around. i've been so busy that i wasn't feeling it too much, but that warm fuzzy feeling of family was enough to make me very homesick (despite the usual madness that is the gray family together in one room). and not just homesick for close friendship but homesick for that feeling of being surrounded by people who know your history and understand your humor, your asides. i dunno, i think a lot of the time too my sadness is more for things in the past than for things at a geographical distance. being at university surrounded by undergrads makes me miss that excitement of my first time around, before i realized that i would indeed have to leave school at some point and that it wouldn't be pretty. i miss my rose-tinted glasses! where did they go??!!!
Tuesday, October 23, 2007
scattered leaves don't lie
hmmm...autumn is so beautiful. we had two days of strangely warm weather - last night i biked home at 9 o'clock at night in a t-shirt...and i was too hot! but today is a rainy bc-esque kind of day. but then i'm trying not to be too happy about hot weather in late october; chances are it's not necessarily a good thing nor is it a sign of good things.
i think taking a diploma in the environment is exacerbating my anxiety problems. sometimes i wake up in the middle of the night in a panic, trying to catch my breath. i dream of environmental collapse, of world war, of resource wars, of panic and tidal waves and all such things.
but then i try to put things into perspective. we talked about other mass extinctions and the resilience of life in class. even if we destroy ourselves and most of life on earth, there will always be some extremophile who persists and from the chaos life will emerge again. isn't that lovely? it's reassuring in a way, though perhaps not for humanity. but life! it's such an amazing thing. the universe is creative! (sorry, i'm in the middle of midterms. i can only think in terms of concepts i'm learning. not that i really understand them)
anyways, i'm not sure i have a point. but then, nothing has a point, the only point to anything is life itself, the creation of life, the extension of life! yippeee!
i think taking a diploma in the environment is exacerbating my anxiety problems. sometimes i wake up in the middle of the night in a panic, trying to catch my breath. i dream of environmental collapse, of world war, of resource wars, of panic and tidal waves and all such things.
but then i try to put things into perspective. we talked about other mass extinctions and the resilience of life in class. even if we destroy ourselves and most of life on earth, there will always be some extremophile who persists and from the chaos life will emerge again. isn't that lovely? it's reassuring in a way, though perhaps not for humanity. but life! it's such an amazing thing. the universe is creative! (sorry, i'm in the middle of midterms. i can only think in terms of concepts i'm learning. not that i really understand them)
anyways, i'm not sure i have a point. but then, nothing has a point, the only point to anything is life itself, the creation of life, the extension of life! yippeee!
Thursday, September 27, 2007
so, jenya tells me it's time to tell you all whether i'm still alive and well.
and i am. i feel like i've been living in a time warp - i can't believe it's bloody sept. 27th today, a day that marks the almost-one-month mark since i left vancouver for the shivery shores of the saint laurent (well, not that shivery, it's been hot and humid almost constantly since i arrived). i am certainly in the thick of things already - i am working 10 to 15 hours a week, taking five classes, trying to furnish an almost-empty (though not so much anymore) house, trying to visit with a few old friends (well, who am i kidding, eric and isa are my only friends here) and occasionally trying to find time to spend with my partner in crime. (we see each other less living together than we did when living in different cities, i swear!)
so yah. i think i'm happy, but i haven't really had time to sit back and think about it. maybe that's a good thing; maybe busy-ness is the key to happiness, or at least the impression of happiness. but you'll know if yer on facebook (which is of course everyone in the modern world except perhaps jenya and natalie...ahem) that i am also desperately missing my home. even though we could learn a thing or two about nightlife, music and just general joie-de-vivre from the quebecois, there is certainly no view that i've ever seen like the one you get from almost any neighborhood in vancouver. i miss the mountains, (real ones, not the hill that is mount royal) i miss the ocean especially, and even more i miss the people. but that's inevitable; it comes with the territory.
that said, this city is fun. terribly, sinfully fun. on sunday we went to see the medieval times folks at mont royal park... and let me tell you, you don't even know the meaning of the word nerd until you've seen pimply quebec boys, men and geriatrics dressed up in pseudo-medieval outfits (more like samurai/robin hood/god-awful-raver-from-the-nineties/gandhi) poking at each other with duct tape-covered weaponry and home-decorated carboard shields in front of a large portion of one of the most hip cosmopolitan cities in north america.
it was fucking awesome.
and of course there is the drinking. i've done a lot of drinking here, sometimes in dark hipster bars, sometimes in hostile francophone-only dives, and on saturday in some sort of mad metal-head nightclub. the latter was complete with a separate darkened room full of strutting big-boned men dressed all in black shoving and strutting together in some sort of bizarre metal-head mating ritual.
anyways, this town is keeping me busy.
and i am. i feel like i've been living in a time warp - i can't believe it's bloody sept. 27th today, a day that marks the almost-one-month mark since i left vancouver for the shivery shores of the saint laurent (well, not that shivery, it's been hot and humid almost constantly since i arrived). i am certainly in the thick of things already - i am working 10 to 15 hours a week, taking five classes, trying to furnish an almost-empty (though not so much anymore) house, trying to visit with a few old friends (well, who am i kidding, eric and isa are my only friends here) and occasionally trying to find time to spend with my partner in crime. (we see each other less living together than we did when living in different cities, i swear!)
so yah. i think i'm happy, but i haven't really had time to sit back and think about it. maybe that's a good thing; maybe busy-ness is the key to happiness, or at least the impression of happiness. but you'll know if yer on facebook (which is of course everyone in the modern world except perhaps jenya and natalie...ahem) that i am also desperately missing my home. even though we could learn a thing or two about nightlife, music and just general joie-de-vivre from the quebecois, there is certainly no view that i've ever seen like the one you get from almost any neighborhood in vancouver. i miss the mountains, (real ones, not the hill that is mount royal) i miss the ocean especially, and even more i miss the people. but that's inevitable; it comes with the territory.
that said, this city is fun. terribly, sinfully fun. on sunday we went to see the medieval times folks at mont royal park... and let me tell you, you don't even know the meaning of the word nerd until you've seen pimply quebec boys, men and geriatrics dressed up in pseudo-medieval outfits (more like samurai/robin hood/god-awful-raver-from-the-nineties/gandhi) poking at each other with duct tape-covered weaponry and home-decorated carboard shields in front of a large portion of one of the most hip cosmopolitan cities in north america.
it was fucking awesome.
and of course there is the drinking. i've done a lot of drinking here, sometimes in dark hipster bars, sometimes in hostile francophone-only dives, and on saturday in some sort of mad metal-head nightclub. the latter was complete with a separate darkened room full of strutting big-boned men dressed all in black shoving and strutting together in some sort of bizarre metal-head mating ritual.
anyways, this town is keeping me busy.
Wednesday, July 18, 2007
well, it looks like i'll be going to montreal, for better or for worse. it's funny; i thought that once i'd made some sort of decsion then all this stress and anxiety would go away, but it seems only to be getting worse. now that i know i am (probably...) going, i am starting to look at the logistics, costs and bureaucracy that will be involved. yuck.
but i suppose once school begins, once i have a place to live, once i can actually live in the present again then i will (hopefully?) calm back down. (although that implies that i have some semblance of calm to return to...)
oh woe.
on that note, anybody else up for a move across the country?
but i suppose once school begins, once i have a place to live, once i can actually live in the present again then i will (hopefully?) calm back down. (although that implies that i have some semblance of calm to return to...)
oh woe.
on that note, anybody else up for a move across the country?
Friday, June 08, 2007
oats and beans and barley grow
Well, all that talk of food and farming inspired me to start something new, something related to food and farming. So I've started this internship at the UBC farm that has proved, so far, to be fantastic. Free education, dirty fingernails, strawberries off the vine, and even a genuine farmer's tan. (farmer's freckle line?) It has also proved that I am indeed the Commercial Drive type - but I'm beginning to think that that is not such a terrible insult. Perhaps only a minor one...
Anyways, I digress. I'm doing a program called "rooted" which involves lectures, a fair amount of volunteering, education in organic farming and sustainable food politics, readings, and did i mention dirt under my fingernails? Apparently after all those years of refusing to help my parents in their extensive beautiful garden I have inadvertantly come to admire and desire the ability and knowledge to grow stuff. Especially edible stuff.
So I've spent a few of the past tuesdays hoeing rows, weeding peas and teenie-tiny carrots, planting infinite (and i mean infinite) heads of cabbage. Sometimes there are eagles, and apparently the occasional coyote is spotted. Soon I'll be helping at the saturday market, and perhaps if i'm lucky I'll get to play with the chickens.
Anyways, I thought i'd leave y'all with an interesting tidbit about the farm: It is the only working farm in North America located within city limits, and it is also estimated to be one of the most expensive farms ever. The farm makes an approximate sum of 75 000 dollars a year while the property is estimated to be worth somewhere between 300 and 800 million dollars.
if yer curiosity has been sparked then check it out at: http://www.landfood.ubc.ca/ubcfarm/
Anyways, I digress. I'm doing a program called "rooted" which involves lectures, a fair amount of volunteering, education in organic farming and sustainable food politics, readings, and did i mention dirt under my fingernails? Apparently after all those years of refusing to help my parents in their extensive beautiful garden I have inadvertantly come to admire and desire the ability and knowledge to grow stuff. Especially edible stuff.
So I've spent a few of the past tuesdays hoeing rows, weeding peas and teenie-tiny carrots, planting infinite (and i mean infinite) heads of cabbage. Sometimes there are eagles, and apparently the occasional coyote is spotted. Soon I'll be helping at the saturday market, and perhaps if i'm lucky I'll get to play with the chickens.
Anyways, I thought i'd leave y'all with an interesting tidbit about the farm: It is the only working farm in North America located within city limits, and it is also estimated to be one of the most expensive farms ever. The farm makes an approximate sum of 75 000 dollars a year while the property is estimated to be worth somewhere between 300 and 800 million dollars.
if yer curiosity has been sparked then check it out at: http://www.landfood.ubc.ca/ubcfarm/
Tuesday, May 15, 2007
100 miles from nowhere
Vanessa and I went to see a really interesting talk last night with the authors of The 100 Mile Diet, two crazy cats who decided to try to eat locally, within a hundred mile radius from vancouver, for an entire year. I've been reading quite a few articles about these folks and they appear to be getting a lot of attention. They certainly had a captive audience yesterday.
I realized after having a long and rather silly argument last night about food habits, food politics, food security and food's future that food is something that I feel strongly about. I think a lot of people do, and I think this accounts for the incredible interest shown for the 100 mile diet. Something that struck a chord at the talk was that the authors mentioned suddenly having this never-before-experienced trust in their food, a result of seeing and understanding for the first time where their food was coming from and all the things that happened to it before reaching their plate. They explained that they had never before realized the extent to which they DIDN'T trust their food before.
This is something I have been feeling increasingly in the last while - an utter distrust verging on paranoia whenever I step into a grocery store. I sometimes wander continuously up and down the aisles without putting anything into my basket. "where does this come from? how many chemicals are in/on this? how many chemicals were pumped into the ground/ocean/sky to produce this? how many times has this been processed? how much nutritional value is left? how ethical is it to buy this product? and can i afford the ethical alternative? oh i give up, i'm going home."
It seemed so much easier when I was a vegan. I felt good about my food choices and about eating because everything seemed like a conscious ethical choice. I realize now that though I didn't consume animal products I still ate a lot of food whose environmental and social ethics were questionable. Now I eat eggs, I eat dairy, and I no longer have a set of rules that guide my food choices. I allow myself to often buy the cheaper non-organic cheeses, the non-organic milk, the chemical-laden produce. But I usually don't feel great about it, and I find myself lately spending more and more time at the ridiculously overpriced all-organic grocery store.
So what is the solution? I know that I personally will probably continue to buy mainly organic indefinitely, but that on my current budget it is perhaps not the smartest financial move. But the thought of eating in constant fear that my food is filled with carcinogens, that my food is unethical, that my food is a major pollutant, that my food is sometimes even cruel is also untenable for me.
One incredible story told at the 100 mile talk was in relation to the dungeness crab, a creature that is apparently native to this area and that is shipped across the world to china to be shelled and then shipped back to canada to be sold. This story left the audience fairly slackjawed, but i think there was also an overwhelming feeling of resignation in the room; a sense that this is all too possible a story. The world trade system seems to be one unbelievable story of common sense overpowered by profit after another. A truck full of carrots, for example, that travels across the continent only to be passed by another truck full of carrots coming from the first truck's destination and heading for that first truck's native place. Stories of local produce rotting on shelves because the same produce shipped from across the world is selling for a subsidized and totally unmatchable price. Local dairies in Jamaica going under because powdered milk (lacking so much in nutrition) is being sold for a fraction of the price. Where is the common sense, where is the concern for our environment, and where is the concern for one's local economy? Where is the sense of community?
And, as James and Alisa mentioned, where is the flavor? Where is the nutritional value? I have been flipping through a book called, rather apocalyptically, The End of Food. It mentions a number of statistics that essentially say that all the typical grocery fare that we consume has lost an average of 25 to 75 percent of its nutritional value, and almost all of it has gained only fat and salt. I'm not sure exactly where it has all gone but I guess the idea is that it has been bred out of most products in order to create produce and animal products that last last last through the thousands of miles they have to travel before being sold. And the authors continuously mentioned the fact that though this diet was difficult the rewards in terms of flavor and health were utterly worth it. Matt and I took a trip to the winter farmer's market a few weeks back and I can definitely attest to the fact that that local food was amazing. I brought home a tiny bunch of kale and collards that were the most amazingly delicious snack i may have ever eaten. I also had the fortune last summer of staying on an organic farm in Sooke for a few days where we were fed nothing but food from the garden. After spending a few hours weeding I was summoned for lunch in a homemade circular cob structure with beautiful glass windows and built-in benches, and the food, mainly freshly picked vegetables, was flavored only with a bit of oil and vinegar. So delicious. And I knew exactly where it had all come from, how it had been grown and even who had grown and picked it. Certainly no distrust involved with that meal. As James put it eloquently at the end of their talk, a year of local eating made their meals stories. So nice.
anyways, i'm sure none of this stuff is new to most of you that might be reading this, but i just thought it was all a lot of good food for thought, if you will.
heh.
I realized after having a long and rather silly argument last night about food habits, food politics, food security and food's future that food is something that I feel strongly about. I think a lot of people do, and I think this accounts for the incredible interest shown for the 100 mile diet. Something that struck a chord at the talk was that the authors mentioned suddenly having this never-before-experienced trust in their food, a result of seeing and understanding for the first time where their food was coming from and all the things that happened to it before reaching their plate. They explained that they had never before realized the extent to which they DIDN'T trust their food before.
This is something I have been feeling increasingly in the last while - an utter distrust verging on paranoia whenever I step into a grocery store. I sometimes wander continuously up and down the aisles without putting anything into my basket. "where does this come from? how many chemicals are in/on this? how many chemicals were pumped into the ground/ocean/sky to produce this? how many times has this been processed? how much nutritional value is left? how ethical is it to buy this product? and can i afford the ethical alternative? oh i give up, i'm going home."
It seemed so much easier when I was a vegan. I felt good about my food choices and about eating because everything seemed like a conscious ethical choice. I realize now that though I didn't consume animal products I still ate a lot of food whose environmental and social ethics were questionable. Now I eat eggs, I eat dairy, and I no longer have a set of rules that guide my food choices. I allow myself to often buy the cheaper non-organic cheeses, the non-organic milk, the chemical-laden produce. But I usually don't feel great about it, and I find myself lately spending more and more time at the ridiculously overpriced all-organic grocery store.
So what is the solution? I know that I personally will probably continue to buy mainly organic indefinitely, but that on my current budget it is perhaps not the smartest financial move. But the thought of eating in constant fear that my food is filled with carcinogens, that my food is unethical, that my food is a major pollutant, that my food is sometimes even cruel is also untenable for me.
One incredible story told at the 100 mile talk was in relation to the dungeness crab, a creature that is apparently native to this area and that is shipped across the world to china to be shelled and then shipped back to canada to be sold. This story left the audience fairly slackjawed, but i think there was also an overwhelming feeling of resignation in the room; a sense that this is all too possible a story. The world trade system seems to be one unbelievable story of common sense overpowered by profit after another. A truck full of carrots, for example, that travels across the continent only to be passed by another truck full of carrots coming from the first truck's destination and heading for that first truck's native place. Stories of local produce rotting on shelves because the same produce shipped from across the world is selling for a subsidized and totally unmatchable price. Local dairies in Jamaica going under because powdered milk (lacking so much in nutrition) is being sold for a fraction of the price. Where is the common sense, where is the concern for our environment, and where is the concern for one's local economy? Where is the sense of community?
And, as James and Alisa mentioned, where is the flavor? Where is the nutritional value? I have been flipping through a book called, rather apocalyptically, The End of Food. It mentions a number of statistics that essentially say that all the typical grocery fare that we consume has lost an average of 25 to 75 percent of its nutritional value, and almost all of it has gained only fat and salt. I'm not sure exactly where it has all gone but I guess the idea is that it has been bred out of most products in order to create produce and animal products that last last last through the thousands of miles they have to travel before being sold. And the authors continuously mentioned the fact that though this diet was difficult the rewards in terms of flavor and health were utterly worth it. Matt and I took a trip to the winter farmer's market a few weeks back and I can definitely attest to the fact that that local food was amazing. I brought home a tiny bunch of kale and collards that were the most amazingly delicious snack i may have ever eaten. I also had the fortune last summer of staying on an organic farm in Sooke for a few days where we were fed nothing but food from the garden. After spending a few hours weeding I was summoned for lunch in a homemade circular cob structure with beautiful glass windows and built-in benches, and the food, mainly freshly picked vegetables, was flavored only with a bit of oil and vinegar. So delicious. And I knew exactly where it had all come from, how it had been grown and even who had grown and picked it. Certainly no distrust involved with that meal. As James put it eloquently at the end of their talk, a year of local eating made their meals stories. So nice.
anyways, i'm sure none of this stuff is new to most of you that might be reading this, but i just thought it was all a lot of good food for thought, if you will.
heh.
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