See on Scoop.it – The Cultural & Economic Landscapes
Retailers won’t disclose how much money they’re getting from SNAP. Why not?
The entire SNAP or food stamps system is becoming more of a disgrace. This article just adds to the outrageousness of it.
See on www.motherjones.com
See on Scoop.it – Global Evolution: Will we be in time?
M. Sanjayan, a host of Showtime’s new series on climate change, talks about almost dying on set, telling the stories behind science, and the new face of global warming.
According to this scientist, we are too late to stop global warming. Climate change is already part of our present day world.
See on grist.org
See on Scoop.it – The Cultural & Economic Landscapes
The worst accident in Everest’s history underscores an unfortunate reality: ascents have gotten safer for Westerners, but not for Sherpas.
The tragedy on the recent Mount Everest climb injured nine. I addition, it took the lives of sixteen Nepali guides.
"Although many news reports indicated that all the victims were Sherpas, the legendary mountain people who comprise just half of one per cent of the Nepali population, three of the sixteen were members of other, much larger ethnic groups: one was Gurung, one was Tamang, and one was a member of the Hindu Chhetri caste.
All, however, were employed as high-altitude climbing sherpas, with a lowercase “s”—an élite profession that deservedly commands respect and admiration from mountaineers around the world."
See on www.newyorker.com
Back to Basics has become a necessity for many of us. For some it may be a trend, a fad, even an adventure. It is all of those. But at the same time, it is an imperative for those of us who:
• Need to simplify our lives
• Become healthy
• Live a green life
• Live naturally
• Relax
• Practice thriftiness
What started out as a project called, The Middle Class Poor and Resources for the Middle Class Poor, is evolving into a whole lifestyle, Back to Basics.
Let’s examine each of the above points to get a better understanding of the Back to Basics Movement.
• Need to simplify our lives
One need look no further than the skyline to see the proliferation of self-storage facilities. We have so much stuff. How much stuff do we need? How many cars? televisions? Internet devices?
How many of us have gone into debt, maxing our credit cards, to have the things that we keep consuming to fill the hole inside us?
• Become healthy
We are a nation of sick people. We have been led to believe that disease is inevitable. We are committed to a deteriorating life-style as we age until the point that we die an unnatural death.
Disease is not our birthright. Wellness is.
• Live a green life
We suffer from allergies. We can’t breathe. We get headaches. These have become the norm. They are not normal. Due to all the chemicals and toxins in the air and in the food we eat, we are being poisoned. Our very immune systems are being compromised.
• Live naturally
How great it would be to live free of allergies, breathing difficulties, headaches, other symptoms and illnesses. Imagine that as well as not having to take a cabinet full of medicines for these ailments. Living more naturally can go a long way in helping to bring this about.
• Relax
Our lives are very stressful. We work longer and harder than ever before. We have tremendous financial pressures. We have lost the ability to just be. We are always having to do something.
• Practice thriftiness
Increasing numbers of people are having to be very thrifty. In addition, the number of people who need government assistance are employed. But the money earned is not enough to live. We need to be thrifty, very thrifty.
The intention of going Back to Basics is to recapture something good that we have lost while seeking more. We need to surrender the glut, greed and self-destruction. It requires letting go of the baggage that weighs us down by literally and figuratively. We live lives based on immediate gratification and ‘gimme-gimme-gimme’. The idea is to regain a good life, a really good life. Slow down. Get back to basics and let’s see what happens. The results may be very pleasantly surprising.
The invitation reads:
“Dear Friends,
It gives me great pride to invite you to join us for the “Women of the World” Art Exhibition on Wednesday February 26th at 6pm in the Theodore Roosevelt Executive & Legislative Building (located at 1550 Franklin Avenue in Mineola, New York). This FREE event will feature over 50 of Long Island’s most distinguished female artists and photographers in efforts to spread awareness for the arts.
During the event, entrants, selected by event curator Jill Rader Levine, will be judged by industry experts and academic professionals in two categories, fine arts and photography. Judges will include prominent members of the art community with winners in each category receiving prizes.
This event will serve as an opportunity for the community to enjoy the evening together as well as enjoy fine art and photography reflective of the great talent available here on Long Island.
Light fare and beverages will be served”.
Event logo designed by Elizabeth Cassidy – one of the exhibitors.
Music by Chuck Idol
There has been a great deal of noise in the news lately about food related issues. From state battles over GMO food labeling to the most recent debate over deer population “culling” on the East End of Long Island, one can become very confused about what to think, what to do and what to eat.
Deciding what one believes in is much easier as an intellectual exercise. It takes on a whole new meaning when it is a matter of hunger. In the case of GMO foods, for those who believe that genetic modification is dangerous, of course one wants food labeled so it can be avoided. But what if non-GMO food is too expensive and beyond ones budget?
In addition, we keeping hearing that the number of hungry and needy people keeps growing. Statistics show that the face of food stamp recipients has changed. The majority has shifted from the elderly to working age folks who can not make ends meet.
We are part of both the new demographic and the old demographic of hungry people. We have had our food stamps slashed to 5% of our original monthly benefit. The immediate result of that was that we had to turn to the food pantries. I have never seen food pantry packaging indicating whether or not the contents contain genetically modified food. I suppose I am consuming GMO food. So I ‘bless it’ before I eat it. Not only that, it is actually already blessed. The mere fact that someone has donated it so that I can eat is a blessing.
What about the latest news about shooting some deer or culling the deer population as it is called? The East End of Long Island is overrun with deer. They eat vegetation on people’s property. They ignore the boundaries that man has set for what is his and what is theirs. They are also disease infested. But they are regal as bucks and does. They are adorable as fawns. How can we justify killing them? It is inhumane or is it more human than many realize? Nature keeps a balance when left to its own devices. When we take actions that ignore or destroy the balance, something has to be done to rebalance it. In this case, it is called ‘Deer Management’.
I see no point in sterilizing the males. Contrary to my liberal, formerly ‘New Age’ thinking, I am now a pragmatist. I believe there are two very good reasons for choosing deer population culling:
1. The food is needed by the growing number of hungry people including myself.
2. We need to trim down the deer over-population since other methods are not working or being introduced.
If things go as planned, sharpshooters will be brought in from the Department of Environmental Conservation to carry out the deer population culling. The deer meat will be donated to Island Harvest and if I am lucky enough, my food pantry will receive it. I will get to have some of it. I was introduced to elk earlier this year. It will be interesting to see how deer meat tastes now since I have not had it for about 25 years.
thoughtshaker.com
Have I compromised my beliefs? Do I think GMO food is as healthy as non-GMO food? Do I no longer care about wildlife protection? The answer to all these questions is NO. So what has happened to my optimistically liberal perspective? I became one of The Middle Class Poor, the hungry Middle Class Poor and I am grateful for the blessed food I receive. It may not be up to my ‘preferred standards’. But when one gets hungry, one is grateful to eat.
Phil Collins – Take me home live
I spend a great deal of time curating very serious topics and issues. Sometimes it becomes very depressing. What is the anti-dote for this? I decided it is to make a joyful noise in the world, now.
So today’s blog post is about fun, whimsical, joyful things I like to do on social media. I did not even realize how much I needing this healing medicine to soothe the pain of life and the misery in the world. But a new facebook group, called Best World Music woke me up and got me smiling. Not everyone posts music I know or like. It doesn’t matter. I learn about new songs and groups from all over the world, thanks to Sasa Dobrijevic, it’s founder and contributing member, from Serbia.
I have also had the opportunity to focus on something that gives me enormous joy, music itself. I rarely listen to music. My wonderful Bose Radio/CD player is about 20 years old. It skips, the CDs often do not play and there is not a single radio station that I enjoy listening to for very long. Thanks to Best World Music, the famine is over. I can listen to other peoples suggested music, post my favorites and listen to them. In addition, I am making new friends from this group. We all share a happy common interest.
Another of my passions is architectural history. One of my favorite periods is The Gilded Age and the stories of the people and Mansions of the Gilded Age.
Thanks again to another existing facebook friend, Michael Carl Tanner, and several new friends I am having great fun walking down memory lane and discovering all kinds of new architectural and social wonders of the period.
Then there is my piece de resistance, purple food. Yes it does exist and this specific kind is from a yam native to the Philipines. It is known as ube. I had discovered ube in powder form in an Asian Market. I love to explore and try things I have never seen before. The powder sat in my cabinet for sometime. But when I finally got around to concocting my own version of the package recipe, I devoured the entire thing. I sought an expert, Jun Belen on this magnificent purple food. Much to my delight he had an entire blog post with photos of my beloved ube desserts.
Indigenous crafts may ultimately be all that survive of many cultural traditions. As I discussed in my last blog post Can Indigenous Societies Survive?, Indigenous Societies are in peril. In researching the photos to use in this post, I was struck by the amazing beauty in the everyday lives of Indigenous peoples.
I did not see art as we know Art, the kind that hangs in museums that can’t be touched. I saw creativity and extraordinary beauty in things that related to their everyday lives in Indigenous Crafts. Since I did not focus on this in my other blog post, I would remiss not to emphasize it here.
It is apparent from these photos that the people take great pride in their creativity. They may not see art as we do but they clearly express talents that must be preserved. They appreciate and make things of beauty as part of their daily lives; such as a horse with blue eyes and the set up for making their cheese. Their crafts speak to their cultures, to what is important to them and what they treasure in their lives.
I realized this when I saw the picture of a horse’s saddle created by someone from the Mongolian Nomads. These photos are part of a photo essay about the Mongolian Nomads made by Taylor Weidman done for the Global Oneness Project.
The feature photo at the beginning of this post and the one at the end are from a story by Unnikrishnan Raveendranathan. They demonstrate the craft of basket weaving. It is a lost art that has been revived, in this case by Edward Willie, so that he could teach it to his daughter. He also said, “I teach weaving to others so that I can share the connection to the earth that it gives us.”
Indigenous cultures and their crafts are what connect all of us to the earth. This is why we treasure them even as our technology destroys their way of life. Noam Chomsky said it best in this quote, “It’s pretty ironic that the so-called ‘least advanced’ people are the ones taking the lead in trying to protect all of us, while the richest and most powerful among us are the ones who are trying to drive the society to destruction.”
The irony is that as we destroy the cultures of the Indigenous peoples, we grow to treasure their art. We stick it in museums or buy it at great cost at auction. Somehow that is how we ‘technologically advanced’ peoples know how to appreciate nature’s beauty. We put it in cages, we hang it on walls, we frame it in museums. We bemoan the loss of these Indigenous Societies but only know how to keep them alive through their Indigenous Crafts.
I have done a fair amount of research on Indigenous Societies around the world. They fascinate me. Most Indigenous Societies that still exist seem to be in peril. I wonder, ‘how much longer can they survive’?
Many of the stories I have read are from The Global Oneness Project. Amazingly brave and talented artists, photographers and writers travel throughout the world to study Indigenous Peoples. Their stories and the photos taken may become the last tangible proof that Indigenous Societies still exist somewhere on the planet. It seems that only in the remotes places where nature fortifies its children against invasion do societies continue intact. This is the case with the Mustangs, monks living in an isolated corner of Nepal surrounded by high mountains which separate and protect them from the outside world.
About I month ago, I saw a video about the history of GMOs, based on the book Seeds of Deception. It made me so depressed I had to find a new focus for the Global Food rEvolution. I started to turn the corner when today I read about a new approach to crop production. It very much reaffirms my commitment to a future where Mother Nature triumphs over man made deadly GMOs.
The venture, named BioAg Alliance will “use microbes and fungi to enhance crop growth and yield, help with pest resistance, and reduce inputs like water. Monsanto paid Novozymes $300 million to partner in this ‘game changing’ venture. Monsanto will do marketing and field testing. Novozymes will do the manufacturing.” K. McDonald, Monsanto Going Green: Using Bacteria and Fungi to Increase Crop Yields and Lower Inputs
I am not naive enough to expect perfection. But like many people, I feel a sense of hope that at least we are not doomed to a death by consuming food consisting of nothing but genetically modified organisms. I do not know what dollars deal made Monsanto willing to change colors. But I do understand the sense of it.
Although Monsanto has received almost unanimous government support or lack of opposition due to lobbying and other enticements, there is tremendous opposition amongst the people. There have been huge public protests flooding the Internet. None were mentioned on the major TV networks due to collusion between corporate giants. But globally, there is a refusal to accept American exports due to GMO contamination. Apparently other countries have already realized what the US government and agricultural giants are just waking up to. GMOs are deadly.
The groundswell can no longer be held at bay. To see a change of heart, or at least wallet, to a greener approach restores hope and faith that Mother Nature triumphs to the good of all.
