Won't You Be My Neighbor~

WOW World Neighbor's, as read in chapter 33, is doing really great things...and I've never heard of them! One of my favorite things they do is an environmental piece and the belief that "sustainable development is a process that local people themselves must lead."
(pg 710).


It makes sense, if the community members don't have their hands in it, how can they be invested enough in it to continue to make it work beyond implementation. One of the best classes I ever took was Crimes Against the Environment in the criminology dept. at USM. I learned so much about our planet and our own accountability in the sustainability of our earth. I really took for granted so much, one of the easiest things we can do is to put everything that plugs into regular outlets on power strips.

You keep the strip off when you aren't using for instance a lamp, and you will see your power bill go down. When I started doing this I bought four $5 power strips at the evil "W" (Walmart, which is an oxymoron in trying to live protecting the planet and so many other levels that I can't get into right now), anyway in the first month I saw my bill go down $10 and the next month even more as I got into the habit of using them and making sure they were off when I wasn't using the lamp etc. The strips paid for themselves within three months! The trick is making using them and turning that red switch off a habit. Give it a shot and remember that human's generally need at least a month to form habits, or routines that are new, even those that are positive!

Another aspect that caught my eye was on pg 720 where they talk about holistic programming. As a massage therapist I practice my work with clients with a holistic mindset.










For example, the client as a whole person is addressed and not just the injury they come in with. When the individual and all aspects of their sustainability are focused on, a successful outcome is achieved. This takes effort, the individual or community members have to be actively involved in the process. I have massage clients who never change anything about their lives that would better it including their mental and physical health. Some have back problems and weight issues, some have alcoholism in their family. While it's hard to watch people hurting themselves and not be able to fix it, for that hour they are with me they are practicing holistic well-being and that means a whole lot.

Three to four years ago, I was a lot tamer about all of this planetary and holistic well-being sustainability stuff. I knew a lot, but I wasn't very invested in implementing any big changes for my own life. Now, I have a long way to go to embody all that I want for myself and my family but it's about the journey...and I'm diggin it!

Shameless self plug:
https://sites.google.com/site/akneadedsolution/

World Neighbors on the web:
http://www.wn.org/site/c.buITJ7NRKsLaG/b.6248395/k.651C/World_Neighbors_Home.htm
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cl2HbtjQQqk

Holistic Massage info:
http://www.massagetherapy.com/articles/index.php/article_id/1830/Dimensions-of-Holistic-Massage

Save the planet and your pocket:
http://www.thedailygreen.com/green-homes/latest/power-strips-for-chargers#slide-15

Flic "Walmart: The High Cost of Low Prices"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jazb24Q2s94

Room For One More

On my soap box today so tread with caution :)
Chapters 28-31 reach beyond our borders in the U.S. and speak about global issues. As I started to dive in, the immigration debate came into mind. I believe we are all one, it's one world, one globe. Yes, we have differences across man-made borders and natural made waterways but fundamentally we all need to breathe in clean oxygen, we all need enough nourishment, we all need adequate housing, we all need each other to come full circle on what it is we need. When people talk about shutting out immigrants and or refugee's, it worries me for the global picture of poverty. I mean the government shut down down for what amounts to not very long and that affected a whole lot of people! Some people come here because they have a much greater chance of dying where they are. Let's say our country decides that's it, no more outsiders from wherever for any given amount of time. An unfortunate chain of events happens here and we need help, who would help us? We, the United States who stand united in not helping others out? It's sort of like holding the smoking gun, telling someone they have to be where they are and risk death solely because of where they were born. Some people don't think we can help anyone else because we aren't helping enough of "our own" when really, this is a stolen country, so who the heck is "our own?" Imagine this country putting up a huge fence that went from the the northern border of Minnesota to the southern tip of Louisiana. and only the top 15% (thought I'd offer a generous percentage) of incomes were allowed on one side, the rest on the other. I can imagine it. Some families would be broken up, they didn't make it in time to cross over or they had family members that didn't meet that 15%. Fast forward and those on the 15% side are doing awesome, they have everything they need, they systematically strip the other side for it's resources like food and clothing, so they don't have to work for them. They were letting "certain people" across the fence but have decided to stop. Now the other side is very unsafe most places, disease spreads, etc. etc. until this begins to trickle into the 15% side. There aren't enough able bodied, able minded people left to keep up with the demands the 15% side has, it could have been avoided...hmmmm sounds familiar.

The problem is that global poverty on all levels could be extinguished but it's not. Pg 620 talks about how money transfers make a difference, they improve communities on multiple levels, yet a large portion of the population wants to tighten the handcuffs on poverty stricken communities by encouraging less than adequate available services. There aren't enough law makers out there who are invested in global issues. We need a viable planet to live on first. Our natural resources are being poisoned, stripped, depleted, extinguished forever. For a species that gives little attention to the seemingly not so critical issue of the health of our planet, how could I expect much more when it comes to humans? Soils that once provided income for poor farmers are useless now. Water that once provided hydration for poor families is toxic. We all contribute to that, through products we buy and the waste we produce as we over consume etc. More people doing well=a healthier global society.

Cancer and Meat Consumption, Book:
http://www.aicr.org/about/advocacy/the-china-study.html
Meat Production and Greenhouse Gases:
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=the-greenhouse-hamburger
Global Planetary Crisis: An Inconvenient Truth
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xLvK5bbNd7E
On Curing Global Poverty:
http://www.trueactivist.com/worlds-100-richest-could-end-global-poverty-4-times-over/