post #3

welcome back.

so i have been spending lots of time recently thinking about my upcoming trip to honduras and belize. i leave on monday, august 13th and come back at some point (i don’t really know what the date is: is that bad??). being the super-efficient-traveling-packer that i am, i usually spend time thinking about what bag i am going to pack for the given trip, which clothes/items i want to bring, how much of each item i want to bring, and whether or not it will all fit. i think this activity, which i HIGHLY love, stems from my childhood love affair with tetris. at one point in middle school, i was so obsessed with tetris that when i slept at night, i use to see how the different 4-blocked shapes could fit into each other in a continuing set of frames where the game would go on and on and on and on… it became so frustrating that i couldn’t get the thought out of my head that i had to actually kick the habit, drop the game, and move on with my simple life. to this day, i still wish that i had been entered in some sort of international tetris championship that based its qualifying marks and standards on which competitors’ highest levels achieved, and not based on points. i always advanced to high levels, but my scores would not always be as high as other tetris-ites.

and i digress…

with packing ahead, i figured that i would share with you all of you about my trip, why it is going to be awesome, about the cause, and what YOU can do to help. after all… a significant characteristic of the world we live in now is the power of an individual. everyone can help, and you could help after reading this entry.

my trip to honduras/belize at the end of the summer will fall under the category of VOLUNTOURISM. if you haven’t heard of it, you can probably take a guess at what it aims to combine: volunteering + tourism. this trendy, helpful, experience is becoming more popular, especially amongst all age groups (kiddies to middies to seniors). we (ashley, me, and many others) are going with the organization SUSTAINABLE HARVEST INTERNATIONAL (SHI), which aims to “build a global network of local partners working toward environmental, economic, and social sustainability… SHI facilitates long-term collaboration among trained local staff, farmers, and communities to implement sustainable land-use practices that alleviate poverty by restoring ecological stability.”

bad-ass, i know.

in honduras, a group of about 15 will be working to build a demo-farm that will promote sustainable farming, help build a sturdy farm-stand to sell what they grow, and really anything else necessary to get these locals set up to grow environmentally safe/efficient, while also helping to boost the local economy. it will be some good, difficult, and fun work down there.

so anyway, this gets me on my thought: this type of vacation/service is becoming more popular, especially among people with money. because when it boils down to it, only people with some sort of money can afford to travel/vacation anyways… so what better way to do it than to to combine seeing another part of the world with HELPING that part of the world? your entire trip does NOT have to be just of service… but instead, just one part of it. doesn’t this sound awesome? doesn’t this sound like something YOU would want to do? there are TONS of these organizations running these kinds of trips. the best part: they organize almost every bit of it for you. all you have to do is pick a cause you like/care about, learn more about it, make sure it fits your budget, see if you want to add anything else to the trip, and then book that bad boy.

ashley and i will be working that week with SHI on the farm in honduras, but then spending a few days with a honduran non-profit named guaruma (increasing the level of education and environmental awareness with env. education, computer, and photography skills), and then doing some of our own traveling with a superstar named mel (ashley’s friend and our connection to all of this) to/around belize afterward.

ok, so your homework after reading this (yes, i said it… homework):

1. check out SHI’s website, look around, sign up for their newsletter, tell everyone else you know about it (or about my blog!) learn about it, and email me if you are interested so i can get you hooked up with the people that actually know how to get you signed up
2. go to stonyfield farm’s website and help support SHI by voting for SHI in their “bid with your lid” campaign (they are giving a total of $100,000 to three organizations that help the earth, and each organization will receive $20,000 plus a percentage of $40,000, based on your voting)
3. ) TO VOTE, click on this link

ok, that is it.
leave your comments. check in next week. and be well.

post #2

hey all.
thanks for your comments, and i will do my best throughout this post and future ones to answer all of your adoring fan mail.

maybe i will do a little segment at the end of each post where i draw a question from the comments, and think about it out loud.
for now though, i guess we move onward to the first official post of legit thoughts…

this past weekend was witness to the LARGEST worldwide concert/gathering in the history of our existence… the “07-07-07 s.o.s. live earth” concert series presented by al gore and company. it was an incredibly cool concept, where for 24 hours, across all 7 continents (yes, even antarctica!), more than 100 musical acts performed in front of 2 billion people… yes, this was a biggie.
this is part of the multi-year campaign to build awareness AND action for climate change in our world. audience members paid (at least in the US, which means prices were comparable at all of the other locations) between $53, $83, $173 and $348. not a cheap price… but can you put a price on saving the earth’s life? (this is one of those questions where if you say no, then you have said the right answer, and if you say yes, you look like a jerk…)

i am not going to go into all of the different acts and their 20 minute sets to woo the crowed, but i must admit that i did watch some of it… it did, however, bring about lots of questions that may have been left unanswered for a reason:

1. how much more electricity was used during all of the concerts?
2. how much more paper was used for advertising, tickets, programs, etc.?
3. how much more oil was used to transport all of those artists via airplanes, trains, buses, and cars?
4. how much more trash was created by making more food/drinks for mass amounts of people?
5. how much less creative could they have been in an important task?

ok. so maybe i am being a bit harsh. but lets stop to think about it: could they have been more creative with this? couldn’t they have sponsored something that was completely in-line with their philosophy and mission? what about an event that didn’t use THAT MUCH MORE electricity, paper, oil, or trash? i don’t know what it is, but there are plenty of smarter people out there than me that would know how to put these events on. any ideas?

the way i see it, one of the major problems with the way people are treating the earth is with over-consumption… in other words, people constantly buying MORE stuff. STUFF STUFF STUFF. and people need to get it out of their heads that over-consumption is a westernized phenomenon and an isolated occurrence. it is happening everywhere. yes, i am sure the US is a guilty, guilty, guilty participant, maybe even the guiltiest, but so are many other places. anyway, the concert series asked all of its viewers to do these things:

• to change 4 light bulbs at home to CFLs (compact fluorescent lights; used less energy; last longer)
• to shop for energy efficient electronics/appliances
• to shut off and unplug equipment when not using it
• to carpool or use public transportation one or more times per week
• to forward the live earth email to 5 people

i think that these things are great. they are small, manageable ways reduce everyone’s individual impact and footprint on the earth. collectively, it makes a difference. in fact, i love this message: start small, change your habits slowly, and hopefully they will keep progressing to the point that your lifestyle might change and make things better for all of us. they fit in line with malcom gladwell’s ideas in “the tipping point”, which i loved (major trends and changes don’t always result in big, swooping changes, but rather smaller things that can really made a difference– thanks to ken T for the book 2 years ago, still one of my favorites today).

but i think that there is more that we can do, and i wish the s.o.s. live concert series had addressed it since it had 2 billion people in front of them. going back to the idea of more more more, over-consumption, over-consumption, over-consumption, people need to just stop buying/using stupid shit. i can be just as guilty of this, too, but i am working on it. for those of you who know me, i really don’t own that many things. all of my life’s possession fit nicely in a room that is 9 feet by 8 feet… and that is including a desk, a queen size bed, a bookcase, and a dresser. and even with everything that i own in this world in this room (with the exception of my car), i still feel like i own too much, and want to get rid of more things. i want to keep giving things away that i don’t need to someone who may need it, and can’t afford it. so if i can find places in my life to do it, surely you can to.

we just need to stop being so wasteful.
ask yourself: do you really need to buy everything that you think you might want? do you really need to replace everything that you have with the newer version? just stop. borrow things from people. i know, crazy concept… share.

this idea of reducing one’s impact/footprint is hard, i know. kermit said it well, “it’s not easy being green”. and if you forgot how difficult it is, check it out here: kermit’s “it’s not easy being green” video.
here is some more information that you should definitely check out:

• live earth >> more about live earth, and what you can do to help in the climate change crisis
• earth day quiz >> what is your ecological footprint?

leave your comments. check in next week. and be well.

post #1

ok.
so i have tried this once before, and it worked out alright. some people read it religously (that is perhaps an exaggeration… actually, it most certainly is), and others never touched it.

here is surely another attempt. life is wonderful because it can forgive and grant second chances.
to the blog gods: please forgive the failure of my last blog, and thank you for giving me this second opportunity to write about what is on my mind.

this blog, however, is going to have a different twist.
my last e-thoughts were primarily made up of random ideas that i had, and i am still stunned that anyone even bothered reading it. i now have a sense of purpose, or at least, hope so…

as many of you know, part of my teaching load at shore c.d.s is teaching a social studies elective that i created on globalization. it is a topic that i love, and something that i love teaching. this past academic year has also been filled with growth, maturity, and intellectual strides. no, i am not talking about puberty. i am talking about a better awareness of what i really think about the world, and what should happen to make it better for all of us.

here is my chance to share it with you. i am going to use this blog to talk about what i think is the root of globalization, and what i think is influential to our world today. i want to talk about everything, with a particular focus on people and what people are doing to change the world for better and worse. i want to write about everything that i see as great, horrible, confusing, and anything in between. and i want you to read all about it.

instead of romanticizing about which day i will create a new post with fresh, genuine, hip, and mind-blowing thoughts, just check in at the beginning of each week. i hope that there will be one post per week.

if i slack off, shoot me an email, and help keep me honest.

finally, please leave comments. i (and the rest of the world) want to hear what you have to say.
be well.