Consumers Paradox - Buying Locally is not Always Best

Buying locally does make good sense as a concept if you wish to do your part in being a sensible consumer. For example, why buy garlic from China when they grow like weed in the back yard without you even caring for them and easy to store (and taste a lot better).

On the other hand every evening I look out my window I see the city of Tartu lit up like it is on fire. The cause is not due to excessive street lighting (yet) but the green houses growing cucumbers - all year round. Since I am aware of this (I am reminded every evening) I can not make myself buy these cucumbers in the shop even if it does not get more local. I am fairly certain that the energy used to grow these things in -10 to -20 degrees Celsius outside temperature takes more fuel than transporting cucumbers from Netherlands or Spain (where they also grown the with aid). In the end I decided not to eat cucumbers out of season, unless we really needed them for something. I wonder how many think these things through in Estonia.

This is not unique off course. It is really difficult to understand where your items come from. My veterinary colleagues in Finland tells me animals are transported very long distances to be slaughtered and then back again to be processed as meat. Closer slaughter houses exist, but it is still cheaper to transport the animals hundreds of kilometers. This information rarely reach a consumer, and even rarer affects the consumer mentally. I am not surprised if the same happens to groceries.

We need one independent place where people can look up information about these things (transportation, pesticides used, slaughtering technique...) and other qualities (taste, independence of food chains, success in complying with food and production safety, fair price...) to a product other than just price. If not the conscious consumer will not see the real product choice behind coupons, client cards and different sales strategies every half year. Much like it is impossible to get a clear idea of the best choice of bank, insurance, gas station etc. If we do not have transparent choice then we need to gather information. 

 Further reading:

Mental Blocks - Apathy Despite the Contrary

I viewed Michael Pritchards TED presentation of his amazingly efficient portable filter for creating sterile water the other day. It is yet another story of one guy who had enough of misery fed through the media. In this case that even a super industrialized country were not even able to help its own people with clean drinking water after hurricane Katrina in 2004. He literally went into his workshop and fairly quick came up with a tool that could solve the problem, the Lifesaver bottle.

Michaels story is amazing, but from my continuous search in these matters, not unique. There is a problem that would improve or save hundred thousands of lives, we have a solution (at least one), but we just choose not to act to solve it - against what may seem logical or humane. As Michael points out, the foreign aid for one EU country could actually give clean drinking water to everyone who needed it. For a single person like me, it is off course difficult to imagine why this would not be attractive to a government. Imagine the PR value of such sponsorship. Almost anyone who had such a bottle would be grateful.

Apathy, "same-procedure-as-last-year", or "more-of-the-same" seems to be the only 3 options I can see in work now. It seems like a loop without end. Michael Pritchard mentioned it as well; at one point you just shut off mentally. The brain can not handle all the misery and the things you feel you "should" act on as a decent human being. It is easier to turn away. You stay sane. Personally I believe this is the most dangerous disease of human kind - apathy. We can ride our way to extinction in a sofa.

Dalai Lamas book "How to see yourself as you really are" gave me a clue how to deal with this myself (because I do not believe it is in any ones right to tell others how to live). The book confirms that it is not possible to act on all the misery on your own. Global issues should be handled by the leaders. One can act by improving, first one self (probably the hardest part), then the near surroundings, local community etc. Not through force, but by example. Curiously, this kind of thinking is also reflected in martial arts (not referring to sport): if you can not save yourself, you can not save your family. If your family is not safe, you can not worry about your friends safety. And so on.
I live by this. It works, for me. I do not create miracles, but it rubs off on others from time to time. I will write more about this later - what I have done.

Further reading and related items:

Thank you Johnny Chung Lee for The Interactive Whiteboard

Jackpot it becoming more frequent when looking for Open Science. Today I found the TED talk with Johnny Chung Lees hacks for the Wii Remote Controller. Amazing how one man playing around in his laboratory can create revolutionary technology for a percent of professional equipment. But the best part is - he share it! And better yet, according to himself, what fascinates him even more than the actual inventions is how quickly people pick up an invention through the internet and improve it when offered it freely.

So, thank you Johnny Chung Lee for not only being an outstanding inventor, but also allowing your inventions to benefit us all!

If you wish to create $14 dollar steady cams, virtual whiteboards, interactive touch screens, 3D eye wear for graphical contents with material even poor people may afford - go see what is on Lees website.

Johnny Chung Lees project website
TED talk

Tools and further reading

 

Modus Vivendi - waiting for an outcome

When I chose the blogs original name, modus vivendi (now changed to "Alchemy, Science, Innovation...") it was because initially for other reasons than I would today. But I consider it a very well chosen title. Modus vivendi is Latin and means: way of living (modus: mode/way, vivendi: of living).

Politically the term is used as temporary arrangement that allows life to go on. Modus vivendi can be use about territorial disputes (eg. Israel), lay down of arms (eg. North Ireland), ethnic minority problems (eg. Gypsies) and so on. So, in no way a final solution, but an unstable agreement that allow everyone to have a life while waiting for something better.

Another way of looking at the term is as a philosophy (way of life). Life never settles or concludes. It is dynamic and can be governed by principles. I have practiced such a path for years now through the understanding of Budô. Bu means the path relating to conflicts such as war or survival, and dô: way of life.

Now, choosing a path normally means you seek some level of enlightenment. It does not mean you will reach it - it is the journey (improvement) that is the purpose. For the first kind of conflicts mentioned that is often solved with a modus vivendi, enlightenment is probably one of the few ways out of a crisis. It is slow, painful, and difficult, but rewards of the process can be rewarding.

The conflict I see, between alchemical thought and modern science is the focus of my thoughts and this blog. I do not know how I knew that modus vivendi would nail the problem to the wall for me. Both of these philosophies have a common root, but diverged, much like we see ideologies part people in other conflicts. Alchemy exist today as a minority, but it is growing stronger, louder, and more aggressive in the absence of answers from the dominant path (modern science) in providing the what really matters to most of us: our a way of life... or perhaps just living.

I am almost ready with my research in how the two philosophies are intertwined and why it is all accumulating these years. I am not going to give you another 2012 doomsday prophecy, but attempt to give a sober overview that make good sense in my world.

Further reading:

Aphorism

In Paul Mollers TED talk on his development of the Skycar, he finished with a beautiful statement on how a visionary invention is received. I believe that his quote fits the conflict between different ways of using knowledge in this blog very nicely.

First, it is ridiculed by those ignorant of its potential.
Next, it is subverted by those threatened by its potential.
Finally, it is considered self-evident.

Links:
Paul Mollers TED talk

Further reading:

Explosion of idealistic firms in Denmark

Michael Lund writes in the Danish newspaper Politikken today that new firms with idealistic concepts are sprouting from The Economic Crisis as never before in Denmark. While most traditional firms goes bankrupt, firms giving their surplus to charity, or aim to put employ socially challenged individuals, are reviving the support and attention of their customers, multiply in numbers over the last 6 months.

I know that once your mind is set up for something, it sees it everywhere. Like I would like to see people beginning to throw away their prejudices, take matters into our own hands, and accept the responsibility. So, I admit I may just be noticing trees in the forest. But it make my day happier to believe that we (people in the industrial world) are perhaps slowly waking up from decades of apathy.

Original article in Politikken

About the time of last post the media are escalating in attacks of anyone to blame for the apparent economic crisis (except the leaders). As the crisis is described as worse and worse, people being sacked in large numbers, the pockets getting shallow, I just can not help thinking: "What happens if the impossible happens in the time of great despair?"

I see the private initiative of reaching space as such an event. Could it not give us a focus when being desperate? If They can fly into space, I can take care of my family without a job - to create an example. Perhaps we will begin to learn that we actually CAN take care of ourselves and each other to great extend, and don't really have to be dependant on many of the things we think we have to depend on.

I really look forward to this event, and I hope it will be a wake up call for the world.