redefine christmas.org
as you are celebrating all the things you are thankful for today, consider this from www.redefinechristmas.org:
Consider that the amount of money spent on candy alone during the holiday season is greater than the annual budgets of the American Cancer Society, The American Heart Association and Habitat for Humanity combined.
Redefining Christmas
It’s not about reinventing the holiday. It’s about changing the way we look at gift giving and receiving. It’s taking money we usually spend on obligatory gifts with little meaning, and creating gifts of charity that give in multiple ways, to the receiver, the giver, and people who truly need.
There is no question we are in the midst of difficult financial times. And if it has you feeling unsure or uncomfortable this holiday season, imagine how purely difficult it’s becoming for people who already, or are about to, depend on the generosity of others for the things that only a donation can provide.
As we consider our individual place in this world we can be of help to others with a simple gesture that bestows the gift of charity on those who are in need, on behalf of the ones we care about. If this sounds like a good idea to you, redefine Christmas by giving others donations to their favorite charities, request that others do the same for you, and use this site to share this message with as many people as you can think of. Chances are, you’ll like the way it feels.
i’m also a big fan of Heifer International, where you can support sustainable living by donating farm animals to poor families around the world.
Filed in things you can do | Tagged with BNC, consumerism, NaBloPoMo | Comment (0)BND + Small Business Saturday
once again…time for the annual rant against holiday consumption and nudge toward a smarter economy….
it’s not like i don’t buy things. i do. but i try to buy them conscientiously, knowing where things come from, who made them, and how they were made and what from. i support local fashion as much as possible, shop recycled/used clothing stores, and try to avoid “made in china/sri lanka/vietnam/indonesia” when i buy something new. when it comes to food, beauty, and cleaning products, i look for the most organic/fewest ingredients/greenest thing i can find. but this doesn’t make me anti-consumer. i certainly couldn’t go a year without buying anything. in fact, i think because i am always looking for the perfect thing, the greenest thing, the most sustainable, best choice, i probably end up shopping MORE than someone who just walks into Wal-Mart, loads up the cart and walks out. i probably go to 5x as many stores looking for the best alternative, and pay more for things too, further supporting the economy.
i say this because i don’t want people to get the wrong impression when i support things like Buy Nothing Day (no shopping the day after Thanksgiving) and Buy Nothing Christmas (a radical Christian idea!). i understand that these seem extreme, and many people think futile. does it really make a difference if you shop the weekend after Thanksgiving or a week later? and aren’t giving gifts a nice thing to do?
in my mind, it’s the mindset of these activities that bothers me most – that this ritualized consumption is now an expected part of American culture, so much that people put themselves through horrid situations at the beck and call of retailers like cattle through a gate – remember the people getting trampled last year on “black friday”? – and into financial debt they can’t afford to “participate”. and, in the end, what percentage of Christmas gifts are actually something people wanted?
go ahead, consume. i’m not going to pretend that isn’t part of all our lives. but i encourage you to do it as mindfully as you can. this saturday is the first ever widely organized Small Business Saturday, with companies like American Express giving huge promotions. so maybe instead of hitting up the Best Buy and Wal-Mart on Black Friday and filling up your cart, take some time to find some of the items on your shopping lists at small businesses in your community on saturday instead. if done right, this can turn our economy around. small family businesses will thrive, artists will make a living, communities will come together. in my mind, THAT is the American way.
Filed in things you can do | Tagged with adbusters, BNC, BND, consumerism, economics, NaBloPoMo | Comment (0)
danger v. opportunity
a much better piece on the subject of moving to a post-consumer america than what i wrote:
I grew up in Seattle, WA and was raised with the idea that money is equal to life energy and time and that it is important to spend less and wisely unless I wished to be constantly on the job and enslaved to a salary….
…To me it is seems exciting and inspiring to rely on our local communities, know our neighbors, grow our own food, barter/trade, craft our own clothes, fix our favorite pair of shoes, and enjoy each others company instead of passing the night away in front of cable TV with a frozen pizza made and packaged in Wisconsin and numbed thoughts. It gives us a positive creative way to utilize and conserve resources, combats isolation, gives us the chance to express skills that few jobs would allow, and lends to a more holistic sense of self that even folds art and spirituality back into our daily lives. It’s a revival of what I imagine my grandparents experienced growing up in rural farm towns, infused with urban DIY culture, activism, and spiritual consciousness. I know “hold on there you idealist hippie” you might be thinking, but I really think the time is ripe for it now more than ever.
It is a huge paradigm shift to think of spending less, needing less, and relying on one another more and I think this tends to comes across more like DEPRIVATION than FULFILLMENT to most Americans. Give up a Lexus and fancy French dinners before going to see “Les Miserables” to ride a bike thru the rain and play board games over home-made apple strudel? I think that living in a way that is not so strapped to the now-not-so-mighty-dollar, the ballooned American Dream, oil, and consumer materialism in general takes a lot of work, awareness, education, and commitment to alternatives. This lifestyle shift takes time to cultivate and also requires privilege to think about it in the first place and the right environment.
–from Surviving the Economic Meltdown: DANGER or OPPORTUNITY?
related: America’s New Year’s Resolution: Stop Being Stupid
and FYI: the chinese character for “crisis” does not equal “danger + opportunity”
Filed in culture and random linkage | Tagged with affluenza, consumerism | Comment (0)nobodies
Buy Some Stuff, Enslave Somebody: this AlterNet article is a discussion of the book Nobodies: Modern American Slave Labor and the Dark Side of the New Global Economy
The book focuses on fruit pickers in South Florida; Indian welders in Tulsa, Oklahoma; and Asian garment workers and sex slaves in the tiny U.S. commonwealth of Saipan in the Pacific Ocean. Employing a tone that’s both journalistic and crusading — heavy on facts and firsthand accounts but clear in its sense of moral indignation — Bowe aims to make explicit the connection between the rise of the global market — with its promises of cheap goods, high employment, and peace — and the growing number of people throughout the world living in poverty, doomed to spend their lives providing goods and services for people born into wealthier circumstances.
i know a lot of people who would use the incidents documented here as examples of why illegal immigrants should all be deported, but in my view, it’s not the illegals who should be punished, it’s the employers, and generally, they get a fine or two and are off the hook until the next time they get caught. punish the employers, not the workers.
the book and film Fast Food Nation also dealt with the abuse of illegals in dangerous working conditions and is highly recommended.
Filed in things you can do, tv, books and movies | Tagged with consumerism, economics, poverty | Comment (1)turning point
columnist joan ryan @ the chron has a great op-ed today on americas’ unbelievable spend-spend-spend and then throw-it-away consumerist mentality, where it comes from, and what it means. this is particularly poignant given the billions of dollars and hundreds of thousands of lives lost in the south asian tsunami. those people don’t have food, clothing, water, or shelter. why the hell do i need an iPod?
“Culture of More Brings Less“.
“My son and I visited my 75-year-old aunt this summer in Tanzania, where she works with people dying of AIDS and with the orphans left behind. The poverty is pretty much what you would expect. Mud-brick shacks. No running water. The schools have no desks or chairs. Families subsist on the $2 or $3 a day they earn working in the fields, weaving rugs or selling roasted peanuts on the side of the road.
We saw firsthand how a little bit of money — what we might spend on a gossip magazine or a new toothbrush holder — can have a meaningful impact on a life there. So my son and I resolved upon our return home to be conscious of our spending, noting the difference between what we needed and what we wanted. When we refrained from spending money on something we didn\’t need, we promised to put the saved money in a basket made from candy wrappers, a souvenir from one of the Tanzanian women. We then would send the money to my aunt.
There is nothing in the basket. Not now anyway. There was money for the first few months. But during the holidays, we slid right back into the inviting, exciting slipstream of consumerism that had us toting home shopping bags filled with purchases that seemed not only appropriate at the time but just this side of imperative. Wonderful chocolates. Fragrant candles. Champagne. Gifts, gifts and more gifts.
Almost all of it went on the credit card. I whipped that thing around as if it were a magic wand that could, by transporting fabulous items from the store to my home, could make me more — what? I still can’t say. Maybe just more…
my #1 2005 Revolution is to stop buying shit i don’t NEED. just STOP. when you really start to make those conscious choices, it’s almost unbearable how hard it is to pull yourself away from whatever it is you think you want and walk away. it *hurts*, i tell you, and it’s really, really scary. then, most of the time, 10 minutes later you’ve forgotten about what it was you so desperately needed – that sweater, that magazine, that book, those shoes. i try to stick to a rule of “if you want it you have to come back for it”- leave the store and if you still want it the next day (or even remember that you wanted it) go back. i think the buyer’s remorse i had earlier this month was the turning point. i wanted to kick my own ass for that, and still feel totally stupid.
i’m really hoping i can do a better job of controlling my spending in 2005, and actually reach some of the financial goals i’ve set for myself (pay off student loads, pay off credit cards, put more $$ into 401(k), etc.). otherwise, at the end of next year i’ll feel as sick about it as i do right now.
Filed in things you can do | Tagged with consumerism, poverty | Comments (5)the path of least resistance
all the commenting that went on yesterday regarding my silent revolution post (here and at intellectual.poison and at rambling.rhodes) made me wonder.
what is the best way to be an “activist“? (a word i am loathing more and more every day, by the way.) some people out there felt that the campaign launched by Adbusters was too leftist. too out there on the peripheral to be effective. “condescending”, even, in it’s implication that people are not already thinking for themselves.
so what then, do you all think is a positive, effective way to work toward change in the world? who out there is setting a good example, in your opinion, particularly in this field of consumer-based economies and globalization? the Center for a New American Dream?
if you think that the world is all just fine and dandy the way it is, and you’re thankful for your Big Macs and GAPs and Nikes and Starbucks and Wal-Marts other various modern conveniences, then I guess this doesn’t apply to you. but if you aren’t – if you’d like to see the world move toward a more sustainable economy and way of life (NOT regression back to the stone age; i am not suggesting we all live in huts in the woods and revert to hunter-gatherers. there is a middle, sustainable ground.) — what do you think the best way to work toward that is?
the obvious answer is that each person, individually, makes their own choices, and thereby effects those immediately around them: “Be the change you wish to see in the world.” but i’m looking for your opinions on what are effective, sensitive ways to not only live but also actively promote this philosophy.
Filed in things you can do | Tagged with consumerism | Comments (8)
