Causes

What If You Couldn’t Be Rich But Poverty Didn’t Exist?

by MomGrind

homeless.JPG
Photo credit: Franco Folini

What if we could create a social system where no one is outrageously rich and no one is miserably poor?

No matter how smart or capable you were, you would not be able to accumulate more assets than a certain pre-determined amount.

No matter how bad you had it, you would always have a roof over your head, food on your table and access to basic health care.

There would still be richer and poorer people, but not the extremes that we have today.

Would you take such a deal?

I’m not asking you if such a system is POSSIBLE. This is not a discussion on why communism failed in Eastern Europe or on whether socialism is better than capitalism. I’m asking you to assume that such a system IS possible and whether you would want to live in such a world or not.

I raised this question at a recent dinner party we hosted. It’s an interesting question to ask my real-life friends, because we live in Silicon Valley, where people basically come to make a few million bucks by starting and selling, or funding, or working in high-tech companies.

My real-life friends presented two point of views:

1. Yes, of course I would want to live in such a world. It represents a just social system that preserves human dignity and prevents poverty as well as greediness.

2. No. A system like that would kill entrepreneurship. People would not have the drive to create and invent, because more often than not, that drive is NOT a drive to help the world but a personal drive to succeed.

What do you think?

 

Homelessness Violates Basic Human Rights

by MomGrind

Homeless A homeless man has stationed himself right next to the local Whole Foods store, where I do my weekly grocery shopping.

He has an ever-changing display of signs, where he explains how he got to be homeless and asks people for any kind of help – even a can of beans. When it gets sweltering hot, or very cold outside, he disappears, and I always wonder where he is and hope that he was able to find a warm, clean homeless shelter.

Sometimes it is really hard to step out of Whole Foods with my full cart and walk past him. He looks at me, and I feel guilty and ashamed, not because I am personally responsible for his situation, but because I am part of a society that allows homelessness and doesn’t fiercely guard the human dignity and human rights of its members.

Homelessness is a violation of fundamental human rights and freedoms, including the right to liberty and security of the person, the right to freedom from discrimination, the right to privacy, the right to health, and the right to an adequate standard of living.

Up until now, I have dealt with the guilt and shame by including Shelter Network in our family’s giving budget, and by offering “my” homeless man an occasional food item.

Today, I am also blogging about it, as part of the Bloggers Unite effort.

Photo credit: SamPac

Holocaust Remembrance Day 2008

by MomGrind

Today commemorates the Nazis’ highly organized effort to rid the world of its entire Jewish population.

They managed to rid the world of most of its European Jews: six million Jews were gassed, shot or died in the ghettos and in concentration camps before the Nazis were stopped in 1945.

One would think that the lessons supposedly learned from the Holocaust would ensure that the world would not tolerate another genocide, but the latter part of the twentieth century proved that genocides were still possible and that the world was not quick to intervene and bring an end to them.

For my grandmother Miep, who is 92 years old and a Holocaust survivor, every day is Holocaust Remembrance Day. She and my late grandfather Arie were in their twenties when Holland became occupied by the Nazis. They managed to escape the Nazis for more than a year, hiding in different places, until, in their last hiding place, a neighbor turned them in.

They spent a horrible year in Tereisenstadt concentration camp, stripped of all human dignity, and separated from their daughter, my aunt, Elizabeth. Grandma lost both her parents and many other family members, almost died of typhus, and still has nightmares every single night.

The word ‘holocaust’ comes from the ancient Greek word for ‘sacrifice by fire’. In the 19th century it was used to refer to mass slaughter, especially by fire. The mass killing of Jews by Nazis was referred to as ‘this holocaust’ in the British parliament in 1943, and by the 1950s the name was widely applied. In Hebrew, we call it ‘the Shoah’, which means ‘the catastrophe’.

Sources: Helium, Peace Pledge Union

How To Be Greener

by MomGrind

EarthHow to be greener when, in the eco-conscious universe, you must be considered a terrible sinner? This is the challenge facing me this Earth Day 2008.

I drive an SUV, buy bottled water and disposable everything, and take wasteful, extra-long showers. Although I manage to fit many worthy causes into our giving budget, I never gave a single dollar to a green charity.

I have no excuses, really. I like to think that I am fairly intelligent, and I do realize that our actions today, or lack thereof, could turn future generations’ lives on this planet into a living hell. I am not proud of my detached attitude. But this is where things are.

Since writing with passion about Earth Day seemed a bit of a stretch, I decided to use this day as an opportunity to educate myself about how to be greener – without making big lifestyle changes.

Following my research, this is what I plan to do:

1. Recycle. This is the one thing I am highly aware of and do religiously (except for the occasional mayo jar that I toss in the trash instead of rinsing and recycling). It’s not surprising: recycling is one of the best environmental success stories of the late 20th century. It is also important to buy products that are marked as recycled/ recyclable. When we do that, we create an economic incentive for recyclable materials to be collected, manufactured, and marketed as new products.

2. Conserve water: I found lots of tips at American Water. The three that I plan to incorporate into my own routine: don’t pour water down the drain when there may be another use for it such as watering a plant; don’t let water run while brushing your teeth, shaving or washing your face. The third is going to be a bit of a struggle for me but I promised myself to try, at least a few times each week: take shorter showers.

3. Conserve energy in summer by cooling your home to only 80 degrees. Each degree below 78 will increase your energy use by 3-4%. In the winter, wear an extra layer of clothes and set the heater thermostat to 68.

4. Reuse. Reusing items by using them more than once, repairing them, donating them to charity or selling them (think Ebay) reduces waste. Reusing, when possible, is better than recycling, because the item does not need to be reprocessed before it can be used again. Examples of reusing: using cloth napkins; using refillable bottles of water and refilling them with tap water; turning empty jars into containers for leftover foods; and using reusable grocery bags instead of the store’s paper or (gasp) plastic bags.

5. Reduce air pollution by driving less. Even driving just a little less makes a difference. If possible, arrange carpools; walk or ride a bicycle if you can – I tend to drive to the local grocery store even though it is just a five-minute walk from my house. My own personal resolution is to walk there when I only need a few items. Another excellent way do drive less, which comes quite easily to me (maybe too easily) is to shop online. More tips at the California Air Resources Board website.

How to be greener? The first step: you need to want to be greener. Once you want to change and make a few simple changes, the rest will follow.

Photo by aussiegal

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