What Are You Doing?

“Can you imagine what I would do if I could do all I can?"  - Sun Tzu

There are many problems on our planet that need to be addressed, be they political, environmental, spiritual or otherwise. Most seem gargantuan and intractable. This is leading people to wonder what they could possibly do to help. As it turns out, there is a lot that each of us can do.

However, none of it will be easy. It will be worthwhile, though, and our survival depends on what each of us decides as individuals.

Overall, one of the best things you can do is carefully attend to how you use energy, food, and water. These "Big Three" account for the majority of damage being done to our ecosphere. Think about the level of efficiency with which you use these precious resources. Are there areas you could make improvements?

While it has not been popular for years (I suspect because it bites into potential profits and tax revenue), conservation is still the best way to go. All resources we use should be treated with the respect that these sacred gifts deserve. We honour them by using them wisely.

There are also specific things one can do, too numerous to list. I will start with a few that come to mind. You can probably think of a few of your own.

1. Civic Involvement - join a club, or start one. Get involved, and empowered. Volunteer at a school, or food bank. Help establish a community garden, join Habitat For Humanity, search and rescue, or a beach cleaning. Go to town hall meetings and demand answers from elected officials. Write letters. Make phone calls. Talk to the media about what you are doing.

2. Spend Your Money Strategically - choose to purchase products from companies and people you support, boycott those that do things you don’t like. Have a boycott list handy to view a couple times a year as a reminder. Better yet, withhold your money all together. Choose to stop buying certain things, permanently.

3. Spread The Word - let people know what you are doing, and why. This is how small individual actions and efforts spread and result in a big bang of change.

4. Practice Voluntary Simplicity - a simple lifestyle is a more sustainable lifestyle. It can also be a happier, more content way to go.

5. Never Listen To Naysayers - never let anyone, ever, convince you that individual actions can never make a difference and are only an exercise in futility. Individual choices are where the work gets done. More beneficial choices will lead to better outcomes.

Each of us has the power to do something every moment of every day. We can move toward a better world one decision at a time. The choice is ours to make.

Boycott Corporate Malfeasance

Evil doers abound these days. There are so many things to boycott that it is hard to keep track. Linda and I have been growing our list of boycotts for years as we learn more about the way business is run these days. Are we buying from companies pulling a VW and lying to us about their practices?

The responsible consumer must do a lot of research these days to find out who is doing what.

They don't make it easy. It is almost as if corporations are trying to hide something from us, and they are - the list of nefarious activities by corporate entities is well documented.

Whether it is United Fruit overthrowing the government of Guatemala, Union Carbide's Bhopal disaster, or Enron ripping off investors for 25 billion dollars, corporate malfeasance has become business as usual rather than isolated events.

The following is a list of just a few companies that come to mind that are included in our ongoing boycotts. The longer we thought about the list the longer it got. We could add more, as you will be able to as well.

Shell

Exon

MacDonalds

Walmart

Starbucks

Coke

Unilever

Monsanto

Kraft

Nestle

With mergers and name changes it is increasingly difficult to avoid crappy business practices. The simplest thing is to buy as little as you can, thus avoiding supporting businesses that have a net negative overall benefit to humans and other living things. 

No one in charge seems to have the integrity and moral compass to revoke the corporate charters of highly organized and entrenched criminal business organizations. But we can evict immoral companies from our lives.

Indeed, this is what they are most afraid of - us choosing to make them and their crap irrelevant in our new world. If enough people do so, eventually the corporations themselves will truly and gloriously disappear into the pages of a troubled corporate history. 

And the world will rejoice. What companies are you boycotting? 

5 Ways Walmart Is Evil

#boycottwalmart

I am not much of a shopper, but I have never set foot in a Walmart. Deciding not to support the Walton family fortune was a decision I made before I even knew how big and evil they really were. I just figured they didn't need any of my money, regardless of how cheap their crap was.

The Walton family is one of the richest families in the world, inheriting their hoard of loot from Bud and Sam Walton, founders of Walmart, the world's largest retailer and employer. Six members of the family own as much wealth as the bottom 40% of Americans (49 million families).

5 Ways Walmart Is Evil

1. Bullying of overseas suppliers, demanding lower wages and safety standards
2. Widespread gender discrimination
3. Stores have a net negative effect on job creation - every job created destroys 3 others
4. Unfair wages
5. Union busting at home and overseas

I am happy to not support this evil empire. Escaping its effects, though, is more difficult. We are all touched by the rapacious greed of those at the top.

Don't support the evil - #boycottwalmart.

#notbuyingit: Occupying The Media & Advertising

After yesterday's resurgence of Occupy Wall Street, I am all revved up for citizen-initiated activities aimed at fighting back against the chaos unleashed by unfettered consumer capitalism.

That is why the #notbuyingit campaign started by missrepresentation.org interested me - it is an example of coordination of consumer spending, or not spending, in order to instigate change. Affect profits - get action.

"Thousands of people worldwide are participating in #notbuyingit! If you see a product or ad that misrepresents or degrades women, use Twitter to post a description or upload a picture of the offensive item. Use the hashtag #notbuyingit so that we can all follow along!" from: #notbuyingit

The website links to a Pintrest page showing examples of misrepresentations in media and advertising that are being called out by citizen watchdogs. The awareness campaign encourages people to stop buying anything made by these, or any other, corporations or businesses profiting from making the world a messed up mass of sexism and misogyny.

When groups of people coordinate and take aim at specific targets, the business community pays attention. Lost profits have a way of doing that.

A boycott is an effective way to raise awareness, and get the attention of the powerful. The #notbuyingit campaign is one such way to become informed, take a stand and make a difference. 

Let's call out the perps that slag and/or exploit women in the name of making a buck. Let's show them that we do not support them by keeping our money in our pockets.

It is time to Occupy The Media and Advertising. It is time, as Adbusters says, to "eradicate the commercial virus infecting our culture... and break up the corporate media monopolies."

Together, we can take action and create the changes we wish to see. 

I'm #notbuyingit. I'm not buying anything.