BY Annie Leonard  the Director of the Story of Stuff Project and author of the book, The Story of Stuff (Free Press, March 2010).
Walking to work one day I wanted to listen to the news, so I popped into Radio Shack. I found a cute little green radio for $4.99. Pleased with my bargain, I stood in line to pay, but then started wondering: how could $4.99 cover the cost of extracting the raw materials, manufacturing the parts, assembling the radio, and getting it into my hands?
Whenever I go to buy something I get sidetracked, thinking of how it got here. It’s an occupational hazard. I spent a decade traveling around the world, visiting the factories where our stuff is made and the dumps where it goes when we don’t want it any more. What I learned makes it impossible for me to look at anything and not see the journey it made through the global take-make-waste system.
The metal in that $4.99 radio was probably mined in Africa. The petroleum that went into the plastic probably was pumped from Iraq, and the plastic itself produced in China. The packaging came from forests in Brazil or Canada. Maybe the parts were then shipped across the ocean to Mexico, where some 15-year-old in a maquiladora assembled the radio. There it was put on a truck or a train and shipped to a distribution center in Southern California, then 500 miles north to my local store.
Four-ninety-nine? That wouldn’t pay for the shelf space it took up until I came along, let alone the salary for the guy who helped me pick it out.
That’s when I realized: I didn’t pay for the radio. So who did?
A study currently underway for the United Nations is calculating the cost of pollution and other environmental damage caused by the 3,000 largest publicly held corporations in the world. The study, which will be published this summer, has found that the cost of environmental damage by these companies is $2.2 trillion, or more than one-third of their profits if they were held financially accountable. This includes greenhouse gas emissions, other pollution, and water degradation. The final amount is likely to increase once additional costs — like toxic waste — are incorporated.
Drastic action has been meted on four top Pakistan players
Top Pakistan stars Mohammad Yousuf and Younus Khan have been told they cannot represent their country again.
The Pakistan Cricket Board’s inquiry into the tour of Australia found the pair had been involved in “infighting which… brought down the whole team”.
Rana Naved-ul-Hasan and Shoaib Malik each face one-year bans and big fines.
Shahid Afridi, Kamran Akmal and Umar Akmal also face heavy fines while their conduct will be strictly monitored during a six-month probationary period.
The PCB has implemented the recommendations of an inquiry committee formed to evaluate Pakistan’s dismal performance against Australia during the winter, when they lost all nine internationals.
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Please see the following link for many more pictures and interesting “stuff” about Easter:
http://easterfunontheweb.blogspot.com/ |
and That’s When the Fight Started…
Please click on the following link for lots more “stuff” about Easter:
Another reason to be proud!!
Subject: NBC Thank you note
After tonight’s broadcast and after looting our hotel mini-bars, we’re going to try to brave the blizzard and fly east to home and hearth, and to do laundry well into next week. Before we leave this thoroughly polite country, the polite thing to do is leave behind a thank-you note.
Thank you , Canada :
For being such good hosts.
For your unfailing courtesy.
For your (mostly) beautiful weather.
For scheduling no more than 60 percent of your float plane departures at the exact moment when I was trying to say something on television.
For not seeming to mind the occasional (or constant) good-natured mimicry of your accents.
For your unique TV commercials — for companies like Tim Hortons — which made us laugh and cry.
For securing this massive event without choking security, and without publicly displaying a single automatic weapon.
For having the best garment design and logo-wear of the games — you’ve made wearing your name a cool thing to do.
For the sportsmanship we saw most of your athletes display.
For not honking your horns. I didn’t hear one car horn in 15 days — which also means none of my fellow New Yorkers rented cars while visiting.
For making us aware of how many of you have been watching NBC all these years.
For having the good taste to have an anchorman named Brian Williams on your CTV network, who turns out to be such a nice guy.
For the body scans at the airport which make pat-downs and cavity searches unnecessary.
For designing those really cool LED Olympic rings in the harbor, which turned to gold when your athletes won one.
For always saying nice things about the United States …when you know we’re listening.
For sharing Joannie Rochette with us.
For reminding some of us we used to be a more civil society.
THE NEXT SURVIVOR SERIES
Six married men will be dropped on an island with one car and 3 kids each for six weeks.
Each kid will play two sports and take either music or dance classes.
There is no fast food.
Each man musttake care of his 3 kids;
keep his assigned house clean,
correct all homework,
complete science projects,
cook,
do laundry,
and pay a list of ‘pretend’ bills
with not enough money.
In addition,each man
will have to budget enough money
for groceries each week.
Each man
must remember the birthdays
of all their friends and relatives,
and send cards out on time–no emailing.
Each man must also take each child
to a doctor’s appointment,
a dentist appointment
and a haircut appointment.
He must make one unscheduled and
inconvenient visit per child to the Emergency Room.
He must also make cookies or cupcakes
for a school function.
Each man will be responsible for
decorating his own assigned house,
planting flowers outside, and keeping it
presentable at all times.
The men will only have access to television when the kids are asleep and all chores are done.
The men must shave their legs,
wear makeup daily,
adorn themselves with jewelry,
wear uncomfortable yet stylish shoes,
keep fingernails polished,
and eyebrows groomed
During one of the six weeks,
the men will have to endure severe
abdominal cramps, backaches, headaches,
have extreme, unexplained mood swings
but never once complain or slow down
from other duties.
They must attend weekly school meetingsand church,
and find time at least once to spend
the afternoon at the park or a similar
setting.
They will need to read a book to the kids each nightand in the morning,feed them,dress them,
brush their teeth and
comb their hair
by 7:30 am.
A test will be givenat the end of the six weeks,and each father will be required to knowall of the following information:
each child’s
birthday,
height, weight,
shoe size, clothes size,
doctor’s name,
the child’s weight at birth,
length, time of birth,
and length of labor,
each child’s favorite color,
middle name,
favorite snack,
favorite song,
favorite drink,
favorite toy,
biggest fear,
and what they want to be when they grow up.
The kids vote them off the island based on performance.
The last man wins only if…
he still
has enough energy
to be intimate with his spouse
at a moment’s notice.
If the last man does win,
he can play the game over and over and over
again for the next 18-25 years,
eventually earning the right
to be called Mother!
After you get done laughing,
send this to as many females as
you think will get a kick out of it and
as many men as you think can handle it.
Just don’t send it back to me….
I’m going to bed.
