Post No. 195 - Chrissie presents: the downside ...

There can obviously be an upside to getting presents at this time of year - the pleasure of giving, for instance. (Oh, alright: and the pleasure of getting - after all, I got or was able to get some much wanted books as a result of Litha/Christmas :) ) There are, however, some potential downsides to all this as well.

The most obvious downside is the potential for magnification of materialism, with a focus on the thing received rather than the thought, or the fact that one was thought of. (I've posted before about "the perils of Litha".)

But what I would like to raise here is the possibility that any gadgets you may have given or received have the equivalent of "blood diamonds" in them - minerals from conflict zones that are being used to fund violence and cruelty ... or things that are simply environmentally unsustainable (why don't technology reporters include this sort of information instead of just raving about features on gizmo's and gadgets? [1] When will [and I am being facetious here - some are VERY aware!] teenagers learn about embedded GHGs?).

An article from the Washington Post was republished in my local paper, The Age, about this topic of blood aspects of gadgets: it's worth a look.
The cost in blood of your new gadget, Elizabeth Flock, 31st December, 2010.

Personally, I rather like the idea of buying a goat (especially as my birth mother has been involved with dairy goats for many years, having quite a large herd at one stage) as a present ... all I have to do is get my rellies OK with the idea :)

I hope you can enjoy your presents (pressies, as we call them here in Oz [2]), but I hope, more importantly, you enjoy, appreciate and acknowledge the spirit of giving that they came with :)

Love, light, hugs and blessings

Gnwmythr

Notes:

1. One of the particularly concerning aspects of the technology boom for me is the increasing reliance on a group of substances known as "rare earths" - see here and here for some of the problems associated with these, but also keep in mind that they are described as "rare" for a very good reason: there's not much of 'em, so we're going to have to recycle if we're not going to ultimately run out, and recycling involves use of energy ...
2. Australia :)

This post's photo is yet to be posted.

Tags: environment, materialism, society,

First published: Sunnudagr, 2nd January, 2011

Last edited: Sunday, 2nd January, 2011