My day job is being an engineer in the water industry. At the moment, I - and my aching back - am at a water industry conference in South Australia. This morning, one of the "key note speakers" was a woman who heads an organisation managing the water supply to five states in the USA (California, Nevada, Colorado, New Mexico and one other). This organisation has its roots in the crisis resulting from a prolonged drought. Suddenly, these five states realised that they were about to run out of water, which would be absolutely catastrophic for around 30 million people and 25% of the US economy. As a result, they gave up their ingrained, competitive independence, and decided to work together, to - dare I say it - COOPERATE for the greater good of the community ....
Hmmm ... collectivist cooperation for the community? Sounds ... radical (for the USA!)
This speech left me with a few conflicting reactions. On the one hand, if somewhere as individualist as the USA can - albeit under extreme duress - learn to act cooperatively, maybe there is hope for the work. But on the other hand, it is a shame that it took so dire a situation for this to happen.
On a less happy note, I noticed some - not all! - of the young females were either trying to play on looking cute or were speaking to the audience as they would to their friends. Not professional :(
On a better note, one speaker proposed viewing pipe systems the same way as our gut: make them healthy, happy little probiotic ecosystems, rather than trying to keep them all sterile. Great idea - we function better when the bacteria in our digestive system are a balanced, healthy mixture, and that balanced, healthy mixture is well and truly capable of dealing with the odd pathogen here and there. Great idea - but it will take some time for the technical know-how to show us how to reliably and safely do this in a way that keeps EVERYONE, including those with compromised and/or imperfect immune systems such as the young, elderly or ill, assuredly safe.
It reminds me of something I read decades ago, which said the Anglo approach to health was to kill the germ, whereas the French way was to build the system with tonics etc so it could deal with germs (much as immune systems are stimulated by contact with pathogens, which is why kids need to ocassionally get literally dirty when they play outside). They're probably both right, and it is just a case of which one is appropriate for a given time, place and circumstance - a bit like you need both psychic protection and psychic strength, one perhaps more so at one time than the other.
On a less happy note, I noticed some - not all! - of the young females were either trying to play on looking cute or were speaking to the audience as they would to their friends. Not professional :(
On a better note, one speaker proposed viewing pipe systems the same way as our gut: make them healthy, happy little probiotic ecosystems, rather than trying to keep them all sterile. Great idea - we function better when the bacteria in our digestive system are a balanced, healthy mixture, and that balanced, healthy mixture is well and truly capable of dealing with the odd pathogen here and there. Great idea - but it will take some time for the technical know-how to show us how to reliably and safely do this in a way that keeps EVERYONE, including those with compromised and/or imperfect immune systems such as the young, elderly or ill, assuredly safe.
It reminds me of something I read decades ago, which said the Anglo approach to health was to kill the germ, whereas the French way was to build the system with tonics etc so it could deal with germs (much as immune systems are stimulated by contact with pathogens, which is why kids need to ocassionally get literally dirty when they play outside). They're probably both right, and it is just a case of which one is appropriate for a given time, place and circumstance - a bit like you need both psychic protection and psychic strength, one perhaps more so at one time than the other.
Love, light, hugs and blessings
Gnwmythr 
(pronounced "new-MYTH-ear")
Tags:attitudes, competitiveness, individualism, responsibility, society, protection,
First published: Tysdagr, 10th May, 2011
Last edited: Tuesday, 10th May, 2011
