Blog Assignment 3; “The wind in the willows” by Kenneth Grahame

For those who have not yet read the book, perhaps I should fill you in on the story:
Mr Mole wakes up at spring (yes, he actually is a mole, with fur and all!) and as he walks along the river side, just between the water and the wild wood, you get introduced to his friends, one by one; Mr Rat, Otter, Mr Badger, Toad of Toad Hall, and the weasels and stouts. You get to follow the lives and adventures of these adorable creatures. There is no big drama, no murders and no explosions; it is just a story about life by the river.

The book illustrates a utopia of the countryside, of sunshine, happiness and good old friend, summer adventures and winter firesides, a world where you personal qualities and goodness dictates your wealth, and not your beauty or the money in bank account.
I think we need to find our inspiration to strive towards a utopia, both physical and inner, a strive that we in our cynical world have lost. Even if utopia is said to be impossible to reach, is not true happiness just as unreachable? And still we strive to find it.

This strive I think is shown very inspiring in the book through its characters. It has many characters and even if they ultimately are animals they are incredibly human, sometimes more human than most humans. It is the characteristics of these creatures that I think our world lacks, and that we need. Take Mr Toad for example, I think he is impossible to dislike. Mr Toad is such a simple and kind nature, full of childish enthusiasm for every thing he takes up, nothing is impossible in his eyes. He truly has drive, and motivates people. We need these Mr Toad characters, to motivate our world to do better and to be all it can be.

Another charming fellow is Mr Mole, after being asleep all winter long; he wakes up and gets outside, to see the world with completely new eyes. Everything is a miracle to him, flowers, birds singing or taking a boat ride down the river. That is how I think that we need to start to see our world, with new fresh eyes, and not take it for granted.

Mr Mole’s closest friend is the Rat, a fearless and kind natured; he truly cares about others and always helps whenever ha can. He is respected by the river folk for his knowledge of boating. We need to start respect knowledge more, not only the knowledge that gives a big pay check.

All of these fellows’ posses’ good qualities, that I think every human has bits and pieces of, and that is exactly what I think wee need now more than ever, more people with good qualities who cares a little. If everyone just cared a little, for each other, for the environment, for knowledge and with a bit of childish enthusiasm, perhaps we can reach our utopia.

The book I read: Kenneth Grahame, The wind in the willows, Methuen & co ltd, London, 1969

Blog assignment 2 - "The Story of Stuff"

In the web presentation "the story of stuff" by Annie Leonard she explains how stuff is made and where they go after we are done with them. This is explained by the linear five-step chain, where extraction, production, distribution, consumption and disposal are the different steps that material is passed through. These steps don’t seem too bad at first glance, it actually appears quite natural that you produce the product, you buy the product and you throw away the product when it is useless, but these steps are not as they seem.

The products are produced in often unsustainable ways, using too much natural resources and toxins and the cheap workforce over seas have to work in poor conditions, all of this in order to sustain (in the point of view of Leonard) the American consumer culture. Products are actually constructed in order to break so that we will buy new ones! Commercial is made to make us buy and to make us feel worthless if we don’t contribute to the “golden arrow” i.e. if we don’t consume, also forcing our focus towards consumption instead of what really matters: all our loved ones, family and friends.

This is an unsustainable development, and if we do not change this we have to find ourselves a new world. Fortunately, as Annie Leonard explains, it is not over yet. We can do a lot and we are doing a lot! Yes, recycling is good, but not goo enough. For each trashcan a household produces the production corporations are producing seventy, but recycling is a good start. There are fair trade, organic and people working on labor right, saving the forests and to take back the government so that it actually is working for the people and not the corporations.

We have to change the linear system to a sustainable circle system, if we manage that our world will be safe, healthy and a better place to live!

The movie was scary; a wake up call, which Annie did it well. I feel that I want to do more for the environment, and buy less. Which is goo, and what she did explain, but not clearly enough in my point of view is that we can change the system! With the purchase power of all consumers we can change it! Without someone that buys all of the stuff, no one will produce it. If we choose to buy fair-trade, recyclable products and organic then that is what will be produced and if we stop buy so much stuff that we actualy don't need, the system will change, because it depends on us, not the other way around.

The world won’t come to an end if you don’t have the latest pair of shoes, but perhaps it will if you do…

Blog assignment 1

There are those who say that if you have nothing to hide why be afraid of the approaching “big brother society”. Perhaps they are right; employers pay a lot of money for the employees, so of course they want to get something back. And if they can’t trust them doing what they should and what they are paid to do, what alternatives do they have than to monitor them?

The article "snooping bosses" gives a lot of numbers that at least made me raise an eye brow; 76% of employers watch you surf the Web and 36% track content, keystrokes and time spent at the keyboard, 38% hire staff to sift through your e-mail. As I read this my fist thoughts where, how much does this surveillance cost? And is it worth it?
If I where monitored all day at my work and every keystroke was recorded, would I work harder? Would I earn the company more money? I am not sure that I would. I think that the lack of trust in the employees actually can damage their motivation, make them less productive in the end.

Still, the surveillance has its benefits. Because we spend many hours at work, as the article said, we do a lot of surfing the internet and with these surveillance programs, illegal actions like child pornography can be found and prosecuted. Perhaps this is a reason good enough to let the employers continue with there surveillance.

“It starts with a silver spoon...”* when courts regularly permit all kinds of surveillance and monitoring of employees where will it stop? If they can monitor you at work and insert an ID card in your arm, then when all the equipment are there why not track all your whereabouts, all your purchases, all the calls you make, your hart rhythm, brain waves, why stop with monitoring just the employees why not monitoring there wife and husbands as well because he or she has a big influence on the employee... Even if you have nothing to hide, don’t we all want to have our privacy and be trusted? I think we do and I think that is part of being human.

*A Swedish saying that thievery starts with a silver spoon, indicating that then there is no return.