Saturday, April 18, 2009

The Power of Illusion.



This world makes me wanna scream sometimes?! Why are humans so smart and so dumb? I think it's because we're easily fooled by illusions. Illusion is the worlds most powerful persuader. For example, we were at Superstore the other day and we were trying to figure out which toilet paper to buy. I saw Superstores brand called 'Green', which claims to sell environmentally friendly products. If you read all the writing on the packaging of the toilet paper it goes on and on about how the toilet paper is made from recycled paper and they don't bleach it and by buying this product you are supporting a good thing. But, the 24 rolls of TP is being held together in a HUGE PLASTIC wrapping, saying nowhere anywhere on the packaging that that was made from recycled goods. They choose their words very carefully as to not claim they do either. Smart. I am sure that it's still better then buying a brand of TP that doesn't even use recycled paper, but com'mon, if you are going to claim to care for the earth and go through all the trouble of using recycled goods, why stop at the plastic, the most important part...plastics don't decompose!

We used to buy organic milk. It's like $6.00 for 2 litres...it's expensive, but I was willing to pay for it knowing that there's no antibiotics, steroids and/or chemicals that will come back and bite me in the ass one day...there are consequences to consuming poorly prepared food ya know. BUT...they recently started selling their milk in PLASTIC cartons which are FULL OF CHEMICALS. So much for organic milk.

Baby diapers have been a landfill nightmare since people got lazy and stopped using cloth diapers. But don't worry, I bet every parent feels better knowing that "Huggies is pure and natural" now! Okay what was that...natural?? Pure?? How? It's a disposable diaper! Oh, but the packaging is green and earthy with babies outside in green grass and leaves. Ummmm, keep using those and that green grass won't be there anymore. Seriously, if they really care about being "pure and natural", why don't they make cloth diapers?? Better yet, if YOU really care about being "pure and natural" why aren't YOU using cloth diapers?! It would save the landfills about 2500 diapers that one child creates and it would save you like $2000 and it would save the baby from getting many diaper rashes, lol. Everyone wins! And with the new cloth diapers that are out there these days, there's really NO excuse.
http://www.ampdiaperstore.com/


I wonder what would happen if the label that told you what country a product was made in was changed to WHERE/HOW it was made?! So, for insistence, at Wal-Mart a lot of tags would say "Made in a sweatshop by 3 year olds" or "Made in a filthy factory by a women who works 90 hours a week for $36 a month." Would you still shop there and buy the products? Why do you shop there now knowing that this is what happens? And it's NOT just Wal-Mart!! What about Disney? Ya know, Disney tries to make sure that every single child at Christmas time has a gift to open...providing they live in the states. How nice and thoughtful of them. But what about children and families that make the toys and clothes for Disney? How come they have to go to bed without food?? Well, we all know and have known the answer for a while. Slave labour!

"Disney repeatedly states that, despite vigorous and numerous attempts to investigate conditions, it can find no violations at its contractor plants in Haiti. The enclosed letter, to which we have received no formal reply, tells a different story..."
Read the letter by clicking HERE and scroll down that page just a little. It's worth reading, especially if you are a Disney supporter.

So, why do humans do the things they do even though we know the consequences? Well, I think it's one of 2 things, you just don't care (...which would mean, you suck), and the power of illusion, though it's up to you whether you want to fall for it or not. It's easy to point fingers and blame others for things that we clearly do ourselves, so just know that everyone is a culprit of this. And in the great words of Carl (from Ricky Gervais' podcasts), "do your bit". When something sounds to good to be true, it probably is, so research it. Google it! Stop turning a blind eye! And if you want your kids and grandkids to literally clean up after us, then keep filling those landfills with disposable products like, diapers, swiffers, dusters, pads and tampons. Someone WILL have to deal with it one day, maybe not you and maybe not today...

7 comments:

Gypsy Princessa said...

A gorgeous rant. Ghandi says "Be the change that you want to see."

I don't know what else to say...we've stopped buying many many things and are growing our own where possible. Sweat equity goes a loooooooooooong way.

We can't make people change the convenience of their lives, only change our own, share our new ways of living and hope they will see the light of day.

I realize with yourself about to become an Auntie that the diaper issue is probably massive for you. Had a chat with your sister yesterday. You might feel like your words fall on deaf ears but they don't entirely. She's thinking about what you've said. She's not entirely sure HOW to fix it, but you've given her something to think about. Cloth diapers in an apartment aren't exactly easy to do. We did cloth for a long time and I was doing laundry ALL the time (soap, water, machine energy, hydro....lots of resources used in cleaning them....) Just some things to consider in people's 'convenience' choices. The cost of the alternative to our landfills and lives though...HUGE.

Have you started your own Porch Garden? Tomatoes, herbs, spring onions, chives, green beans and peas would LOVE your porch! Just need some organic seeds, some dirt, a few pots and some water...away you go!!! Maybe your building could do a rooftop garden?

love you
xoxooxoxo

Heather Bays said...

Hey, Chrystal sent me a GREAT link about diapers! There's a 3 minute video to show you how to use the diapers. If you have a baby, seriously, check it out!! Even if you don't want to do cloth all the time, maybe when you're just hanging at home for the day. Owning a few of these would be great for that. They would be a great baby shower gift too!!

copy and paste:
http://allaboutclothdiapers.com/cloth-diapers-made-in-canada/

Jeff9 said...

Save money and the Earth and be clean at the same time! Get serious and add Bathroom Bidet Sprayers to all your bathrooms. I think Dr. Oz on Oprah said it best: "if you had pee or poop on your hand, you wouldn't wipe it off with paper, would you? You'd wash it off” Available at www.bathroomsprayers.com with these you won't even need toilet paper any more, just a towel to dry off! Don’t worry, you can still leave some out for guests and can even make it the soft stuff without felling guilty. Can be used to pre-rinse cloth diapers also. It's cheap and can be installed without a plumber; and runs off the same water line to your toilet. You'll probably pay for it in a few months of toilet paper savings. And after using one of these you won't know how you lasted all those years with wadded up handfuls of toilet paper. As for water use a drought is always a concern and must be dealt with prudently but please remember that in the big picture the industrial water users always far exceed the water use of household users and in the case of toilet paper manufacture it is huge. The pollution and significant power use from that manufacturing process also contributes to global warming so switching to a hand bidet sprayer and lowering your toilet paper use is very green in multiple ways. One review: http://jonathanandandrea.blogspot.com/2009/04/spray-it-or-scrub-it.html

Heather Bays said...

Jeff9, thanks for writing all that. At first I thought you were joking actually, lol. But, that's brilliant and I could imagine how much easier your life is having one of those and using cloth diapers. So easy to clean! I wonder how long it will take for people to catch on to something like this. I suppose its sorta like a hand held bidet, and they have been around for AGES! Before toilet paper! I am going to start passing on the word and see what reactions I get!
Thanks again!! And when I buy a house in the near future, I will for sure get one installed!

I am going to do research to see if I can find out how much water and hydro it takes to make and dispose of disposable diapers. Should be interesting.

Hey Fiona, we had a sunroom garden last year that was growing so nicely, but then when we returned from Folk Fest, it was all over the porch floor thanks to Catface. So sad. We will try again this year with a new stand so the cats can't get to it. I just can't wait to own a house and have a real garden!!! I wish more then anything that apartments would offer rooftop gardens. They could divide it into little plots and rent them out. I would LOVE that!

Jeff9 said...

Thank you Heather! Your open mind is very refreshing. Good luck on the house, Jeff

Rosemarie said...

I saw this on the AMP Diaper website. It looks like the hand held bidet that they're advertising for rinsing diapers:
http://www.ampdiaperstore.com/catalog.php?item=399

Jeff9 said...

Yes, that sprayer is like just one of the models at http://www.bathroomsprayers.com/ but they have a big selection and they're less expensive. They also have a better valve connector.