Archive for November, 2008

Global Financial Crisis

November 30, 2008 · Filed under ethics, politics, voluntary simplicity

I notice that governments are going to borrow money to prop up our economies.   Am I the only one who is struggling to make sense of this?   Firstly, I have only a rudimentary understanding of Keynesian economics (and I don’t belong to the ‘budget deficit = bad’ school), but if *everyone* is borrowing at the same time, then who are they borrowing from?  I can only assume from the graphics on the news that the US are actually just printing more money - in the manner of failed dictatorships everywhere.  Essentially they are borrowing money from future generations, and some future government will have the unpleasant task of withdrawing the $1.5 trillion from the economy.  Perhaps if hyperinflation kicks in, it won’t hurt so bad.

Secondly, isn’t a large part of the problem that we in the west have all been living above our means….. spending money we don’t yet have?  Here is a moment in time where perhaps we can use people’s renewed sense of caution, and start to shift from a consumer economy to a conserver economy.   Let’s not waste a crisis……  let’s do things differently.  If you take the view that every dollar spent represents roughly one unit of embedded resources and energy used, then here is a chance for us to spend less dollars, and thereby use less resources and energy!   I’m as guilty as the next person of dithering around trying to make an “ethical” purchase….. fair trade? organic?  non-sweatshop? earth-friendly? second hand? durable?  The hard truth is that in many cases the most ethical choice is not to buy anything at all. 

If you spend less money, you won’t have to work so much…. and hey presto!  You might have created a part time job and income for someone else!

It’s just depressing to see the lack of imagination around when all the Australian government can come up with is to spend more money – to make up for the money that consumers aren’t going to spend!   The problem isn’t that there “isn’t enough money out there” – the problem is that the money isn’t well distributed.  Damn right we need to “spread the wealth around!”   In this dog eat dog world, everyone feels they need their own piece of the pie, because no one can trust that anyone else will share.  What about investing in some truly sustainable resources – like community spirit?

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One gorgeous chick!!

November 28, 2008 · Filed under being present, parenting

The incubator is due back this Monday, and the only days I was able to return it was Thursday or Monday.  I had given up all hope for these eggs, and my plan was to buy some chicks from the place where I had hired the incubator.  So Thursday morning I was packing it up, when an egg cheeped at me!!  A huge grin spread across my face and I quickly put the eggs back.  I grabbed T, and as we sat watching the eggs, they cheeped, and one of them rolled around!!

Subsequently there was no action at all, and P was of the view that we must have heard birds outside.  This morning we awoke to one gorgeous yellow chick.

I feel humbled that I was so hasty.  That I, 13 days overdue with my second baby, managed to avoid hospital and still have my beautiful planned homebirth, should try to rush nature.   It’s the same hope you get when you see a weed pushing it’s way through the concrete.  Life will out.

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Updates

November 26, 2008 · Filed under Uncategorized

Well, the chicks were due yesterday, and there is no action happening at all.  A friend advised that thunderstorms can sometimes impact on chicks in eggs.   Who knows all the things that could go wrong?  If we have failed in our henly duties, then when we return the incubator I will pick up some chicks at the same time.  The question is, will we take our scientific enquiry further and open the eggs to see what has happened??  I’m not sure my stomach is strong enough.  I’ll give it another couple of days.

The garden is going gangbusters-  there has been one advantage to the recent rains.  Yesterday I staked up the tomatoes and they are starting to fruit – yay!  We also have snowpeas ready to harvest – but not as many as I hoped.

Two tadpoles now have back legs, and seem to have survived their “outings” on Monday, when friends came over and had fun catching them again.  I was somewhat concerned……  I was happy that the pond was substituting for the natural bubbly creek that doesn’t run through the back yard, but also worried that we were going to love them to death.

I have been immersing myself in adoption readings, and at some point will try to write a pithy summary of my findings and ethical conclusions in this regard.  (One word summary:  fraught.)  However, I can advise that Australia only accepts orphans from countries that have signed up to the Hague Convention on the Protection of Children and Co-operation in Respect of Intercountry Adoption  (Funnily enough, many war-torn poverty-stricken nations haven’t got around to signing up yet.)   This is intended to provide assurance that we are only accepting genuine orphans and are not contributing in any way to a “baby market”.  All to the good. 

So, Western Australians can apply to adopt children from Ethiopia, China, Thailand, Korea, Hong Kong, India, Sri Lanka, Taiwan and the Phillipines.     We are too old for Ethiopia and probably Thailand, our income is too low for China and Thailand, we’re probably not Christian enough for the Phillipines, and both Thailand and the Phillipines preference childless couples.   So far it appears that we would only be acceptable to Korea – at this discovery my heart lifted and my mind went riffing off to all the Korean cultural and language studies we would need to do – and two minutes later I unearthed the fact that Korea is not currently accepting applications.

Anyway, I’m not sure where all this investigating is going to lead, but for some reason that is not yet clear to me I am like a dog with a bone and am determined to take this to some kind of conclusion.  If we decide not to proceed, then at least I will know that we did look into it, and can articulate our reasons for deciding that this was not right for us (I hope!).  It may also be a part of my process of coming to terms with the fact that no more children will be coming into my life.  At any rate,  I have spoken to the relevant department here, and they are going to send us the application forms, and if we decide to take the first step we will be scheduled to attend the initial seminar in March.

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21st Century Book Burner

November 24, 2008 · Filed under parenting, unschooling

Last night I removed the DVD/Video player, and this morning I advised T & J that it was “broken”.  This follows an episode during the week where I literally ripped up a video tape that J had wanted played on a never-ending loop, which was then also “broken”.

I’m like the little boy at the dyke, desperately trying to stop the tsunami of western popular culture swamping our family life and values.

T did not discover television until sometime after age two.  We then went through various manoeuvrings trying to find the right balance of “screen time” with other activities.  This included stages of me being heavily influenced by a radical unschooling perspective, whereby I felt if I allowed him to do what he wanted, and if everything was freely available, he would eventually find the right balance, and other stages of believing that too much screen time was unhealthy and intervening/limiting the amount.  By age five we had come to a level I could live with.  Basically Tom had accepted the theory of “limited screen time” and elected to watch ABC kids from 3.00pm.  He would decide when to turn it off, and made different choices depending on what programs were showing.

Then along came J.  Until about 2 months ago he was pretty oblivious to the lure of television.  While T was watching, it might capture his attention for a minute, but that was all.  Then suddenly he was into it in a big way.   He was really introduced to “children’s videos” while we were on holiday for a week, and he was hooked.  He wanted the same show again and again and again.  It was the first thing he thought of in the morning, and at any moment while at home it would occur to him again that he would like to watch ”wally” or the  ”funny races”. 

My response varied from guilty relief that he was happily occupied so I could get on with something else, to tearing my hair out that he couldn’t think of anything else.  The killer was that as soon as I turned something on for J, T would then be mesmerised by the screen as well.  The “radical unschooling” approach with TV just wasn’t working with two children at the same time, as too often when one chose to watch, the other was drawn into it, even though they had been happily occupied with something else moments before.  One would be finished and turn it off – the other would howl with protest and turn it back on, and the first would be re-mesmerised again!

I don’t keep “treat food” in the house because I don’t want my kids to eat it, and I REALLY don’t want to be engaged in on-going negotiations about when/how much of it they can eat.  If anyone wants a “treat” that badly they either have to go to the shop, or they have to make it.  We have been a TV-free house in the past – and this would be the best solution to the current dilemma.   However, getting rid of the DVD is a pretty good start, as our old analogue non-Foxtel TV is mostly not showing anything that the kids want to watch.

***Surprisingly, when told that the DVD had broken T skipped into the garden & fashioned a lute from a piece of driftwood. J chose to immerse himself in the works of Chomski.

P declared he would devote his tv devoid life  to shadow puppetry.

I think I’ll start knitting a peace blanket with navel lint,& I must fix that hole in my shoe that’s letting in water***

The above asterixed items were written by P while I was otherwised engaged.  I’m not sure I can improve on those……  you get the drift.

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On Blogging 3

November 24, 2008 · Filed under blogging

P has critiqued my blog as “too Enid Blyton”.   I’m not sure whether to apologise for having a pretty nice life, start to whinge about stuff, or develop a here-to-fore undisclosed, gritty dark side.

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Fruitful Daze

November 20, 2008 · Filed under cooking, gardening

Yesterday T and friends raided the mulberry tree over the back fence.  Berries everywhere!  I think my clothes are irretrievably stained, and I have a trail of purple splotches through the house, but who could mind?  It’s like one of those old-fashioned tales of childhood.

At the supermarket T was keen to buy a whole watermelon.  “Do you like watermelon?” I double-checked.  “Yes”.  So we bought this huge heavy green melon.  What a luxury!  Who wants those pitiful plastic-wrapped segments?  Not us!

This morning we were keen to cut it open.  It was perfect, dark pink, dripping juice.  Yum!  I started serving pieces, when T advised me “Mum, I don’t like watermelon”.    No, I didn’t think so.  He has obviously acquired some sense of the social niceties, as he did feel obliged to eat a small amount.  We had fun singing the watermelon song.  I can report that we have an enormous surplus of watermelon.  I’ve cut up segments, and blended loads into juice, and am contemplating freezing more into ice cubes.   I need a cocktail drinker to turn up with their vodka!

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A gift from the heavens

November 19, 2008 · Filed under being present, gardening

I should be in bed but I have been up worshipping the rain.  It smells SO GOOD.  I’m like a farmer – so happy for my little crops!  I didn’t know it was going to rain, so it is like a double blessing.  I had almost watered tonight – now I’m so glad I waited.

At our old house you could see the weather coming.  Even on a bright clear day, I could announce with uncanny accuracy that it was going to rain, because the ocean would start running from the north west, rather than the south west.  This is a meterological phenomenon that I can’t explain.  My dad put me onto it, and it was pretty much always right, though the arrival of the rain could vary from one hour to one day.   

We would be able to watch the rain cross the ocean towards us.  First a few drops, then more, then the downpour.   After some of those stinking hot days T & I would have nude showers in the rain at night - the thank you dance!  P would watch and laugh that the neighbours could probably see us.   When you’re troppo with the heat you don’t care.

It’s not hot enough to do the thank you dance tonight – I was appreciative from the doorway.

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Meditations on an egg

November 17, 2008 · Filed under cooking, ethics, gardening

I am currently experiencing some cognitive dissonance, as in one part of the kitchen I carefully rotate my eggs in their incubator, while over at the stove I crack them open for cooking and eating.   Last night I had a bad dream that my incubator eggs were dropped and cracked and I saw the dead chicks inside.

I am forced to contemplate what I am actually eating.  I have a (non-vegetarian) friend who refuses to eat eggs as they are “ovulation”.  Hmmm.  I don’t want to have to give up eggs! Whenever I have an inward twinge about not feeding my kids meat, I think, “at least they eat eggs!!”  Plus, one of my most satisfying meals is when I make a quiche of home-made pastry, filled with garden greens and home-laid eggs.

I think eggs are in our diet to stay, and I salve my conscience with the fact that they aren’t fertilised, and that it is a very local part of our diet.

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Garden Update: November 2008

November 17, 2008 · Filed under gardening

I was very proud of my first vege garden here at the new place, but that sort of came to a dusty end as the paving went in.  I am now working on the more permanent arrangement.  Due to a lack of time and organisation I haven’t ordered seeds this spring, so on the weekend I went on an indulgent spree at the nursery and bought loads of seedlings – plus some grapevines, a kaffir lime and a tamarillo.  I am now bunging the seedlings in pretty much randomly – with no regard to companion planting or maturation dates, let alone lunar cycles!  Better something than nothing!  I figure the chook tractor won’t be in operation for at least three months.  Once it is, I’ll have to get better organised with groupings.  So, it currently looks like a sort of french kitchen garden, with neat rows of seedlings.  But in the border, where P threw a load of compost, things are quite exciting – with self sown radishes, potatoes and pumpkins.  The kids love harvesting stuff for dinner (so do I) even though T will still only nibble on the edge of a green leaf.

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On Blogging 2

November 15, 2008 · Filed under blogging

“I’m curious.  What is the purpose of your blog?”  A pertinent question I struggled to answer.  “I like writing” seems insufficient.  It’s not private, so it’s not as therapeutic as a journal.  On further reflection I have come to two additional, somewhat sad, reasons.  Firstly, there must be a level of vanity, that I have something worthwhile to say.  Secondly, I think it’s perhaps a reflection of loneliness – in that I don’t have as many opportunities for the types of conversation that I would like to have.   Perils of being a freak.

It’s like a conversation with myself, or a conversation starter with a potential reader.

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