Am devouring The Story of Stuff book by Annie Leonard!
She has shown how many Americans are stuck unconsciously in what she calls the 'work-watch(TV/ad)-spend' threadmill. The American way of over-consumption is unsustainable for Earth in the soon future.
Yet, i am sure many who has watched her video and read the book can identify that this is no longer the 'privilege' of Americans, but also the case in Asia - in Singapore, Korea, Japan....and the upcoming China (with its mega population and the new 'rich'!)
Even though Singapore is known to be 'Clean and Green', but sometimes it scares me that our favourite pastime is shopping - large football field-sized shopping malls opening up at every nook and cranny of 'heartland' housing estates of this tiny litle island. I grow up in this culture too, and the need for Stuff seemed to be so engrained into our DNA... the book is a timely reminder for me to be more conscious about how so often, shopping has become the pacifier for that insidious background hum of emptiness, insecurity and spiritual-poverty of the many of us who are fortunate enough to be staying in Singapore.
i am very grateful that because of the changes in my worklife and things that happened in my family the last 2 years, i have come to treasure the valuable time with loved ones and being alone doing the things i love - over meaningless walking in malls and spending hard-earned money on things that bring us only short-term pleasure, but not happiness.
I have also come to know passionate individuals who spend their free-time doing art, or weekends cleaning up the coasts, documenting the biodiversity of Singapore or saving horseshoe crabs trapped in fishing nets in our last remaining mangroves.
Voluntary simplicity is taken up by more and more people around the world, its not about living in poverty or harsh abstinence - but conscious living based on our love for the environment and fulfilling our needs, not greed.
Check out the goodguide on our our everyday choices as consumers can change the way the products are made and our impact on the environment.
To be able to walk on this planet is a miracle. Lets remember to be grateful for the air, water and nature surrounding and sustaining us everyday : )
1 comments:
It's called consumerism... Which is inevitably linked to capitalism, generation of wealth etc. It's wants vs needs. Just like when pple talk abt the huge number of apps available to iPhone users. Have they thought about how many they really need?
The same thing goes for buying things. How much of what do we really need? I already have a laptop, do I need a tablet?
"The World has enough to fulfil all our needs but not our greed."
- Mahatma Gandhi
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