Since I was born in America I never really appreciated all the resources available to me until I visited my country Pakistan. There I saw what people go through just to get through their daily lives. Water, which is probably the most essential in our lives, is very scarce in many areas. Women would bring buckets, fill them with water, and then carry them back to their homes on their head. Power shortage is also another problem faced by people there. In the warm weather (and I mean warm like 120 degrees F) the electric would go out because the system does not support all the load of the air conditioners being used. Imagine sitting in a room boiling hot without even a fan!
In the Story of Stuff Annie points out what wasteful spenders we are. This is very true I believe. As for the people in Pakistan, I don’t believe this is so. The majority of the people’s income is average to low and they cannot afford to buy for pleasure. Many of the things in Pakistan are either produced locally or imported from China, their next door neighbors. However, there is child labor involved in all this so this is not a good way to produce items.
I would also say that the use of plastic is also quite limited. This is because most of the products are brought on a day to day basis. For example, the milkman would come in a bicycle and pour the milk into a pot (and yes the milk is fresh and unpasteurized, so it must be boiled immediately so it won’t spoil). Secondly, much of the food purchased is given out in small sandwhich type of bags, not big plastic containers like here. Also, other products such as i-pods, clothing dryers, heaters, are not very commonly found. People still dry their clothes on a clothes line and listen to music on tape recorders.
I totally agree with Annie that we have become a machine. With more and more advancements we desire more and better all the time. We don’t even have time to do simple things in life. Yes, I do spend a lot of time watching t.v. and using the computer. I’m really beginning to think if all the technology in America is good or not. I am not saying that Pakistan is bad but it is not as developed as America is. Maybe that is better because if we were like the people in Pakistan we wouldn’t waste so much and would contribute less to global warming.
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4 comments:
For me, an important part of the evil comes from the fact that companies are making things easy to break so that we have to buy replacements; they are, in effect, selling us junk and they know it. THAT has to stop.
When you visit third world countries you learn to appreciate small things in life. For us, water is everywhere and not as important as it is in Pakistan. For us to realize that, we need to travel and see for ourselves.
I too think that if people have less, they will appreciate more of what they have in life. Every country wants to be like America and that’s a good but at the same time bad because of all the things that America is doing to contribute to global warming. I like living in America because of all the opportunities and things that are here but if that means hurting Earth, than I am sure I can manage without the unnecessary things in life.
I too came from a third world country and am amazed how people make do with what little they have. The country I am from the power also goes out people usually keep water in drums so they will have water when the water goes off. I think in America we waste because there is more resources availabe. I believe in America we have too many choices and sometimes that can be bad for the environment.
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