Conversations with the Telemarketer

Good afternoon. I'm calling to...(click).

Expectation and Sustainability

Expectation is anticipating with confidence of fulfillment. And that is a problem sometimes.

Say people in the modern age, if you work this amount a week, you really expect to be paid that much. But who says that is so, what makes this expectation acceptable. If you get more than the expected, you are happy. If you get less, you are not. Say a cleaner is given 5000 dollars a day. If that is the norm, then that is what is expected, if you pay less, say 4500, then people will be unhappy regardless. That may be an unreasonable example. Because if you pay me 4500, I would still be happy. But then you put it into perspective, and think of the days when there was serfs and lords. The serfs are basically treated like slaves. So, even though in modern terms one may see this as unfair, at the time it was perfectly accepted by both parties. So every increment above the serf's expectation provided by their lord would very much contribute to their happiness, be it just giving them extra food for they day or the like. So the point is, any point above the norm (where the norm is the accepted expectancy of a person) would provide happiness, and anything less than the norm would cause negative emotions to arise.

Of course to maintain the expectancy to remain the same, I believe all minimum requirements have to be met. That is shelter over a person's head, health cover, and ample food so as to not starve. That is living comfortably within one's means and the sense that one has earned it fair and square.

So that now builds into the modern expectancy. And as we know expectancy these days have gone though the roof. One now expects to be provided a good education, a comfortable life of no suffering, and all the luxuries of the world. It was not that long ago that things such as tv's and cars were luxuries. But that is now a norm. And again, now 1 car is not enough, a family has to have 2 or 3, just for convenience sake. It is only befitting because that is where society has shifted. When we live in a society that enables, this the expectation is you have that flexibility. Say for example this. In days when a family has one car, the family is not expected to be able to get to work on time, get the kids to wherever they need to be, and get all day to day things done in that space in time. It is accommodated that people have only one car and that they are restrained with this capacity. But now, as it is normal for families to have several cars, they are expected to have no excuse to be where they need to be. So the people who really cannot afford this, are again still expected to live within these new set of standards which society have set. And even if they now cannot achieve this, they would aspire to be rich enough to own several cars, as it is well within their reach. And if not them, their children will have this aspiration too. So as society evolves, the expectation of what is the norm and what they deserve is moving increasingly in this direction.

This is just one example of material expectation. Job wise, for instance executives might expect to get paid a certain amount because it is their entitlement. I believe this is not a concrete expectation and depends on place and time. Because a developed country would have a higher pay than a developing country, and also depending of the time period this will only keep on increasing due to inflation. And say now the major executives in multi million dollar companies. What makes them entitled to so much money in bonuses. And football players being paid millions for kicking a ball around. Is that 'fair'?

In terms of food consumption, this is also true. Meat used to be a luxury food item that can only be afforded by the rich. Now it is again an expectation that everyone has cheap access to this item. And this is now again causing serious problems.

So with all these examples, they are not borne of anything malicious but simply our desire to improve our quality of life and be more comfortable and happy. But some of these things are ironically producing adverse effects.

One main cause is the prices of items are not reflective of their true value. Say now you look at a shirt and it is only 5 dollars and made in China. How is this possible? Because of the low labour cost, and the full life cycle costs not taken into consideration. So there lies the problem. It may be that it is cheaper now, to have the things that we always wanted. But it may not be as cheap as it actually is. The rate of consumption is unnecessary, superfluous and unsustainable.

I go back to the point of getting what you should be paid. There can never be a 'right' solution to this because there are so many subjective factors in this matter. But there must be some semblance of control of what is acceptable. And with regards to material things, more steps should be taken to reflect fully the cost and impact of production. Sometimes we do not need to grow, and expand an have more. It should be more about reducing, or stabilizing while producing with the highest efficiency possible.

On an individual level, these unrealistic expectation should be redefined to fit what the real problem is. What we want are not 'better' and more things, or more choices and quantity of food, or anything else. What we want is more happiness. And the channeling of all energy into the material to achieve this is a pipe dream. You can never find true happiness with a nicer car, nicer clothes, better food etc. Certainly there is a bare minimum to what does cross the barrier between happy and sad. So a solution is this, redefining the expectation of what should and should not be, and redefining expectancy of what is really important in life.

Do you need a nice shiny car to be happy? Or is an old working car that has been in your family and shared plenty of memories with you more valuable. And for this to be sustainable, there needs to be a mechanism that supports costs for it to be feasible to keep an old car running for a long time as opposed to buying a new car every 5 years. Again this is because it is now cheaper to buy a new car than it is to repair a slightly damaged older car. And the reason is because the full cycle of cost involved is not totally accounted for in new cars.

We are a society conditioned to want more, strive for more, be happy when we have more. But I have tried to live this dream. And it does not make me happier, I have more things, but I do not truly appreciate them, because I expect to have them and there are just there because I should have them. And with increasing expectancy, consumption grows and grows, an unquenchable appetite. That brings us to the point of overconsumption where we are living beyond our means of sustainability where there is no real need for it. We just want more because we expect it and it is assumed to make us happier.

We need to dissociate material possessions with happiness. And that is difficult, even for me, because I am conditioned to believe this to be true. But I am at the point where, I get tired just seeing how much crap I have. And when I purchase unnecessary things, it is more an impulse and addiction than a purchase made out of pure requirement. It does not contribute in any way, except for the fact that I think it may make my life better. Does your fifth watch tick more accurate than the first? Why do you need 50 shirts? Well, of course the argument is because you look good and you must have that shirt to match those shoes, and you must have those shoes to match those shades, and so on and so forth. So that is again, conditioning of what is seen as a 'positive' in society. So what is it you really crave? It is acceptance in society and being viewed in a positive light by your peers? If the 'in' thing was wearing the most crummy clothes you have, everyone would then want to. That may be an extreme, but you get my point.

So a broad redefinition aim would be this. To live within one's means, and then try to reduce it further. Because what we are looking to do now, is not live with more but make do with less. I believe humanity is smarter than this. We are at the stage of our evolution that most basic creature comforts are covered and we do not require much more. So what we should be looking for now is rediscovering spirituality and our connection with one another, and of course happiness. We must live simply  and in appreciation and know that these are the real things that provide happiness.

Blood, Sweat and Takeaway ep3

Just finished watching episode 3 of Blood, Sweat and Takeaway. This time the Brits went to work in the rice fields in one of the poorest regions of rice farms in Thailand. They were to first pick the young rice plants then clear out the weeds then plant them back the next day. And all this had to be done in quickly because summer was approaching and if they do not do it in time, the rice fields will dry up and they would lose potential yields. The Brits roughly managed to do this but with a lot of struggle and in very tough conditions.

They were shown three houses for living. First one did not have a bathroom and they would have to just go in the wild. And there was also cow shit all over the bottom of the stilted house. So they looked at the second one, which was nothing better than just a shed, it had no door, only four posts and a roof over the top with a wooden floor. And the bathroom was shared with a few other houses. Then the last one was the most decent with a bathroom and clean space. They picked the last one although the rent was the highest because they just thought the first two was unbearable. On their first day of work, they did not work quickly enough and more local workers had to be called in and so were only paid half the amount. This they used all of it to buy food and could not pay rent and begged to pay rent the next day. Then the next day even with their full wages, most of it went to rent which was barely enough and they basically starved for that day. And on the third day, they worked at the rice processing plant and were for once able to catch up on their rent and have a decent meal.

But after that the harvesting season was over and they had no other way of getting any money to survive. Asking the locals, they found out the only way to survive was to do odd jobs which paid even worse, or go to Bangkok to find work. Some of the kids stay with their grandparents while their parents move to Bangkok to find work. And the parents usually only get to see their kids 2 days each a year during New Year and a Thai festival. Next leg of the series would see them go to Bangkok to experience the work these poor farmers go to, for work.

There was a preview of this and it is really not the Bangkok people see on holidays. They would be living in a slum area and doing the worst jobs imaginable...

I was very humbled after seeing this episode especially. The field workers work really hard and it still is not enough. I always had the belief that if I work really hard, I would be duly rewarded. With that comes an expectation that I SHOULD be rewarded. But for these people, even if they work really hard they could only barely make it to survive, for a shelter over their head and food to eat. So in truth, what people deserve is only in their head. If it is enough for me to live comfortably, it is enough and I would count my blessings.

Also, by comparison there has been a niggling feeling in me that I could be earning so much more working in engineering industry rather than doing PhD. But now I am just happy that I do make more than I need to live by. I appreciate things like having a roof over my head and never ever going hungry. There is always a superfluous of food. And where does that come from? These poor people working for their lives. It has just grounded me really, and not take for granted anything I have. The clean air I breathe, the food I have to eat and the soft bed I have to sleep on at night.

It is good and all that I feel this now, but I find by next week the feeling usually dies off and I am pretty much back to my ignorant self. Well maybe not ignorant, but I do not feel as much affected by the issue anymore but certainly I do care. I feel the only way I can understand them is to walk a mile in their shoes. And I think after my Phd I would perhaps like to go volunteer for Engineers Without Borders and go to a developing country to help them out. But now all I can think of doing is donating more to organizations like Kiva. I think just stop buying things beyond my means. I do not think boycotting would be much help as other people will still buy these food products anyways. And that is the system in place, in those countries. Boycotting would be a negative choice of action. Donating to Kiva would provide them with the means to improve their standard of living and so better their lives independently. It hopefully would generate more wealth in their countries and create a more decent living. Hopefully I can continue to be more appreciative of what I have, and what I can give back to the world.

Love, Sweat and Takeaway ep1

Watched a show entitled above, about how food is produced that we can get to buy it at such low prices in the supermarket. So the show sends a couple of UK youths to South East Asia to see how these food are produced. First episode was to send them to Indonesia to see how tuna is processed. The girls are sent to the tuna processing factory where the fish gets gutted, descaled deboned, cooked and packaged. And it's very tough working there. Their work day do not end until all the tuna caught for the day has gone through the whole process until it's packed. And they only get 1 break the whole day. And when they're working, they basically do the jobs of machines.

So the guys of the group were sent with the fisherman to see how the tuna is caught. They board the tiny ship which will go 100 miles out into the open sea. That trip takes about 12 hours. They sleep in really cramped spaces, about the size of a casket for each of the person. Then when they get there, they fish. When they have found some tuna, it take less than half an hour to fish out 7 tonnes of tuna using quite traditional methods using lines and hooks and bait. 7 tonnes! Impressive. Then after that they make for shore again and that is another 12 hour trip!! So in total that took them about 36 hours. And when they got back to shore to drop of the UK guys, the boat actually head out again for another round which would again take 36 hours! That is just so crazy, very tough.

Back to the UK girls at the factory. End of the day, and they get paid. They get the equivalent of 3 pounds each, for the entire day! So they go to the shops and buy some bread and jam, and some chocolate and sweet things. Because pretty much that is all they can afford. And bring it back to the worker's hostel and share it with the line manager which took them in for their stay there. And they also gave the line manager the extra money that they had made. And I found that moment quite touching, that those UK girls would actually do that. And when the manager got the money, she actually wept, because that money is very hard to come by even for her as the line manager at the factory. She actually lives at the hostel away from her kids who are at the other town with her mother in law. And she could only afford to visit her children once a week because the the travel fare was expensive for what she was making. Furthermore, her husband was working on another island in the mines and hardly ever see the family. So they are so poor they could not even live as a proper family. That was just way too harsh.

I watched this series just now after coming home from work. I worked from 8.30 to about 6pm and I already felt really tired. But after watching that show, I just have to count my blessings and be happy that I have a job that pays quite well! Stop complaining about how much work I have, just be happy that I DO have work and I am paid well for it.

Also, I've resolved to loan more and more often on Kiva. It's a really good cause that loans money to people in poor countries and help improve their standard of living. I mean I keep thinking that I want that nice shirt, or that cool guitar, or a nice car. But I do have these things already, maybe not as nice or shiny, but it's functional. Also, I don't have to buy so much junk food or anything, I can still make it. Eating out every day is not really necessary. I've decided that I have enough, and I don't need much more. And there are plenty of people who do not have what I have, my standard of living. So anything I can spare I would absolutely loan out at Kiva.

I applaud the makers of this show to bring some awareness to how things are. It surely made me more aware and less ignorant, and I'm sure plenty of other people also.

Planet Sustainability

Inspired by The Story of Stuff

Go read the papers and what the Greenies/environmentalists are saying, our planet is all going to shit. Why? Because we're over consuming and living beyond our means. I guess that's true. I mean I buy all this stuff I don't really need, just feels nice to have them. For instance, I got 4 guitars, do I really need 4? Not really, Seeing I'm not that good in the first place. And shoes, I got so many pairs. Do I really need that many? Not really.

So here's what I say to myself, stop buying crap!!!! I say that to myself a lot, but still I do. buy lots of crap. Well, I'll try to stop now. Cos every time I buy more crap it makes me feel even crappier, than before. Well, it's alright if stuff make me happy. But it don't it seriously don't, so I'll stop buying stuff, make do with what I have, and only buy what I need. I'd wear my clothes till it wears out, just get one or 2 nice things after this lot can't be used. I'm sick of having stuff.

So here's the thing, we need to change our culture of stuff. Have less stuff, you'll be happier. You do not 60 shirts and say to yourself, I have nothing to wear. Have 10 nice shirts, and be happy. I'll stop buying now. Because I do not need it. If there is an empty slot in the cupboard, or an empty space on my shelf, it needs not be filled with junk. I hope the amount of stuff I have gets less, and the amount of life I experience increases.

Gay Discrimination

Just watched the Colbert Report, interview with New York Times columnist Jon Mooallem. The topic of discussion was gay animals, that it recent research into animal behavior have shown lots of species of animals have same sex sexual activities. And that brought about the discussion of whether discrimination against gay people because one popular argument is that being gay is unnatural. So if animals are doing it, that throws that argument out the window.

Jon Mooallem then says that talking point could easily be altered given that the proof that animals do have same sex behavior. The argument can then be that surely humans are intelligent creatures and wild animals are not. So what gay people are doing is an abomination, behaving like animals.

With regards to both these arguments, we should not be looking for validation from animals whether gay right or wrong. Humans indeed are more intelligent being and we do things that animals cannot. So if it is how people are, why is it wrong to be straight or gay? I guess it could be argued that gay people cannot reproduce by conventional means. And I have no argument for that, it seems unnatural in that sense. This is the only physiological aspect I can think of that would support that argument.

I myself believe being gay is natural in that you cannot choose to be gay or straight, it is who you are. Being straight does not mean you are a better person than a gay person. Neither does it mean if you are gay you are any better than a straight person. It is certainly part of your identity but it is no measure of morality. If a gay person cheats, it is still cheating.

If say one child was raised by caring loving gay parents, and another by abusive a conventional (1 father 1 mother) family, which is better? Or vice versa? I believe the only important words in that question is caring loving, and abusive. Generalizing and discriminating on sexual orientation is ridiculous.