Last night, I met someone who produces no waste. Now, you could quibble over the technicalities—in an obvious biological sense, we all make some waste—but I was still impressed. She eschewed all food that came in disposal containers, bought things in packaging only if she could reuse it, and got all of her clothes second-hand.… Continue reading The 90% Rule
The story of the last two months has been one of finding places for things. It started when I began packing to leave Oxford, attempting to cajole my worldly possessions into fitting in two duffel bags. Looking into the closets and storage spaces of my college-owned graduate house, I realized that many international students had… Continue reading Outfitting My Room: Bargain Shopping for Anti-Consumerists
At the start of June, the New York Times published a piece by Jake Halpern called “The Freegan Establishment” on a group of radicals near-and-dear to my heart. While some might be less-than-enthusiastic about being the person that comes to mind when the issue of eating trash comes up, I was quite flatterd to have… Continue reading Not (Quite) Buying It
“We could live off of dumpsters if we have to Sell our blood by the pint to make rent This kind of dignity doesn’t come easy But you’ll never find it for sale” – Against Me! One of the things that surprised me in Uganda was that there were no beggars. I expected Kampala, the… Continue reading Indulgences
For the past three years, I haven’t asked for anything for Christmas. Partly, this is just an inevitable consequence of gradually maturing beyond the age where the prospect of a gigantic Lego set is enough to keep me up on Christmas Eve. In part, though, it’s also because I’ve consciously been rejecting the idea of… Continue reading Desert Island
There are a few questions that seem to get asked at every single animal rights event I’ve ever been to, in spite of their complete inanity. At the end of any lecture by a vegan philosopher, it’s inevitably that some carnivore with raise their hand and smugly—as if they had come up with an idea… Continue reading On “Happy Meat”
So, here are some research findings with interesting implications for contemporary policy debates in the U.S.: Kenyans—despite living in a country with nine times the infant mortality rate of the United States and living twenty-two fewer years—report being as satisfied with their health care system as Americans are. Afghanis, for their part, are part of… Continue reading Smile! At least you’re poor!
While the anthropologist in me knows I shouldn’t say this, there are some things in foreign countries that just suck. In Uganda, it was cardboard boxes: they were just objectively horrible, fallilng apart as soon as you put something in them (begging the question: what is the purpose of a cardboard box in which you… Continue reading Cultural Exchange
Here is a short list of things in Uganda which suck: Bread. Cardboard boxes. Pens. Ketchup. It’s not complete. There are a lot of things here that suck, actually. The fact that children here die of easily preventable diseases, for example, sucks. The predicament of adults who planted coffee because some Mzungu researcher told them… Continue reading Piece of Crap
Alex V. Barnard - Sociology 