Thursday we watched the documentary Manufactured Landscapes. In the film, there were many scenes of workers in countries such as China and Bangladesh. Of these, there were several scenes of factory workers assembling small pieces for things that I assume we must use here in North America--or at least benefit from the use of. I was totally astounded by the speed of the workers hands--it was so amazing watching them work. I guess if you're doing something hundreds of time a day eventually you just develop muscle memory and don't even have to think about the movements that you're making.
Whenever I examine something with tiny parts, or that looks like it would be hard to put together, I try to tell myself that it was mostly made by machines, and maybe sometimes that's true, but chances are that many times it is not. A lot of the things that we buy and use in North America come from China and other countries where they are assembled in sweat shops by people working in not-ideal conditions, and for very little pay, who have no other options.
I have to get a new battery for my computer soon, and as I watched all the scenes of workers taking apart and processing e-waste I thought about how my old battery would probably end up in one of those places, contributing to the pollution of the water and the health risks of the workers.
Various workers in various factories in some far off country probably sat crouched over work tables assembling all the different tiny pieces of my computer, and my old battery will soon be being taken apart and disposed of by workers in similar conditions, risking their health and the health of their communities...all so that I can take notes during lectures and type up my essays and stay in touch with my family.
This all got me thinking about wastefulness, and how we usually recycle things, we kind of try and reduce, but I don't think we re-use enough. When something breaks, or starts to wear down, I find people often just throw it away and get something new instead of trying to fix it or make something out of it. I know more people here in Sackville than I have anywhere else who have more of a tendency to re-use old things, and that's great. I think we need to keep encouraging it, though, and think of new ways to do it, acquire new skills, etc. As well, I think we really need to educate ourselves more about where we can go to purchase ethically made things. I think when we hear about issues like these we feel overwhelmed because we are each only one person (yes, I know, this has been said a thousand times, but bear with me), and sometimes it seems we are being asked to overhaul our entire lives overnight--but I don't think that's how it must be done. I think if we start small we can slowly change the way we live our lives to leave less of a negative footprint on the world. Some people do go out and change their whole lives for these reasons, and that is amazing and inspiring, but for those of use who feel too overwhelmed by all the information to do that, maybe we can start small and work our way up, making sense of smaller bits of information as we go.
Whenever I examine something with tiny parts, or that looks like it would be hard to put together, I try to tell myself that it was mostly made by machines, and maybe sometimes that's true, but chances are that many times it is not. A lot of the things that we buy and use in North America come from China and other countries where they are assembled in sweat shops by people working in not-ideal conditions, and for very little pay, who have no other options.
I have to get a new battery for my computer soon, and as I watched all the scenes of workers taking apart and processing e-waste I thought about how my old battery would probably end up in one of those places, contributing to the pollution of the water and the health risks of the workers.
Various workers in various factories in some far off country probably sat crouched over work tables assembling all the different tiny pieces of my computer, and my old battery will soon be being taken apart and disposed of by workers in similar conditions, risking their health and the health of their communities...all so that I can take notes during lectures and type up my essays and stay in touch with my family.
This all got me thinking about wastefulness, and how we usually recycle things, we kind of try and reduce, but I don't think we re-use enough. When something breaks, or starts to wear down, I find people often just throw it away and get something new instead of trying to fix it or make something out of it. I know more people here in Sackville than I have anywhere else who have more of a tendency to re-use old things, and that's great. I think we need to keep encouraging it, though, and think of new ways to do it, acquire new skills, etc. As well, I think we really need to educate ourselves more about where we can go to purchase ethically made things. I think when we hear about issues like these we feel overwhelmed because we are each only one person (yes, I know, this has been said a thousand times, but bear with me), and sometimes it seems we are being asked to overhaul our entire lives overnight--but I don't think that's how it must be done. I think if we start small we can slowly change the way we live our lives to leave less of a negative footprint on the world. Some people do go out and change their whole lives for these reasons, and that is amazing and inspiring, but for those of use who feel too overwhelmed by all the information to do that, maybe we can start small and work our way up, making sense of smaller bits of information as we go.
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