Revising an old Christmas Theme – Buy Nothing Christmas

[It's been ages since I've written on my blog but I'm back for good]

As Christmas approaches the overwhelming amount of spending in malls, shops, and other places around Canada will start to increase. Consumerism and good marketing has lead us to believe that Christmas consists of a Christmas tree, decorations, and gifts under the tree. It sounds really beautiful but elements of it aren’t as pretty as we’d like to think…

Rich and Poor

There is a massive division between the rich and poor in our country. As Christmas and good advertising ramps up it only further divides these people further. Parents of poorer families want to provide the same level of ‘giving’ to their children as the other families around them. But if you are working a job that pays $6 – $10 / hr and you are barely affording to pay your rent, electricity and food it would be pretty impossible to provide that much more.

Gifts gifts gifts

One of the bigger issues that I struggle with on a regular basis is where the ’stuff’ that I buy comes from. Were the products manufactured in a safe, healthy, fair-waged environment? Or was is produced using sweatshop labour so that I could save $5 more? To me this principal in itself breaks the original concept of Christmas (from it’s Christian roots) about helping poor people that have nothing. In this case the gifts we are giving actually perpetuate some of this oppression.

Free yourself

This year my family and I are exchanging gifts that are all hand-made – nothing purchased. One thing that makes me feel exciting about this is that it fuels my ability to encourage creativity, newness, and give something that I put a lot of love and attention into. For someone that I really care about. The sky is the limit with the kinds of things that you could make!

Growing Movement

There is a growing movement of people who are really focussing on bringing back the power of the consumer by participating in events like Buy Nothing Day or Buy Nothing Christmas. People are becoming more and more passionate about the choices they have when it comes to buying things. Not to mention the fact that ultimately it’s a choice rather than an obligation as most advertisers would have you feel.

For me it’s also important not to be judgemental of others exchanging gifts as that ultimately is other peoples choice to make. But for me I want to have more control over the choices I’m making in my life – rather than being influenced by a corporation.

So get out there and start making some creative gifts!

Breakfeast for many @ Etat d’urgence – ATSA

“If we view society as a physical organism, there are clearly parts of this organism that are in dire neglect. For to leave one’s own, here and elsewhere, without shelter, without food, without love… is not very hygienic.

Without downplaying the seriousness of the H1N1 threat to many, we have to realize the disproportionate media coverage and financial investment thrown at fighting a potential pandemic, compared to that directed at the eradication of a flagrant problem which is killing thousands of people each day through hunger, insalubrity, violence, and so on. Not to mention the paranoia and fear which form the face of such coverage. Not very hygienic…” – Etat d’urgance

Every year an urban village was created in downtown area of Montreal to provide an eclectic space for homeless people of Montreal to receive support through food, free clothing, warm shelter, music, arts, and other programming.

My shift started at 7 AM in the morning on Sunday, November 29th – the last day of the festival – after 450 volunteers had managed to help pull off the entire shift by working around the clock to support the people at the village.

Throughout the entire week chefs came from various restaurants to prepare amazing food for the people living in the village. One mornings breakfast included salmon, oysters, eggs, croissants, and fruit. A feast for the kings and queens of the street.

To help out I carried most of the food being prepared by the chefs into the serving area, as well as refilling the coffee machines when they ran out. The entire experience was humbling – to realise that on a regular basis there are people on the street that don’t have the safe luxuries that I do. That most of the time don’t get to choose what they can and can’t eat. It was humbling to realise that after refilling the coffee machine 6-7 times we had essentially served probably over 600-700 people.

The chef that I worked with had an amazing story about having come from a war torn country. Seeing and experiencing threats of this magnitude changes a person I expect. For the last two years he has been contributing to this village through his amazing cooking abilities. He had gotten up at 2 AM in the morning to start preparing the trays of potatoes and sausages to be served. If that wasn’t impressive enough he had been cracking eggs to fill two gallon buckets for the meal.That’s serious dedication towards providing something as beautiful as food for people in need.

On a side note it was also really exciting to see ATSA’s mandate to lower their ecological footprint by recycling and composting all of the waste that was generated. Helping the people and helping the environment – that’s the kinda world that I want to live in.

The Art of a Sustainable Festival

Being part of the pack-down crew at Peats Ridge music festival has a lot more work involved then one would imagine. A lot more than I had imagined.

The idea behind this New Years festival is to be sustainable while providing art, music, and workshops. As they’re website states, “a major part of the Peats Ridge experience is finding out how to live more sustainably, and therefore reduce our impact on the beautiful Glenworth Valley, and the planet as a whole.”

One way in which this is achieved is by composting all the food waste – minus meat – in massive built up compost bins created by yours truly. During the day we separated the paper material like cups, plates, and cutlery from the food waste that were all deposited into the compost bins. The paper material is then shredded (including waste boxes laying around the festival) and is used as a brown layer between the compost. It’s a great way to ensure that a mix of green and browns is evenly distributed to the compost. It’s also an amazing way to divert such a large quantity of food waste that is left around after 5000 people eat at a festival. Go team compost!

Calgary Folk Festival takes the approach of providing plastic plates that require a $5 deposit for use. Each vendor is required to use the plates which are obtained at a kiosk. Ironically, each year youth end up making a killing by walking around the beer gardens offering to “remove” plates from the drunken patrons. Combining both options seems like a more optimal and sustainable approach as you are not creating more demand for paper products. Thus further reducing teh festivals ecological imprint.

“Can you guys come over to the festival vendors bin to help out?” – why not I thought. When we arrived at this massive garbage bin provided for the food vendors it was filled with food. Around the base of the bin there was mounds and mounds of corn. Apparently, a vendor was not as successful as they had figured they would be to hungry festival goers. Instead they determined it was more economical to throw away the corn, 5 KG of pinto beans, a box of ginger, boxes of uncooked Turkish bread, and 4 x 20 KG bags of potatoes.

Did they expect that vendors at the festival would act in such disconnected fashion to the festival? I sat there stunned. Then Chris, my old friend from a permaculture school, and I proceeded to place the corn into milk crates and give it out to the workers around the festival. Liberate the corn one cob at a time!

Trains, Bicycles, and Boxes – A Move for My Heart

So where the heck are you these days bro?

Since I headed off to NT and travelled for what seemed like a short period (3 months isn’t short) exploring my heart, mind, and soul. It all started with an innocent trip to the Blue Mountains to meet a friend – someone I was totally drawn to – who was throwing a doof party up there (exactly on my birthday).

3 months ago .. no wait 4 months now …

It’s amazing for me to look back on that trip as this tipping point for me. As this movement in my heart and soul to something new and different.

As of March, I finally got in contact with my biological mother – Cathy – which has been an amazingly raw, true, reconnecting, and amazing experience. She’s a pretty special person to me and as we talk more and more I feel that I am reconnecting with a part of my life that was lost – Quint Lee Jahraus. It’s tough to explain the experience of being adopted and not knowing your biological mother – where you come from – who you were a product of – but now all these things are coming together for me. Deep inside.

Sponsor Me to Empower Youth

The Otesha Project (Australia) are setting up another two bicycle tours this year to ride around regional areas of Australia. Each group consists of about 15 – 20 participants and gather together performing a comical theatrical performance and workshops that help youth feel empowered to make small changes that will have massive impacts in the world! We target youth from year 7+ and engage them around environmental and social justice issues – moving them towards considering more sustainable consumption patterns.

Now I need your help! We are trying to fundraise money so that we can pay for the entire program and I’ll be riding along too (since I’ve been volunteering most of my time and getting paid very little I thought it was appropriate to ask people for some help). If you have a few bucks lying around and think you could donate it only takes a second. Every gold coin or bill helps us reach our goal that much more.

Plus it would mean that we would have enough funding to provide liability insurance while on the road, follow-up with youth after the trip, and support members while riding on the tour.

If you would like to help us check out our donation page here.

Thanks for your support it means SOOO much!

Peace and bike grease,

Shane

Do you want waste with that order?

As an activist, sustainability educator, and random person sometimes I find it difficult not to try and mesh all three of these elements into the way that I communicate thoughts about life. Recent discussions around dumpster diving and educating the “masses” about the legalities of such acts has raised alarm bells for me. Let me start by defining these actions..

Dumpster Diving: The act of going into commercial dumpsters (or non-commercial to) and pull out items of use or food that is being waste for reuse or consumption.

Gleaning: The act of going into farmers fields (note: still legal in Europe although not as heavily acted upon as the old days) and taking the produce left on the farm fields after the harvest.

In the true form Gleaning is an act that is still legal in Europe as a means of collecting left over food. The concept of Dumpster Diving has been a response to the over production of food rather than a means to the end.

In its outright Dumpster Diving is not a sustainable action, but something that most people do in response to the over consumption that our existing world takes part in. Correction: Our existing world meaning “Western” world because travelling to places like Ecuador you find people eating the food that we tend to throw away – brown bananas anyone?

Can you hear my heart beat…

This image draws me back to a trip a while ago when I travelled to Yurta Yurta Land with Uncle Wayne and Than-lan, a beautiful and wonderful friend.

We were sitting under this tree when Uncle Wayne told us that for years, for centuries, for a period not all that fathomable to me there had been Aboriginals gathering to collect clams, eat, and leave the “garbage” near the tree. I lay there thinking about the tree growing, collecting shells, and experiencing this connection/relationship.

At the heart of it all is…
knowledge
my heart
wisdom
change
something different
me

Big Breaky Numbre Dos

Unofficially we have now had three big breakfasts. But officially we have had two serious ones with peeps that have come from various places around Melbourne to hang out, build community, talk politics, change, movements, and various issues.

What exactly is a big breakfast?

Well inspired by my friend Trianne and her housemates in Victoria they used to put on a breakfast at least once a month that anyone in Victoria (usually activisties) could attend. It was completely dumpstered food that would have normally gone to waste. I tragically was never able to actually go to any of these events and I think that slowly they disassembled because the house broke-up.

Needless to say I was always and still am impressed with their thoughts.

Building community…

I realise now after having just two of these gigs that this is such a beautiful of building community, sharing food, and just talking about sharing perspectives from lots of different ways. And I am about building community these days trying to get people together in whatever way I can. Trying to build strong connections with my neighbours and share knowledge and other things (bartering).

But yeah having the community breaky is a fabulous way of creating a nice environment to allow peeps to come over for some rad food. Yesss sir!

We’ve been serving up vegetarian dishes and vegan dishes (sour dough pancakes) and heaps of other goodies too. And the best part as of yet is that the faces just keep changing which is a pretty cool thing.

Last weekend (we are holding it the last Sunday of every month at our crib) I had a great conversation with some Italian students who were talking about the recently elected leader of the country Silvio Berlusconi. To most this man is considered a serious “right-wing facist,” which in general scares the people. Hearing a perspective on what is happening in Italy since the recent elections creates a scary perspective on what conservative governments have the potential of creating. Yes indeed some protest that these governments actually reduce debt that we pay but then I wonder at what cost? At the cost of those that are living below the living wage, at the cost of everyone through health care, those fighting for equality, and at the cost overall for society. It’s a scary reality.

But then that’s why we are growing community. That’s why I will always think differently and fight for what I believe in. Because I don’t want to create a world that benifits me but not others around me. Not others in the future that I leave it too. Not others in countries that I don’t see everyday but can feel their suffering. Nope I want more to this life then just to think about my pocket book.

I want change. I want to barter/swap/grow food. I want to share thoughts/ideas/reality. I want to work together. I want to love neighbours and know them more than a hello and bye each day. I want to break away from a system that makes me feel as though I’m not doing the right thing at 30 by not owning a house, sharing my house, and having a picket fence that’s white. I’m sorry but having a big house that isn’t fully used isn’t all that sustainable. And we as western people are lucky to have what we have…but for how long?

And no I don’t really judge those around me for living that life either. I love them as I love everyone. I think that we all have to work at this together. We all have to take on what we are comfortable with doing, and when we grow comfortable with that we can try to expand that to other things. But I do think that we have to realise that we all have an impact in this world for whatever way we want.

The Colour Of My Heart

I have a beautiful friend that I meant at the Dreaming Festival last year named Rachel Shields. She’s aboriginal, a musician, a full of this amazing spirit to which I was immediately drawn to when I first met her. I respect for all the levels of connection she has with this sacred land. The other day I got this little ditty from her and wanted to share. Hope you enjoy it. xo

For Sale: Compost bin needs a good home or perhaps needs another purpose?

I used to be of the school of using composting bins that keep all the compost inside. You know … out of sight out of mind … and also so you can apparently keep the smell contained to one place.

I stand corrected.

After being up at the permaforest trust for 3 months and seeing how they were making compost large scale (turn around about 1 week I think) I was pretty inspired. They had theories about mixing a proper proportions of cow manure, mulch (grass), food scraps, and also ensuring that it stays in a proper square shape.

In an urban setting it’s a bit trickier to obtain cow manure (although I have realised that taking a short trip out of town you can usually find bags of free horse poop to supplement your compost with – or even horse tracks in town work). The idea behind making the compost initially into a square or rectangular shape was to ensure that the core of the compost can heat up to a proper temperature.

The biggest problem I have had with the compost bins is that my back ends up hurting from rotating the heap, AND to make proper compost you really need to rotate your compost every day to get proper amounts of air in there.

We gleaned a compost bin like the one above and I thought, “Sweet i know how to use these cause I used to use them back in Calgary and they are great.” So for about three or four weeks we kept adding stuff into the bin and occassionally I would try and mix the contents (and having back spasms afterwards because of the awkward angle you have to use to rotate). And it was quite smelly in comparison and I still thought that it was doing good.