A cut above the rest
It doesn’t take a genius to see that the economies of the countries I’ve been visiting are not as strong as many in the ‘western world’. It’s not surprising really as these countries are all nursing the economic wounds of recent civil wars, political unrest and extremist governments. Corruption taints the air wherever you go and this pushes a huge divide between the rich and the poor.
What’s been interesting is how adaptable people become when they have to. When forced to make do, people make do in anyway they can. Everywhere you turn people have used and reused items for a number of different uses. Empty oil drums are welded together to make crude compressors for roadside tyre inflators, gallon plastic bottles are halved to make scoops for bailing out boats, cardboard boxes make crude walls and 1 litre cordial bottles are used for selling petrol. A whole industry exists to make tools and implements from discarded items, nothing is wasted.
We often take a lot for granted when sitting at home surrounded by single use items. Everything has its purpose and if ‘what is says on the tin’ isn’t quite what we want then we’ve all been guilty of discarding it only to drive to Tescos to buy a closer fit.
Is this the real meaning of disposable income – that we can afford to throw things away?
What’s been interesting is how adaptable people become when they have to. When forced to make do, people make do in anyway they can. Everywhere you turn people have used and reused items for a number of different uses. Empty oil drums are welded together to make crude compressors for roadside tyre inflators, gallon plastic bottles are halved to make scoops for bailing out boats, cardboard boxes make crude walls and 1 litre cordial bottles are used for selling petrol. A whole industry exists to make tools and implements from discarded items, nothing is wasted.
We often take a lot for granted when sitting at home surrounded by single use items. Everything has its purpose and if ‘what is says on the tin’ isn’t quite what we want then we’ve all been guilty of discarding it only to drive to Tescos to buy a closer fit.
Is this the real meaning of disposable income – that we can afford to throw things away?
No comments:
Post a Comment