Ibane’s ramblings


Archive for Politics

Crisis responses

I have been trying to avoid to emit any opinion about the current finance and economic situation for many reasons, among them my opinion is irrelevant and also I don’t have all the information to build one that it is worthy to be considered. On the other, hand seeing how our leaders having privileged access to all kind of information from advisers, institutions…they were not able to foresee what was coming, not even close.

Now that we are sunk in deep dirt, our politicians, policy makers, bankers, finance brains seem to agree that the whole problem is that the coward consumers have stopped to do what apparently is so needed, to consume without limits and control. We have in Spain the prime minister asking (it sounded more begging) to consume as normal to recover faster, in Helsinki metro you can find an ad where they encourage you to consume to save the economy. I am sure you can find similar examples all around the world.

These messages coming from media in different formats made me think, having a naive thought, I thought that these unfortunate happenings would be a very good opportunity to change our economic model, a model that has carried us to have more poverty, more distance between poor and rich, and being very harmful for our environment. However, our leaders seem that the only message is “Please, keep on consuming  to keep things the same because we are too incompetent to think something by our own”.

Well, I rebel against this, I am not buying these messages and all that crap, as a voter and a tax payer I demand a better solution from them. I know for some politicians will be the introduction of two activities at the same time, working and thinking. Bankers and corporations are other story.

Consumer confusion

As a consumer I feel really confused with the labeling of the products. Nowadays going to the supermarket has become a real quest. If you consider the moral part, then you need to know the differences between organic, ecological and fair trade. In some cases, still not clear, and also this raises  a question inside my little brain. If by mistake or because the fair trade bananas have run out it happens that I buy ordinary bananas, what does it mean? since these bananas are not fair trade, does it mean that I am helping some evil corporation who is using children to collect them? is it not this something that my Government should take care of with my tax money. I mean, if every time that I do my grocery shopping I need to run a deep investigation about how this product has been produced to keep a calm conscience, then what for is my Government? You might think that I am stretching too much my point making responsible for my evil bananas to the Government, but I am sure you are getting my point.

If in your shopping you decide to be health-oriented, then it is better you start with your Masters in Chemistry, for example I have found lately that to buy a yogurt has become more complicated than solving a Rubik’s cube. The offer is so wide, with Bifudes, with A+, with A-, fat-free, without lactose, with some very healthy bacteria,organic…I just want a yogurt!!! Also the organic stuff puzzles me, because it usually is far more expensive, and if I decide to buy non-organic stuff, does it mean that I am contaminating my body with toxins? what are the real bad one? how in the past survived without this mess?

I am not sure but these days I feel that more and more the individuals are bearing more responsabilities for certain things that should be somewhere else, and especially others who is their job description is to take care of exactly what they are not doing now.