As a society do we really care?
Who actually cares about society?
Who truly cares and who is society?
What makes us care about society?
What contributes to a careless society?
Where does that saying come from “I couldn’t care less”?
Where is our moral compass?
Where is our innate decency?
Where is our respect for absolutely everything that exists?
What does care-less mean to us?
Are we considerate in our daily lives?
Do we go along in life without a care in the world?
Do we pay serious attention to objects?
Do we do what is necessary for our health?
Do we provide the best maintenance for our body?
What provisions have we made for our own welfare?
How is our Free Will affecting our self care?
Have we lost the plot when it comes to self care?
What do we actually mean when we say we don’t care?
Who do we care about in life?
What do we care about in life?
Is it our priority to care about ourselves and others?
Do we see everything deserving care or just people?
Do we truly care about ourselves?
Do we care deeply enough about ourselves?
Do we take full Responsibility for all our choices?
Do we care more about others before ourselves?
Do we take more care of our car than ourselves?
Do we take better care of our dog than our own body?
Do we put our customers first and our self care second?
Do we have the perfect garden lawn care but not the same care for ourselves?
Do we cater for others without catering for ourselves first?
Do we skip meals because we are too busy caring for this and that?
Do we care more about what other people think about us?
Do any of the following real life examples confirm our careless society?
- throwing litter out of the car on the highway
- using a mobile phone whilst driving
- not supporting others who are struggling with their luggage
- not going to help a blind person crossing the road
- taking a supermarket trolley home and then dumping it nearby
- too busy on screen time to look up and see someone needs our seat on the train
- stumping our cigarette stubs in our community for the road sweeper
- leaving our laundry in the dryer and popping off for a few hours whilst others wait
- allowing cyber abuse to continue and say nothing
- not standing up for truth as it has not affected you personally
- treating a public toilet different to the one at home
- fly-tipping so we don’t have to deal with our waste
- not using public bins for litter
- never cleaning out our smelly garbage bins as it’s just ‘trash’
- not placing recycling in the correct recycling bins (1)
- never recycling anything because we can’t be bothered
- crossing the road when the pedestrian sign says wait
- kick someone’s car at the lights, because they were not driving like we wanted them to
- parking our vehicle in a hazardous place so we don’t have to walk to the cash machine
- blocking others and causing inconvenience by parking outside the shop, as that suits us
- driving without due care and attention which is a penalty in UK law (2)
- driving well over the speed limit because we want to
- driving under the influence of drugs and alcohol
- binge drinking knowing we could end up in the A&E at hospital
- vomiting on public transport after excess alcohol
- urinating on the high street because we are drunk
- physically abusing paramedics and police because we are intoxicated (3,4)
- shouting at a stranger because we are in a bad mood
- venting for no reason because we have free will
- swearing when we are in groups as it’s the cool thing to do
- cursing others as we want others to hear all about it
- not bother telling the previous occupier that post is piling up
- ignoring spoof emails that are now a serious crime (5)
- not taking action with junk mail so it keeps on coming
- working in the hospitality industry but not making any effort to nurture or nourish ourselves first
- over eating and indulging because we always know our health system will take over if things get really bad
- giving our kids permission to eat doughnuts for breakfast and take away fast food after school
WHY do we think it is ok to put our trash on the streets?
WHY do we choose to say nothing when we know cyber bullying is ruining lives?
WHY do we throw our garbage out on the fast lane of the motorway?
Is it time we got honest about our careless society?
Is it time we got real about how each and every one of us is contributing in some way to society?
In the UK a supermarket trolley has a one pound coin so that the trolley is returned. Think about how irresponsible we have become that money is the only way we will do something so simple and responsible like returning our trolley.
Is the above a simple example which confirms we are a careless society?
What would happen if we stopped throwing our litter on the streets?Would the road sweepers get a holiday or would there be another job for these reliable workers who consistently look after our streets?
Dear World
Do we care enough to want change?
Does that care have to start with our own Self Care?
What would happen if each of us as individuals started taking deep care of ourselves?
What if deep care for ourselves became our new normal?
Could it be possible that taking care of ourselves will equip us to take care of another?
Could it be possible that caring for ourselves leads to caring for our community?
Could it be possible that if we naturally cared for our community, society would benefit as a whole?
Are we the microcosm in the macrocosm, so how we as individuals take care does affect our society as a whole?
Could it be that simple?
References
(1) (2016, August 23). Rejected Recyclable Waste Up 84% in England since 2011, Data Shows. Retrieved December 15, 2016
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-37159581
(2) Penalty Points (Endorsements). (2016, October 25). www.gov.uk. Retrieved December 16, 2016
https://www.gov.uk/penalty-points-endorsements/endorsement-codes-and-penalty-points
(3) Nunn, A. (2016, August 24). Attacks by Patients ‘Just Part of the Job’ Says Paramedic, As Assaults Soar. Retrieved December 13, 2016
http://www.itv.com/news/london/2016-08-24/attacks-by-patients-just-part-of-the-job-says-paramedic-as-assaults-soar/
(4) Button, A. (2016, December 6). Officers Groped and Attacked While Responding to ‘Enormous Burden’ Caused by Alcohol. Retrieved December 13, 2016
http://www.policeprofessional.com/news.aspx?id=27928
(5) Travis, A. (2016, July 21). Cybercrime Figures Prompt Police Call for Awareness Campaign. Retrieved December 16, 2016
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2016/jul/21/crime-rate-online-offences-cybercrime-ons-figures
Comments 140
I work as a carpenter/ handyman so I get to see many homes and structures of all kinds. I have noticed a trend of neglect on most buildings. Very little preventive maintenance is being done. Even the level of quality in new construction is not what it use to be.
I feel this is happening because people are overwhelmed by their lives, so they are only doing just enough to get by. This is a depressing way to live. It keeps us in a cycle of neglect.
I was in this cycle, and I did not want to do it anymore. With support from Simple Living Global, I decided to simplify my life so I could focus on basic things to support me. Getting my food and sleep back on track has totally changed my quality of life and has given me the energy to feel like I am actually living life rather than just existing. It has allowed me to start truly caring for myself and the world around me.
Good point you make here Ken about neglect on buildings. I have seen zero maintenance on some local large properties which seem to have been left to just rot really on the outside. Many are inherited and those who live there cannot afford the costs to get it done. Same goes for some businesses where the rent is so much they can’t afford anything more for the maintenance needed.
Your point about people feeling overwhelmed could also be another reason why buildings are neglected.
As Ken Elmer and Simple Living Global share here, I too see that the neglect of buildings is really common. It seems quite obvious that the condition of our homes and buildings is an accurate representation of how well we are doing, how we are living and treating ourselves and consequently the condition of our own body and life…
Six years ago, with inspiration and support from Simple Living Global, I began taking more true care of myself. Over these six years my living situations have steadily improved to a point where I am actually in awe of the care I am able to give not only to myself but to my home and life and how my home now, in turn, supports me back in ways like never before.
This blog shares a lot of everyday situations that anyone can relate to. In fact a few times recently I have seen cars on my local main road, half parked on the kerb and half on the road, with no-one in them and the engines still going. Across the road is the kebab shop and every time that’s why they have parked there. Why would we be so desperate for food that we will park dangerously? Is the shop that important that all regard for ourselves, our car, others and our environment all goes out of the window?
Thank you for sharing Shevon and this is serious stuff in the name of a kebab take away.
Yes it goes on big time in the streets of London. Parking without turning the engine off is saying a lot and on top of that parking dangerously.
In answer to your question, could it be possible that in that moment the owner of the vehicle is not connected to their body so they cannot feel the choice they just made and so they are not clocking the dangers of the choices they are making?
What we seem to be blind to is that there are consequences and how long do we think we can get away with our careless behaviour, which as you say does affects us all and our environment.
Nailed it Simply Living Global – ‘do we really care?’ Great questions. I sat in my seat feeling uncomfortable when reading the bullet point list as I have done some of those things without considering the ripple effect. Everything we do, say, think has a ripple effect – but how often do we consider that ripple effect and the consequences of our actions? We live in society with a narrow focus – blinkered to what is going around us and one day when we are affected by something we wonder why or think it is ‘bad luck’ – yet all the while it has been going on, on ‘our watch’ and we have been bystanders. Whether we are doing something disregarding with a ripple effect or bystanding when we see something that is disregarding and having a ripple effect, in both those examples we are equally as uncaring – as it is as uncaring and disregarding not to care, to bystand, to turn a blind eye as it is to do something that harms another or our world today.
Thank You Jane Keep for being honest and saying you felt uncomfortable reading the bullet point list in this blog. Interesting how we don’t always consider the knock on effect, as you call it the ‘ripple effect’.
Next – when you say “we live in society with a narrow focus”. How true is that. Things happen all the time but we choose (yes it is a choice in every moment even if we would sometimes like to think it is not) to not notice, pay attention, be aware of what is really going on. These blinkers that blind us from seeing the whole picture is what makes us blame this and that and not take RESPONSIBILITY.
It is a choice to not live careless and again it comes down to that word RESPONSIBILITY.
The bystander thing is huge, hey? Great to call this out Jane. How many of us are standing by, cringing a bit or feeling sympathy then turning away to the next moment in our lives? Your comment is a reminder we can all do more and the first step is to take an honest look in the mirror.
How we are living at home spills out into the outside life like a supermarket carpark.
The toilet roll thing is a joke with a work colleague where we clock it and know that most of the staff will never ever replace the toilet roll or alert us if washing up liquid has run out. The thing is it has been consistent and there seems to be no change. You have to then ask ‘surely they don’t behave in this way at home?’
Complaining, whinging and whining changes nothing. Getting on with it without reacting is the key but that takes some learning and developing understanding. I know this from lived experience.
There is literally something for everyone of us in this blog. I’d certainly like to meet the people who have nothing to confess from on this care-less-ness list. I remember as kids we used to take great pleasure throwing apple cores out of the car window on the motorway – it takes a while to knock that stuff out of yourself. The public loos one is so true. And the point about respecting objects with care too. So much gold here. You know, my trick on planes these days is to give them a little loving clean when I go in them. I had started travelling a lot and hated going in the loos so I decide to do something about it: leave it feeling gorgeous for the next person (well, as gorgeous as a plane loo can feel!). This blog is an invitation to bring more of this to all the corners of our lives. What a great lens through which to look at things: it ALL matters.
On the note of objects that you mention here JS, what came to mind is how caring are we with our washing machine soap dish?
Do we ever bother to clean our laundry basket?
How is the shoe rack looking these days?
How consistent are we with jobs like this if we are being absolutely honest?
How do we value our objects?
Do we value some things more than other items?
From lived experience caring deeply for ourself and treating our body with respect and regard, naturally leads to us choosing to care for our items, personal belongings, home and work environment. It does require commitment and there is that word again –
RESPONSIBILITY.
Reading Simple Living Global’s response about speaking or writing beyond personal lived experience gave me a bit of an ah ha moment as I felt a deeper appreciation for this phenomenon of why some words hold more power than others.
I realize that often when I have broadened my topic to the “out there” realm (“they, society, people” etc.) I have removed myself from the equation leaving my intimate lived experience out of the words and so the words are empty; just another blurb of ideas and ideals that don’t offer the vibration of something real or different to the reader.
This brings a whole new level of integrity to the concept of truth-fullness and effectiveness in communication.
Great point about how some words Jo feel like they hold more power and could it be possible that it is simply because what is being expressed is actually coming from the persons body? In other words they are living a quality and it is this ‘quality’ that another actually feels even if they are not consciously aware of it.
Waffling and making it all in the head with our memory recall that we think is knowledge that others want to read and hear may just be empty words and offer not real expansion and so no real purpose.
Your last sentence makes sense that this is a whole new level of integrity in our communication and what a difference it can make if we commit to this and at the same time feel enough with whatever it is we are expressing and sharing in that moment.
I love the feeling that in taking responsibility when we take care of ourselves, and our surrounds, this leaves an ‘imprint’ for the next person – e.g. if we sit on a public chair in a public place, or a hot desk, and we take care of our surrounds, we dont leave rubbish and we tidy up after ourselves the next person who comes along finds a lovely clear space/place to sit or work in. I know in my busy-ness of life I used to sit, or use a hot desk and just get up and leave and not look around to see how I had left it. Nowadays I take time to ensure I leave the space another will use in a regarding and caring way.
You use this word ‘imprint’ Jane and for many it would not make any sense as they may not have heard of it. So what if this imprint stuff does exist and it makes sense?
What if we all started with some self care and then our streets would not be littered and our whole way of living would change and this would then have an effect on our community and beyond.
It is easy to complain and get into reaction about how careless others can be but surely we need to first look deeply at how we are living and caring for ourself, our body and our environment. The first part is getting absolutely honest about this care business as without honesty we are not really going to shift anything.
Its interesting to feel what we leave behind for others as we go about our life. Yesterday in the news was a picture of the recycle bins in a local town. The rubbish piled up around the recycle bins was enormous, and some people had obviously just thrown the rubbish on the floor or all around the recycle bins. If we take the time to go to the recycle bins why not take an extra moment to place the rubbish tidily around the bins if they are full? When I see things like this I wonder ‘who do we think cleans up these messes?’ Some weeks ago some people I saw in the distance threw their food wrappers and other rubbish on the floor as they walked and they kept on walking. Again I wondered ‘who do we think cleans up this rubbish?’ someone has to. Im old enough to remember the ‘Keep Britain Tidy’ initiative that came in in the mid 50’s and really took off in the late 1960’s. I remember the signs on bins, and public areas asking us to keep Britain tidy and tidy up after us. It is interesting that we ever needed such an initiative to encourage us to tidy up after ourselves… and raises another question of how are we raised? and from generation to generation where are the role models of true care in our society today? There are definitely role models, but why is this not foundational to our upbringing, education and working lives?
I went to a dental practice recently – where I spoke with a member of the dental practice team. The dental practice is immaculate, spick and span and does have a lot of attention to detail, and care for patients. Something that stuck out like a sore thumb for me in visiting there was that patients like to thank the dentist team and bring in lots of cakes, biscuits and sweets all the time – the dental team find it hard not to eat them – and yet one of the biggest causes of tooth decay is sugar and sweet foods – so on the one hand they advocate good dental care and talk to their patients about this, and their diets etc, and yet patients bring in the very thing that does not support their teeth, and, the dentist team eat the very thing they talk with patients about.
What you are sharing here Jane makes no sense if we just stop and think about it. There is so much evidence now about tooth decay associated with sugar and every dentist knows this. So how come the team that works at the dental practice seem to forget to ‘join the dots’. We could bring this scenario to so many other areas and what is interesting is that we see gifts and treats as something that has high levels of sugar.
All alcohol beverages and candy, chocolate, posh biscuits or whatever we feel to give another as a ‘thank you’ contain heaps of sugar and there is no getting away with that.
So how caring are we and could there be some truth in what this blog is presenting?
Is it making any sense that we first and foremost need to be caring for ourself before we can extend that care towards others?
I remember as a child the perfect looking houses around my neighborhood. It amazed me that people would spend so much time and money on how their house and yard looked, yet did not spend time caring for themselves. Many of these people were unhappy and not very sociable. I felt like they were putting on a good show so it looked like they were doing well. Many of these houses were much bigger than the people needed or they were never around to actually enjoy there homes.
Is our world doing things just to look good or just get by? What is our level of true care for ourselves and our belongings?
I feel that caring for ourselves and our world is something that we all love to do and it brings great satisfaction. So why are we having such a hard time caring for our world? I believe it is because people are exhausted from doing too much. I have brought a deeper level of care in my life by simplifying my life, and focusing on my basic needs. Now I feel like I have enough energy to bring some of this care to the world.
Great question Ken Elmer for the world –
“What is our level of TRUE CARE for ourselves and our belongings”?
How can we care for our belongings really if we do not have deep care for ourself?
WHY is it that we do not value our precious body first and foremost, as lets face it that is hanging out with you from day dot until the end?
Many people would openly say they care for their pets and their car more than their body. But is this really true? Could it be possible that the quality may not be true because they dis-regard their body and spend no time or effort in caring for themselves?
From lived experience I agree with you Ken that having a simple life and focussing daily on basic stuff, supports my vitality levels and there is no drain.
I see so much care-less-ness all around me, more now than ever before, and yet I do not get upset about it the way I used to…
*neighbors leaving junk out front for months because they cant be bothered bringing it to a landfill
*trash, food, condoms and needles just dumped along the side walks and streets
*how people hurry their little children in and out of the car and house, speaking to and handling them in frustration
*acceptence of homelessness in our neighborhoods and in our world. Ignoring people who have no home like they are invisible
*neighbor car and home alarms going off in the middle of the night 15 times in one month
*neighbor dogs shut in a pen to bark all day long
*wrong number calls just hanging up instead of saying “oh, sorry, wrong number”
*neighbors complaining about other neighbors without stopping to bring understanding
I ask myself “why I am not disturbed by all this?”
“Why am I able, (most of the time) to observe these un-caring acts without reacting to them or blaming anyone?”
I realize it is because Simple Living Global has supported me to develop a foundation of self-care so I can hold my own integrity in the midst of a great lack of it.
Simple Living Global has also helped me learn not to ‘take it on’ but to see it and feel it and stay who I am.
With a foundation of self-care I can handle knowing the pain and disregard people are in because I know how beautiful they are in truth And I have an understanding of why they act like they don’t care.
Feeling the love I am ‘simply’ by taking tender care of myself as never before, I am able to stand in my own deep sense of caring and know that I am making a difference; by showing/reminding that there is a different way.
…So thank you Simple Living Global.
Thank you for showing me how to get out of the hell of being in constant reaction.
Thank you for my good night sleeps.
Thank you for showing me how to begin bringing care back into our lives.
What a list Jo Elmer and this in itself expands what this blog is presenting.
Developing a foundation of self care not only supports us to deal with whatever life brings but we also learn how to not react to everything going on.
Having an understanding and seeing the rot in our world can make us feel an urgency that we do have a RESPONSIBILITY and it starts with how we are choosing to live.
Instead of banging on about it, arguing, complaining, blaming, venting our frustration or moving home because of it – we can choose to observe the state of our streets or whatever it is our world is showing us that is careless and simply get on with our own business of self care.
The major example for me that is relevant to the industry I work in, hospitality, is the number of people that eat out and leave a mess. The whole family or group uses the eating out experience to literally dump their stuff on the table, floor and ground, children are allowed to run ‘free’ around the space and leave a trail of crayons and food mess. I have observed this increasing over the past 20 years. There is a complete disregard of the other diners and the space itself. This highlights that we are actually raising our children to be ‘free’ of collective and supportive ways of living that are responsible. Essentially saying that we are out and this is how we act and it is someone elses job to clean up the mess we leave behind. Not all but many.
The fact that this behaviour has increased proves that how we live and what we do from this way of living is copied and lived by all around us.
It signifies that we are all in this way of being for ourselves and not wanting to look further than our own noses – that potentially our actions have an impact on another person is something we do not want and care not to subscribe to.
Thank you for this comment Lee Green. This is true as I have seen it many times and only recently I saw a group of children behaving in crazy like having a food throwing game which also had crayons. Parents literally blind, just ignoring them. There was so much food on other chairs and the floor. It took 4 staff to clear up and that included the bigwig boss who never does waiter service.
I asked him how he feels and he said he was very angry and because he wanted the customers to come back, he said nothing. In other words, swallow the abusive behaviour because its worth having them back. My question was what if it happens again? His response was they have done same before so he is guaranteed another mess again. No change. No learning and so no evolution and the ill behaviour continues.
The word careless and abuse go together.
I feel that all people love to take care of each other. It is a natural ability that we all have.
The question is , what does it look like to truly support another person?
I feel our society has lost the true meaning of support. There is too much niceness out there. There needs to be more of what I call true love.
When I parented my children I began to understood that they needed not only loving care, they needed and even wanted bounderies in their lives. It was essential for me to speak my truth to them. They know what is wrong and right and it is my job as a parent to confirm to them that they need to take responsibility for themselves.
So if we truly care for a person we need to not hold back and speak what feels like the truth. Do not question if it is right or wrong, our first impulses are usually correct. And just speaking up creates the possibility of more connection, which is what we crave and what care is all about.
Another wise comment from you Ken coming from your elder experience in life.
This line sticks out “there is too much niceness out there”.
Why is it that we put on a false smile or say something that is not sincere because we think we need to be nice.
Nice sucks and we all know that. We all know when someone is being nice as it does not leave us feeling great.
Nice people keep us safe as there is no challenge. No way of saying anything that will rock us or disturb us. Nice is popular and it has no room for being honest and truth is simply not on the radar.
Speaking the truth is what our kids and everyone else really want. Whilst it may be ugly or not what we want to hear, at least we could get to learn and from that evolve.
Many people would call me an environmentalist because I deeply care about our earth. I never understood how humans could be so uncaring about this planet that is our total support system for ourselves and our children. It made no sense to me at all.
I have lived on this earth for 65 years and in that time there has been many amazing advances in our world. But I believe our level of care and responsibility for our earth has gotten worse. So is what we are doing really working? When we make decisions are we taking into account what affect these choices will have on future generations?
I feel if we can truly care for ourselves, then we will able to make better choices as to how to care for our world. Simple Living Global has supported me to understand what true care is and has suggested simple things that has allowed me to truly support myself so I can truly care for our Earth.
You are talking here Ken as an elder in our community and in our world and it would be wise to take note of what you have to say as it is clear you ‘deeply care about our earth’.
Reading this blog and the comments thus far, we can all say that our level of care for our precious planet is not where it could be if we simply used the word RESPONSIBILITY.
Could it be possible that we have such little or no true regard for our own body and so it is not even on the radar to be caring for our planet or to see mother earth as our big house we live in? Our own house (the state of our body) is not a priority and then this spills out into our environment (our home) and the knock on effect is our planet.
Your wisdom here speaks volumes Ken –
WHEN WE ARE MAKING DECISIONS – ARE WE TAKING INTO ACCOUNT WHAT AFFECT THESE CHOICES WILL HAVE ON FUTURE GENERATIONS?
If we at least started to consider this, surely the word RESPONSIBILITY would be at the top.
These real life examples are spot on Simple Living Global, so thank you.
This Guardian article confirms just that about the use of mobile phones whilst driving and the extent to which it is happening.
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2017/jan/23/police-catch-47-drivers-an-hour-during-mobile-phone-crackdown?utm_source=esp&utm_medium=Email&utm_campaign=GU+Today+main+NEW+H+categories&utm_term=209713&subid=13798350&CMP=EMCNEWEML6619I2
In November 2016, 47 drivers were caught every hour for using a mobile phone whilst driving, in a police operation, in England, Wales and Northern Ireland.
Police officers gave out 7,966 fixed penalty notices in the week long operation.
This is a huge increase as in previous operations the figures were:
2,690 (May 2015)
2,276 (September 2015)
2,323 (May 2016)
This news article you mention is dated 23 January 2017.
More work for our overstretched police force because we as the public somehow think it is ok to use a mobile phone whilst driving.
Lets get real – who hasn’t done it?
We pay little or no attention when we are told of the dangers.
There has been some fatal incidents reported because the driver was using a mobile phone. Think of the knock on effect here because we are choosing to be careless.
It is simply a choice really and the question is WHY are we choosing to be careless?
I too cringed when I saw the bullet point list, I was accountable to two of the examples related to alcohol carelessness. I no longer drink alcohol and do not miss it, wishing I had given it up years ago, I missed so much of my life, wasted money, the impact it had on my body, energy and many other things, how could I have been so careless and wished someone had given me a good talking to about being more responsible in the world.
I observe so much disregard towards ourselves, others around us, property, in fact everything around us. I don’t believe we take the responsibility and we make it everyone else’s responsibility. I see so many people take good care of their cars than their bodies and yet I see no difference between the two?
I live in an apartment and observe the carelessness of many of the residents and how they treat the complex. I’m forever finding furniture dumped in the garbage room or the lift floor with footprints after it had been mopped by the cleaners and I still cannot understand why. It’s as if ‘this is not my property so I can do whatever I like’. But what is the difference? Isn’t a home what you make it? Thankfully there are a couple of tenants who care and take pride in the safety and cleanliness of the complex and report any issues.
Littering is becoming more of a problem.
In Australia 25,000 tonnes of litter are tossed in New South Wales and to combat this an ad was released called- ‘hey tosser – put it in the bin’. Let’s be realistic, who is going to be brave enough to approach the person who has just tossed litter on the floor and expect them to pick it up and dispose of it appropriately? The offender would be fined but uncertain who is responsible for fining the offender. What is this world becoming, who is passing the responsibility to whom here?
At work we had an emergency and I went to see how the Midwives were who were involved in the case. They were surprised I gave them the time to discuss the event and interestingly they all felt and agreed they managed the whole emergency well. It was so lovely to hear the conversation and the complimenting of each other, something I have seldom observed and everyone benefitted that someone had made space to look out for their wellbeing.
The theme in this blog and comments is congruous with the understanding that “change starts at home”; the most central, immediate home being our own bodies which we ‘can’ have absolute authority over.
I know from experience and by repeated observations that the way we care for ourselves is then reflected in how we care for anything and anyone beyond us.
Developing a deeply caring relationship with my body has opened my heart to so much more…
What does the word ‘Society’ mean to us today?
The dictionary definition is ‘people living together in a more or less ordered community’.
When we use the word ‘Society’, we either mean the country we live in or a certain region of that country.
How about extending that definition of ‘Society’ to mean the whole world because, after all, we are all the same on this planet of ours, only separated by man made borders.
If we took society back to our country or community and there were millions of people dying of starvation, would we, as a society, do something about it?
I’m pretty sure we would.
Why is it then, in 2017, the world is facing its worst humanitarian crisis since 1945?
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/mar/11/world-faces-worst-humanitarian-crisis-since-1945-says-un-official
How is it that, in 2017, with all the food production in the world, there are 20 million people in four different countries (Yemen, South Sudan, Somalia and northeast Nigeria) facing famine and starvation.
Why is it that, every year, industralised countries waste almost as much food as the entire net food production of sub-Saharan Africa (222 million tons vs 230 million tons)?
Why is it that, the amount of food lost and wasted every year is equal to more than half the world’s annual cereal crops (2.3 billion tons in 2009/10)
In the USA and Canada on October 16th there is the ‘World Food Day’.
http://www.worldfooddayusa.org/food_waste_the_facts
This day highlights the fact of all of this food waste and suggests there are things we can do to help this situation:
Think about what we are buying and when we will be eating it.
Plan meals and use a shopping list.
Look at how much we are eating – are eyes bigger than the belly.
Don’t buy the ‘BOGOF’ offers, (Buy One, Get One Free) just because they are there.
If we choose to eat out, bring the leftovers home with us.
Think about making bulk dinners and freezing.
Up until 8 years ago my wife and I wasted a lot of food but these days it is very rare we waste any food at all.
One of the upsides to watching what we buy and the lack of waste is the monetary savings.
How we live our everyday lives has an effect on the whole world so it is time we started to see the whole world as our ‘local society’.
As this blog states, “we are the microcosm in the macrocosm” and everything we do as individuals does affect everyone else
With simple small changes like those above, we can go from being a ‘Careless Society’ to a ‘Care-Full Society’.
As a well-known UK supermarket chain says – “Every little helps”.
I love this comment Tim Bowyer as food waste is a topic close to my heart. I have also found that as I pay more attention to what I buy, only buying what I need, I waste very little food and as a result there are monetary gains as I am not spending in excess.
This article by The Guardian dated 28th January 2017 is an interesting one. It’s called ‘Weighing in to Fight Waste in the Kitchen with a Measuring Spoon – and an App’ by Rebecca Smithers.
The article speaks of families on the ‘Waste Less, Save More’ trial by Sainsbury’s supermarket. The aim of the trial was to help shoppers reduce food waste and save money.
To help shoppers reduce waste Sainsbury’s gave them free packs of:
Fridge thermometers – to support them to set fridge temperatures at the correct level so that food can be preserved.
Pasta portion measures – to prevent cooking too much.
Measuring spoons.
A gadget to squeeze the last bits out of tubes of tomato puree.
Magnetic shopping lists.
Weekly meal planners.
The above tools all proved to be effective.
Planning meals
Shopping more carefully
Using freezers better
were some of the things one family also found helped them to waste less and save more.
Other Lessons learnt:
Bread was the most thrown away food item
The biggest gain was from planning what to eat and not overbuying.
The statistics in the article are shocking!
UK food waste = 15 million tonnes per year.
7 million comes from households.
£7.5 billion – estimated retail value
UK Government’s Waste Advisory Body (WRAP) calculate that a typical family wastes £700 per year.
More statistics from WRAP’s 2012 report –
£5.6 billion – value of food and drink disposed of because it is past its sell by date.
£1.9 billion – the cost of how much we throw out because we don’t like the taste or because the food dropped on the floor.
68% – the amount of bagged salad that goes to waste according to Tesco.
40% – % of apples that aren’t eaten.
17,000 – the number of Olympic-sized swimming pools that could be filled with Britons food and drink waste each year.
So here we have it – one country and a snapshot of the food waste that is going on. We know that statistics rarely give us a true account of situations so the real cost to society without a doubt will be much higher.
Can we really afford to continue living in such a care-less manner?
Where will this end and what will happen to planet Earth if things don’t change?
Do we care enough to even consider these questions?
Reading this blog reminded of when I went to work after the new year celebrations this year, walking down the hill to the tube I was shocked to see the amount of vomit on the pavement. These are pavements that many people walk on their journey to work, walk with their children, to do their shopping.
Why drink to the point that our bodies have to purge uncontrollably to get rid of the poison … and call it celebrating.
What is this doing to our bodies?
Who has to clean this up?
The daily mail reports -http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1224929/Police-make-drunken-revellers-clean-vomit-urine-crackdown-Binge-Britain-filth.html
‘In Newcastle there is now zero-tolerance to the problem by making revellers clean up after themselves, using disinfectant sprays.’
In 2009, in 10 months, 609 people were warned or summonsed for urinating in public. If this is one city what are the numbers offending in all our cities?
Why does it take zero tolerance to be set in place with consequences to make people responsible?
Could it be possible that caring for ourselves leads to caring for our community?
This is a great question to ask us all Simple Living Global.
I am responsible for doing maintenance on 2 mobile home parks in the USA.
There has been no one doing this for a number of years, so they were a bit of a mess.
Little by little I am cleaning them up. I am noticing the change in behavior of the residents since I have started doing this. They are seeing and feeling the care I am giving their surroundings and are starting to keep their personal areas cleaner.
I am not asking them to do anything. I feel that because of my true care and no judgement. (Still working on this with support from Simple Living Global), I have inspired them to take better care of their homes.
I feel if we can live the way we want the world to be, that is how we can have the biggest effect on our world.
‘How is our Free Will affecting our self care?’ this is a great question to sit with.
Does Free Will mean we can do what ever we like… irresponsibly?
I know from my own experience I many choices from my free will that were irresponsible and uncaring towards myself, because I wanted to do them for what ever reason… like eating foods that made me feel rough, drained, tired. Pushed myself excessively causing exhaustion, and withdrawing from life to protect myself… which didn’t protect it but isolated me, and many more. I realise more and more the knock on effect this has had on everyone else.
Now, with no perfection, I focus on making choices that truly support me to be healthy, energised and out in the world. I still make duff choices, which I learn from and see them as a guide to be more deeply caring.
The more caring I am with myself.. the more caring I am with others and in daily life.
I can really see how enormously this would benefit humanity… if we each took great care of ourselves.
BBC News – 30th April 2017
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-39747327
Household food waste have reached unacceptable levels in England.
2015
7.3 tonnes of food was wasted.
The Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee have stated that –
Shops should reconsider selling “wonky vegetables” and consider whether ‘best before dates’ are actually need as ‘best before dates’ refer to quality rather than food safety.
The committee chairman Neil Parish makes some very good points –
Globally – a third of ALL food produced for human consumption is lost or wasted.
Over £10,000,000,000 (billion) worth of food is thrown away by households each year.
Increased food waste = increased disposal costs for local authorities = increased Council Tax bills.
People are using food banks in the UK, due to poverty and yet we have so much food being wasted.
Food ends up rotting on landfills where it produces methane – “a potent climate-changing gas.”
This is a huge problem.
What is our relationship with food?
Reading this it is clearly one of disregard. Not only do we have the issue of eating too much, but also buying too much or buying carelessly to the point that billions of pounds’ worth of food is wasted every single year that creates “a potent climate-changing gas”.
I keep asking if we knew and could see the effect of our disregard, not only with food, would we still do what we do?
Example – if our local authorities gave each household a bill for our food waste and this was not just hidden in a general Council Tax increase – would we take note?
This really does show our care-less-ness.
I read the average cost of this waste per household is £470, or £700 if you have children.
I wonder whether we can be honest that we could ALL do more here. I know I can. I hate waste, but we still throw food away now and then due to poor planning or communication.
It is interesting to see the report says 2/3 of the potential reduction in these mountains of food waste needs to come from ‘action at a household level’ – that means us. All of us.
I read that fly tipping has reached crazy levels too. There were apparently 1 million incidents in England in 2016, the worst tally on record.
It has got so bad that truckloads of refuse regularly get dumped on farm land, which the farmers then have to pay to clean up.
I was just talking to a bin man and he was telling me what he is seeing. It is shocking what’s going on.
He said every day they are dealing with fly tipping. Trucks pulling up by the side of the road and unloading onto the pavement.
There was even a case where a lorry had reversed down a long alley to dump an entire load of refuse outside someone’s back gate.
He was just shaking his head in incredulity.
An article in the Daily Mail, March 25th, talks about English towns where ‘1 in 3 eateries are so dirty they put diners at risk’.
In one eaterie, a young girl died after suffering a severe anaphylactic shock due to eating a takeaway curry. It was shut down a few days later due to an infestation of mice.
The Which? Research found that ‘only 59 per cent of medium to high-risk businesses were found to be broadly compliant’.
The Food Standards Agency and councils have a rating system which rates businesses on hygiene ranging from 0-5 with 0 being urgent improvement necessary and 5 which is very good.
The downside to this system is that businesses do not have to display these ratings.
With council spending cuts, the role of inspectors that carry out these hygiene checks are being cut all the time and as such the work is given to private contractors, which in many cases are paid for by the business itself.
Of course, when we go to a restaurant or a takeaway venue, we don’t expect to see mice, rats or cockroaches running about and we are entitled to see a certain level of cleanliness.
So yes, it is incumbent on the restaurant owner to maintain an acceptable hygiene level – But what about our part in all of this?
Why are there so many restaurants or takeaways consistently opening up?
Why are there two of the same type of takeaways next to or very close to each other?
Why, as a society, are we so dependent on takeaways?
Why is there a proliferation of cookery shows on the television?
Why is there a proliferation of adverts in between shows telling you to order your takeaway online?
Where has the true nurturing in cooking a meal from scratch gone to?
This is by no means saying that we should never go to a restaurant or order a takeaway but when we have it nearly everyday do we need to ask why we are not cooking for ourselves?
From someone who could have quite easily had takeaways everyday of the week, I now prefer to cook all my meals myself.
Apart from the financial savings and health improvements from not eating out all the time, I have found a whole new level of joy from being able to nurture myself and others.
This Week – 11 March 2017 on page 23
Gallons of urine in public pools
It would be true to say that most of us do know about peeing in the pool but just to confirm this scientists in Canada have developed a test.
In a 830,000 litre pool, 75 litres of urine was released in a three week period.
The highest concentration was found in a hotel hot tub.
There’s us thinking posh hotel, lets try the hot tub and without any further thought we are in the water with some pee. How does that make us feel?
Why do most of us squirm or even think it worthy to make news headlines?
What if the pool was the same as the world on dry land?
How many of us are peeing in the world pool?
Are we releasing stuff we don’t want to deal with onto our world?
Are we peeing in the pool, so to speak?
Where is the Responsibility when we choose to pee in the pool?
Why do we not like something being done to us but we are ok doing it to others?
Does any of this make sense?
I have recently moved house and am living in a much more built up area. What I noticed the other day was the amount of litter on the pavement and side of the road in this area. There were 2 men with brooms and a man driving a machine to sweep it all up, yet there are large bins dotted around only a few steps away.
This is just one small area in a large city, I question how much litter is being dropped unnecessarily and carelessly everyday?
An article in the Daily Mail dated 28th January 2017 by John Humphreys states that sales of bottled water in England have ‘multiplied a hundred-fold in the last 30 years.’
In 2014 – £120,000,000,000 worth of bottled water was sold worldwide.
By 2020 – the figure is expected to be £220,000,000,000.
In the UK water bottle sales are approximately £2,500,000,000 every year.
However, in our quest to keep well and hydrated we are dumping more and more plastic bottles.
The article states that the latest figures suggest that nearly 50% of plastic bottles in England are not recycled. 16 million plastic bottles of water are estimated to not be recycled DAILY.
Prince Charles is quoted as saying that in a few years time, there will be one ton of plastic water bottles for every three tons of fish; as when they are not recycled the bottles end up in our seas.
So what is the answer?
The article discusses recycling and deposit schemes where as customers we return our empty bottles and receive the extra deposit money that we paid back. In Germany there is a refundable deposit of about 20p a bottle. Big drinks companies are not keen on deposit schemes citing them as a risk factor in affecting cost and profits.
This link has photos of rubbish and water bottles washed up at water fronts.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4166022/JOHN-HUMPHRYS-plastic-bottle-deposit.html
As one consumer I always do my best to recycle, making the effort to look on my local Council’s website or emailing them to check, before I dispose of something if I am not sure. In this day and age where every Council in England has recycling services’ – why would we not use these as a normal part of our every day lives?
From what I have read about the German deposit scheme, it also works well and is a big part of the culture.
When we leave rubbish lying around we are putting out a message that we don’t care about our environment and therefore we cannot complain when we see things happening around us that we don’t like if we have had a hand in it. Even if it’s not a water bottle but throwing that sweet wrapper out of the window, or the crisp packet on the tube or dumping our furniture at the side of the road because we don’t want to pay the Council’s collection fee, it is all the same.
An article in the Daily Mail, 11 March 2017, talks about how fly tipping is getting to epidemic proportions and with the authorities not seeming to care and the Minister in charge dismissing it as just ‘litter’, it leaves the individuals and gangs able to fly tip with impunity.
Last year there were nearly 1 million incidents in England alone and two thirds of those consisted of household waste which before the introduction of fortnightly collections and colour coded wheelie bins, the council used to dispose of this waste themselves.
This is happening on public land but more shocking is the fact that two thirds of farms in England and Wales are also targeted, not with the occasional sofa but convoys of lorries with 20 ton loads.
To add more to the pain of the farmers, they have to pay to have it cleared up or risk prosecution themselves.
Of the nearly 1 million cases in England last year, 315,000 were investigated and only 2,135 were brought to court with an average fine of £370.
With the cost of taking a 20 ton load to landfill costing £2000, its easy to see how tempting it is to dump the load anywhere else and if they do get caught, they know it will only mean getting a small fine.
One of the problems lies in the fact that the government doesn’t see this as the menace it is and dismisses it as litter. This attitude then filters down to county level, which means there are different policies in dealing with this issue, which leads to some counties being more effective in prosecuting cases.
According to the government’s website, unless you see ‘large scale illegal dumping (such as lorries),’ you should contact your local council – which will be no good if it’s after 5pm on a weekday or at weekends.
According to Essex Police, people should report illegal tipping to the Environment Agency via a National Incident Control Centre.
The daily Mail reporter contacted them and was diverted to a ‘pollution incident hotline in Scotland only to be told that it doesn’t cover England. After 10 minutes he was put through to someone in Sheffield who tells him that the Essex Police are wrong – he was told ‘you only call us if it’s a load of more than 20 tons.’
He then asked, ‘what do I do if I see a transit van offloading rubble into an Essex water meadow?’
The reply: ‘You should call 101.’
In Hertfordshire however, the Constabulary website says, ‘if you see someone fly tipping you call 999 immediately.’
It’s clear that the government needs to set a standard policy regarding fly tipping and increase the fines for anyone breaking the law.
Of course, the people who are doing the fly tipping need to take responsibility for their actions but until the consequences are greater than the action, fly tipping will continue.
First and foremost though, is it possible that that the responsibility actually lies with all of us?
We all at times have waste to get rid off like sofa’s, white goods, furniture, building waste, etc.
After all, it is our choice to buy a new fridge, a new cooker, a new carpet or to have an extension built on our home
Isn’t it our responsibility to make sure we use reputable businesses to dispose of our waste?
Although the person who does the fly tipping may be saving time and money, and although those of us who don’t live with this everyday may feel it is not our issue, their actions can potentially affect everyone else through increased council tax to increased prices of food that the farmers produce.
We all have a vested interest and a responsibility to keep our country clean and litter free.
Is it worth causing so much harm just to save a few pounds?
Observation in a grocery store yesterday:
A beautiful two year old child riding in his mom’s shopping cart.
He was so still and calm in his body and his face was bright with joy and aliveness.
He said a heartfelt “Hi” to each person he made eye contact with.
Some ignored him and some responded.
I could clearly feel that this very young person was still in the joy of his heart.
His greetings were an open invitation to love, to connect to another…
this to me is well beyond the “care” this blog is addressing.
So why are some of us ready to greet another in openness and some are not?
Have we closed down our hearts and in doing so lost touch with our open and loving nature, even to the extent of not caring about ourselves, others or the world?
Could the answer to true care be in how we choose to cary our heart in life?
Deep down everybody cares about our world and everyone on it.
But if you are not truly caring for yourself, you do not have the energy to care about the outside world. It’s just too much to deal with when you are exhausted.
I feel this is the root cause of all the careless behavior in our world.
Simple Living Global’s Back to Basics program has supported me to get back to a way of living that has brought me to a place where my natural desire to care for people and our earth is blossoming again.
The Week – 27th May 2017
‘An uninhabitated coral atoll in the South Pacific has been identified as one of the most litter-strewn places in the world.’
This refers to Henderson Island which is 6 miles long and is more than 3,000 miles from the nearest major human centre.
Researchers have estimated that the ‘white sand beaches’ are littered with approximately 38,000,000 (million) pieces of man made debris (99.8% of them being plastic). The debris weighs 17.6 tons.
Jennifers Lavers, marine biologist from the University of Tasmania and her team estimate that 3,500 pieces of plastic wash up on the island daily. The items range from water bottles to netting and unidentifiable shards.
So the question that arises is – how come an island that is thousands of miles away from a human centre can have so much rubbish wash up on its shores?
How many of us know or even care that Henderson Island is having rubbish dumped on its shores from places as far away as China, Russia and the USA?
Is this something we think about when we carelessly discard our rubbish?
I was out walking yesterday to the next town and I saw heaps of clothes thrown on the ground. It was where they had a clothes recycle container and bottle bank for empty glass bottles.
What was very clear was it was full and people had obviously planned to dump their unwanted garments and had no intention of taking it back home or dealing with it another time.
We could blame the council for setting up these facilities and not following through with regular emptying or it could be everyone was letting go as it was bank holiday.
The question is where is the Responsibility?
If we stopped pointing the finger and done our bit would things be different.
All I know is that being careless starts with me and my own environment and then how I live day in and day out spills out into the community, society and the world. I chose to replace my old days of carelessness to care-full-ness.
Paying attention to detail and not disregarding anything like it does not matter, helps me to know and feel that the tides are turning albeit slowly.
Just observing something that is constantly happening.
We have some great eating places and coffee shops and many people meet there, hang out or spend all day on their screens.
The front is usually looking clean and would pass the environmental health office standards. Take a look at the toilet and I wonder how they operate.
Recently it has been introduced in many places where you punch the code in from your receipt to use the toilet which to be honest is in a very poor state.
Today I was in a famous coffee shop chain for a meeting.
The toilet was dirty, smelly and the sink tap broken. The bins were full (it was morning), and I am certain the bins have never had a clean on the outside ever. This seems to be normal and I guess it is because we all simply accept this and say nothing.
This is today but I have been where there is no toilet paper or hand dryer working. The floor is so dirty you would not want to leave you bag there.
WHY do we allow this?
Do we live like this at home?
Do those making the profits pay any attention?
Do those making decisions ignore this much needed facility?
Do we think clean toilets are not important where food is being served?
Have we dropped our standards in life so much we simply don’t care?
Have we become so careless in our everyday life that it spills over into places where we choose to drink and eat and we just say nothing?
WHY are there double standards in these places – great when you walk in and super disgusting behind?
WHY are the staff not saying anything?
Is it because they don’t care or have they given up?
Is is possible that most of us are so exhausted and we just need the coffee or cake for stimulation and the rest really is of no interest?
On my way home from work yesterday, walking along side a busy road, a cyclist had stopped and was urinating up a wall next to a bin, in broad day light.. when children are still up. There are shops and cafes a few metres down the road in both directions.
People of all ages walk this pavement every day to and from work, the shops, to get to public transport, doctors surgery’s… Why do this when there are toilets near by?
When we take care of someone, how do we decide what they need?
Do we believe that people need what we need? That what worked for me will work for them?
Is it possible that we really have very little idea of what a person needs, especially if we are coming only from our own experience?
It is critical that we speak what we feel in a situation, because our opinion matters. But if we have an attachment to what people do with it, then that creates struggle. So speaking our truth without an agenda, will allow what what we are saying to be heard.
I feel when we express, we need to take into account everybody and everything in the world. This is how our natural world works. We have this ability to know what is needed in any situation. If we can live in way that respects all of life, I feel we can access this knowing.
An article in the Daily Mail, 4th March 2017, talks about an MP’s probe that paves the way for a plastic bottle deposit scheme.
MP’s are investigating the ‘environmental catastrophe’ of litter blight and the need for a plastic bottle deposit scheme and also to look at how to solve the problem of the millions of throwaway coffee cups that are dumped rather than being recycled.
With over 15 million plastic bottles thrown away every day, cans, coffee cups, chewing gum, cigarette packs and butts, and all other litter, our towns, parks, motorways, roads, rivers and beaches are being scarred and made to look an eyesore.
In looking at deposit schemes, the government will also be asking drinks companies what they are doing to reduce waste and boost recycling. The government is also working on a litter strategy that will include much higher fines for those who drop rubbish.
Most of the hundred of millions of tonnes of plastic produced in the world is only used once.
Products may be cheaper but the price becomes an environmental one in this throwaway culture of ours.
Plastic bottles litter our towns and countryside and collect in our rivers and eventually ends up in the sea and according to reports, there could be more pieces of plastic in the sea than there will be fish by 2050.
The introduction of the 5p charge for plastic bags has cut littering and slashed the number issued at the tills.
Along with the campaign from the Daily Mail, the government is now reconsidering a trial on a Deposit and Refund Scheme (DRS) where we pay a deposit of between 5-20p and then get it refunded when you return the bottle.
For those of a certain age, and I am one of those, I remember in my youth when we had a similar scheme for glass bottles and the excitement I felt at getting a few pennies back for my hard work.
According to the Huff Post, Greenpeace says that Coca-Cola produce more than 100 billion throwaway plastic bottles every year and it has accused the company of not taking responsibility for its environmental impact. In response to Greenpeace’s investigation, Coca-Cola has now reversed its opposition to a DRS for plastic drink bottles.
The Telegraph reports that popular tourist beaches are now so strewn with plastic that resorts are burying the debris beneath the sand and British travel groups are forced to organize long distance litter picks. Beaches in Bali and Indonesia show shorelines laden with refuse which is washed up each day when the tide comes in.
So, just like the 5p charge on plastic bags, a Deposit and Refund Scheme will have a great impact on the scourge of the plastic bottle waste and yes it is the drinks companies and government’s responsibility to look at ways to minimize the impact of plastic waste—but it can never, ever, be as important as the responsibility faced by the consumer.
We may argue that there is a lack of waste bin receptacles but I have witnessed many people dropping litter when there is a bin nearby.
We are the ones that are choosing to discard the plastic waste, along with all the other litter that is thrown away.
We are the ones that are choosing to be totally ignorant, arrogant and disrespectful by choosing to just willfully drop our litter and expect someone else to clean up the mess.
Recycling efforts are obviously not working well due to the amount of plastic waste there is in contrast to Germany and Scandinavia which have bottle deposit schemes and have recycling rates at up to 98%.
Why do we need a financial incentive to get things done?
Why is it necessary to have a deposit scheme on any type of waste?
Are we a ‘Careless Society?
An article in The Week Issue 1111, dated 11th February 2017 talks about the green veg. crisis in the UK.
At the end of the article the writer says that each family in the UK throws away on average £700 worth of food each year!
£700 is an extortionate amount of money.
Once again if we were billed for the equivalent of what we threw away, I reckon we’d think twice about what we buy as well as what we throw away.
I was talking to a cab driver yesterday who was sharing why he is not online. He says he has watched people over the years from his cab and concluded we are getting more and more rude because of the Internet.
He says he regularly nearly runs people over because they cross the street watching their phones, without a care to the traffic. This never used to happen and is now a common thing. He shared that even when he beeps his horn, sometimes they don’t care about that.
He sees people in his cab engage less and less – with him or with whomever they are with – because they are on their device instead.
His conclusion is we have become rude and careless and it’s getting worse – like we just don’t care about one another or even about the basics like our own safety.
He said he really notices when people do care and connect and it reminds him what humanity is really about.
Every time I walk past the bin near my local tube station it is overflowing with rubbish, with rubbish even piled on top of the bin. I have been marvelling at how it is possible to see a bin that is clearly full and we just add more rubbish to it.
This morning I saw a gentleman carefully and deliberate squeeze a piece of rubbish into a tiny space left in the bin.
My question is – is this what goes on in our homes or do we see a public space as different, so it does not matter?
Personally the way that I live at home is the same way that I treat other environments that I go to – whether it be a public space, someone else’s home or my workplace. To me it is no different as if I have a standard of care in one place that is my standard everywhere that I go.
Apparently sex robots are in use and going to mass market.
There is a robotic brothel open in Barcelona and an oral sex coffee shop in London.
You can choose the ‘look’ you like and the sex robots can ‘talk’ to you.
They say sex robots will be ‘socially normal’ within 25 years.
Some robots have ‘frigid’ setting so you can simulate rape and there are child versions for paedophiles.
Manufacturers have said they can help the elderly who struggle to form intimate relationships.
Will we simply accept this as part of our society – ‘live and let live’ – and allow the demand to set the supply?
Or is this an opportunity to stop and ask what is truly going on?
What is happening to true connection and intimacy that sex robots are seen as the answer?
Isn’t it all of us who sets and decides what is ‘socially normal’?
Is this an opportunity to have even more regard for our own real life relationships and connection?
https://www.google.co.uk/amp/www.telegraph.co.uk/science/2017/07/04/sex-robots-way-elderly-lonelybut-pleasure-bots-have-dark-side/amp/
Walking in the early morning I meet Digby our long term road sweeper and weed digger who I must say was very thorough and he seemed full of joy. Bit unusual to see that these days and we got talking about what’s going on in our world today and just looking around at how much litter is dropped everywhere.
If we stopped being careless with our rubbish then Digby and co would get other work.
He told me that the thing he finds difficult to understand is when he watches people leave their house and open their car parked right outside their home and empty all the rubbish onto the ground and drive off. They have a wheelie bin within a few steps but no, they choose to dump it and get into their car.
If we just stop and re-read this, it is hard to get your head around the fact that this is going on in a decent London street. It’s the type of people you would least expect but nevertheless it is the Truth.
What is going on in our minds that would make us do such a thing in the knowing there are others who will clear it up for us?
Where is our personal Responsibility?
What sort of role model citizens are we, behaving in this way?
WHY is it that we think we can get away with it?
Living with a care-less attitude does have consequences but most of us don’t seem to take much notice as it does not affect us directly or so we think.
Could it be possible that we need to develop a relationship with our self first and foremost and make it all about self care and in that we will become aware of our environment and how our choices affect everything, even if it suits us to think it does not?
An article in the Daily Mail (03/06/17) talks about how “Supermarket fuel waste by forcing us to buy pre-packed fruit and veg in bulk.”
Fewer products are now available to buy loose so shoppers end up buying more than they need.
It has long been the case that smaller convenience stores run by the supermarket giants only sell fruit and veg in packs but this policy is now creeping into the main shops.
The big supermarkets insist there is good evidence in that shoppers prefer to buy in packs despite a recent study by the W.I. which found that 84% of people preferred buying fruit and veg loose.
A spokesperson from food waste organisation, Feedback, said “the move to sell produce in packs is a huge step in the wrong direction. When consumers are forced to buy fresh produce in large quantities, waste is more likely to happen.”
Household food waste has increased from 7 million tons in 2012 to 7.3 million tons in 2015.
The supermarkets say selling produce in packs rather than loose cuts waste because shoppers only take the best looking fruit and what’s left is usually thrown out by the store.
4 out of the big 5 supermarket chains have approximately 20-25% of their fresh produce in packs but one supermarket has increased it to 75% of their fresh produce.
Having to buy more food than is necessary has a knock on effect that far exceeds the wasting of food, not least is the added cost difference between loose and packaged produce.
Yes, on one hand, the argument by the big chains that spoiled produce is likely to be thrown away, can be understood, but is it possible the extra cost of the packaging and all that is involved in creating that packaging, surpasses the cost to the supermarket of the produce that has to be thrown away.
Simple economics dictates that if the price starts to get too high for a product, shoppers will inevitably start to look elsewhere especially if some or most of what they are buying goes in the bin because they are forced into buying produce they do not want or need.
Of course, the responsibility doesn’t just lie with the supermarkets and their manufacturers, we all need to take responsibility for what we buy.
The supermarket’s focus will always be profit led so the customer has a lot to say in shaping their policies.
An article in the BBC News, 26th August 2017, talks about the horrific crash on the M1 motorway involving two articulated lorries and a minibus.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-beds-bucks-herts-41065582
Eight people in the minibus died with four others receiving life threatening or serious injuries.
Having seen the pictures of the crushed minibus, it seems incredible that they all didn’t die.
Both lorry drivers have been arrested on suspicion of causing death by dangerous driving with one of the lorry drivers also being arrested on suspicion of being over the legal alcohol limit.
As a former HGV lorry driver myself, I have seen a lot of accidents involving lorries and smaller vehicles and I am very aware of how accidents do and can happen. One thing is for certain, the smaller vehicles don’t stand a chance against a potential weight of 44 tons.
There are very strict rules regarding HGV driving but rules will never remove human error or human arrogance.
Whatever the reasons may be, it is a total lack of responsibility for any professional driver to be drinking any amount of alcohol if they are going to be working the next day.
The devastating consequences of this type of accident is clear to see, so to add alcohol to the mix is reprehensible and totally unacceptable for any professional driver.
If the driver of the HGV is proven to be over the legal alcohol limit, then of course he should be subjected to the full force of the law, but that still doesn’t take away the fact that people have lost their lives due to his choices and it is those choices he will have to live with for the rest of his life.
Whatever our views are on alcohol, whether it is a car, a lorry, a bus or a bicycle we are driving, the consequences of mixing alcohol and driving are well known and are usually catastrophic.
We all know that driving and alcohol is not a good combination.
We all know that the Government has stipulated that we are allowed to drink a certain amount of alcohol before we are over a ‘man made legal limit’.
We all know that having that one drink could lead us onto that next drink, with the intention of getting a cab or a bus, but then a few more drinks could lead us behind the wheel of our own vehicle.
We all know that alcohol loosens our inhibitions and adds to our carefree and careless attitude to getting behind the wheel of our vehicle.
If we know all this, if we know of the dangers involved, if we have all seen on the news or in the papers the terrible and harmful consequences of a drunk driver, why do we still take the risk and go for that one drink?
Why, as a race of beings, are we so arrogant that we think we are OK, even with one drink?
Are we a CARELESS SOCIETY?
An article in the Daily Mail, 22nd April 2017, talks about how a ‘Grieving mother forced to wait for 3 hours in A&E with baby’s body in a bag after miscarriage.’
A grieving mother who had suffered a miscarriage said she was left sitting in A&E for 3 hours with her baby’s body in an overnight bag beside her.
After miscarrying at home, she rang the hospital and was told to bring her dead baby with her to A&E.
But when she arrived, despite telling staff that she was expected, she was told to sit down and went to the back of the queue as she was formally logged.
While she waited she was sick 5 times and she also heard staff gossiping about where she had put her baby, whom she had named Archie.
Even after she was seen, she said the hospital handled her case with little compassion and later misplaced Archie’s body which was due to be taken to the mortuary.
When she got to the hospital she asked: “Don’t I get put in a room or something? I’ve got my dead baby with me. But they told me to sit down.”
‘I felt like my whole body had just frozen. I was in so much shock. There were two ladies on the reception desk. They kept on talking about the baby and where I had put him. My sister-in-law had to ask them not to be disrespectful. It made me feel worse and very uncomfortable.’
A doctor finally saw her at 10.30am, more than 3 hours after she arrived at A&E.
She said, “When she handed the baby to them, they put it on a table like it was a piece of meat.” I was informed they were going to notify a bereavement midwife and I’d get a call the next day. No one contacted me at all so I rang them at 5.30pm and was told there was no record of someone needing to call me.”
“They also had no record of where my baby was because it hadn’t been put on the system. The midwife had to hunt down my baby.”
At 10am the next day I was told it had been taken from A&E to the early pregnancy unit and stayed there until 8am when the morgue opened.
A week later she wrote a letter of complaint and received an apology and was asked to come to the hospital to discuss the matter further.
She asked them not to phone on June 30th because it was the day of Archie’s funeral but only one hour after the funeral the case worker rang. She asked them to ring back that night or the next day but no one’s got back since.
There appears to be a catalogue of failures in this case but what is most disturbing is how the hospital staff treated this woman with little or no compassion.
Of course, this is not indicative of every hospital or every member of staff but hospitals, due to their nature, should be one place where we could expect at least some compassion.
There seems to be very little time for people these days, not just from hospitals, but virtually every workplace.
Working as a Supervisor in a London Bus garage I get to see all the complaints made from the public and the intolerance and disrespect some drivers have towards the public is palpable. I also see it as a passenger when I travel on public transport.
The sad thing is though, it is not just public transport or hospitals or workplaces, it is everywhere and it is most of us, and it seems to be getting worse.
It is in families, in streets, in towns, in cities, in countries in continents and in the whole world.
Because of all the ‘bad stuff’ that goes on the world, we are being inured to what is going on around us.
It seems as though most of us have lost our ability, or should that be our willingness, to be truly compassionate Why is that?
Is it possible, that to be compassionate, we would have to start to truly look at what is going on in the world, our country, our towns or even in our own homes?
Is it possible that if we did become more compassionate, we would have to start to take more responsibility?
If we did start to become more compassionate, is it possible things may start to change?
Is it possible, we could go from a CARE-LESS SOCIETY TO A CARE-FULL SOCIETY?
An article in the BBC News, 19th Sept 2017, talks of “Drive through rubbish bins aim to keep motorways clean.”
Drivers are being encouraged to throw rubbish out of their windows into bright orange bins in a bid to keep motorways cleaner.
The funnel shaped bins would be introduced at 25 service areas in the North West said Highways England.
They are designed so drivers do not need to leave their vehicles.
The Clean Up Britain founder described the funnel bins as a low-cost gimmick.
He said, “This appears like a low-cost gimmick to try and pretend that Highways England is doing something about the massive problem of litter on motorways. Highways England needs to do its job properly and keep the entire motorway network clear of litter, not just 25 so called ‘hotspots’.
An initial 10-week trial on the M3 at Winchester last year showed a 25% reduction in litter on the ground within the service area, Highways England said.
The company said more than 40,000 sacks of litter was collected from motorways in the North West last year alone – an average of 108 sacks for every mile of motorway.
108 sacks for every mile – As a society, how disregarding and careless can we get?
If we see this scheme as a good idea, are we missing the point here?
Why has it come to the stage that this sort of scheme has to be implemented?
Why do we feel it is acceptable to throw our litter out of a moving vehicle onto the motorway?
Why do we feel it is acceptable for others to clean up our litter?
Is it possible that we are just encouraging laziness?
Is it possible that rubbish will be left on the floor around the bins when drivers miss their target?
Where is our responsibility in all of this?
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/paid-recycling-scheme-drinks-bottle-deposit-return-michael-gove-environment-a7984761.html
Independent – 5 October 2017
8 million tonnes of plastic dumped into oceans so the Environment Secretary has an urgent solution – we get paid for returning our empty bottles in order to ‘attempt to boost recycling’.
Can we call ourselves an Intelligence species if this is what it has come to for a nation in the modern 21st century?
The UK is supposedly a western advanced world, but is it really if this is the current state of what is going on?
Is a so-called “reward and return” the real answer or another band aid to deal with this huge careless problem on our hands?
Would it be true to say that we have become quite comfortable in our lack of Responsibility and this is where we need to address the core issue?
What is it about us humans that we don’t seem to like taking Responsibility and harming our precious planet because we are careless seems ok?
WHY do we think that as long as we get what we want, we are not concerned about the consequences of our actions?
Is it time we went back to the good old fashioned common sense stuff and made a conscious choice to stop adding to the mess that is already on our planet?
In a supermarket cafe today, I noticed a sign for customers to put the tray back.
What I clocked was how people got up and left the table. At the table next to us were 2 adults and they just left the mess and rubbish without even thinking to clear up.
Looking around it was the same everywhere and then one man did get up and take the tray where the sign was.
It made me think, do they live that way at home?
Are we living careless in other areas of our life so we don’t even bother when it comes to eating out, to clear up after ourselves?
Then I go off to the toilets and as it was morning you think they would be clean but it would be true to say they were not.
Are we actually comfortable being irresponsible when we are in public places?
WHY do we have different standards at home compared to when we are out?
OR do we live totally careless at home and it just spills out in life everywhere?
Who is going to raise the bar, where is our moral compass and do we actually care?
What if taking just a small step in the Responsibility department could make a difference and if we keep at it consistently, we could end up with a Caring Society and not the Careless Society we have created?
I for one, will continue to ‘do my bit’ so that I am not adding to the “Careless Society” world and I know this means the tides are turning, albeit slowly.
The military has stepped in to deal with smoking-related litter on Thailand’s tourist beaches.
138,000 cigarette butts were found on a single 1.5 mile stretch of beach.
And Thailand’s beaches are only the 6th most littered in the world.
More than 100million cigarette butts are apparently dropped on roads in Thailand each day. Amongst other things, this clogs up drains and contributes to flooding.
To add further perspective, Ocean Conservancy did a clean up project and recovered 1.9million cigarette butts from 112 countries last year.
Why don’t we take care of our litter?
Does a little cigarette butt seem so small that we feel we can throw it down and it won’t matter? Time and time again.
Do we think it will be magicked away or cleaned up by someone else?
Do we even think?
https://www.google.co.uk/amp/s/www.metro.news/no-spliffs-or-butts-youll-face-jail-for-lighting-up/778240/amp/
On my way home from work tonight I saw a number of plastic bags packed full of rubbish stacked up at the side.
Then I get on the tube and see the usual free newspapers discarded to one side and a number of Macdonald’s bags and a Macdonald’s cup strewn on the floor.
What would really allow us to behave in such a care-less manner?
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-41664941#
BBC news – 19 October 2017
Over 1 million incidents of fly-tipping costing £58 million to clear up.
Well worth watching the short video on this link which really is shocking.
This is one tiny country who according to our current intelligence would say, we are an Advanced country in the western world. Really?
What on earth is advanced if this is how some of us behave?
Who is doing this and what drives anyone to act in this way?
Is it time to start asking more questions?
When did fly-tipping become normal?
WHY have we allowed this to happen?
Does this say something about how we respect the land we live on?
Does this tell us something about how we value and respect our body?
Does this speak volumes about what is really going on in our minds?
Does this tell us we are dis-connected from our inner most heart?
Does this express to us that it’s high time we got our act together?
Look at the cost and where this money could be spent wisely?
Are the rules and regulations too slack?
Are our councils on the front foot about this stuff?
Are warning letters going to cut it?
Are fixed penalty notices the long term solution?
Are unlimited fines going to scare those who do it?
Is a 5 year prison sentence the answer to this?
Are those who are getting away with it going to carry on?
WHY is it cheaper to pay the penalty than pay to remove the fly-tipped waste?
Is this something we all need to be asking or is there more here?
Have we become careless in the way we purchase and discard things?
Have we become irresponsible in our daily choices and our living ways?
Is there more we need to look at here?
Do we think common sense and decency is no longer needed?
Do we see real life as a virtual life and so none of this matters?
Do we want to be paid for our rubbish and then we will act in a civil manner?
WHY do we think it is ok to dump what we no longer want onto land that may belong to someone who then has to pay to have it removed?
Where has our moral compass gone?
Is it high time we started educating from day dot on that word RESPONSIBILITY so one day the adult generations realise we cannot live as a careless society and that everything matters?
While we bring about changes, let’s educate our adult world with blogs and websites like this that simply bring awareness about the real state of our world today.
Think about it – this is one tiny country and if it was a business who on earth would be investing in it? The people make the country and we are saying things are not great, because our behaviour is telling us.
Watching the video on this link is more than an eye-opener. I have read about fly tipping before and seen it but never on this scale.
As Simple Living Global are saying in this comment this is just one country.
What is actually happening that is allowing this to occur?
One thing I know for sure is that the macrocosm of what is happening in life is a direct reflection of the microcosm and therefore – how are we living our lives individually that gives room for this to occur?
Could any area where we don’t care and turn a blind eye lead to this?
That video is terrible to watch. What a sad state of affairs.
Even if they don’t get caught and they push it out of their mind, dumping that rubbish will have hurt the fly-tippers on some level. They will carry that with them in their life as a knowing inside (however quiet).
The deep disregard; the total lack of decency; the knock on effect for others; the cost, expense and effort of the clean up.
Not taking care of our possessions and our waste hurts all of us.
Yes watching this link is a real shocker. Over a million incidents of fly tipping in this country alone. That is a huge amount of rubbish for a small country. What do we think is going happen to it after it has been dumped?
Would we do this in our own back garden?.. I don’t feel we would, so why is it ok to dump rubbish where ever we want?
Could we be looking no further than our own needs and wants.. not considering others, our beautiful planet?
Could this be showing us how we are living our day to day lives.. do we care for ourselves, respect ourselves in a way that leads us to care about others.. and our environment?
A ‘smart road’ has been invented that will light up to warn drivers of pedestrians walking out onto the road unexpectedly. Motion-sensor LED lights will help address the increasing issue of people looking at their mobile phone instead of paying attention to the road.
http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/gadgets-and-tech/news/starling-crossing-road-safety-umbrellium-pedestrians-cyclists-drivers-accidents-a7991116.html
It is interesting to see inventions being created to respond to our carelessness.
I wonder what would happen if we started addressing the carelessness itself.
In Singapore, the streets are clean. It is illegal to drop litter and it is well known that the police will fine you without ceremony.
Small-time litter like a sweet wrapper or cigarette butt will involve an immediate fine of $300, bigger litter like plastic bags and drink cups attract a $1,000 fine – first offence or not.
Big items or repeat offences attract fines up to $5,000, jail time or more commonly a ‘community work order’, where you wear a bright orange vest with ‘community work order’ on it while you sweep the streets so everyone knows why you are there.
There is a lot of sense in this – in taking seriously the care with which we treat our streets and holding people to account for that.
The impact can be felt.
Yes Thomas! Tell your brother I love his political party, Jacob. I will vote for him.
The litter problem in the USA is getting worse. It is like it is normal to see trash everywhere.
What is going on? We are settling for less! Why?
I enjoy driving. There is a flow to traffic if you allow it. And it seems if you are generous in that flow with other drivers, that is what comes back to you.
I just drove a few hundred miles and it was so smooth. I let a bunch of people pull out onto the main road along the way and I was let out in return, as needed.
What if this is just one important and perhaps overlooked aspect of taking care of each other in society – how we treat each other on our roads?
Respecting we are all going somewhere and allowing each other the space for that, at the right moments.
Over the last few days I have been struck by the amount of rubbish we accumulate. I was at a course recently and the amount of rubbish bags in the bin collection area at the end of the 4 day course was astonishing.
I live in a block of 12 flats and this week the recycling bin collection was missed. I have returned home to see the astonishing amount of recycling that’s collected over 2 weeks – many from on-line orders.
It would be easy to shake my head and tut, but you know what I have been asking myself some deeper questions about this like –
Why are we accumulating so much waste?
Do we really need all of these things that we are buying?
Are we buying too much food?
Are we buying up things just because they are cheap and is this part of the problem?
Is the issue that we have an insatiable desire for more that can never be satisfied.
https://simplelivingglobal.com/more-more-more/
Do I need to look at how much I am consuming and throwing away?
Am I adding to this or taking care not to add more harm?
This morning when I left our home to go to work there were a number of signs throughout our building, including in the lift on how to recycle materials correctly and what can be recycled and what cannot.
So our missed bin recycling collection last week cannot have been an accident but was purely a message to let us know that we have been disregarding by the way we have been dumping our rubbish.
Recycling is meant to be about taking responsibility for our rubbish and not adding extra harm to our earth, but it seems as though we are just using it as another dumping ground.
Another opportunity for me as one resident to refine and review what I use and thus end up throwing away.
This is a really good point, Shevon.
I am aware in our household we seem to generate a lot of waste.
This is worth looking at further. How much of that waste – and the consumption that leads to it – is excessive to what is needed?
Is there more responsibility needed here and if so where can I bring that?
Metro News – 22 November 2017
1,400 disposable cups a day are thrown out by Defra – Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs in UK.
The article goes on to say 3.9 million disposable cups were purchased in past 4 years by the Commons catering team and they want to tackle the ‘throwaway society’.
Is making a charge on these cups the real answer?
Have we not learnt how creative we humans have become to finding solutions?
https://simplelivingglobal.com/solutions-solutions/
Are we ever going to address the root cause of WHY we are so in need of our caffeine beverage multiple times in one day? https://simplelivingglobal.com/why-is-coffee-big-business/
As a one time waster of disposable cups, having addressed WHY I needed my fix of anything with sugar and a stimulation to keep me going, I no longer subscribe to this.
It comes down to asking questions and being honest as to WHY we are doing what we do. https://simplelivingglobal.com/questions-questions/
No amount of government policy is going to change us if we do not want to make the change for ourselves and start by being honest and then taking action.
Then once we do, we commit to that Responsibility and by reflection others can see and feel change. No point banging on about it, just hold steady and firm in what we know is true because we live that way. I for one, am living proof that this way can inspire others to do the same and when I do open my mouth about something, it comes from a body that has truly lived what it says – in other words walked the walk and talked the talk.
No hot talk which are just empty words.
https://simplelivingglobal.com/hot-talk/
In Estonia, pedestrians have to wear a reflector at night so cars can see them.
This is because they have a very high rate of car accidents.
As a result of this and the fact that they already have a small population, they are also very strict rules about drink driving.
Not only do those rules apply to cars, but they also apply to pedestrians and cyclists.
If you are in an accident as a pedestrian or cyclist and you were not wearing a reflector or you have been drinking, you will get points on your driver’s licence, even though you were not driving a car at the time.
The principle is responsibility: if you are not a responsible pedestrian or cyclist, then you can not be a responsible driver.
This makes great sense to me.
Daily Mail – 28 October 2017
Two elderly patients in a week die of hunger or thirst in Britain’s hospitals and care homes, according to data from the Office of National Statistics.
Failing to inadequately feed and hydrate residents is shocking in 21st century Britain.
How serious is this when dehydration and malnutrition are listed as a ‘contributory factor’ or ‘underlying cause’ of deaths.
The Care Quality Commission found that care homes were inadequate or in need of improvement. Among the findings, elderly residents were left filthy and starving, locked in bedrooms with no natural light or given the wrong medication.
To summarise – this is exposing something we all need to know about, as it is not going to just disappear and sort itself out.
Are we asking the right questions?
Is the government going to ‘tackle’ this and is it going to work?
Is there something here that may not be the obvious?
Could it be possible that those caring are not deeply caring of themselves and so it becomes a blind spot?
In other words, if we are not hydrating ourselves consistently throughout the day, we may just forget to do that for those we care for?
Could it be possible that if we are not committed to having nutritional food daily then it is highly unlikely that we would be concerned if another is because we simply forget, as it’s not something we bother to even do for ourselves?
Could it be possible that staff are low paid, have other worries and are not coming to work full of vitality, but in truth are exhausted?
Could it be possible that many of our care homes are privately run and there is not enough resources to keep them regulated to the standard that they need to be?
All I know from lived experience now is that being careless towards our own health and well-being is going to affect how we care for others.
A classic example is, I was in a recovery unit post surgery and witnessed staff not having any hydration or using the toilet as they said they were just ‘too busy’.
I continued to hydrate myself during the night, as I was there for many hours and offered water to two staff. Both said how they know it’s wrong but just forget and they also put off going for a pee.
They took the water and went off to actually take a break which they felt was needed.
So what it told me is that when we truly take care of ourselves and then open our mouths and express, others do feel it as they are inspired. It was not hot talk, it was me saying what I do and how it supports me that make the difference.
As a world we are living so careless, that we need a U turn and it’s about time we started taking small steps in our own lives to ensure that the tides will turn.
An article in ‘The Week’ magazine, 28th October 2017, talks about how “We’re pushing our doctors far too hard.”
One doctor says that when she started in 1990 as a junior doctor, the NHS was different.
They were still ‘overworked and underpaid’ but they felt valued and patients generally received excellent care.
In recent years, many of the things that supported the well-being of the doctors have been stripped away, with the knock-on effects for both them and those they treat.
No longer do Trusts have to offer on-site accommodation or on-call rooms for juniors serving late night shifts – which helps explain why two in five doctors admit they’ve fallen asleep while driving.
Nor as they once did, do Trusts routinely provide hot food for doctors: juniors on night duty have to fend for themselves or starve.
Yet doctors are having to deal with far more patients and paperwork.
This is prompting many to quit, further increasing the burden on those who remain.
On one hand, when we read this, we could say most employers do not provide accommodation and food for their employees, (I know my employer certainly doesn’t) so why should NHS Trusts provide for those that are simply just doing their job?
Or, we could say, that hospitals are a place where we need our doctors to be on their top game.
Is it fair to assume that NHS Trusts have stopped providing these benefits for one reason – to save money?
Is it possible that in the long term they are not actually saving money due to sickness, absence, staff leaving, lawsuits when mistakes are made?
When we start to see employees as just numbers, we lose sight of what is true.
How can a doctor take care of others if they are being pushed to not take care of themselves?
The obvious consequence of this is that the patient will suffer from this way of working because the doctor cannot offer them all the care and attention that doctors want to give.
Is the world we live in getting more and more CARE-LESS?
In any workplace environment, is it possible that if an employee feels valued, the company/organisation will get more out of that employee?
Is that worth the price of providing a hot meal and somewhere to rest?
I know that if I had to go to hospital, I would want the doctor to be able to take care of me in the best way possible.
At a Christmas party last night, the queue for the one loo was long.
Someone I was talking to excused themselves to go to it and I assumed they be gone ages. But 2 minutes later they were back. I asked him if he gave up because of the queue and he said no, he had peed outside.
I was flabbergasted.
Yes we were in a warehouse-type space in an edgy party of London, but going outside to urinate next to the smoking area?
We had a whole discussion about it and he genuinely didn’t see anything wrong with it. Though he could see the problem it would cause if every male at the party did the same, or if he did it in the street outside the office.
Why do some of us think literally nothing of these types of acts?
Why do we think of acts like this as ok in some places but not in others?
Does our carelessness run way, way deeper than we have even considered today?
This is great to talk about JS as we know it goes on all the time.
I wonder if alcohol has a part to play?
More often than not, at parties or late night, people are intoxicated with the scientifically proven poison that is legal that we call ‘alcohol’.
As the blog on this website presents, it alters our natural state, just as any other drug does.
So if the person is not in their natural state, does that make them do things and think it is ok and not really comprehend what the problem is, because it is not them doing it in the first place?
In other words they are not in a true state of being?
Next – I have noticed when I get to work early on a Saturday morning in Central London that I do need to pay attention to dodge the vomit that looks like it happened in the night. There seems to be a lot of this going on as when I walk on my high street on a Sunday morning it’s the same.
What makes us think this is ok and someone can clean up our mess?
We have become a community, a country, a world that seems to ACCEPT a lot of things as normal and this is where the problem is if you ask me.
We are accepting behaviours that are harmful and see it as part of life instead of calling it out and making sure we put a stop to it.
No point banging on about it but well worth writing a comment and adding to this blog so that one day those scholars studying this website in the future will know it was at least discussed and not just accepted by all.
Well worth writing a comment indeed, Bina.
I know only too well the high street vomit dodge.
If we were able to interview the next day all the people who vomited in the street after too much alcohol, I wonder how many of them would be mortified they had done that.
I wonder how many would agree they would never do that if they were in their natural state of being.
I wonder how many of them would consider it acceptable.
I wonder how many would reflect on their choices if they met the people who had to step over it or clean it up.
I wonder how many of the rest of us reflect on our own choices when we see vomit in the street like this.
An article in the Daily Mail, 18th November 2017, talks about the “Tax to beat the scourge of plastic packaging.”
The Chancellor will announce plans to tax plastic bottles, coffee cups and packages in next week’s Budget.
He will use his annual statement on the economy to detail plans for a review of new taxes and charges on ‘single-use’ plastic items.
The move is designed to stem the tide of plastic junk poisoning our seas and littering our streets and countryside.
Sources say there is a determination in Government to act on an issue that has been highlighted most recently by the BBC’s hit show, Blue Planet ll.
A source said: “This is building on what we have already done on plastic bags and microbeads. Shows like Blue Planet have highlighted the need to take this issue seriously and act on it.”
In the UK alone, the amount of single use plastic thrown away each year would fill the Albert hall a thousand times over.
An estimated 12 million tonnes of plastic waste is dumped in the ocean’s each year creating ‘floating continents’ of junk. One such ‘continent’ in the Pacific Ocean is the size of France.
A member of Greenpeace UK said plastic pollution was a global emergency, with particles turning up in the stomachs of whales, turtles and 90% of birds.
We have had environmental organisations talking about the blight of plastic waste for many years so why does it take a program like Blue Planet to get the Government moving?
Yes, Governments should be doing more to tackle plastics being dumped in our seas, streets and countryside but is it possible that we need to ask one simple question here…WHY SHOULD THEY HAVE TO?
It’s not as if the Government is going to landfill sites, grabbing a container full of plastic and then dumping it.
It is a lot more simpler than that.
Every bit of single-use plastic in our seas, streets and countryside starts from a member of the human race being irresponsible and not disposing of their litter.
Do we really need to go any further than that?
We live in a Care-Less society and we will always have our ‘continents of junk’ until we start to take full Responsibility for every choice we make.
Since reading about the ‘fatberg’ problem in London’s sewers, I have been extra vigilant about what gets flushed down our toilet.
Fatbergs – that cause massive blockages and huge effort and resource to remove – are mainly made up of the wet wipes we flush down the toilet and the oil we pour down our sinks, as well as sanitary products.
These things congeal together and result in walls of gross-ness that block our sewers and have to be cut away in pieces with drills.
After first reading about them, I realised how careless I had been, thinking it didn’t matter putting those ‘flushable’ wipes down the loo, but it does – they simply don’t break down like toilet paper and we are all kidding ourselves if we think they do. And how many women are still flushing tampons down the toilet?
There is finally a decent amount of coverage in the press about the problem and they are even putting part of one of the biggest fatbergs on display in a museum as an artefact of our disregard. This particular ‘product of modern day living’ was so huge – they measured it as longer than Tower Bridge and as heavy as 11 double-decker buses.
Will we all now take note? If we visit the museum will we make a change? Or will we look at it as a curiosity of our times and carry on doing what we have always done, hoping someone else will deal with the problem?
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-42324932
I would most definitely vote for this party Jacob as it is important that we have political parties that care about people and the environment.
When you put it like that we would not dump rubbish in a field and be so blatant with the owner. However, when we are ‘anonymous’ and we think no-one knows what we are doing and there are no obvious repurcussions, it does not seem to matter to us.
This is not a true way to live as we are having double standards.
An article in ‘The Telegraph’, 2nd January 2018, says: “Don’t waste our time NHS pleads with up to 17 million needless visits.”
Health officials are urging the public not to heap pressure on Accident and Emergency units, as they reveal up to 17 million hospital visits a year may be needless.
The NHS chief nursing officer urged people to turn to pharmacists and 111 whenever possible, as she warned that services are now under unprecedented strain.
A number of trusts have issued direct pleas to the public to keep away from A+E if at all possible with others asking any available nurses and doctors to come to work.
Senior doctors say a rise in flu cases has been enough to overload many hospitals and place heavy strain on ambulance services, even though the flu season has only just begun.
NHS England said that in 2016/17, more than nine million people were sent home from A+E after only getting advice, which could often have been obtained from a pharmacist or 111.
Meanwhile, almost 8 million outpatient appointments were wasted on patients who failed to turn up – a rise from 7.5 million the previous year.
Officials said the appointments alone were worth £1 billion.
These figures are extremely shocking and worrisome, not only for the quantity involved, but for the absolute disregard we have for the NHS.
Anecdotal evidence has shown me that many people believe that, because the NHS is publicly funded, they have the right to abuse it.
One person said that because he pays his National Insurance contributions, he is entitled to drink as much alcohol as he wants, get as ill as he wants and expects the NHS to sort him out.
Yes, the NHS is a publicly funded system and most people do pay into it, but that does not give us the right to treat it in this way?
The contributions we pay are called National INSURANCE, so is it possible that we need to start seeing the NHS as an insurance policy?
If we need it, we know it is there but we don’t go out of our way to abuse it.
We have car and house insurance yet most people would never deliberately damage their car or home.
It has been well advertised that the NHS is struggling, not just financially, but also staff wise, so is it possible that if we get a hospital appointment we should be treating it with more respect?
CARELESS doesn’t come close in describing nearly 8 million appointments wasted due to non-attendance.
The NHS is there for those that need it.
Is it possible that if we continue to abuse this system, it won’t be there when we truly need it to be?
I agree Tim.
I was discussing this news item with colleagues yesterday – we reflected on the care-less way we can be in society, where we tend to look after us/our own, and not consider the ripple effect – DNA’s with the NHS is one example, similarly so for appointments everywhere that are often not attended – and no one let’s the others know they aren’t attending. In other examples it can be the other way e.g. someone shared how they had been going for job interviews, and how the employers didn’t bother to email them after the interview, and for some job applications no one responded at all from the company at all – no wonder job seekers can feel demoralised.
Is it possible there is a bigger game at play here – that we are bystanders as we know this goes on, and when it suits us we don’t cancel, or we don’t care, and the ripple effect is that that attitude permeates other parts of society e.g. companies who ‘don’t care’ and don’t respond when you apply for a job. What if this merry-go-round is self perpetuating? In that we don’t bother, and we then see society doesn’t bother, and we then say ‘you see nobody cares – why should I care’ and yet somewhere deep down we know this isn’t true – and it irks us.
What if all this ‘care-less-ness’ relates to a deeper discomfort in us all taking responsibility to the detail in our lives?
What is happening in society that so many systems that were designed to help people are failing.
If we look at our education systems, social housing systems, prisons, health service, social security and benefits systems – they are all breaking down.
We have increasing numbers of academics and medical professionals committing suicide, as one example of the breakdown.
Have we ever questioned why this is happening?
Just reading this article alone about one prison in the UK has made me think about this?
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-nottinghamshire-42747304
One of the officers in the article says that before the staffing cuts, prison officers were able to sit down and talk with prisoners and help them, as they would open up and now they don’t have time.
Working in public services, I know this scenario very well and personally I am finding that I have to choose between the genuine care that I feel people deserve and targets. Some things do have to wait as people are important.
On that note what I also being made even more aware of is that I also matter in the care department and so if we brought it all back to basics and put people at the heart of any services, both staff and clients would be treated with the utmost care and respect above anything else. That would be our priority.
The services I or any of us work in may never change, however we each have the power to make individual changes in our own lives and in the way that we work and that in itself can have a ripple effect out to others.
The UK Prime Minister apologised yesterday for the NHS not being able to cope over the Christmas period.
It made me think of your post, Tim, and whether we are looking at how we are treating the NHS.
We complain when the care is not there, but where are all the resources actually going? Is it because illness and disease is through the roof or are there other factors contributing to the excess demand?
For example, alcohol is apparently a factor in 35% of A&E cases, which rises to 70% at the weekends. How many cases over the holiday period were alcohol related?
Are some of our elderly turning to hospital because they are not getting the support they need at home or because everything is closed for Christmas?
Is the medical profession properly resourced and an appealing career choice or are our doctors and nurses over-worked and under appreciated?
It seems we are in crisis with our health service. Is it time for us to look at our own choices and expectations and consider how they play into the bigger picture?
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2018/01/04/long-ambulance-waits-double-week-nhs-winter-crisis-bites/
Great question Jacob. Also I notice that people near where I live take bags to put dog poo in, then drop the bags on the floor – and again I ask the same as you ‘why do they do that?’
One of the issues we have in society today is plastic which is filling our oceans amongst other places and there are problems with getting rid of it.
Today in the news is a great pull up for responsibility as regards coffee cups – called the “Latte Levy” (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-42564948) where there may be a charge for coffee cups (just as we have had charges for supermarket carrier plastic carrier bags).
Funny thing is, there have been times I have taken my own flask to get a fill up of peppermint tea and the shop have handed me the tea in a plastic/paper coffee cup – which still means there is waste of that cup.
We really do need more systems in our daily lives where we recycle, and where we take more responsibility for the environment.
I saw something tonight which really confirms we have a carelessness epidemic.
I was out walking with a friend and there on the pavement by the tree was a Christmas tree that had been slung on its side and dumped there.
We both stood and looked at each other in disbelief.
So now the festive season is over and tomorrow being 6th January where most people will take down decorations, are we actually considering how we are disposing of our Christmas trees?
Why is it someone else’s responsibility to get rid of what we have bought?
Local councils in England have refuge departments that explain the collection process regarding Christmas trees – so why would we not use them?
Is it OK that we’ve had our fun and now that the party’s over, we just dump what we no longer have any use for and is now out of fashion?
We took time and effort to source the purchase so why not put the same time and effort into disposing of it?
What will it take for us to wake up and accept that en masse, we are living irresponsibly and this is really damaging our world in more ways than we can see?
The Guardian – 5 January 2018
https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2018/jan/05/think-twice-about-buying-squashed-faced-breeds-vets-urge-dog-lovers
Vets are asking dog lovers to think twice about buying squashed faced dogs such as pugs and French bulldogs after 75% of owners were found to be unaware of the health problems such breeds often experience.
According to new data, there has been a huge rise in these breeds.
A key factor in why owners choose such breeds is the animals’ baby-like faces with large, round wide-set eyes and flat noses. Over time, those traits have been bred for and in some cases, they have been taken to extremes. The selective breeding and prioritising appearance over health has left the breeds prone to skin disorders, eye ulcers and breathing difficulties among other health problems.
A survey from the BVA – British Veterinary Association revealed that 49% of vets thought advertising and social media were among the reasons behind the surge in ownership of these dogs, while 43% said celebrity ownership was one of the driving factors.
“One of the things that is causing this increase that we have seen over the last few years appears to be celebrity endorsements and their use in advertising.” Said John Fiswick – President of the BVA.
The RVC – the Royal Veterinary College said the problem is not confined to new owners only. Recent research from RVC found 90% of pug, French and English bulldog said they would own another such dog in the future. This means this surge is not just going to go away.
Once you get a market drive, the puppy farms will start to breed, regardless of the consequences as this is about profits, not people or animals.
Big brands are also using such dogs in promotional material.
Being bred to have a certain look is not natural – this has come from demand. Yes we the customers that want what we want, regardless of it being a health issue to the animal is not in the equation. We have come to a point where we can create anything we want and if that means a dog with a certain look, then we know it’s out there, others have it and so we can too. Nothing stopping us and if we enforce the law, we will drive the business underground. In other words, the business continues to grow. The only way to stop this is changing our behaviour and that would need us to get our common-sense outfit on and take stock of the choices we are making and the impact on everyone and everything.
We call that taking Responsibility and if we are going to be honest – most of us have some way to go with that word.
And finally – can we call this Care-less because on some level our behaviour tells us this is what we are doing, when we are not taking care with our choices?
There have been so many stories in the news about the A&E departments in England over the holiday period and into January reporting on the fact that they are all struggling and to be honest that staff are unable to cope with the strain of the demand on the services.
I work in homelessness and I can say that over the last 10 years I have seen demand increase. It is not always necessarily in the numbers asking for help, but the complexity that each client presents and the number of different issues that they have that needs attention.
We can take a skim over the top, band aid approach to the presenting issues but what happens is that the root cause does not go away and just returns again. It might be ‘easy’ to offer that customer a solution to the issue, like provide them with a new home because they need one and it gets them off our books, but they will just return to the same situation – homelessness again until the root cause is addressed.
Many times I see that the way we spend our money can be a cause of homelessness. For example not prioritising rent payments over other expenditure.
Many years ago when I was very careless with my money, I would not be able to see that bad spending was the cause, but now that I have more regard for my finances I am able to spot it a mile off and point some things out to clients or signpost them to debt advice services. I know that the way that I live my life and the care, or lack of care, that I live with translates into the quality of service that I can offer and also directly affects what I see or don’t see that needs to be addressed.
Driving through New York City, there are piles of old Christmas trees on every street, waiting for refuse collection.
And this is just one city in just one state in just one country.
Isn’t all this simply a waste of nature’s resources? And our own…
In the bathroom at the airport someone had left a used tampon next to the sanitary disposal bin.
Could they not be bothered to wrap it and dispose of it properly?
What was going on for them that they did not take the time and care to do that?
Did they think about the people who would go into that cubicle after them?
Did they think about the person who would have to clear it away?
This was a particularly obvious and unhygienic example of the carelessness we see around us, but what are the smaller, much more subtle versions of this in our own everyday?
Seeing that tampon made me want to weed them all out.
Daily Mail – 6 January 2018
This news story is talking about a global market of £12.5 bilion – Wet Wipes
One of the world’s largest producers of wet wipes churns out more than 670 million packs a year in Europe. This includes cosmetic wipes, baby wipes, moist toilet tissue and household cleaning wipes. As each pack contains anything from 10 to 100 wipes we are talking billions.
We all know that most wipes are not designed to be flushed down the toilet but yet we do with our careless behaviour and seem to have no concern of the consequences of what happens thereafter.
However, we may not be aware that these wet wipes actually contain plastic in the form of polyester. This means they do not break down easily.
93% material causing blockages were disposable wipes, says Water UK.
Recently we have heard about ‘Fatbergs’ which have come from a mass that gathers in sewers.
Wipes are a key component, along with congealed cooking fat that has been poured down sinks.
300,000 sewer blockages every year costing the country £100 million.
700% rise in wipes washed up on beaches in the past decade.
Most wipes do not tell you what they are made of because this information is not a legal requirement.
So what are we all going to do about this global problem now facing us that is very serious?
How are we ever going to manage life without the convenience of wet wipes for everything?
How would we possibly raise a baby without the thought of wet wipes every single day?
How could we go back to the good old fashioned way of using less and having more regard?
How could we ever stop people from their ingrained habits and behaviour when it comes to using wet wipes?
Is there a simple answer or will we come up with another creation, as we are great with finding solutions?
How many of us are choosing to take Responsibility for all aspects of our lives and that means really looking at how we are living every single day in every single moment?
Is the thought of giving up the fast way of life, which is comfortable and convenient like using wet wipes just not an option, as we love the quick way?
Is taking care, deep care of our body and how we live everyday, going to make the tides turn in every area of our lives?
Is this the deep self-care that will be the game changer not only in our lives, but have a global affect and that includes the whole planet?
Could this true self-care be the end of careless behaviour?
Thank you for sharing this very important news story Simple Living Global.
This to me is a wake-up call as we really do not think that they way we behave and the things that we do in our daily lives, have an incredible impact on the earth and everything around us.
Using wet wipes as an example, I am sure that many of us having read your comment, can relate this to other areas of our lives. Where else are we disposing of things carelessly?
I have started to really consider plastic bags. I recycle and reuse them and sometimes there are bags that are no longer of any use, or are old and even though I have washed them out they have no use. These used to end up in the bin, but this has started to disturb me as it does not feel right.
As some supermarkets have large recycling bins for plastic bags, I have decided to store those that no longer have any use and take them with me to the supermarket when I go.
I may only go to that supermarket once a month and the old me, would have just wanted the bags gone, but I would prefer to collect them and take them with me than add to what I keep reading about with the amount of plastic that is being dumped on the earth.
This comment has taken it to the next level of questioning.
Reading it, I could feel I do not even want to consider life without wet wipes. Especially those anti-bac ones where you can have a quick wipe around the toilet seat and pop them in the bin. As a mum to 2 young boys, they are so convenient.
But what if this convenience thing is exactly the problem?
We want our lives to be easy so we don’t look at the harm.
And we forget it is often not hard at all to find another way.
For example, with the loo wipe-down thing – what’s wrong with a loo cloth and a bit of spray, like my mum used to have? Is that really much less convenient, or is it just what we get used to?
I will experiment with this.
On a long haul flight, I got talking to the bigwig of staff. He was in charge of the flight crew and he had much to report.
Having worked on the airline for over 23 years, he had seen much.
He talked about the waste and how little the public are really aware of what goes on.
Food is a big thing when it comes to waste as they throw out heaps of food and his example was first class have a choice of menu, like a real restaurant so in order to cater for the very few who travel upper class they have everything…just in case..so these passengers get what they want.
That was his job as head of the team to serve those important people who travel at the front of the plane. However, he was talking to me at the back end and said he likes to keep in touch with the real people too who travel economy.
Is this what those who can pay top price want?
Do they simply expect this as part of the service?
Is this a demand and supply thing – in other words, this exists because customers demand it?
Are we saying if you have money then we are somehow exempt to what the world is saying we need to be doing and that is stopping waste and being careless?
Do we sit and judge or blame or do we start talking about this and WHY airlines pander to those who pay top dollar?
An article from the MailOnline, 19th January 2018, says: What a waste! Half a million tons of rubbish WE put out for recycling is being dumped in landfill or burned – double the figure six years ago.
Despite being sorted into containers, around 4 per cent of recycling is treated as waste, usually because of contamination.
In 2011 the share of recycling that was not recovered was only 1.7 per cent.
Problems come when families or firms put the wrong items into their recycling container or when those items are contaminated – for example, a cardboard pizza box with food stuck to the inside.
This means individual items put out for recycling have to be filtered out and put in with the normal waste.
Part of this issue is that manufacturers are using non-recyclable plastics and this is causing confusion with the public as to what can and cannot be recycled.
But manufacturers are now taking steps to tackle this issue.
Waitrose says it will stop using black plastic food trays that cannot be recycled.
Coca-Cola announced radical plans to help collect and recycle the equivalent of 100 per cent of its packaging by 2020.
Supermarkets are coming under pressure to stop wrapping ‘pointless plastics’ around its fruit and vegetables.
Michael Gove has announced plans to increase the rate of plastics recycling.
The UK rate for recycling is at 44 per cent.
Leading the countries of its waste being recycled is Switzerland with 52 per cent being recycled.
The issues around recycling and materials that can’t be recycled has been going on for a long time now with the Government very aware of the problems.
Of the nearly half a million tons of recycling that can’t be recycled, part of the issue is that manufacturers are making plastics that we can’t recycle.
But the bigger issue is that most of this half a million figure is because of food contamination.
Yes, the Government and food manufacturers have a huge part to play in our recycling issues with increasing awareness of what can and cannot be recycled, increasing awareness of the fact that food contamination prohibits recycling and enforcing stricter policies on the manufacture of plastics that can be recycled.
But, just as importantly, is the part we all have to play.
Food contamination is a major factor in whether something is recycled, so do we need to take more responsibility and just make sure our pots, cans and any food container has a quick rinse before putting it in the recycling bin?
Is it possible that it is our responsibility to make sure that anything that can be recycled, is able to be recycled?
I saw a woman yesterday throw her food wrapper on the ground.
She was deliberate in her movement as she did it. A kind of ‘I’m finished with this and so this is where it goes now’ movement.
She threw it down to her left as she was walking past a bin to her right. She walked on, chewing.
It was a gesture of total disregard.
It hit home to me that so many of us just do not care.
Whether we are like the lady who drops litter or would never dream of doing that, there are things we just do not care about. And it feels like this applies to pretty much all of us to a greater or lesser degree.
It has triggered a motivation in me to see where in my life I am care-less and to actually have a look at that. From the tiny to the big.
And with my kids, it has triggered a re-commitment to consequences and to consistency in that. Sometimes we need to be encouraged to care and consequences are brilliant for that.
A few situations have arisen recently which have highlighted to me how much we put profit before people.
There are so many services that could be run better and offer a quality service, if we put the welfare of people ahead of profits.
I understand that we are to live within our means, I totally get that and it’s a very responsible way to live, but doing so does not mean we have to scrimp on the quality.
There are always areas where there is wastage and so –
What if it would make more sense for us to look at areas of wastage and see how these can be addressed?
What if any savings from this type of exercise are reallocated and used to provide services that do truly care about people?
A little while ago I saw 2 people on motorbikes who drove on the pavement, right across it and back onto the road.
There were loads of people on that bit of pavement.
Why were they going across the pavement?
Why didn’t they stay in the traffic and go along with what everyone else was doing?
Why did they do something illegal instead?
(As I said they DROVE their motorbikes across the pavement.)
https://www.independent.co.uk/environment/plastic-pollution-killed-sperm-whale-dead-spain-beach-bags-blue-planet-a8293446.html
A whale found dead on a beach in Spain had 29 kilos of plastic in its stomach, blocking its digestive system and leading to death.
During the autopsy on the 10-metre long marine mammal, experts found plastic bags, fragments of nets and ropes and a jerry can.
The presence of plastics in our seas and oceans is now one of the greatest threats to the conservation of wildlife throughout the world, as many animals are trapped in the trash, or ingest large amounts of plastic that end up causing their death.
A recent report for the UK government concluded the amount of plastic in the world’s oceans is set to treble within a decade.
While we wait for scientists to be sure about the extent of the harm to marine ecosystems caused by the huge quantities of plastic circulating the world’s oceans, is there anything we as individuals can do?
Could we start up real conversations about our behaviour when it comes to waste?
Are we participating in adding more un-necessary waste to our planet?
Have we ourselves become lazy and lax when it comes to dealing with our waste?
Do we think recycling and taking time to consider the bigger picture, when it comes to waste is not our responsibility?
Are we fully aware of the plastic pollution that we have all created and contributed to?
Would it be true to say that our solutions of dumping waste into our seas is not the answer?
Is it time to seriously review and refine and take immediate action in our own daily life and look at how we can stop any additional waste ending up in oceans or landfills?
We have become a careless society, when it comes to waste, as we have created a throwaway culture where many think it is quite normal to get rid of things, without a thought or regard of the consequences.
Each of us represent the microcosm, so it makes sense that even if it feels like we are not making a difference as it is just one person, we certainly are, as we define the macrocosm, which is our world.
https://www.independent.co.uk/environment/plastic-pollution-killed-sperm-whale-dead-spain-beach-bags-blue-planet-a8293446.html
CHECK THIS VIDEO – the kids are the real deal
This is a video that I have played on repeat and that is super rare for me.
What I love is the real life simple way children express and it just feels like the Truth.
These little people were shocked and surprised to see what is being dumped into our oceans and their response confirms they know what is needed.
It would be wise if governments and policymakers went into schools and asked questions about what to do and how to get things done. Our kids seem to just know.
It is like they are not yet programmed in anyway and have free thinking.
They are not worried or concerned to win the people or get votes or be liked.
They are open, natural and joyfull in their expression and this comes through in this video.
A must watch as it reminds us how simple things can be.
Our world that we have created, seems to be getting complicated and the ease and flow of how things could be has been lost.
Our children are worth listening to and not to be dismissed as less educated or less intelligent.
These mini-masters need to have a hand in running our countries as they have innate wisdom that just knows what is needed.
Walking through the train carriages yesterday, one was deserted. It had been trashed.
There were crisps literally everywhere, crushed into the fabric of the seats, all over the floor. Discarded fizzy drinks pooling onto the floor.
It felt like a post-school gathering of our youth playing out.
How does this come about?
There is no doubt the people who did it would have known the damage they were doing. If they cared, they overrode that feeling completely. And they walked away and left it like that, every one of them. Zero regard for those who would come after or those who would clean it up.
It struck me, how much harm a few people can do. How much it matters that we actually care – care about the basics like respect and decency, in how we treat each other and our shared environment.
I read an article recently about hot desking and that one company has developed a keyboard that will prevent crumbs from falling into the crevices.
The company is planning to produce the following for their keyboards –
1) Dressing keys in protective skirts
2) Wipers that will eliminate food
3) Bellows that will blast items with forced gas
I have worked in an office where we hot desk and dirty keyboards and dirty desks are a common feature. When you tip the keyboard upside down there can be a plethora of crumbs, dust, dirt and whatever else can fit in between keys, hence why I can understand the invention.
However what happened to taking responsibility for regularly cleaning our desks and computers so that we do not have to produce gadgets to deal with our uncleanliness and lack of care?
What about not even eating at our desks at all?
Could this be another example of demand and supply?
That there is a demand because we have become lazy and uncaring and don’t want to clean up after ourselves and so this creates the opportunity for a solution to be supplied in the form of gadgets to protect our devices when just good old fashioned cleaning would be all that is needed.
I saw a big cleaning effort in Liverpool Street in London yesterday.
2 people had cordoned off the street, to pressure scrub the pavement with machines. They were working section by section to remove the chewing gum.
You could see this was painstaking work.
Looking around, I could see the entire pavement was littered with gum, trodden in over time. All the way up the street.
I am trying to imagine what is happening for a person if they choose mid-stride to take the gum they are chewing out of their mouth and drop it on the street. Or worse, to spit it on the floor.
Do they pause at all?
Does the disregard register somewhere inside?
Seeing that scene really opened my eyes. Literally hundreds of people must think it is completely normal to spit gum on the street for there to be so much of it to clean up.
I wonder what it would take for us to feel appall at the very idea of even one person doing that. And to start to express that with each other.
The Week – Issue 1176 dated 19 May 2018
£57.7 million cost of clearing up fly-tipped rubbish in England.
492,139 incidents where waste to fill a small van was dumped.
WHY is this happening?
WHY are we not on the front foot here?
Do we blame the local councils battling with their lack of funding or do we take individual Responsibility as this is not the way to behave as a citizen in society?
Has anyone considered looking into this a bit more deeply?
WHY have we become a society that likes to discard anything that no longer suits our lifestyle?
WHY do we have such convenient solutions to get rid of our crap that we don’t want anymore?
Are we getting away with it because we can?
Are we just going to blame the world and its brothers for not giving us even more free services to deal with our waste?
Are we going to talk to neighbours and those in our communities to come to a united decision about how we can deal with this ‘careless throwaway attitude’ that so many now have?
Are we going to be role models for future generations and learn to live responsibly?
In other words, not just keep buying and keep getting rid of stuff, but learning to respect our belongings and not chucking it out because that’s the norm.
It is easy to gasp at figures and judge others but each of us need to look at how we are living and the next time we go and purchase anything – ask some serious questions?
Is it needed?
What is the purpose of this purchase?
Is this a one minute wonder – buy now and not even think about the consequences?
More importantly how are we going to tip the stuff we no longer want because our new purchase is the eye candy choice we want and the old needs to go right now?
Fly tipping is happening simply because we as individuals have no regard for what happens to the junk we no longer want in our home.
It is high time we got real and absolutely honest about serious matters like fly tipping.
It just adds to our Careless Society.
News Headline – Daily Mail – 7 April 2018
Giant of the Ocean Killed by Eating 64lb of plastic
Young whale lies dead on a beach after eating 64lb of plastic waste.
Shockingly inside the 32ft sperm whale’s stomach and intestines were black bin bags, netting, ropes and a plastic jerry-can (a large can that holds liquid).
Scientists state that the junk killed the whale by blocking and rupturing its intestines.
In response the regional government in Murcia (Spain) have started a campaign against the dumping of waste in the ocean as this is where the whale was found.
Hugo Tagholm, Surfers Against Sewage said ‘Up to 95% of litter that makes its way into the oceans comes from our towns and cities and 56% of all whale and dolphin species have recorded eating plastics they’ve mistaken for food like squid.’
In 2017, researchers found more than 30 bags and other plastic waste in the stomach of a whale off the coast of Norway including a Walkers crisp packet.
In 2016, thirteen whales washed up on beaches around Germany and they had plastic or other rubbish in their stomachs including car parts, buckets and in one case a 50ft fishing net.
In 2013, a whale was washed up on Spain’s south coast that had swallowed 37lb of plastic waste dumped into the sea from greenhouses that produce vegetables for UK supermarkets.
So this is one new story giving a snapshot of the harm that we are creating for whales.
What about the rest of the sealife? How else are we affecting them?
Have we considered that the way that we are living could be harming both animal and human life?
A question that I keep asking recently is – how does what we do affect others and how much do we consider this?
Personally I want to see and understand more how my actions have an affect on the rest of life as I know that we do not exist in isolation and in the same way that our presence can inspire others it can also do great harm if we are operating in disregard and these stories about the damage to whales are confirming this to us.
There is so much more to understand about life and a more Responsible way to live if we are willing, that can bring great benefit to all of us.
The founder of this website is a powerfull example of this.
Evening Standard – 1 June 2018
More than eight tonnes of waste left on Mount Everest by climbers has been recovered from the mountain since April.
A team of 30 people from Tibet cleared 5.2 tonnes of household waste, 2.3 tonnes of human faeces and 1 tonne of mountaineering trash.
So in just 2 months – 8 tonnes of waste has been recovered.
What business do we have going to another place and disrespecting it in this way?
Is it possible that it is inevitable that we will dump rubbish wherever we go, if this is the way that we behave in daily life?
If we don’t care about stuff when at home, does this mean that we just behave in the same way outside of the home?
What allows us to think and behave in this way whether at home or away?
Do we ever consider what happens to the waste when we dump it and who then has to clean it up?
Have we ever examined whether mountaineering is true and something that actually serves the planet and humanity, if this is the mess that is left behind?
I have been hearing about the Japanese football fans at the World Cup in Russia.
They cleared up the entire space around their seats in the stadium before they left.
The place was left immaculate.
People have been in awe of this. That they are moved to clean up after themselves and all of them do this as no big deal – it is entirely normal for them.
Why is this not normal for all of us?
Why do we feel someone else should and will clean up after us?
Where would we be if every single one of us took this level of responsibility as par for the course.
Front Page Headline – The Times 24th May 2018 talks about how Crack dealers, burglars and violent criminals are driving taxis.
Criminals with records of dealing crack, child abuse, assault and burglary have been given licences to work as taxi drivers in England’s second city.
A Freedom of Information Act has found several have served long custodial sentences. Many have recent convictions for serious driving offences including having no insurance, drink driving, joyriding. Others have lost their licences repeatedly and one received a suspended prison sentence for a bomb hoax.
The Times revealed a loophole in the law allowing councils to make hundreds of thousands of pounds a year by handing out minicab licences to people anywhere in the country, regardless of whether or not the drivers intended to work in their areas.
The Times has warned Transport Ministers for over three years about widespread safeguarding concerns about cross border drivers with action being promised but none taken.
A longstanding adviser on crime and integration told the council in question of her concerns when she was called in to review the council’s performance over a sex grooming scandal. She said that licensed taxi operators and drivers had played significant roles in the wrongdoing.
A solicitor specializing in taxi licensing said, “A taxi driver has enormous control over a passenger, and is capable of taking them anywhere they like for pretty much any purpose – abuse, robbery, assault, sexual assault or worse. No other profession, trade or occupation in this country has that degree of control over another individual. However, there seems to be a general acceptance that a level of criminality within the taxi trade is normal.”
The council in question is the only council in the country to be constantly monitored by the Government as a result of a series of departmental failings.
How far are some people prepared to go in making money more important than our fellow human beings?
How far are some people prepared to go in making our fellow human beings suffer?
How far are some people prepared to go in making our fellow human beings pawns in their own selfish gains?
How far are some people prepared to go in never seeing our fellow human beings as Equals?
We always refer to those in Government as ‘those in power’.
But is this true power?
Is it possible that ‘those in power’ are just being careless or are there ulterior motives here?
Is it possible that we all play a part in the Government’s carelessness, as we all have a big voice in how things are done because, as we vote them in power, we can surely vote them out.
And, if we are careless in how situations like this carry on, then it can be no surprise if ‘those in power’ will be careless too.
An article in The Week magazine, 9th June 2018, talks about “The irresistible rise of the wet wipe”.
The first ‘pre-moistened wipe’ was invented in a Manhattan loft in 1957. But the real explosion came in the early 1980’s when a well-known pharmaceutical company produced the first baby wipe for changing nappies. Researchers then found that many weren’t being used on babies at all. They found people used them for cleaning shoes, removing make-up and household chores.
We can now buy cosmetic wipes, window wipes, antibacterial floor wipes, feminine hygiene wipes, computer wipes, leather wipes, even pineapple-scented cat wipes to “freshen them up and remove excess fur”.
The fastest growing category today is adult toilet wipes, which were first put on the market from the mid 2000’s. Between 2005 and 2015, production of wipes in Europe rose by 50%.
The global wipe market was valued at $16.6bn this year. It is projected to grow to 21.8bn by 2023.
The problem with this huge amount of wipes is how they are being disposed of and a huge number of wipes are being flushed into sewage systems and because they are not biodegradable, they are causing blockages in the sewers.
Water UK found that wipes made up 93% of the material causing the 300,000 blockages in Britain’s sewers annually.
They collect in wads that cause “pumping station clogs” and with the combination of “FOG (fat, oil and grease), they form ‘fatbergs’ that have blocked sewer pipes form London and Belfast to New York and Melbourne.
They also end up in riverbeds and along Britain’s beaches.
Thames 21, an environmental group, says that wipes are building up into mounds, changing the shape of London’s riverbeds: its volunteers found 5,453 wet wipes in one area of the Thames embankment less than half the size of a tennis court.
In the past decade, the Marine Conservation Society has found a 700% increase in wipes washed up on Britain’s beaches: last year they were the seventh most common litter item there, with an average of 27 found for every 100 metres of beach.
Wipes released into the environment break down eventually into micro-plastics, which are frequently ingested by fish and other wildlife.
Edana, the wet wipes industry body says it has introduced a rigorous flushability test to see if the wipes break down when being agitated by water. Wipes that fail the test are meant to be clearly labeled with a “do not flush” logo. Many consumers are not aware of which products are which, with the logos being hard to see if they are on there at all.
The big producers stand by their flushability claims – and have fought several lawsuits to defend them – while Water UK’s study found that less than 1% of wipes causing blockages were flushable.
Edana argues that the main problem is consumers misusing their products.
In May this year, DEFRA (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs) promised “to eliminate all avoidable plastic waste, and that includes single use products like wet wipes”, over the next 25 years.
However, it later conceded that there is no question of an outright ban. For now, it would help if producers were compelled, not just encouraged to display “do not flush” logos on the front of their packets.
If a simple action by the Government, is to enforce a policy that the producers of these wet wipes have to label their products to inform consumers which wipes they can flush or not, would reduce the amount of wet wipes being disposed of via the sewage system, surely that is a no-brainer?
Of course the responsibility doesn’t and should not end there.
It is not the producers of these wet wipes that throw them down the toilet.
It is not the Government that throws them down the toilet.
It is us.
Where did we ever get the notion that it would be all right to throw a wet wipe down the toilet?
Are we just being incredibly lazy or are we being incredibly arrogant?
But then it is not just wet wipes that are going into the sewer systems.
What about all the fat, oil and grease that clings to these wet wipes to make ‘fatbergs’ and clog up the system?
Where is our responsibility in disposing of those products properly?
One of the many items in this article that stood out for me was the fact that wet wipes were the seventh most common litter items found on the beaches, with an average of 27 found for every 100 metres of beach.
That means that there are six more items of litter that are more commonly found on our beaches than the wet wipes.
The ironic thing here though, is that when the water companies or the councils have to put up their prices to pay for the removal of these blockages or dispose of all of this litter, it is we who are the ones that start to complain.
Can we really blame anyone else for our own Carelessness?
An article in The Week magazine, 30th September 2017, says, “We need a crackdown on data breaches”.
Imagine if a chemical company accidentally dispersed a harmful gas over a neighbourhood but then didn’t come clean about it for six weeks. And imagine if, rather than informing residents, it simply invited people to go online to check if they were in the exposure area, offering a year of health monitoring to those who signed up within a narrow time window.
We wouldn’t stand for it. But that in essence, is what we have just witnessed with one of the three major credit-reporting companies in America.
A data breach at the firm compromised the personal information of more than half of the nation’s adult population which included names, birthdates, social security numbers and addresses – everything a hacker would need to sabotage and steal someone’s identity.
Yet, to victims who register, the company is offering no more than the promise of a year-long protection service to monitor their data.
Companies like this one don’t face the potentially crippling liability that manufacturers do under consumer protection laws…they only face modest fines from a regulator.
Its time we treated them more like producers.
Data firms wouldn’t allow these breaches to keep happening “if they had to compensate society for their harms”.
The last sentence makes a valid point. If companies had to compensate everyone for the harm that they cause, it is likely that they would do all they can to ensure breaches like this one never ever happens.
Of course, some companies really don’t care about the fines that they do receive if they have done something wrong. In many cases a fine will be imposed on them from an appropriate Government regulatory body and it will go to the Governments coffers but because the fine is insignificant in relation to the companies revenue, they just write it off and carry on.
If, instead of paying the Government, they had to pay everyone individually, it is probable that the company would be a lot more conscientious.
But that is another matter for Government legislation.
With these credit-reporting companies, the data held there is every bit of personal and financial information about us, which is why they are a high priority target for any hacker.
The thing with these companies is that it is not a choice for us to give them all of our details.
To get a mortgage, bank loan, credit card etc. we have to pass over all of this sensitive information, understandably so, but with this, comes a great responsibility in keeping this information secure.
Is it possible that the company was careless in its approach to data security?
Is it possible that the company was careless in underestimating the value of all of our personal information?
Is it possible that the company was careless in its response to the data breach?
The heartache, strife and inconvenience caused by having our identity stolen will be huge and therefore the security in place to stop any such breaches should be of the highest consideration and should be as strong as it can be.
Whether their response to this breach of data of offering no more than the promise of a year-long protection service to monitor their data is appropriate or not, is down to the company’s moral integrity.
But is it possible that, because it took six weeks for the company to inform the public about the breach and then only invite those who register, the company’s moral integrity isn’t high on their list of priorities?
Metro – Page 5
26 July 2018
Leaky water firms pay out £6 Billion in dividends.
£6.5 Billion paid to shareholders by Water companies in the past 5 years, according to research.
The 9 English suppliers are losing 2.4 Billion litres a day to leaks but paid dividends totalling £1.4 Billion in 2017 alone, found the GMB union.
General secretary said ” Forking out billions to shareholders, while trillions of litres of water are wasted, shows just how broken the system is.”
We are talking Billions here, Billions of litres of water, Billions of pounds paid out.
Who is taking the toll for all this water lost, who is paying for the Billions of litres leaked?
Why is there so much water leaking?
Who takes care of the systems, the supply?
Where is our level of care if so much water is being lost and billed to the consumer?
Do we care about our society, our community – do we care about ourselves?
Are our broken water systems and leaks showing us something?
Could starting with caring for ourselves be the key to caring for our society and our water systems?
We had an amazing experience with a road side service mechanic today.
He was subtly caring in every aspect of our interaction with him.
Courtesy call en route. On time. Open-hearted in his communication. Super professional on the car fixing. No-nonsense working, but taking time to talk the kids through what he was doing, why and how. Arranging a part by phoning around for us; going the extra mile.
He was a simple guy, just doing his job. And yet rare in his approach.
He said he liked to work fast but not rushed. He knew there were people out there who needed him. He wanted to complete his jobs professionally and move on immediately to the next one with the same high standard. No messing about, no delay, no coffee, no biscuits!
It reminded me of how much of a difference one person can make, whatever we do in life. And of the care we can bring to others, even if the way it is delivered might seem mundane.
This careless stuff is big if you ask me.
Standards is something I was thinking about yesterday.
When I see people not taking care of their working space, I wonder how it is at home?
I know many who are happy to leave a public or work place toilet in a mess, but at home it is different. Their standard is different.
At the public swimming pool last week, a woman was removing hard skin with a grater and said she does things like this so there is no mess at home. Of course she left her dead skin droppings in the open changing room.
No doubt it may even get others thinking they can do the same and my question is, why do we have different standards of care for our environment?
What would happen if we treated our home same as we do outside, no matter where that is?
I am sure our public toilets would be one place we would see great change if we took the same care for home and outside.
Living careless confirms that we have a long way to go in the decency and respect departments of life.
I was observing the state of the plane at the end of an International flight and a friend was talking to me about her experience and we both had the same take.
We are really and truly not making any effort to clear up our mess, even though they come around asking us during the flight if we have any rubbish.
I have always known that money seems to be a great motivating factor and what would happen if we reduced prices based on how tidy we leave the plane?
Doubt that would ever happen, but I reckon people would do it as they love saving money.
If we take it back to us as individuals, how exactly are we living in our own world?
In other words, is it just an extension of how careless we are in daily life at home, work, public transport etc. OR do we have different standards?
Some of us treat our cars with such decency and respect, but would never ever do the same for public transport.
Some of us think we pay for a ticket, so let the company clean up our mess.
Bottom line here is – what type of role models do we want to be in society?
We each have a Responsibility to inspire others, by our living way and teach our young children and the youth of today, that to take deep care of ourselves in every way and that includes our environment and personal space, is a foundational quality that not only supports us, but it has a ripple effect.
Think about it – these cleaners who spend hours and hours clearing out our mess, lost property and everything else we choose to leave in disregard after a journey, could be doing another job and transport companies would have one less expenditure.
It is time we all started thinking about the bigger picture, because we all contribute to the whole whether we are ready to hear that or not. This is an immutable fact.
Metro – 23 October 2018
A discarded piece of lingerie found its way to the sewers causing a blockage at a pumping station.
The discarded item created a risk of toilets failing to flush across a swathe of Surrey and Hampshire.
A Thames Water worker was able to remove the item, stating that they deal with this kind of thing every day.
Thames Water deal with 75,000 blockages every year caused by un-flushable items put down drains.
Operations manager Adrian Hurford said “The three Ps are all that should be put down the loo…poo, pee and paper”.
As we all use the toilet and would know what Mr Hurford is advising, it does raise the question as to why we are not all adhering to this?
We all know that bins are for rubbish and the above is for the toilet and so what could get into any of us to cause us to mix up the two?
Some of us may say it is an innocent mistake, others of us may say it is deliberate.
Either way we know that this is a highly irresponsible action that can potentially affect many, many others; if other people’s toilets get blocked and start backing up as a result.
What if as citizens of this planet we have a responsibility to look after it too, by each one of us taking care for our waste as any failure to do so has huge repercussions for others?
Is this something we need to think about before we go and discard our next item?
An article in The Guardian newspaper, 13th October 2018, talks about how people are being urged to return hospital aids like crutches, walking aids and wheelchairs.
This is to try and reduce the carbon footprint of the NHS and their staff are also being urged to accept unwanted medical equipment to either rehome it or recycle it.
The Health Minister said: “In too many instances, medical equipment is being used once and then thrown away, at a time when the public is increasingly aware of the impact of the waste on the environment.”
Why is it necessary for us to be ‘urged’ to return hospital aids when we no longer need them?
More importantly, why are NHS staff being urged to ‘accept’ unwanted medical aids?
It doesn’t make any sense for us to throw away perfectly usable walking aids and it makes even less sense for the NHS to refuse to take these unwanted aids.
Even if the NHS had tons of money, it would still make no sense at all.
I can understand the general public for being careless and to simply throw things away because we can’t be bothered to return it to the hospital. But when our health systems refuse to reuse these aids – could we say this is beyond careless?
We live in a society that is very carefree and careless when it comes to spending other people’s money, but as soon as it becomes our cash we have to spend, we seem to become a lot more responsible.
In a time when health systems are financially bursting at the seams and on the brink of bankruptcy, maybe it is time for us to start charging people for not returning their medical aids, once they have finished with them.
Today a colleague who has just returned from an overseas trip, showed me photographs of some of the beaches. Litter strewn, I was shocked and asked where the sand was. She explained that the sand was underneath the rubbish.
She also shared that the country had changed since her last visit, 8 years ago which was what prompted her to show the photographs.
How tourism is high and is a contributory factor to the litter.
What will it take for us to see that our self-serving ways are harming?
Yes we want the holiday in the sun to chill out and relax, but how do we behave when we are there?
Do we not care about another country because it is not ‘our own’ so we take the attitude that we can do what we like and that we are not responsible?
Is there another way to live and behave on the earth where we take full responsibility for all of our actions, knowing that they do have a knock on effect?
Have we considered that when we dump stuff someone has to pick up our mess?
Is this the kind of society that we truly want to continue living in?
29 November 2018
A UK supermarket reported on the Great British Beach Clean which took place over 4 days in September, collecting 8,550kg of litter.
About 600 items were collected for every 100 metre stretch surveyed, which was less than the 717 items last year. However the organisers were quick to say that this does not mean there is less litter.
Lizzie Prior – Beach and River Clean Project Officer at the Marine Conservation Society (MCS) said:
‘Social media feeds are filled with pictures of what people find at the coast and on rivers, so we may have found less litter this year because more are cleaning beaches whenever they can…Litter levels on our beaches have risen over 15% in the past decade.’
What Lizzie is saying confirms what was reported in the comment above with what my colleague shared yesterday. To have 100’s of people cleaning beaches over this 4 day event shows that here is an element of care, but are we caring all of the time, or just when we collectively come together?
Small pieces of plastic were reported as being by far the most commonly found item, followed by glass and cigarette stubs.
We might not smoke and we might dispose of glass and plastic carefully but what about other items?
A friend of mine was talking about landfill recently and how we can all help by taking any clothes that we are getting rid off to the local charity shop, rather than throwing them in the bin.
How many of us are aware that charity shops often take old materials too and that it is not just clothes?
What if there is always something that we can do, to not add more harm to the earth?
Metro – 21 November 2018
Whale Dies with a Belly Full of Plastic, Including 115 Cups, 4 Bottles, 25 Bags and 2 Flip Flops
In all, more than 1,000 plastic items were found in the rotting carcass of the 31ft sperm whale including a nylon sack.
Rescuers discovered it near Kapota Island, Southeast Sulawesi providence of Indonesia. The area, part of the marine Wakatobi National Park, is renowned for its unspoilt beauty.
Is this situation telling us something about our world?
In an area renowned for its unspoilt beauty we have the tragedy of a whale who has washed up ashore littered with our rubbish.
How much do we care about how we discard of our waste, where it ends up and who and what it affects?
How can we truly enjoy an area for its ‘unspoilt beauty’ when this is going on, or does it not matter because we are only interested in what we see on the surface on a day to day basis?
Indonesia is hailed as the 2nd largest plastic polluter after China, according to a recent study in the journal Science. In 2017, it produced 3.2 million tons of plastic waste a year, of which 1.29 million tons ended up in the ocean.
The whale’s discovery has spurred the Indonesian Government to take tougher measures to protect the ocean, with the aim of reducing plastic use by 70% by 2025.
Whilst understandably we are focused on reducing the use of plastic, I do question whether we will just see the same thing occurring with our wildlife affected by a different product/material, if we do not get to the root cause of why this is happening.
Is it just about the material or something about the way that we are living that has allowed this to happen?
Daily Mail – 15 December 2018
p. 36
Cities Suffer Fly-Tipping Epidemic
Fly tipping in England is hitting records highs with 646,039 incidents recorded in just 5 cities since 2013.
London headed the list with 366,087 cases over the last 5 years.
The second city was Manchester with 91,115 incidents where approx. 30,000 tons of household waste, including nearly 10,000 mattresses had been fly tipped since 2014 – the equivalent of 2,500 double decker buses.
However Liverpool is deemed the fly tipping capital of the UK, when it comes to population size, as it had 13 fly tipping incidents per 100 people over 5 years, compared to 3 incidents for every 100 people in London.
Regardless of which city is leading the way with the statistics, the next comment by a furniture recycling group reminds us that fly tipping affects all of us.
‘In 2016-17 it cost councils in England £57.7 million, at a time when budgets are being squeezed. It’s a problem that affects everyone, ruins our cities and countryside and simply passes the waste problem on to someone else’ says Nick Oettinger of The Furniture Recycling Group
Interesting what Mr Oettinger is saying here – have we ever questioned why we act as if fly tipping does not affect us all?
The Government has recognised the problem, with the proposed introduction of new financial penalties for householders who fail to properly dispose of waste.
Is a financial penalty the only thing that will make us wake up or for some of us will it make no difference?
What will it take for us to see and feel then great harm that we are doing with our care-less ways?
Perhaps if we treated the end of something in the same way that we do in the beginning, we would not see the fly tipping numbers forever increasing.
Do we put the same amount of effort, time and care that we put into researching what product to buy as we do when disposing of an item?
How much time do we spend researching how best to dispose of it, or does this option not come into our awareness at all?
Walking in an ‘area of outstanding natural beauty’ this last week, the way was busy with ramblers and dog walkers, visitors from all over.
Incredible rock formations, a beautiful river, a valley and towering cliff face – nature reflecting glory to us from all sides.
And yet, peppered here and there, were plastic bags of dog waste.
My husband noticed it first – the odd one discarded here and there.
On we walked and counted more. Thrown by the way side, tucked behind a rock, hung from a bush, crushed under foot.
We could not understand how you could go to the trouble of bagging the waste, only to then ditch the bag.
We concluded the reason is utter laziness.
Initially, you do the right thing – you clean up after your dog. Perhaps there are people around and you want to be seen to be responsible.
Then you get bored of carrying the bag. There are no bins in the middle of the countryside.
You simply don’t care enough to keep carrying the bag – to take it home with you.
So you find a quiet moment and surreptitiously or otherwise drop, hang or stash the bag.
You don’t care that you have now extended the decomposition process of that waste by wrapping it in plastic.
You don’t care that the countryside is littered with your bag of poo.
You don’t care that someone might stand or lean on it.
You don’t care about the local animals, environment or children around.
All you care about is not having to carry that bag anymore.
We are all so busy that this online shopping and getting things delivered is now the norm.
Rarely do we order household items as we prefer to go and choose and feel what product would best serve us and look at the costs.
Well that’s all well and good, but the real life fact is our hoover conked out and mr husband needs a replacement and online bargains make it worthwhile buying, plus the fact we both cannot get to the shops in the next few weeks, if we are being honest.
Well it arrives – box bashed and broken with goods on display.
So now what?
I have no clue how online business works but no doubt my husband will get onto this but then we have more time wasted on something that we all know could be totally avoidable.
It got me to comment on this blog as I feel that we really have become a careless society.
Where in transit did something so precious and valuable to a customer like me, get treated with such neglect that its final destination tells a story of care-less-ness?
It seems to me that it no longer matters if you buy expensive high end products that will last because the damage in transit tells me others are not treating it any different.
Are our delivery depots and drivers unable to cope with the demand and so things are not treated well because they simply have no time?
Are the courier companies looking towards making more profit and so this sort of stuff like the packaging being bashed and broken is not something they want to put focus on?
Does anyone really care or does our own lack of self care have something to do with it?
In other words, we live careless in our private life and so it simply spills over into other areas which include our work.
One thing that I recall is I stopped this order before and immediately after the Christmas madness of everyone ordering and having deliveries from online shopping.
It was because I felt the item may get bashed because of the excess work these guys have to cope with.
How wrong was I because it’s not sales season and Christmas is well and truly over, but the quality of delivery falls short of a standard we as customers are not demanding.
When we accept sub-standards then we give permission for that to continue.
Saying nothing confirms no change.
I have been truly inspired with reading this comment
As a result of what you have shared here Bina I have taken action to speak up about something that was disturbing me.
I am not a lover of online shopping preferring to go in person to feel and see the product and engage with the staff, however on some occasions online shopping seems to be the easiest way to purchase something, if we haven’t got time to go to the shops.
The item that I purchased had one part faulty. Due to the inconvenience of sending a large item back I chose to accept that this as my loss and a learning with next time me just having to go in person. It was still useable, but it bugged me as this was not my standard.
Inspired by this comment I took action by contacting the seller to say that I was dissatisfied.
I was amazed at their response; they simply stated that they would send me the new part required and it arrived the next day. I had no intention of having this result or getting my money back – what inspired me the most was your comment that if we remain silent we allow sub-standards to continue.
The Week – Issue 1211
26 January 2019
p.3
Statistics on Waste –
1 in 10 washing machines at recycling centres are less than 5 years old
50 million tonnes of e-waste generated each year
Google tells us that E-waste is
‘discarded electronic appliances such as mobile phones, computers and televisions’
What is it about us that thinks it is ok to just discard something when we no longer want it or when the next model is out with no regard as to what happens to the end product or where it lands?
Often I have seen when walking along streets, items left by the sides of the road, like refrigerators – just dumped.
I often marvel at the piles of things that are discarded outside of charity shops when their doors are closed. It gives the message that the previous owner just wants the items out of their home and no matter how many times charity shops say not to leave things outside when they are closed, yet people still choose to.
Is this a reflection of the disregard that we live in our every day lives, where we just see things as objects and replaceable and so there is no need for any care or value?
Is this the way that we are in other areas of our lives, like relationships?
Is this the way that we treat people?
Do we just see them as disposable?
Do we consider this aspect when we are having relationship problems?
Is it possible that if we behave in a careless manner in one area of our life, it will affect the quality of other areas?
Is it possible that EVERYTHING is connected and that carelessness is never limited to one thing?
Walking in my neighbourhood these last 2 days, this issue of our care-lessness has arisen again.
Walking along a main road one evening I hear a clamour like something has dropped on the floor. A cup is in the road and a car drives past. The man in front of me turns to look at the car and it is evident that someone in the car had thrown a paper cup out of their window.
The next day walking past a street bin I notice a lot of household rubbish on the pavement outside.
I questioned why this rubbish was outside on the floor on the pavement when there are 3 large bins sheds behind the flats.
What has happened to us that we simply refuse to dispose of our waste correctly?
Why is it that we don’t value discarding our waste appropriately?
Do we ever look through to see what can be recycled?
Do we consider that someone else has to clear up our waste?
Where do we think it all goes when we toss it aside or do we not care as long as it is not in our car or in our home?
When will we recognise that discarding our waste in any old way does matter?
This subject of waste is a big issue and something that affects all of us.
I regard myself as someone who does take care but recently a friend has spoken with me about the types of things I throw away and when and has asked me to consider this.
I have noticed that since then, I am much more discerning about when I throw things away or even what I buy and so there are always new levels of depth we can all go to with our care.
Metro – 12th Jan 2020
Missed GP appointments costing NHS £200,000,000 annually
https://metro.co.uk/2020/01/12/million-miss-gp-appointments-every-month-costing-nhs-200000000-annually-12045284/
The NHS is losing around £20,000,000 per month due to people missing their GP appointments.
According to a new analysis of NHS figures, more than a million people fail to turn up to surgeries at their scheduled time.
In the most recent period available, from June to November 2019, a record 7.8 million patients in England ‘did not attend’.
They said that on average, there are 42,822 missed appointments every day, or 30 per minute.
There are around 307 million appointments scheduled every year. with an average GP appointment costing £30, the problem of missed consultations works out at more than £200 million per year.
The Chair of the Royal College of GP’s said: “ When patients miss appointments it can be a frustrating waste of resources for GP’s and our teams. But also for the patients who are struggling to secure an appointment for themselves.”
The figures quoted here are absolutely shocking.
With the financial situation of the NHS at present, this money is sorely missed and could be put to a much better use.
Of course, the NHS has recently started to send electronic messages such as text messaging and I am sure they are trying to find other ways to solve this problem – but should they really have to?
Is it possible that it is the responsibility of each and every one of us to attend the surgery if we have made an appointment?
Surely, if we can’t make it we should at least, be informing them.
I hear it all the time, complaints of how it takes so long to get an appointment to see the GP.
But when we do get one, do we waste it?
Is it possible that we treat the NHS in this way because we know it is free at the point of service?
Is it possible that we treat the NHS in this way because we have paid our contributions all our life and we feel we are entitled to it?
I am sure that if the NHS started charging for missed appointments we would be up in arms, but money seems to be the only way to get our attention.
Although the NHS is free for all of us, does that give us the right to abuse it?
BBC News – 2nd June 2020
Jurassic Coast Beach Crowds ‘Showed Shocking Disregard for Area’
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-dorset-52890608
Conservation groups have said that the Jurassic coast has been treated with “shocking” disrespect by visitors, since the lockdown restriction have eased.
The Jurassic coast is a World Heritage Site on the English Channel coast of southern England. It stretches from Exmouth in East Devon to Studland Bay in Dorset, a distance of about 96 miles, and was inscribed on the World Heritage list in 2001.
The Triassic, Jurassic and Cretaceous periods make up the Mesozoic Era, the age of giant reptiles and dinosaurs. The Jurassic era is famous for its marine habitats. The Jurassic coast is famous for fossils of Jurassic aged marine life and features rocks and fossils which record 185 million years of Earth’s history.
The Unesco World Heritage site has been deluged with crowds in recent days.
The Jurassic Coast Trust said many were “determined to arrive at any cost” and volunteers described “horrendous” amounts of litter being abandoned.
The Clean Jurassic Coast group said waste had been buried in the sand, and washed into the sea and caves along the coast.
One volunteer said: “I was picking things up that I really shouldn’t have to pick up.”
“I had litter thrown at me, I had bags and bags of rubbish dumped near me to deal with.”
“I’ve had people shouting at me when I asked them nicely to take their litter with them.”
The chief executive of the Jurassic Coast Trust said it had been a difficult and challenging weekend. She said the trust had received hundreds of complaints about appalling volumes of litter on beaches, as well as human waste, sanitary items and disposable barbecues on footpaths.
If we can take the time to plan our trip away, if we can take the time to prepare our food for our day out, if we can take the time to pack our car with everything we need – why can’t we plan to dispose of our rubbish in the same way?
Why do we feel it is OK to simply dump our rubbish for someone else to dispose of it?
Why do we feel it is OK to leave human waste and sanitary items for others to clear up?
Would we dump our rubbish in our own home and leave it for someone else to clear up?
Would we leave human waste and sanitary items in our own home and leave them for someone else to clear up?
So – Why do we feel it is OK to treat an area that is not our home in this way?
Why do we feel we do not have to take any responsibility for our rubbish when we are not in our own homes?
There can be, and there is, no excuse for this sort of behaviour – it is simply laziness and irresponsibility on our part.
Is it possible that, the answer to the title question of this blog – “Are we a Careless Society” – is a resounding YES?
There is not a blog called “don’t care” or a blog called “dog eat dog” on this website yet, so this comment will suffice here – Are we a Careless Society?
What is it about us that seems to have a brain cell missing? Keep reading…
The cell that says we are all inter-connected and so there is no point trying to out smart another or get one over or treat another like they are in anyway lesser.
Talking from real life and that means lived experience, I could share countless situations and stories where we have become so divisive as human beings and our behaviour tells us clearly SOMETHING IS NOT RIGHT.
A classic example many of us could relate to –
Reporting facts where the organisation is simply interested in the money side and nothing more. That means is this communication going to profit their business in anyway and if not, be nice and sound helpful but do nothing more.
They do not want to hear the truth about what is happening and they know they have the power to do something but instead say ‘Sorry we don’t want to get involved’. Even the mere sorry apology speaks volumes.
What are they sorry about and is it just empty words like they care when we know they do not, because their response tells us so?
Are we using words in a reductionism way and so it holds no true power?
We say sorry but are we sincerely sorry for what has happened or is this a passport to evade and avoid what is going on and that would mean a commitment to listen and perhaps take action?
So what happens in a situation like this?
The customer reporting gets left with the feeling – what is the point in saying anything and may even stop reporting the truth in future?
They may judge or bad mouth to their close friends and family about what occurred and then drop it and accept the way business operates.
This is one tiny spec – a microcosm of what goes on in our world and it would be true to say that we are a long long way off the mark when it comes to living a life and seeing all others as EQUAL regardless of what and how they present themselves.
I am no halo head and I do my best to ensure I do not ADD to the rot we currently have in this world when it comes to seeing others as not the same or equal. In fact I hate the way we have been treating others with the guise of being nice and professional when in truth it holds a hidden force of bullying, ruthlessness and nothing short of cruelty towards other fellow human beings.
We have systems in place when we see violent and physical acts that make people accountable for their actions but we dismiss these hidden unseen forces that play out in everyday citizens who just accept this is how our world operates.
AND Finally – this blog title asks us Are we a Careless Society?
This tiny comment gives us an insight about how we TRULY do not take care of others as our world has a dog eat dog going on in all areas of society.
The Guardian – 2 August 2021
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/aug/02/throwaway-culture-products-repair-reuse-recycle-obsolete
Today it is cool, tomorrow it is junk. We have to act against our throwaway culture.
That is the headline of this news story and there are many questions we can take from the article…
How many of us are aware how aggressive corporations have been in the past century with mining and poisoning mother earth?
Do we know our material possessions connect us to destructive practices which come from invisible threads of commerce, politics and power?
Some of us may have heard that small children are used to put their bodies into fissures within ore seams beneath rock and mud?
Did we know that a “smart” light switch houses a very tiny microchip contains more than half the periodic table of the elements.
Do we want to know that many of these are “conflict minerals” such as tin, tungsten and tantalum linking us to violence, war and human suffering in parts of our world that are under-regulated?
What about those that are throwaway by design like our smart phone earphones for example? They contain 2 lithium batteries glued and soldered in so it is impossible to replace when they can no longer hold charge?
Will we see our careless society change in the future and will there really be cobalt processed from broken flatscreen TVs and not acid rinsed from a million tons of rubble?
Will gold really come from old computers and on that note are we even aware that our precious electronics have some expensive minerals like gold and platinum?
How many of us a ready for the circular economy that is taking shape right now?
Famous jeans store now with repair workshops and our famous furniture store saying we can lease instead of owning and the famous running shoe made to be remade.
The author of this article – Jonathan Chapman says “simply having more stuff stopped making people happier years ago. We need new business models based on products and services that last – products designed to be maintained, upgraded and easily repaired, which can be leased or shared, giving them multiple lives in the hands of multiple users”.
Yes we would all agree that this prospect of selling fewer products sounds like commercial suicide as those with the business model based on selling large numbers of impossible to recycle products, this idea would not work as Chapman states.
Dear World
We don’t have to look very far and if we just focus on a few things that we seem to all own these days – like a number of sports shoes and smart phones, we can be confident in saying that we are absolutely no where near ready to even consider making sensible changes as we like this, get something new and throw out the old. And it is this DEMAND that we make and then the supplier delivers the goods.
Our world as we all know creates far more waste than mother earth can deal with and yet we continue to buy more, own more and throw out more.
In answer to the question in the title of this blog – it would be a YES we are most certainly Absolutely living as a Care-less society.
Each of us needs to look at our own life and where we throw away Because We Can.
On that note – read the blog on this website BECAUSE WE CAN.
https://simplelivingglobal.com/because-we-can/
As this has happened more often now, it has to be reported.
My ‘go to’ is this website and instead of having a rant, phone a friend, or vent to a stranger on public transport – I just take to the keyboard and say it as it is.
I was at a business recently, where I returned their water bottle, given to me earlier to wash something. To me it was just common sense, normal and decent to empty the contents and recycle. It was wrong of me to assume that this would be done. Oh no, they threw it straight in the garbage bin. As I knew the guy I was able to comment and say why did he do that and for him it was normal. Yes he proceeded to take his reluctant body back to the trash, lift the lid, walk to the back and empty the contents and then place it back in the bin. Let’s wake up Dear World, the masses are really not bothered or into recycling as this behaviour is standard.
We can go on and campaign or ra ra about our waste-full ways but if we are behaving like this in our workplace and of course these businesses are not recycling anything as we all know it costs money to set up recycling.
Next –
Again today in a busy affluent area of the city, a woman took her full plastic cup of water (after a small sip) and threw it in the bin liner public trash receptacle on the roadside. Yes I just watched her but did not open my big mouth. No point I felt on this one but my usual response is I would say “Hey miss, how do you think that water is going to be when they lift out the trash liner?”
We don’t behave in our own homes like that (or do we)?
Why do we always have the tendency to see ‘out there’ as different, be it our workplace or on the high street where we happen to be shopping?
Let us not be alarmed or surprised when we know very well that each and every one of us individuals have a responsibility when it comes to how we deal with our waste – every bit of it. This is not about perfection but more so about taking proper Responsibility so that others can be inspired that throwing something out as it’s not in our bin at home has a ripple effect, an outplay and that means it has consequences.
Save the guys who empty the trash with cheap plastic liners the job of mopping up the mess we leave in there because we did not tip it out first, as we are careless.
Yes these movements, call it behaviour ADDS to our care-less society and confirms well and truly how care-less we really are.