Though I witnessed/experienced a few protests and strikes in India, it seems I visited India and China just in time.
Protests in Tibet started just as I departed Beijing, and there have been many more protests in India since I left. Including about food prices, which began their steep global climb just after I left.
Last week I read that tourism in Beijing is way down, and that due to tightened visa rules even business travel is off, and tourists are being discouraged from visiting the Olympics. This is the opposite of how Beijing was when I was there just a few short months ago, when the new airport was opening, and I only had a tick three boxes on a newly adopted landing card when entering (and they gave me a full year tourist visa though I applied for a six month one).
Phew, its a good thing I missed those. Except for understanding. If I'd stayed a bit longer, maybe I would have a better understanding of what the possibly mounting unrest means.
One effect of the rise in food prices here in America for me is that I am shopping more locally, not only are the farmers market prices more competive with supermarket produce, but so are the also rising prices at the small local shops in my quickly gentrifying neighborhood that have always seemed way over priced.
I guess as rent becomes a smaller percent of the overall pricetag, even the quickly rising local rents don't lead to price increases as quickly as truly global economic forces. As I return to more frugal ways as I delay finding employment, it also helps to waste less when I simply walk to stores to buy exactly what I need when I need it, and of course avoid the temptations of sales on things I don't really want and weird new products promoted at the big grocery store. A new "natural food store" is about to open, so I will be able to get even more food from a local shop. This shop is tiny, probably less than 500 square feet.
Two gas stations we wanted to go to yesterday were closed, maybe permanantly, because of the high costs of gas. We ended up going to a gas station with relatively high prices for the area late last night, that was on our way home from a friends house.
I am skeptical that household recycling of many materials is efficient, at least the ways its done now (rinsing things out, collecting from each house with big smelly trucks or households driving to a dump) but the city's new pilot program in my neighborhood, using big clear plastic bags rather than small blue bins to collect mixed recyclables, seems to be a huge success. In our house, we now recycle more than we throw away, and based on what I see on the street, neighbors are heading in this direction. We are also lucky to have the greatest urban recycling system, if you put out a whole usable thing, like a piece of furniture, dishes, almost anything, someone will take it for use within half an hour, any time of day or night.
I recently joined freecycle.com, an online extension of this idea. But it's not nearly as quick and efficient, you still have to communicate with people, and people have to drive or try to lug things on public transportation. We are lucky to live in one of the densest neighborhoods in America, where just putting things out works better. But now I've come to enjoy reading the freecycle digests I get by email, it is oddly interesting reading about what people don't need anymore, and want people need or want. It's a little like shopping online, without spending any money, or usually even getting any stuff. So maybe the greatest innovation of freecycle is to provide a way to scratch the shopping itch?
Recent Comments