The issue of food miles and globalisation

Jacob Musyoki, who I visited on his farm in the Machakos district of Kenya, grows green beans that are air-freighted to Britain for sale in supermarkets. A lot of environmentalists want us to boycott them because of the CO2 emissions from the nightly flights from Nairobi. But that would be bad news for Musyoki, who makes a much better living growing beans for consumption in Britain than he did when his only markets were local. He has enough money for a TV. He is a citizen of the world and is proud his kids can now stay in school.

Do we really want to cut emissions by pulling the plug on Musyoki? He is not responsible for global warming. We are. Perhaps we should do something to cut our carbon emissions that inconveniences us, rather than wrecks his life. Why not keep buying the beans, but take the bus to the supermarket instead of driving?

Fred Pearce - The Guardian

Quote of the month - how to save water...

This quote I heard at work: I wont' be saying from whom it came but it is a good one that can help you to save on water at home (we do not do this at work):

If it's yellow, let it mellow,
If it's brown, flush it down.

You'll know what it is referring to...

Portishead the video

Ok, so now you have proof that I listened to it all. I was provided the ability of embedding the video in a webpage. This is what I've done:

Porishead - 'Third'

Portishead

For all those of you who love Portishead, take a look at this:

http://current.com/items/88899146_portishead_in_portishead

This is a performance from Portishead performing 7 songs of their third album called 'Third'.

To be honest I am just listening to it at this moment now, but it sound very promising.

I don't want to pay more than three times my salary

That is what a young professional told the BBC when asked about how much was she ready to pay for her mortgage. This young lady earns some £30,000 (€37,500) a year, meaning that the mortgage she aims for should be less than £90,000 (€112,000). How she will manage beats me, considering the housing market. If she does, and if many Brits do, I shall envy them. Why?

Take a look at Malta. If I would like to have a maximum mortgage of three times my annual wage, that would put me in the range of €40,000 to €50,000. Now, a decent unfurnished, shell form flat / apartment in a decent location would have a price tag of at least (and this is optimistic) double the maximum mortgage of three time my annual wage.

Looking forward to forking out that money? NO WAY!! But the time will come...

I fully share the thought of the people in the BBC article:

"I'm not looking for an investment. I'm looking for somewhere to live" - Izzy Miyaghi

"...an entire generation of young professionals has been unable to get on the housing ladder as a direct result of immoral lending" - Heidi McFadden

BBC

Painful Emptiness

It is more than a week now that the dentist took out three wisdom teeth from my mouth. Yep, three at once. After corrupting my stomach with a three time daily (at minimum) dosage of painkillers, one side of my mouth decided to give me a break and the pain eased off. However, the same is not true for the right side of my mouth. Only one tooth was taken out on this side, but pain is never ending.

I visited the dentist, worried about my situation a few days back. His reply: 'It is healing'. Ok I thought, thank God the pain is there because it is healing.

However, why the two teeth (or better, holes) on the left decided to heal days before the one on the right beats me.