I was listening to Ideas on CBC last night. It was very interesting. This is the synaptic of the show. As soon as they upload the audio to their website (I hop they will), I will link to it too. You’ll be able to listen to the show.

“In 1981 a new book called The Hurried Child warned us that children were being pushed too far, too fast. Dr. David Elkind‚Äôs book became an instant classic. Today it seems the process has only intensified. There are pre-natal stimulation kits to induce fetal learning. Baby Einstein toys. There is also much discussion of how to smart-wire baby‚Äôs brain to expand cognitive powers, foster language abilities and improve sleep patterns. IDEAS producer Mary O‚ÄôConnell explores this new terrain of Super Babies.”

This totally resonates with me. I hope the audio comes online so we can all listen to it. We need to take things a bit slower again and just pend some goo quality time with our kids.

Tonight on CBC – Ideas: “THE BRAINS OF BABES, Part 1 CD”

This is funny. Brazil is encouraging everyone to save water by peeing in the shower.

This reminds me of when I met a friend of mine (did you watch CityTV this morning? He was on Breakfast TV, he is a trampolinist, very amazing). We met at the Green Living Show in Toronto. One of the booths was advertising their grey water recycling system, which recycles water from the bathtub and the shower, and reuses it in the toilet flush. The first thing he askes “Can I still pee in the shower?” I think most of us already pee in the shower. Noone wants to admit it though. Do you?

PS: I guess I should lead by example, I do …. yukkeeeee, I know.

Hi everyone,

I wanted to quickly share this with you. A new toy store is going to open up soon in Hamilton. It’s called Citizen Kid and for all the Dad’s of us that love to see progress of construction and such, this is really exciting. So head on over to their blog. Looks pretty neat so far, what do you think?

A few days ago I found the blog of Charlres Roring. Charles lives in West Papua and he witnesses personally how deforestation is affecting him and his country and the people within it. I really would like you to have a look at it, because I don’t want to be the guy that always “preaches” these things to you.

This is right from the frontline of how illegal (and corrupt legal) deforestation hurts people. And guess where the wood is being shipped to? A lot of it goes to China and I’m pretty certain it ends up in toys and furniture that we buy, thus supporting those business practices.

Here are two posts that are very interesting by Charles Roring:

The leasing of Papuan Tropical Rainforest, too low for compensation, too stupid for conversion

Irresponsible Logging the Main Cause of Rapid Deforestation in West Papua

In light of the recent scandal of Melamine tainted formula in China (53,000 children have fallen ill, 4 have died), I quickly wanted to write a warning note. Parents, please get informed about what your kids eat or put in their mouths.

A company that produced formula in China was tainting it with Melamine, the same stuff that wooden shelving boards get coated with (the Ikea style ones), also used as a fire retardant or pesticide!!!. For crying out loud, this chemical has no business to be in the formula. The only way that we as parents can protect our kids is to find out exactly what is in the food, or in the toys, or in the clothes, or in the mattress, etc. I always pay attention to what my 6 month old daughter is surrounded by or eats (I’m definitely not a paranoid parent).

Ask, if you don’t know what something is! “Better to ask for forgiveness than for permission” is the wrong way to go. “Better safe than sorry” is totally appropriate.

What are you doing to protect your children against harmful chemicals? Simply leave a comment!

I love handmade stuff. You know, the cool stuff, the t-shirt with the cool print on it, the hip silver ring, the man purse.

Hold on a second though, what is it that we like about it? Why is HANDMADE so important? Is it because it is so unique and only 30 other people have that bag on earth? Or is it because it is so environmentally friendly, not made by little hands in India?

I agree that handmade stuff has the flair of the good old times, when stuff was still made here in North America, and real local sweat was still involved in the making of the product. You know, the times when we did not have lots of energy to waste, and crazy chemicals to dump in the lakes.

But is handmade really all it seams to be? Let’s take the example of the t-shirt. Where is that t-shirt from that the artist used? Who made it? Is it cheaply made in a sweatshop? Where is the paint made for the silk screening process? And then there is the energy consumed by the local artist in his atelier? Does he really use less Kilowatts per t-shirt made than a large manufacturer?

Why is a cool wooden toy made in Thailand any less “handmade” than the local one? Just because it’s in a fancy box, by a fancy company, in a fancy store, does not mean that less hands are involved in the making of it? So what is it that we are trying to achieve with a pledge like that?

With Ukoonto, I always struggle when it comes to deciding weather or not I want to be part of something like “pledge handmade“. Our building blocks are definitely as much hands on as any other “handmade” product, but because I try to professionally produce the product in larger numbers, I don’t think that any of Ukoonto’s products qualify as handmade.

In my opinion, we should pledge to buy from local business’ or business’ that make an effort to produce a product that was made as responsible to mankind and nature as possible.

I think if you are trying to responsibly manufacture a product, you need a company that creates higher volume. Only companies that “professionally” make stuff can effectively minimize the amount of energy used per manufactured item. Business’ can buy larger amount of supplies that have been created responsibly and put a lot more thought into process’ that create the actual values that we long for in “handmade” stuff.

So please rethink your choice of gifts you want to buy during this christmas season. Think about the values you would like to support. Don’t just buy “handmade”, buy “responsibly made”!

Have you ever heard of “Gorilla safe cell phones “? I’m pretty sure that made you smirk and you might think “Just another one of those crazy environmentalists ideas to make us jump on the band wagon.” Here’s the deal:

In this recent post I read about the damages we are causing in Africa – to the people and the nature. Almost everyone I know owns a cellphone (and I wish I could say that I didn’t) and most of the phones use chips that include a rare mineral called coltan. A lot of coltan is illegally mined in Africa and eventually finds it’s way to the cellphone manufacturers and into our hands. What is interesting to point out is that we are not only supporting the destruction of the earth (massive pieces of land and forest fall victim to the mining), but we are supporting wars . Yes, in Congo, gruesome wars are currently being fought over this rare mineral.

We already know better, so we can choose cellphones that don’t use coltan. We should also help Congo to get out of the mess that they are in.

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Contribute: I have not found a list of coltan free cellphones and laptops (if they do indeed exist). If you know of such a list, please contact me or leave a comment. Thank You.

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More to read up on:

What is Coltan?
Gorilla Safe: Eco Safe Cellphones
The Good and the Bad in the Gorilla Sector
Guns, Money and Cellphones

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(Photo credit: Andreas Rolfer )

Hi there,

I recently visited with a large local lumber processing facility (picture above) that makes wooden moldings, stair parts, wood flooring, etc. and had a very interesting conversation about the lumber business in Canada (probably similar in the US). I’ll get to the actual conversation in a bit. I realized though that this blog can be a very good channel to educate people on some issues with the our economy, with the lumber business, or just our fast living society. I’ll try to keep it related to the wood business, since this is still ukunto.

Back to the conversation. I found out that the business I visited has lost over 30% of business within the last few years, mainly because of East Asian imports. The actual end products that are imported from China for instance are being sold cheaper here, then what the local wood business can manufacture parts for. To give you an actual example, this means that the finished, fully assembled cabinet coming from China (or any other East Asian country for that matter) is being sold cheaper to the end user than what he can manufacture the parts for. You might reason that things built in Canada are simply to expensive, but lets look at what we support by buying products manufactured abroad:

• large amounts of emissions for transportation
• bad labor practices: many workers get paid very little, or NOT AT ALL; what kind of environments do they work in?
• North American regulations for toxins used in the manufacturing process’ can totally be disregarded or tinkered with. Do you know for certain what kind of toxins are being used to manufacture your furniture?
• We support their economy, essentially shipping our money into their country! Do you think any money is coming back?
• Do we know if the forests essential to the earths climates are treated well or do they just clearcut and destroy huge parts of the landscape?
• Also, keep in mind that the Chinese Government subsidizes the companies that export (ie: they don’t have to pay taxes) and can therefor offer the product this cheap in your local big box store.

We are trying to save a buck, but what are we really doing? Where do you think this is going in 10 years? By us buying cheap furniture (or any product of that matter) we destroy local employment (yes, what you are buying is cheap, but does that help you if you loose your job down the road?), contribute excessively to emissions (weather you believe in global warming or not, emissions are bad for us. Try breathing in exhaust air from your car for some time), we might destroy large amounts of forests, AND, this might be far fetched: kill people (Do you know the toxic regulations in those countries? Do we drastically shorten the workers life expectancies?)

I think everyone should think twice about buying a product that was made in China. Start boosting the local economy by buying products that are built close to where you live. You most likely end up with a much higher quality product, that is safer for you, safer for the people that built it, and down the line, you might even keep your job. Maybe you are selling products in a grocery store, but if those local wood workers get fired and cannot afford to buy from you anymore, you might get laid off.

Go ahead, vote with every Dollar you spend!

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(photo credit: title Image, Eastwood Wood Specialties; little inlet: Ian Koh )