Organic-Ally

Some of my customers ask: what do I do when I run out of pl--tic bags to line my bins? I've not run out yet. Here's why: we host visitors and 'open houses' often. People come with their p-astic bags and leave them with us. Sometimes I collect a whole load of these from the other community groups I work with because these are choking up their storage space. If we are really stuck, really, really stuck, some old newspaper folded into a 'cone' makes a good bin liner. Back to Organic-Ally .

Because we don't collect pl-st-c carrier bags any more (except for the rare occasion when we get 'caught out') I now find myself keeping bags from loaves of bread, potatoes, etc for re-use. I'm afraid some of the organic staples we buy come in pl-st-c because the supermarkets want to make sure we pay the premium for them Our meat and fish also come in pl--tic trays. Sometimes these are recyclable, sometimes not. Whichever way, if they are left in the kitchen bin, the kitchen would start ponging very soon. So we put these out in the bin as soon as possible. But I also do not like the meat/fish juices to run into the bin as that means a long-term pong problem, or water wastage to clean the bins. So the bread and potato pl--tic bags are kept for such occasions. And I see pictures of my mum carefully washing out pla-t-c bags and hanging them up to dry. I'm getting to be more like her every day!! Back to Organic-Ally .

We recently came across a TV documentary in which a British-born Indian actor/comedian went on a long trip to India and Pakistan to find out something of his own roots. It is quite funny viewing. I could not understand why he was surprised by the man who was shouting at the foot of the apartment block he was staying at for people to bring their rubbish down to him. This is the rag-and-b0ne man. In Singapore the 'garang-guni' was also a familiar sight when I was growing up. Mum saved every bit of newspaper and tin, etc, and whatever she could not use, she would sell to the garang-guni man. He came round with his little hand-held weighing scale and would pronounce how much paper or tin would cost, etc. Sometimes old electrical objects like broken irons, clocks, etc, were also sold for a much higher, specific price. When life was not so 'cheap' and we paid real prices for real goods, especially when there were no government subsidies keeping prices artificially high for so...

I know the story of cotton in and out -- or so I thought -- until I came across this site which gives some really dire information on cotton being grown in Uzbekistan. Or check out the film here . If buying cheap cotton clothes does not yet make you cringe, take a look at some of the information here and see what your reaction is. Back to Organic-Ally .

This time last week I was settling happily into the meeting room at The Warehouse, home to Friends of the Earth at Birmingham. I was meeting with a group of 'Sociologists Outside Academia'. The train journey there was a bit fraught as the deluge we had on Friday meant trains had been cancelled and suspended and right up till late Friday I was uncertain whether I would actually get on the train. As it turned out the train arrived early, having made an unscheduled stop at Coventry (picking up another one of our group), and it looked like an unbelievably good start. Except that a couple of people had had their trains diverted from Basingstoke/Winchester area to (believe it or not) London. One was too frail to consider completing the journey via London and gave up. The other persevered and reached us at about 2pm! Another, a wheelchair user, planned to drive from Bristol but the roads were not very friendly and decided against making what could be a perilous journey. So it was a sm...

I don't remember how long I've been working with teenagers and children as part of my church ministry. Since my husband acquired a chronic disease I've resigned from working with teenagers but continue my work with the children. Well, I finally got my piece of paper -- the official approval from this UK government -- that says I have been cleared to work with children. Yippee! Back to Organic-Ally .

For some reason my husband left the following article on the desk-top. Why are lawyers miserable: want a list? I read it and had a good chuckle. I could identify with all that misery and money mentioned in the article. No, I was never a lawyer. I was worse than a lawyer back in Singapore. I was a management consultant, and more specifically, a change management consultant. While working with what was one of the top Accounting firms (we were an off-shoot of their 'Management Information Systems' off-shoot) it was not unusual to clock 80 hours a week. On days when a deadline loomed, we worked 'back-to-back' and managed to clock 100 hours. We were fastidious about time-sheets and time-keeping. It was part of our 'company culture', so it has to be true. It meant working from 8.30am to a minute before 12 midnight (because the doors locked electronically at midnight), seven days a week. We would take a booked taxi (waiting for us at the bottom of the office block) hom...

At what price "development" in China? 750,000 a year killed by Chinese pollution Back to Organic-Ally .

Do I want to make lots of money? Yes. But only to give it away. Lofty aim indeed. But a part of me aspires to be the Warren Buffett and Bill Gates of the organic industry so that I could do more for those who need more done for them. This headline Buffett blasts system that lets him pay less tax than secretary really caught my eye. Since when has a rich man ever complained about not paying enough tax? Imagine how different the story of Zacchaes in the Bible would read, "O Lord! These rich people are always demanding to see me to pay me more taxes. What do I do with them?" But of course one could still always give over the untaxed money to a good cause. That way we know exactly where our money goes to and not leave it to fund a war, for example. Is Mr Buffett barking up the wrong tree? Back to Organic-Ally .

I had an annoying experience this morning. Lady from catalogue company phoned. I used to buy from this company when my son was little but have not bought from them for a long time. So she phoned to ask for me. Yeah, that's me speaking. "Could you please confirm your address and post code?" "Why?" I asked. "For security reasons we have to check you are the person we want to speak to to give you some information." "What information?" "For data protection reasons, we're not allowed to say unless we've checked your data." "Well, perhaps I am not interested in that information then?" "OK, thank you for your time." What cheek? To ask for me by name and then to require me to give her personal information so that she could tell me some information I am probably not interested in -- using my time! These checks are not fail-safe any way. Any one (say, a neighbour) could pick up the phone, profess to be so and so. A...

I've never been a fan of biofuels. On the surface it is a plausibly greener alternative to fossil fuel. Delve deeper and the same issues about food production being substituted (whether to produce cattle grazing grounds for the hamburger chains or the production of biofuels to run our cars) to the detriment of feeding the poor emerges, and the argument falls apart. So this lot of articles from The Ecologist , together with the following articles from I-SIS, are worth noting: Biofuels for Oil Addicts: Cure Worse than the Addiction Biofuels: Biodevastation, Hunger & False Carbon Credits Biofuels Republic Brazil The New Biofuel Republics I was watching a TV programme (only because my business mentor mentioned it) where this chap is trying to win a 'tycoon' competition selling a bag to help people manage the plastic bags they carry (so that people would take them back to the supermarkets). Shouldn't the solution be "not use plastic bags" rather than "buyi...

The following article caught my attention. Looked down the list to find only the products of one company (Duchy Originals) are regularly found in our household. While we did not buy the Duchy Easter Egg (we found the Divine Fairtrade mini-eggs very tasty and good value) and only bought one Easter Egg for the whole family, we do often buy Duchy sausages which come in waxed paper and just a small band of card round the sausages. We are one of those families that shop with packaging in mind. "It's OK for you," some would say, "if you could afford to buy Duchy." The truth is we save a lot of money simply by cutting out all crisps, fizzy pop, sweets and chocolates. Because what we eat tends to be more expensive, we eat less and appreciate it more. The end-result: a healthier lifestyle. Campaign breakthrough as food giants agree to cut packaging By Martin Hickman, Consumer Affairs Correspondent Published: 15 June 2007 Timesonline Some of the world's most powerful ...

It's the not-so-very-nice hay fever season. Thankfully I have yet to run out of hankies as I did last year. Apart from a constantly blocked nose which then occasionally runs like a tap -- but the congestion does not clear up -- this year's effect was felt more in the (teary) eyes and (itching) throat. Basically it's horrid. Worse, son seems to have developed symptoms. He's only seven. A friend said we must move to Spain to get rid of the hay fever symptoms. Truth is, the plan is to spend more holiday time in Singapore. Not so much for the weather (hot, humid, hotter, more humid), but for culture. My son needs to learn more about the culture that his mum grew up in, or at best, some of what she remembers of it. The current Singapore is so different from the one she left 16 years ago. The past two weeks have been horrendously busy. Last week we had a briefing meeting for parents whose sons are going into 'Middle School'. It's a totally new world from Junior Sc...

So scientists have established a link between exposure to pesticides and Parkinson's Disease. (See article here .) Am I surprised? I was reminded of this as I was painting a radiator cover for my son's room. The fumes from the paint was giving me a headache. Why was I using this paint? My husband bought it, is my lame excuse. That is another story I shall not go into. There are so many things we use these days which are purportedly for our good, to make our houses look and smell nice. But the cost to human health during its production process and its lifetime cannot be ascertained. As I was painting the walls of my son's room -- this time with more eco-friendly paint -- I was reminded of the scene I witnessed in Guangzhou (China) in the mid-1980s when China was just opening up. There in the middle of a very busy street I saw Chinese workers painting the railings by a kerb using some rags which they dipped into the paint with their bare hands. I dread to think what the effec...

The organic movement is often hijacked by large corporations seeking to make profits from what is clearly a fast-growing sector. I was appalled to read about factory-farmed milk being labelled as 'organic' in the US of A. See article here . Back to Organic-Ally .

Mum used to have this habit of working on her sewing machine between all her essential chores (buying food from the fresh market, cooking lunch, serving lunch, cooking up the fatty leftovers from my father's market stall into lard -- very popular with the char kway teow sellers -- and going to the bank to bank his takings and getting his float ready for the following day) and cooking the evening meal. When I say 'sewing' I don't mean anything fanciful. Mum used to cut up tiny bits of scrap cloth into rectangles. She would then match these up in size, roughly, and pile them up. Then she sat at her treadle sewing machine to sew these bits two by two together into a long, long line, not cutting the thread in between to save on thread. If two bits did not fit together nicely after sewing, they were trimmed into a rectangle. Now armed with larger rectangles, she again arranged these bits two by two together again into a neat pile. She would then sew another long line of rec...

Nice lady phoned to check up on the state of our conservatory roof blinds. We had these installed several years ago when the conservatory was added to give us extra room. This room, south-facing, has been great in being my 'drying room'. I didn't have to wait for sunny days to hang out the washing in the garden or use the tumble dryer any more. Whatever the weather, my clothes dry nicely -- if into a hard thing -- on the clothes-horse in the conservatory. "What about the window blinds? We have new blinds on offer. We are having a special sale." No, thanks. My curtains -- very expensive to make to order -- are doing its job very well. "But there is a special sale on, up to 25% discount." I understand, but what do I do with my perfectly good made-to-measure curtains? I explained to her that it is not eco-friendly just to exchange these curtains for new blinds simply because there is a special offer on. Why buy/use something new when the old ones are servin...

Yesterday was Mother's Day in Singapore (and America and the rest of the world). UK's 'Mothering Sunday' follows the (Anglican) Church calendar and comes a few weeks before Easter. Tomorrow would be eight years since my mother died. I'd been married eight months. I had just completed a first draft of my PhD thesis, writing a chapter in two weeks, about nine hours every day, Monday to Friday. I planned to visit her in Singapore in June, but when news came that she was unwell and had been in Intensive Care again, we decided that I'd fly back a month earlier. While I was in Singapore she got well enough to leave the hospital, but only for a couple of days, if that. I soon had to order a private ambulance to rush her back to the university hospital where all her records were. Dialing emergency service would mean her being taken to the nearest hospital on the wrong side of the island and that was no good to her. I spent most days by her side, reading my drafts of con...

My husband alerted me to Steve Biddulph's response to the report that nursery places are being shunned by mothers. Back to Organic-Ally .

Someone responded to my last letter in the press and my response was published on 5th May 2007. Spread the 3R message - reduce, reuse, recycle MR CHIA Hern Keng raised a very good question to my letter, 'Live without plastic bags? Here's how it can be done' (ST, April 28) about whether biodegradable bags are any better. I, too, have my doubts. Older versions of degradable bags require light to degrade. So putting these in landfill is no good. Newer bags made from corn starch are touted as a greener alternative. Between the devil and the deep blue sea, however, the biodegradable bag is 'better' than the conventional. But I think it woeful that food that can be grown to feed the starving millions is used instead to feed our insatiable habits for convenience. By the same token, I think it is undesirable that bio-fuels are promoted as the alternative to fossil fuels. It is not ethical that even more (subsistence farmers on little family plots) will starve as their lands...