This is an entry from Jay-R’s Journal at GreaterGoodRadio.com dated April 5, 2006.
No one can really see what’s in store for tomorrow. It boils down to one’s belief and faith that prophecies become a reality. Now, my point, it seems that people live in the ‘now’—and this opens a proclivity for one to become selfish and improvident. There opens a milieu of decadence when we see ourselves undistracted about the present. And it seems that it is inextricably linked to modernity. Some people choose not to be mindful of the past, because it’s gone; and the future, because it’s yet to come. Why should we when all we’ve got to live for is the present?
People consume their lives trying to make a living for themselves and their kin; that every single day is dedicated to earning money to sustain or attain a certain lifestyle. Everyday we are inundated with products that companies market as necessities. And the media flood us with information that is 95 per cent useless. It is capitalism that brought us to where we are. But don’t get me wrong, the accumulation of wealth has been around even during the ancient times; during the inception of civilization and the development of the State, the Arts, work specialization… or culture, to encompass them all. Further progress was seen during the Industrial Revolution when production overtook the consumers’ needs for the product—mercantilism turned in to capitalism; selling strategy changed from per-need basis to marketing and advertising. One of the very first packaged products is Quaker Oats… another is Ivory, I think.
In George Ritzer’s “The McDonaldization of Society” (Pine Forge 2004), one of the dimensions he writes is efficiency. Producing in bulk proves to be cost-beneficial and efficient. Ritzer defines efficiency as “choosing the optimum means to a given end” but he adds that the “truly optimum means to an end is rarely found”. This is exemplified by beef manufacturing. Farmers feed their cows more than what these cows can produce as meat, simply put. This means that one pound of steak on our table has probably taken about 3-5 pounds of grain, which could have been used to feed the millions of people dying of malnutrition (I have nothing against free-grazers though, I love the milk from an open-minded, free-spirited cow).
Then there is the billion-dollar shrimp industry. I love the crispy, succulent taste of tempura; and that oozing juice in that mouth-watering shrimp gambas (local cuisine I think). But now I have to think twice about where these prawns come from. Tiger prawns are aqua-cultured, produced in farms, fed with growth hormones. Sure, farmers get to produce a lot of them at a low cost subsequently reflecting its price in the market. And everyone’s happy with the deal… but not the people who get murdered trying to protect their farms; or the people who lose their livelihood altogether because of buy-outs from larger companies; or the fishermen who, by the day, bring home less and less catch due to the decimation of other oceanic wildlife from increased salinity levels; or the consumers who may eventually get sick from eating an over-dosed crustacean.
Where is the justice when you know there is more than enough food to feed 6 billion people, but still see images of physical impoverishment and death due to lack of access to subsistence? Our only role in this operatic display is to become socially aware and responsible.
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