Tag Archives: think global act local

Daily Prompt: Think Global, act local – although it might not work

Posted in challenge by

“Think global, act local.” Write a post connecting a global issue to a personal one.

Water drops on Hosta leaf

“It’s only water.”

“Only water! You throw litres of it over your garden every Summer just for a few flowers, not to mention the lawn and we measure it in glasses when we clean our teeth.”

The discussion was heating up at the annual meeting of property owners in the village of Little Brainer and Mrs. Conscience was out in force. She had decided that the amount of water used in the village should be put under control, especially when people like Mrs. Jones was throwing it all over her garden.

“But if I don’t water my plants in the hot Summer days they will die and my garden will resemble a desert.”

“And we pay for it all, we honourable members of the village that do not have a garden, but live in apartments.”

“What do you suggest? We cover my lovely green flowering garden in concrete?”

“Now ladies, let us remain civil with each other.” The chairman of the meeting, Mr. Goodall, decided to intervene and prevent things getting out of hand.

“Yes, why not, at least the concrete does not need a hose pipe spouting water all the time. Not to mention Mrs. Camel’s dog.”

“What wrong with my dog? He is a thoroughbred Czechoslovakian Wolfdog. They are a rare breed and we are proud of him.”

“But he is a monster dog and drinks at least a bucket full of water daily.” Mrs. Conscience was raising her voice.

“Of course, he needs a regular supply of water to maintain his health.”

“And his size. He is maintaining the costs of our local water supply. Other people have poodles or Yorkshire Terriers, but no, Mrs. Camel has to have a prize winning water addicted vampire dog that makes our costs shoot into the impossible.”

“Boris is not a vampire, he is a loving cuddly canine. So what do you suggest? I am not going to get rid of Boris for a Fifi poodle. Boris has character, he is admired by the national canine society.”

“Ladies be civil with each other. Mrs. Jones has a prize winning garden we must agree. I believe she won a prize for her rambling roses last year at the local horticultural show and Boris is a prize winner in his breed. Czechoslovakian Wolfdogs are becoming very rare you know.”

“Of course I know that, no-one can afford to keep such a living water suction pump these days” said Mrs. Conscience.

“I know the solution. We could have water counters fitted in the apartments, then everyone pays for their own water supply.”

“Brilliant idea Mr. Clever” said the chairman “let’s vote on it”.

There was a show of hands. In the meanwhile Mrs. Jones and Mrs. Camel had left the meeting in protest, so the vote was carried out without their participation. Of course all the other members of the meeting had no prize winning garden or for that matter Czechoslovakian Wolfdogs and so it was unanimously accepted to have a water counter fitted on the individual boilers.

A week later Mrs. Jones had a telephone call from a company that decided to call about fitting her boiler with a water counter. She knew it had been accepted at the last meeting and there is nothing you can say against a democratic decision: after all it was 10 votes accepting and 2 withheld votes, due to the absence of the prize winning rambling rose water drinking owner and the Czechoslovakian Wolfdog enthusiast.

The man arrived. She noticed he was one of those foreign workers who was convinced he spoke the local language fluently, but Mrs. Jones was not of that opinion. She only understood the words “very expensive” “two days work” and “we will have to rebuild the boiler cupboard”. She was not happy and had visions of being invaded by a team of workers making a mess of her home. Mrs. Camel had the same visitor. She found having a general renovation of her boiler for an instrument to measure the amount of water Boris her Czechoslovakian Wolfdog was drinking was a little exaggerated. The man who visited the two ladies is now at home resting from the injuries he received when Mrs. Jones pushed him into the rambling rose and from the attack of Boris. It was a wonderful rose and survived due to its many thorns and Boris had an opportunity to exercise his hunting instinct on human flesh.

Mrs. Camel had a problem with Boris. Boris was usually a mild dog, although very large, but he was allergic to humans measuring the amount of water he drank. Boris was sure, in his canine thoughts, that dogs were entitled to quenching their thirst from a fully filled 10 later bucket and what did it matter to him that he was not a stupid poodle or Yorkshire Terrier with a bow in their hair.

And the result of this local action. It was discovered that the whole idea of fitting the water counters was far to expansive and things remained the same. There was also a problem of the person who should fit the counter. He refused and found the job to be too dangerous and risky. Mrs. Jones won another prize for her rambling rose at the local exhibition of the horticultural society, Boris became Dog of Year and Mrs. Conscience? She was still being careful not to use more than a glass of water to clean her teeth daily. Her dentist was overjoyed. He had never had such reliable source of income for her treatment.

Daily Prompt: Think Global, act local – although it might not work

Daily Prompt: Think Global, act local

Posted in Challenges by

“Think global, act local.” Write a post connecting a global issue to a personal one.

Recycling company Bellach

The Swiss are quite good at sorting things. They have a perfect organisation.

But let’s go back a few years, you know when you just threw into the garbage what you did not need, because there was always something to buy which would replace it. This, of course, is our wonderful civilised Western world. If you were perhaps living in Africa then you would learn the value of objects and automatically re-use them. We call it recycling, and this is something new and we are still learning, with a helping hand from the government.

You remember the bottles with the fizzy drinks made of glass. You did return them because usually you got a deposit returned on them. Then some bright spark decided plastic was the solution. Plastic was cheap and lightweight, so let’s create plastic bottles for our drinks. Then we discovered that you could fill a plastic bottle with even two liters, the bottles became bigger. Eventually we could deposit the empty plastic bottles in an container, being advised to take the top off, tread on it to crush it to make the volume smaller. Now I can even return my empty plastic bottles. In the local supermarket we have a large container for the plastic bottles. I think Switzerland must hold the record for returning the bottles. Especially Monday morning after the week-end when you might have to wait to be able to throw the bottles in. At the week-end we are thirsty.  Well done, we are being environment friendly.

Glass is still used and still exists, but even that has been sorted. We have containers for the glass, but glass is not just glass, according to the Swiss. It comes in different colours. It is clear, brown or green, so there are three openings to receive the glass, marked with the names of the colours. We spend time throwing our glass away, making sure that the correct colours are put together. One day I arrived at the glass container with my bag of glass in different colours, but had to wait as the workers were emptying the container. Then I had a surprise. They open the container and lo and behold there is just one compartment inside the container and not three, meaning that the clear, brown and green glass are actually all together in the container. The men just crush the glass, so that it was nicely mixed, lift the container onto the lorry and drive away, putting a new empty container in its place. So what did I do with my three different sorts of coloured glass afterwards. Yes, correct, I just threw it all into the same place. It was the last time I had sorted my glass in different colours.

Another way of being environment friendly is to dispose of your tin cans, after all we do not want to pollute our ground water. But you do not just throw a can in the depony, no. First of all you removed the label which has been glued to the can showing what it contained. Sometimes these labels are so well stuck on the can that you might have to scrap them off with a sharp knife. Be careful, many are the plasters I have used after cutting myself. Then you have to remove the lid and bottom of the can, put them inside the can and then crush the can flat. Only in this way can you put it through the small slit in the container.

And then we have people that just throw their waste in a plastic bag onto the rubbish dump. Be ashamed people, this is not correct, but no problem. Here the Swiss have a solution. They have close circuit cameras observing the rubbish dump. They will find you and you will get your just deserts in the way of a very expensive fine. If they do not catch you on the film, they have their other methods. Someone is employed to examine the rubbish bag searching for clues to find the owner. Perhaps an envelope with a name and address, a shopping list, a receipt, they will get you.

Of course we have our machines which are no longer repaired, due to high costs. No, we just throw them away and buy a new one. The Swiss have solved this. If you buy a new washing machine, dishwasher, television or whatever you pay a surcharge for the disposal of the old machine.

Our normal rubbish collection takes place once a week. We have to fill our rubbish in special black plastic bags which are very expensive, costing about one swiss franc each according to the size. Our local supermarket only sells these direct at the cash desk. They are not available on the supermarket shelves, as too many were being stolen.

Of course, I follow the rules, it is a matter of common sense. We have become a throw-away society and acting as if we had a second world to take over when the first sinks in a sea of rubbish and pollution. In Switzerland we feel safe, big brother is watching you even at the rubbish dumps.

Daily Prompt: Think global, act local