Monday 6 October 2008

Being Green ...

Kids in the UK are now being encouraged to be green - no bad thing. But they are also being encouraged to report parents and neighbours who are using too much power.

Don't get me wrong, I am all in favour of saving this planet. It is rather useful - to live on, for example.

But kids in Kenya don't give a damn. All they are interested in is whether they have something to eat. And they don't care how it is cooked, over kerosene, charcoal, wood, whatever. They will chop trees to get fuel to cook. Or buy charcoal (for which someone has to chop down trees). What choice do they have? None. They have to eat.

A difference in priorities.

  • In the UK - Survival of the planet;
  • In Kenya - Survival.

I bet the kids in Kenya would love to have the opportunity to use a bit less electricity, a little less petrol, switch off the lights when they leave their bedroom, not leaving the TV, computer, games console on standby.

2 comments:

Millennium Housewife said...

I think though that the reason that the kids in Kenya have to do this is because we in the west strip their country of all resources without due recompense. It would take five planet Earths to allow the entire global population to live in the way of Americans, and three planet Earths to live in the way of the British. The debt has to be paid somewhere and by someone, and that, shamefully, is the developing world. Hopefully we are all learning and making changes, but too slowly for the people you are meeting. Perhaps for their grandchildren. How awful is that? MH

BabaMzungu said...

Hi MH

Don't get me started on that one ;)