rebelpleb

On Christmas night a 31 year old woman died of cancer. I knew her. I hadn’t seen her in at least 15 years, but she was my neighbor growing up. I was a couple of years older than her and didn’t attend the same school, but we saw each other often in our condominium complex and played together sometimes, as did all the kids growing up in our little community microcosm. I remember her even as a child being a bright, intelligent girl and talented actor. By all accounts, she remained much the same as an adult. She should still be here, finishing off at least another half a century on the planet. Instead, she has become another corporate externality . How does a woman who only spent three decades on earth become ravaged with terminal cancer? Just a stroke of bad luck, a curse from the heavens, faulty inherited genes ? Those seem the only explanations we even venture to suggest, if we even seek explanations at all. Aren’t they simple, easy, convenient? And TOTAL B.S.! In the past few years, ca...

No need to cover the begonias in Hell. We’re still curmudgeons, so we’ll likely find things to complain about, but yes, something non-awful happened to us, even rather anti-discouraging. As we’ve observed before, there are plenty of things down here that have been disappointing. Nature is all owned, whether it is for grazing, tree farms, or just to cordon off animals and slap a price tag on them. We had imagined a lot of virgin territory ripe with native bush, but those corners are far rarer than we had hoped. The teacher shortage is mythical, it seems, so CS still has no employment, though brands have been thrust to flame. The Kate Sheppard precedent hasn’t kept women from being oppressed by knuckleheads . We even witnessed domestic abuse as we were strolling through a wee neighborhood in Kaikoura. (A woman staggered past us with a bloody face and she said “I just got kicked out of me home. No worries.” Later the police showed up.) HOWEVER, yes, one thing that has proved to be very ...

Here’s to you and yours on this day of gluttony and excess! May the bows and packaging of blatant consumerism be reflected in our landfills for generations to come as we blindly celebrate in a tradition created for us by all the corporate entities that make America and all other “first” nations the plunderers that we are! May our laughter and cheer drown out all the cries of suffering around the world induced by our outrageously affluent lifestyles ! Let the “third” world feel the digging of our heels into their backs as we buy cheap goods made possible by such practices as child labor , slave labor , and sweatshops around the world set up by the likes of Wal-Mart , K-Mart , JC Penney , The Gap , and many other of our favorite stores ! Rejoice! For Jesus Christ would have wanted it that way! For certainly he was being ironic when he said such things as “The meek shall inherit the Earth” and “It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of needle than it is for a rich man to pas...

Ah, Christmas. The time of year when we decapitate a member of one of five kingdoms of life on earth to put it in our house though it belongs outside. (Unfortunately, I have been guilty of such slaughter in the past.) Such good common sense we have. And such a respect for nature/God/_____ (take your pick or insert your own). Well, New Zealanders follow this common practice too, and they may have an even easier time doing so. Guess what is one of the most common farms found in New Zealand? It is not one that raises livestock or grows crops. It is a tree farm. From the moment we began driving around the country, we discovered patches of mountain with evenly spread trees of identical species at identical heights of growth. Then we discovered clearcut patches of these same mountains. Then we saw these words: Tree Farm. Apparently, New Zealand sets aside acres upon acres of land to farm pine trees. These are not trees for use at Christmas, but trees grown for the ever increasing WANT of new...

I’m still sore about all of the “news” spewing from the mouths of the rich and powerful about the NY transit strike. For a multimillionaire financier to call low wage workers “selfish” or “thugish” is horrendous. Wonder how he made his bucks. It is a well known fact that the disparity between rich and poor is ever increasing in America . The wealthiest people in America have more and more control, more and more money, and pay fewer and fewer taxes. Mayor Bloomberg has some nerve complaining about people who want a decent living for themselves and their family. People are biting themselves in the arse by not supporting strikers. Some people on the street are complaining that the transit workers should just “take what they can get” because they have it better than a lot of others. That’s not the point. No one should be relegated to take only the minimum of their worth. That’s precisely why everyone is struggling so much except the wealthiest 10 ro 20% of the country. The argument that t...

Since arriving in New Zealand nearly two months ago, I have witnessed two service worker strikes, and soon to be a third. In the first, KFC workers were demanding fair and equal wages for all employees. Apparently, in New Zealand, there exists a practice of paying teenagers less than their adult counterparts for the same union job. I guess the employer takes it upon himself to determine who needs more money and why, and finds a way to curb even more spending that way by reducing already low wages for those he sees as the need-nots. I suppose that is better than in America, where most fast food employees are neither in unions nor teenagers making extra spending cash, but underprivileged people looking for simple livelihood. Or even overqualified, more privileged people who have run out of alternatives to make a living other than in the service sector. There is no way to do this working at McDonald’s or Starbucks. Regardless, just as with the worst transgressor, Wal-Mart , union upstart...

As part of my application for residency in New Zealand, I am required to have a physician examine my pee (among other things), have a chest X-ray to ensure that I contract cancer within my lifetime due to unnecessary exposure to X-rays, and have a battery of blood tests, all of which cost many hundreds of dollars. (Hooray! The economy is growing! The economy is growing!) I hate doing these tests for many reasons, the most important of which is this: health authorities tell us nothing about our health except for the things they look for. Sounds stupid, I know. When I think about that statement, though, so many things strike me about • How we place our trust in authorities of all kinds rather than in our own, presumably good, judgment • How arbitrary the criteria is for determining our health • How the sway of popular paradigms in our culture affects that criteria • The anti-critical thinking that makes up our medical establishment • And of course the corporate influences of medicine. A...

Perhaps this differs in different regions in the U.S., but does it not seem that every day serves you up another battle, whether at work, at home, with your car, house, boss, appliance, or with a government entity or corporate one? I’m not speaking of profoundly serious difficulties that warrant deep concern. I may be lucky enough to have never yet had to face any problems that grave, and for that I am grateful. I just recall nearly every day in America being plagued with at least one obstacle, and just when that one was conquered, yet another was there to take its place. Now, granted, overcoming challenges definitely does make you stronger and builds character, but being chronically plagued with them, especially when they are totally unnecessary, unwarranted, or in the global scheme, unimportant, just makes you angry. And frustrated. And it makes daily life quite a stress. Could it be that our anxieties and depressions are at least partially culturally and circumstantially induced rat...

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