Image via Flickr user lhwilkinson
Good Morning SuperForest! Monday night I attended a talk by famous author, academic and activist Raj Patel. He was a guest speaker in the Ottawa International Writers Festival, promoting his latest book, The Value of Nothing. This book begins with a quote by Oscar Wilde that still has much relevance today: ”nowadays people know the price of everything and the value of nothing”.
According to Raj Patel, we only see the world through prices: ”Seeing the world in this way sells us short. It blinds us. We make excuses for a system that is letting us down”. So, how do we change this system that isn’t working? Patel says it all boils down to civic responsibility and action on a municipal level. We need to start connecting more with each other, engaging more in projects that will help change our economy, political system and world at large. I think as SuperForesters we can really help achieve this social change. Each of us has our own little community and I’m sure there is some sort of organization or effort we can get involved in that will not only make our world a better place, but also add more to our own lives. If you are already doing something or are involved with a group that is making a difference, please share! If you are not yet involved and engaged on a local level, why not research your area, talk to some friends, figure out what you’re passionate about and lend a hand or a voice?
Raj Patel says a lot of what’s really wrong in the world is just not exposed to us through the media. For example, if wealthy countries were to pay for the damage we’ve done to developing countries, we would collectively owe them $5 trillion dollars. However, in our society, we focus on the $1.7 trillion they owe us. Essentially our “free market” system has nothing to do with freedom at all. In this world, freedom equals money and if you don’t have it, your rights and freedoms are limited or nonexistent. So how do we change this? Well, back to the idea of action. If we act in our own communities by doing things such as planting community gardens, we are changing not only the actual landscape of our cities, but the economic scene as well.
We would be interacting with each other more, and not just electronically. We would be starting to value the world without price tags. At least that is the future that Raj Patel hopes to see. I also hope to see this kind of future, and it was great to hear Mr. Patel speak so much about food sovereignty and changing the way our world values food and the people who actually harvest it for all of us. He did focus greatly on food issues in his talk, but he also discussed the larger problems that we need to fix on an environmental, political and economic level before we can make serious change. I look forward to reading his books and I really enjoyed his visit to Ottawa. An entertaining and thought-provoking speaker, Raj Patel is someone who is truly helping to make a difference in the world today and I wish him well in his endeavours. Patel spoke much about food issues, and I go into further detail about his thoughts and views on the future of food on my blog After the Harvest, so meet me over there to see what he had to say.
Also you might like to view this video of Raj Patel himself describing The Value of Nothing:
I would like to end this post by giving a shout out to SuperForesters Jackson and Jesse for their passion and action at Zero One — you guys and the rest of the team at Zero One are a living example of how we can start to restructure our world and define freedom, success, happiness and prosperity in a different way.
Yours in social change,
SuperForester Heather
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