Activism
Activism is often regarded as a group activity, or at least a militant or aggressive one. I’d like to think some of the things I do help the world without my being a part of a gang! I don’t try to buck the norm for the sake of it, but if I believe that differing from it is a “good thing” then I will.
- Veganism: Yup, I don’t eat or utilise flesh or by-products of animals. So no eating meat, or eggs, drinking of milk, wearing of leather. I won’t preach to you, I’m no Vegan Nazi, I would rather you and everyone were also Vegan, but it is a choice. If you want to discuss the pros and cons with me, I welcome a good discussion. I’d happily have you prove me wrong, I love the taste of steak.
- Stationary: I don’t drive an automobile, in fact I can’t even if I wanted to, I never learnt how. I utilise my two feet, public transport and my close proximity to what I need to get me through. I also have my lovely BMX.
- Stationery: I don’t purchase printed media, books, magazines or newspapers. I do buy online media subscriptions and read them on my desktop or transfer them to portable e-devices for reading on the go. I don’t print anything out,or own a printer. I own a pen for signing the odd thing.
- Giving and Receiving: I ask that friends and family give to charity rather than to me on celebrated holidays and my birthday. Far from to spoil the occassion, but to ensure more can enjoy it.
- Donations: I aim to give at least 5% of my post-tax earnings to charitable organisations.
- Volunteering: I aim to do 5% on top of the work week giving my time to charitable organisations or projects.
- Local Sourcing: When buying food, clothes or any product really I try and buy that which is grown or produced locally. Certainly not from any sense of nationalism (if I was outside New Zealand I’d buy things local to whereever I was) but because locally made and grown products mean less oil wasted and pollution generated carting goods around the world and a more direct link for me to the economy.
- “Foreign Aid”: In contrast to the above, I try and ensure I donate as much money outside the country as possible to share the country’s good fortune with less well off nations. Where possible I also look for contractors and intellectual property (software etc) from developing countries so that I can provide a boost to their economy without having them need to produce/ship physical goods.
- From scratch: When buying products, particularly food I opt for the unpackaged, which might mean a little more work but better tasting food and more importantly less dumped waste and less raw materials like oil wasted on wrapping things for our convenience.
- Creative Commons: When writing or producing anything non-work related, whether fiction or non-fiction writing or images, I license it such that anyone else can copy it to share, or use it as the basis of their own artwork or project (provided they do likewise). I don’t believe in making money off art or of ideas that can benefit by being shared or used.