Home Sweet Home

It feels weird to be a visitor in my home country.

Overheard at last night's Phoenix Coyotes game...

• "C'mon guys! Let's get the ball back!"

• "So... what quarter is it?"

• "ICING! Dad, was that icing?"

• "F@$#in' hit him!"

• "MY SOCKS ARE CLEEEEAN!"

• "Dad, which one's Christopher?"
  

Thirty-thousand dollar per year millionnaires

When I lived in Canada rich people were rich, and poor people were poor. Those who found themselves somewhere in the middle generally were content to not be poor, and didn't, for the most part, pretend to be rich.

Phoenix is home to a huge number of gazillionaires. Scottsdale, Arizona is a tremendously affluent area, and rumour has it that Arrowhead (where I lived that first summer I was here) is home to the zip code with the most millionnaires per capita.

True rich people aside, I must bring to your attention the scads of Arizona residents who pretend to be rich people. Not only do they adopt the affect and tastes of the rich, but they live well beyond their means. Only in Phoenix can a yearly income of $30,000 afford a shiny new Hummer H2. Only here will a teacher's salary afford a $400,000 condo. Only in this city will a person not be able to afford health insurance, but somehow be able to afford new boobs.

How do so many people live on so much credit? Canadian lending practices are so conservative that students are practically never given credit limits in excess of $5000. My first Canadian student credit card had a $500 limit. Here such credit limits of thousands of dollars are the opening bid. I have personally met more than one person who incurred over $20,000 in credit card debt before finishing their undergraduate degrees. This on top of student loans incurred.

Who let them have so much money in the first place? Why are the credit card companies so content to dole out credit to people with low and no incomes? How can these credit card financers sleep at night knowing they are contributing to the financial ruin of young people who know no better?

And yet, the problem proliferates as the spending patterns of the status quo reflect an affluent society. In order to not appear poor, you gotta look rich. Fancy clothes, brand new cars, and nights on the town do a popular person make.

A finger is always kept on the pulse of the glitterati. Expect a flurry of activity over at Scottsdale HealthCare Shea Campus -- didn't you hear? It's the happening place to have a baby. Brittney's having hers there, you know.

Or how about Sedona, vacation getaway of the stars? A student rate for a studio apartment (bachelor pad) is $1000/month. I don't know a single Canadian student who could afford this. I don't know a single American student who could afford it either, but could think of a few who would anyway.

I guess the desire to spend money beyond ones means comes from the fact that Americans are trained from a very young age to believe in and contribute to the all-powerful and revered American Economy. Shopping, eating at restaurants, and purchasing entertainment are really just activities that constitute "doing your part".

The climate of consumption is reinforced in kids from the very begining. But not only children are the target. Take a look at the new! and improved! products hitting the market today: everything is disposable. Why buy a normal toilet brush when you can buy a new one every time you clean your toilet? Why buy washcloths when you could get a package of one-time-use wipes? The idea, I suppose, is that you don't get to contribute to the economy once, but over and over! What a privilege! Even non-disposable products are not built to last. Why, when the technology will be obsolete in a few minutes anyway?

But I have a question, America:
Where does all your garbage go?

No one here thinks about that while walking through their local Wal-Mart: every single one of those items will end up in the trash eventually. Some within days, some within years. Multiply this by the number of Wal-Marts in your city. Multiply this by the number of cities in the US. Add in the same math for Target, for JC Penney, for AutoZone, for Sears... and on, and on, and on.

Where does it all go?

When are you going to figure out that at the rate the population of America is expanding, there will be no room for landfills soon. You can continue to truck trash into Canada, to ship it out to sea, , to blast it into space, but perhaps at some point someone somewhere will realize that the responsible behaviour is to reduce consumption, and where it cannot be avoided, to purchase items that will last for as long as possible.

Unfortunately, it would be "anti-American" to compromise the economy in such a way. So we will continue to live beyond our personal economic means, to overtax our environment, and to leave too great a footprint. Our landfills will become our graffiti:

We were here.

Happy Anniversary, Magazine Man

If you haven't yet read this blog, GET ON IT! I couldn't recommend more fascinating daily reading.

A call to serve

I am only one, but still I am one.
I cannot do everything,but still I can do something.
And because I cannot do everything,
I will not refuse to do the something that I can do.
-Edward Everett Hale


In the aftermath of the increasingly frequent disasters striking our world, potential responses vary according to needs and abilities. I am always faced with a difficult inner dialogue contrasting my limited abilities to help with my overwhelming feelings of responsibility and duty.

It is easy to see why my abilities are limited: I am not well enough established in my career to take the time off that would afford me the opportunity to physically help with disaster relief, nor am I secure enough financially to handle the financial burdens of my family and still donate any sizeable amount of money. Every bit counts, they say, but a meagre donation does not my conscience ease.

Where did this sense of duty and responsibility come from? Why isn't it shared by more people?

I believe that the privilege of simply being born into this world brings with it a few basic responsibilities that include acting towards humankind as if one is a citizen of the world and not only of one's own community. The good fortune of being born into a relatively affluent society, built on generations of privilege, should then bring with it additional responsibilities to those less fortunate than I.

I have to credit my family for nurturing this sense of duty. In my family there were always opportunities to perform charitable acts, either financially or by serving the community in some way. Giving was not always easy, but my parents encouraged us to appreciate the needs of others.

But my feeling of indebtedness to the world is difficult to appease. It is so easy in our lives to get caught up in our own needs and desires, and the line between is so easily blurred.

When it comes to serving humankind, where am I supposed to start? At what point to I have to consider my own comfort? Perhaps once my own basic needs are met I then have an obligation to devote at least a portion of my time and money to the basic needs of others. Perhaps it is only when I am "comfortable" that I am to begin helping those who are less advantaged.

A friend of mine was going hiking with me the other day, and on the trip up to the trailhead began to discuss her dilemma: A resident at a hospital in Jackson, Mississippi sent out an email to her medical school stating that their need for help is great, and that anyone able to rotate through their emergency department this month would be welcomed. Having already set up a rotation elsewhere, my friend was debating whether she should respond to this call. In the end we decided it was a no-brainer: the need is there, and her abilities to help are great. Could she even consider not responding? As a Christian, could she really turn down this call to service?

Even without religious calling, as humans shouldn't we all feel a similar call to arms? Or at least some sort of indebtedness?

And where, in my endeavours to help my fellow humans, do I stop? When is it enough? When can I consider my duty fulfilled? No matter what I consider, it never seems to be enough. The fact that there are innumerable occasions to donate time and money, how does one even select a cause? I'm paralyzed by indecision and a feeling of personal inadequacy. All I want is to be a good person. What does that take? A vow of poverty? A vocation of servitude? Complete devotion to one cause? Many? As long as I have luxuries and comfort, should I feel guilty for not contributing more? I bought a new television; they don't have food or homes. Is this fair?

Every time a disaster strikes that is the magnitude of Katrina (or last year's Tsunami, or the earthquake in India, or the ...) I am faced with the same internal turmoil. I hear the call to service, but cannot respond in any way I feel to be adequate.

I keep telling myself I'm not "there" yet. When will I be in that place that will allow me to serve adequately? Where is this place? What am I doing to get there?

What are you doing to get there?

Katrina

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