Sweatshop, USA

 

As the charitable industrial complex tends to focus its good deeds with interests in so called under-developed countries (who is the judge? am questioning everything these days!

Communication is a difficult thing when off the topics that roll with simple exchanges, polite conversation. The classic top down "we the do-gooder" here to help you "the poor and downtrodden" with a few useful things that actually cost us "nothing" and are great for "marketing"  and PR works like a "business."

Speaking up outside the construct of the agenda makers takes good listening skills (learning!) a lot of research, courage and an ability to step away from ego despite the bruises. It takes extreme heart  to remember the eyes of those you "promised" to pick yourself up and to carry on.

This is some of what sets the sincere activist apart from the controlled to not rock any real boats and to not change the course of the "Takers"  do good set up. A focus on deeds that won't really interfere with  the status quo are the usual foundational guidelines, the old  bandage the wound ignore the cause approach. Therefore these charities act as detractors/distractors, as ways to justify the rape and pillage, kind of like payola..

Human beings that are true to self, attempting to acknowledge their paths and spirits,  are operating from another place, a place aligned with Love.  This creates a huge differential in the quantum field as is aligned with expanding possibilities. This in turn supports diversity and as diversity aligns with healthy ecosystems we are at threshold to a healing dimension that rocks that oldy moldy boat outta the water! ( maybe even before the water is poisoned by fracking and run-off and...)

The Gaid Theory came to me yesterday and is a link to the theory of everything that Lanza wrote about in Biocentrism., even though i have jumped the physics only field from whence the query came.

Details later, writing them down is not nearly as fun as the aha moments that show up. For the record, the Giad Theory is a fun next step that erodes huge amounts of the established mythic construct and reinterprets them from new perspectives. This is part of the fashionRIP Project, where i have been unraveling western culture, keeping the good threads and exposing the rotten ones.

So back to inspiration piece and Sweating Away in the USA, Flor Molina story is is full of the good stuff. Great activists are fighting for others as well as self. This creates the energy that survives the downturns and rides the crests with joy that surpasses the self.  That is really all one needs to know, to start..

How Modern-Day Slaves Become Lobbyists

Lured from Mexico into forced labor at an American factory, Flor Molina’s human trafficking story was typical. What’s remarkable is what she did next.

by Christa Hillstrom

as cited from Yes Magazine. 

Levi's Dirty Tags

 

Is the Levi plan to Detox connected to this scandal?

"Levi Strauss may have pioneered the “Water and “Waste lines of denim, but the jean icon is far from a paragon of sustainability, according to a new report from Greenpeace. In its first investigation of textile manufacturers in Mexico, one of the largest producers of denim in the world, the environmental nonprofit discovered a wide range of hazardous chemicals in the wastewater of two of the nation’s biggest factories" (Ecouterre)

Now it's time for the next conversation. How many jeans does anyone need? How much water can we afford to contaminate? How much longer are we going to play this idiots game of russian roulette?  We can just stop.

This culture of violence against nature, other people against our own spiritual and emotional selves needs to be seen for the monster it is.  When Bradley Manning is tortured for letting the truth of nations speak for themselves -"we" are condoning violence. When a young man opens up and fires killing 28, most of them children, "we" want to find something to blame, "we" want to scapegoat the victims of our own creation.

The USA has aligned with monetary power to systemically rape and pillage around the world (Haiti, Jamaica, Mexico, Africa, USA, more) Headlines now proclaim the violence at home. Sandy, suicides, dead "food" and killing sprees - Karma?

This old story is beyond sad, beyond disgusting and ignorant. Lets get real. We can create a world of meaning and well being. We have the tools, the technology, the information we need to stop the pillager and focus on that which is our greater possibility.

Piles of material wealth just scream narcissism and that says ego on steroids aka personality development on hold. In this age of resource insanity it just says "wrong." We are no longer impressed, the cover is blown. (PS Hiding under a Foundation won't heal the heart it only pacifies the wounds)

We can be heroes, for more than one day,
Though nothing can drive them away We can beat them forever and ever, yes we can be heroes, (if only) just for one day.

SPL.org Self reliance

marketing for transitions

Seattle Public library is hosting a series of workshops for urbam self reliance. I am doing a few elementary hand sewing "shops" that maxed out audience capacity. This is so nice and I can't wait to help people snag up those pesky falling hems and stabilize the machine sewn buttons that tend to fall off with a thread pull.

Check your library and let them know you want more of this kind of thing. Mushroom hunting pros, how to raise backyard chickens, seismic retrofitting, writing the picture book (i like that one!!) and mine: hand sewing repair DIY (do it yourself)

Check out the spl.org events and calendar page, the series runs through the month.

Wed the 19th
Hand Sewing - Repair DIY (Do It Yourself) at the Greenwood Branch

5:30 – 7:45pm

Where:

Greenwood Branch

Summary:

Learn everyday sewing skills that will save you time and money, from buttons and hand-hemming to zippers and patches. Registration is required; call the branch to sign up.

& Sat the 22nd
Hand Sewn - Upcycle Without a Machine: An Applique And Fancy Stitch Workshop at the Wallingford Branch

2 – 4pm

Where:

Wallingford Branch

Summary:

Make an applique, then learn about reverse applique and other decorative techniques and ideas that will expand your creative repertoire. Registration is required; call the branch to sign up.

New Showtimes

Ode to Seattle

fiber work, starring an old watch face, beads and a remarkable part of a print

that called out to be a space needle- on re-use wool

Its about a sense of place, home, and though it can let you down and does.. a lot.....for some reason the memories and hope are here, unless i leave the whole USA. Then that would let the bullies own the playground and that is principally, environmentally and all around ..unsound!

Migrant People

Mushrooms grow out from their mycellum web

-an ever expanding circle -migrant populations are natural

Reading the book, Illegal People by David Bacon (2008) for class at TESC is an eye opener. I have been nibbling on the economic theories and practices for awhile now, over 10 years. When Zootsuit started to wither gracefully on the vine despite a brisk business, i knew there was more going on than the 'obvious' media addressed. My costs could not compete with overseas sweatshop prices and i wanted real answers. I wanted to know how this was good for 'us?'

Books at that time were all about DO What You Love the Money Will Follow and the like. However when I tracked the money paths in the books, they were sketchy and unrealistic for most entrepreneurs. Sole proprietors are ok but are the first to feel the crunch of the no buffer zone that aids big business. Another long story....later.

Anyway, Zootsuit was closed, a victim of the outsourcers rush towards cheap labor as EPA and minimum wage "obstructions" in the USA were barriers to 'economic growth'' At the same time government subsidies allowed for big businesses to go global actually working against the American public and small business as never before. I knew what i saw and i read the price drop propaganda and saw WTO stomp on protest, so i went back to school to understand what i was really up against and to change my career path.

Well, as in the Species on the Verge (of Extinction) from the fashionRIP Project, the phoenix is stretchiing her wings. She is bolder and braver than i ever thought possible and she has feathers sprouting daily. She is the archetype feminine and won't let the children stand in the muck of industrial decay or leave them to fix it (shame on us!!)...also she hates a mess and wow if this isn't clean up time, what is?

Economics is the motherlode so that is where this phoenix needs to concentrate. Move over Wall Street, momma has issues with your gambling problem.