I hope you don’t get tired of reading my blogs about social justice. Maybe it is because I was born in the early ‘60s, but it just seems like all my life, some group – African American, Native Americans, women, the handicapped – has always been fighting for equal rights. So, when I see social injustice, it just irks me and I feel the need to speak out about it. I was going to write a blog about green uses for vinegar, but as angry as I am today, that can wait. I just saw a horrifying video that has … Continue reading →

I moved from North Carolina almost a year and a half ago, but I still have many good friends there. Two days ago, North Carolina said “No thanks” to same-sex marriage by passing Amendment One. In case you’ve been in a coma the few weeks, Amendment One reads “Marriage between one man and one woman is the only domestic legal union that shall be valid or recognized.” The amendment was passed by a vote of 61 percent for and 39 percent against. Before we go bashing North Carolina, let me say that it is just one of many states that … Continue reading →

When you read this headline, you might thing “What does this have to do with Green Living?” Well, if you’ve read my blog before, you know that I believe that social conscious and civil rights are a huge part of living green. Yes, it is great to recycle your flip flops, but if those flip flops were made by slaves in a third world country, it’s still not green. As a child of the ‘60s, I’ve seen people protest for equal rights for African Americans and women. Now, at least in America, it seems the big civil rights struggle is … Continue reading →

This week saw two high-profile activist actors in the news. Alec Baldwin decided to join PETA in the organization’s plea for Americans to boycott circuses, such as Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey, which uses elephants in their acts. If you’ve read any of my previous PETA blogs, you know Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey have previously come under attack before for its alleged mistreatment of elephants. This dates all the way back to 2009 when PETA conducted undercover, multi-state investigations on animal handlers. The owners of the circus, Feld Entertainment, paid $270,000 last year for being in violation … Continue reading →

I don’t like the NBA, but lately, I can’t help but hear the name Jeremy Lin. Apparently, he’s the wunderkind of the New York Knicks. Several things make Lin special. Number one, this undrafted, claimed-off-waivers player is running circles around many players in the league. Second, he played basketball at Harvard and wasn’t even there on an athletic scholarship. That makes him the first Harvard player to play in the NBA since Ed Smith played 11 games with the Knicks in the 1953-54 season. And finally, Lin is one of the few Asian Americans in history to make the NBA … Continue reading →

No, you have not accidentally stumbled upon an Electronics blog. This is still the Green Living blog. So, why am I talking about iPhones, iPads, and iPods? Because if you own an Apple product, you may be unintentionally supporting slavery. Last week, the New York Times ran an article about the abysmal working conditions of electronic manufacturing plants in China. While HP and Dell plants are included, the article focused mainly on Apple. Of course, any company expects its employees to be efficient and productive, but the Foxconn plants, from what I have read, employs modern slavery to please Apple’s … Continue reading →

As I said once before in a blog, when many Americans hear the word “slavery,” they think of African Americans being freed after the Civil War. But unfortunately, slavery is still very much a part of the world today. While researching the SlaveryFootprint.org website, I ran across the Anti-Slavery website. Anti-Slavery points out that although slavery was prohibited by the UN in 1848’s Universal Declaration of Human Rights, slavery still exists today. Modern slavery includes many different things – prostitution, bonded labor, trafficking, slavery by descent, child labor, forced labor, and forced marriage. The site estimates that as many as … Continue reading →

The question in the title may be offensive to many. After all, this is the 21st Century; slavery in the U.S. was abolished in 1865 – over 100 years ago. But, that doesn’t mean you don’t own slaves. Oh, I don’t mean you have indentured servants working at your beck and call, but you may be indirectly responsible for some of the slavery that still exists in the world today. That’s right, slavery, while technically illegal in the U.S., is still a problem here and in many parts of the world and you may unknowingly be a part of it. … Continue reading →

A lot of the news in a green blog can be negative – bad air, too much trash, animal abuse, and unfair trade. But, today, I am going to write about a positive trend happening this holiday season. With the current dire financial straits, many have been struggling to give presents to their family for the holidays. In fact, something has come back that I thought was gone forever – layaway. As a kid growing up in the ‘70s, all the moms I knew used layaway. That was the system where Kmart (we didn’t have access to a Wal-Mart at … Continue reading →

From my previous blogs about North Korea, you probably surmised that Kim Il-sung and Kim Jong-Il were not really nice rulers. Now that Kim Jong-Il has died of overwork, what is to become of North Korea? About a year ago, I remember some analyst saying that he felt the regime would be over within five years after Kim Jong-Il’s death. This sounded like good news to me, so my mind went back to that thought recently. After Kim Jong-Il’s death was announced, the whole world was waiting with bated breath to see what was going to happen in North Korea. … Continue reading →