I have about 30 pages of blogs composed this summer, but the challenge is to update them as fast as the news changes.
Sometimes it's easier to point back at past predictions...
In the past year or so (not in order, and some still "breaking" news).
1. BAN denies "80% waste" statistic (denies ever saying it).
2. Peer reviewed studies from USITC, MIT, Memorial U, ASU, UNEP, etc. show 85-91% reuse.
3. Benson is reportedly released early #freehurricanebenson
4. Lord Chris Smith (UK Environmental Agency director) is replaced.
5. Vermont ANR terminates contract with CRT-landfill operation early.
6. Payment refused to local governments may be released.
7. Interpol may have hit the "pause" button on Project Enigma / Eden (unconfirmed)
8. A stampede of Europeans emerging from the trenches in Agbogbloshie to testify...
E-WASTE HOAX - NOT AS "BAN" ADVERTISED.
"Do not know what they are talking about. Making it up as they go along."
Time's up. Basel Action Network and Greenpeace need to make a correction. They are good people, with consciences, and eStewards should be troubled by technicians being put in jail accused of #wastecrime.
There are still plenty of problems in emerging markets. There is pollution, there is child labor, there is definitely "toxics along for the ride". But the idea proposed - to shred all the rich people's "stuff" - was no solution to poverty or pollution. It was planned obsolescence, joining big shred, given thumbs up by censoring dictators, to boost a firehose of disinformation about recycling. Lesson, be true to thine own self. My company may never recover from the economic hardship dished out by Montpelier. But that business was changing quickly anyway, and while the blog may not always keep up with current events, it has done a good job of predicting future events.
"Useless Lists of Jobs Beneath Wealthy People (2012)" was spot on. Bans on trade between rich and poor is just as bad an idea as Adam Smith described. You can come up with "safe" jobs you feel are ok for 18 year olds in the global south. But no one in emerging markets sees your safe jobs in the Want Ads. "Let them bake cakes" is a lousy slogan.
I've had several dozen silent supporters, afraid of being singled out as "export apologists" (a personal ad hominem label Jim Puckett gave me personally). It's ok now to come out and say "touche pas a mon pote". We have inter-gender friends, we have interracial friends, we have interreligious friends, and our inter-friendships will not be framed or defined by "anti-globalization" stories about abuse.
#FreeHurricaneBenson is a campaign slogan understood by FRAMED, understood by RUSTYRADIATOR, understood by KIVA, and a long list of under-30 alterglobalization good people. We did not drink the "shred rich people's equipment" koolaid and history will be our ****.
Having busted open the myth, we now have a lot of work to do. SERI (formerly R2 Solutions) is trying to address the vacancies in their map of "find a recycler". Fair Trade Recycling knows the best repair and reuse technicians in the world are inversely proportionate to the dots on SERI's map.
Coming soon - a new WR3A Program designed to redistribute the credit for fixing Annie Leonard's "STUFF".
Here's the biography of Lord Chris Smith's reported replacement. Sounds a little more alter-globalist to us.
"Philip Dilley was until recently the Executive Chairman of Arup, a trust-owned global planning, engineering, and project management consulting group with fee revenues in excess of £1bn and over 11,000 staff members. His role carried responsibility for the group performance and brand. He is currently Chairman of London First, a business membership organisation with the mission to make London the best city in the world in which to do business. It influences national and local government policies and investment decisions to support London’s global competitiveness. He is also a Member of the Governing Council of Imperial College, a world-renowned British University carrying out undergraduate and post-graduate teaching and research in science, engineering, medicine, and business."
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