Change the World Wednesday – 15 Nov

OMG, it’s Friday, where’d Thursday go?

This post will not be my usual VROOM and razzmatazz…

Because my VROOM got up and left, it followed my razzmatazz right out the door.

This has not been a good week.  Read about it on Hold my Pussy yesterday’s post in Life is but a Labyrinth. It explains everything in very lurid detail and gives you an idea why I didn’t get here.

Thursday, I had similar problems without the lunch; I did however manage to take the promised samples of mint sauce to the restaurant, and I managed to get to class. Which is more than my first afternoon student managed.

So we have arrived at Friday, and I am so apologetic at 4pm, writing a Wednesday post. I have never failed so massively before.

It’s 4pm because I have already BBQed, and spent a leisurely lunch three hours  at the botequim (the bar next door to home), and ah, napped. You see today is a holiday in Brazil, Republic Day. Every such day should be commemorated with a BBQ, but before I could BBQ I had to find the various BBQ tools, which meant I had to wash the dishes. Then I pickled some little onions.

So it is not so much a failure, as a series of failures.

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CTWW this week is another different one.

Ignoring the fact that I committed a heinous crime and bought saucepans that were Teflon coated after dire warnings on CTWW -23 Oct.  In my defence, I can only say that steel and cast iron ware is so difficult to come by and these were so beautiful. I am a romantic at heart.

This week find and share environmental good news. This can be successful efforts by other people … government or corporate solutions … school projects … or even small efforts which you’ve witnessed. The idea, here, is to share the positive, to focus on successful actions which give us hope and let us know that our efforts can make a difference.

 

Want more? Here you go …

Let’s help create some good news. Sign this PETITION to abolish climate changing subsidies.

Here, I can only reiterate the local government moves to introduce Coleta Seletiva which is for recyclable rubbish, and apart from my own efforts has prompted the owner of the botequim next door to separate his glasses, plastics and paper, of which he has a lot, rather than throw them in the regular rubbish. I don’t know if our various discussions on the subject led him to adopt this policy, but I have congratulated him on the change.

There is another local government issue. Brazilians are notorious for throwing rubbish any where. In the last two months the Guarda Municipal (that includes traffic wardens and keepers of council laws and general order, sort of police with no guns) have been issuing instant fines for littering. The movement started in the city centre and has spread to Copacabana beach and beyond. The amount of rubbish discarded in the streets has diminished remarkably, by two thirds already. The movement hasn’t reached our part of the city yet, but the effect is already being felt here.

So slowly, Brazil is catching up with the world.

Now, I have just fired up the BBQ again, the charcoal should be about ready to continue the festivities on our public holiday; in fact, I can smell the charcoal through the window…