While meeting up with Yussef’s family, we spent some time in Pattaya, Thailand…the home of sleeze and exploitation for big, horny, western men to get it on with little Southeast Asian women or ‘katoys’ (Thai ‘lady-boys’)…but also the home of some beautiful beaches and fun-in-the-sun. Anyway, my point here is that it was quite difficult to try and enjoy the people I was with when my environment consisted of men and women eyeing me down for some sex or competition. In the rest of the Southeast, I didn’t mind getting mistaken for a local, it was actually quite the icebreaker. But it was in Pattaya where I made it clear that I was neither Thai nor a hooker. So to say the least, I dressed ultra-conservative (think black t-shirts in 100-degree weather), and spoke loudly in my American accent.

All of the sexploitation in Pattaya wasn’t the only negative western-local relationship that I encountered. Across most of Southeast Asia I couldn’t get over the outrageous prices that us ‘farangs’ were paying. From Siem Reap to the Thai border (roughly 150km), Yussef and I took a pick-up (think your dad’s early 1980 model toyota) in the blistering sun with 14 and at times 18 other Cambodians hanging off the back, top or side. It was beyond hot, a bit uncomfortable, bumpy, looooong, dusty, and at times unsafe, but all-good cuz it was a local-thing. We paid USD$15 for the ride, which was a bit much, but justifiable to us because we were traveling with our bikes. During the middle of the ride, we stopped for lunch where we struck up a conversation with one dude who was on his way home to Poipet after working for 2 months as a tuk-tuk driver in Siem Reap. I had a great time talking to him until he told me that he and the others only paid 8,000 riel for the ride…that’s USD$2. ‘Say whaaaaaat?’ One of the other passengers even had his motorbike strapped along for the ride as well. Furthermore, when the truck broke down and we had to switch to another truck, the driver communicated to us that he wanted us, and only us, to pay another USD$5. (In the end, our friends convinced him that that was unreasonable). This was the story EVERYWHERE. We paid USD$40 each to get into Angkor Wat, and were expected to pay almost double the price for every sort of transportation we took (be it tuk-tuk, water taxi, minibus, air-con bus, moto, etc) as well as double for every bit of food we bought. Certainly, we didn’t let this happen to us, and showed off our recently acquired haggling skills.

Certainly many will think that this is unfair of us, being that us Westerners are travelling and using up resources with our higher-valued currency. Whatever the case, I feel that the price inflation is outrageous, and the millions of other westerners who came before me are partly to blame. In many of the high-profile places we traveled to, I haggled the extra 50cents off of my water because I felt that if I didn’t the locals were exploiting me as a traveller. To them, I was a bank with a smile, unknowing of the value of money. At times I felt silly for doing this, but in the end, I had to remind myself that if I didn’t do it, then the next time I came, the practice would be so much more common. Inflation certainly also affects the locals. In Cambodia, we found out that gas prices were on the rise. From what I gathered, they were close to USD$2.50/gallon. Could this be the cause of all the extra money entering the economy? I’m not really sure, but I seem to feel that there’s a correlation between the two, and it seems that high prices for tourists still isn’t helping the local economy. (i.e. only half of the income generated by tourists at angkor wat goes back into the restoration, where the other half goes to the biggest oil company in cambodia, and none go to the villagers who live within. Even the child peddlers need to pay the cops to sell their goods within the grounds.)

Upon arriving back in Bangkok, we stayed in the infamous backpacker mecca of the world, Khao San, where everything ‘hippie’ and ‘rugged’ was sold to make your trip more ‘authentic’. There, they sold big hippie-third world-tie with a string-pants that only your most ‘cultured’ friend from Brazil wears, as well as sundresses, bandanas, neat wooden jewelry, etc. And they sold it at unbelievable prices, where if you just wandered off the avenue, it was sold for half the price. I think the Southeast Asians in the major hubs of the region are definitely attune to westerners being a bit careless when it comes to the chance to get a taste of change, and will charge enough for it. They’ll even give you dreadlocks (which I saw half a dozen men and women getting them ‘done’) for USD$20. All of this certainly can’t be blamed on the locals working to feed their families, I blame corruption in high places and the Westerners who pay the prices.

Future traveling will definitely need to be done in less concentrated areas of tourists. The better half of our trip was like our stay in Lam Say, Thailand, where the exchange of good food and company was done in a hut, on the side of a road, with 9 other Thai people who only had their smiles to communicate with. Or on the road between Trat and Hat Lek where a bunch of teenage boys we came upon paid for our meal just before they left. Or even a bumpy dusty truck where the people had so many questions for us but so little words. Other highlights include spending the night on the beach, hyena-dogs, the last leg to Hat Lek, riding into Cambodia, Sy and the boat ride to Sihanoukville, riding through Phnom Penh, Kampot, trekking Bokor, and so many others that words couldn’t even describe. This is the Thailand and Cambodia that we experienced for the most part, and it certainly overcomes that big rain cloud that is exploitation and greed. I just hope that as a traveller I reciprocated the peace and warmth that they showed me while they were being the world’s best hosts.

Today I embarked on another outreach campaign for Sunday Streets in the Mission.  SS is a city-wide campaign to encourage people to get outside and enjoy their neighborhoods as they’ve never seen them before — without cars!  It’s also a way to bridge neighborhoods and to encourage visiting communities that one would otherwise never encounter.  This year, Sunday Streets took it to the Embarcadero, the Bayview, and now it’s in the Mission (with future events along the Great Hwy).

This classic idea of building better cities has come with some opposition.  Critics say that Sunday Streets is gentrifying the Mission and the Bayview even more by showcasing the vibrant neighborhoods as novel places to live, which encourages rent gouging and yuppie shopping — just compare Philz $3 lattes to Jelly Donuts $1.25 Hazelnut brew….

But haven’t the Mission and the Bayview already been changing?  Don’t programs like SS support local businesses and give the communities better reputations in the public sphere?  And don’t car-free zones encourage safe play?  I know I don’t want to end up like that dude from Stanford….

http://www.sfmuseum.org/hist1/index0.html

Van Jones

The Green Collar Economy

The SF Chronicle is reporting today that the U.S. is indeed in a recession.  At the same time, the Big 3 Auto Makers are asking for a bailout only a month or so after the banking bailout.  It seems that throwing money at the problem will only keep the system afloat until the next big solution is found.

Luckily, it is.  Van Jones is the author of The Green Collar Economy.  He is a co-founder of the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights in Oakland, CA; and he has a clear understanding of turning our failing economy into a comprehensive green economy that also offers opportunities for the disadvantaged.

The dude is genius.

Lately the EcoStudents at SF State have been talking about diversifying the club and doing some outreach projects to do some collaborations with other groups on campus.  A week before break we went next door to the Students of Color and met with their director.  This is where the idea of doing a book-signing came up.  And Van Jones is just the person we would both like to have to represent us.

first a word on budget cuts:  california’s in some major budget deficit.  monies keep getting cut left and right, and of course, schools (and apparently now transportation) are some of the first to go.  last month, the whole student body received emails saying that next semester’s class schedule was being taken off-line because many of the offerings were going to be taken away.  bummer.  it’s unfortunate that this is going on.  Fourty years ago, ‘third world’ students at SF State fought to turn our school into an academic instititution — creating an entire ethnic studies department — and integrating a scholastic curriculum into its once only-vocational standard.  Now nearly the entire asian studies department has dissipated.  It’s sad and it seems like there is not much we can do.  We mismanaged money, and now we’re mismanaging eager minds.

BUT there is some glimmer of happiness because of the already existing opportunities to learn…like i did these past months.  My most striking experience came through a community organizing course I took through the school of social work.  It brought me back to ideas of needing more diversity in the environmental field, and I’m hoping to work on some projects to make that happen.  First, I took a walk next door (that’s right, NEXT DOOR) to the Students of Color just to holla and let em know we’d like to collaborate, or even just invite them to a few ECO parties.  Their director was genuinely excited about it, as am I.  The social work heads really showed me that ECOs have the right ideas in environmental justice.  As I heard in my senior seminar class, “we [upper-middle class educated folk] are doing it for the underprivileged.”  I hear what that means, but I feel that ultimately that just ends up being suppressive.  If WE keep doing the learning, then we’ll just keep doing the helping.  However, collaborating and integrating those heads in our own learning experiences will empower ‘them’ to also “do it for the underprivileged.”  As students, we can facilitate what we learn (cuz let’s face it, environmental studies isn’t that complicated and it applies to ALL of us) in ways that relate to our ‘underprivileged’ homies.  A good friend has exposed to me an Oakland preacher named Van Jones whose got ideas on social justice and green jobs.  I’m planning on reading more about him and hopefully refining more of these ideas of mine.

Social work has also got me doing work on my newly own hood, San Francisco’s Mission District.  I started looking up some stats on the area, and was a bit disappointed at what the U.S. Census Bureau considers the Mission.  Turns out that Bernal Heights and Cesar Chavez to 15th are in the same zip code.  This skews all of the statistics and reflects higher income brackets and job fields.  WHAT?!  You mean that a 5-person family living in a box on 18th and Mission is reflective of a 2-car garage AND a quarter acre of land?  And all those day-laborers (roughly about 40 per day) on Cesar Chavez between Alabama and Florida are in the $150k income bracket?  Not to mention that there are many grocery stores in the hood, but equally as many bars and liquor stores.  Maybe that’s what the beauty of the Mission is, but there AREN’T any bars south of Cesar Chavez — let’s get real here Census Bureau.

I’ve done a lot of bitching rather than reflecting, but perhaps that’s what this was going to end up being anyway.  This past semester has shown that a shovel into the dirt will reveal much more than what the grass ???? (haha).  There’s more to be learned, but at least the doors were reopened.  okay i’ve got to stop this

As we sat in the bar, we watched Obama give his speech and it was truly emotional for everyone around me.  Look at us — eight, nine, who knows how many — students just out of class watching what what our future was going to be on a fuzzy 15″ screen at The Knockout.  I’d look back at our little circle and see eyes filled with relief, hope, admiration, worry, success, and uncertainty.  Every now and then, I’d make eye contact with someone and we’d immediately just start hugging.  Wow.

We left the bar and made our way down Valencia.  There was celebration in the streets.  19th and Valencia had practically shut down.  Bicycles blocked off the intersection and people were just dancing, smiling, and yelling in the streets.  The same over at 16th and Dolores.  We felt it here in the city last night; that our country and lives had changed.  It was…I’ll let one of my received text messages describe it:

“Amazing! Its going to be hard, but we will move to a better future. Yes!”  from Ian Thomas

After doing more course work and traveling, I’ve realized that I want to play a role in development; be it planning, education, or organizing.  Planning in the sense that I want to be the voice that makes sure that local environmental and social impacts are top priority and will remain so for generations and generations to come — making sure that local ecosystems are left unaffected, and that the local people are receiving the full benefits of development without negative externalities.  All of this done in a manner that sustains itself for the long-term and at lowest monetary and social costs.  I also want to play a part in education.  Sharing and facilitating the things that I’ve learned to empower others is one of the greatest rewards I could get from higher education.  And lastly, being that cohesive piece of building partnerships, gathering resources, and gaining trust is such an important role in what I’m going to school for (environmental sustainability and social justice).

Of course each of these things would be at its optimum if it also allows me to pursue my passion of traveling.  I have such a great interest of seeing the rest of the world.  I’ve spent most of my life on the sunny California coast, and a significant amount on the east coast, but there are so many more places I would love to experience; from Centro America, to South America, South East Asia, the Middle East, India, Africa, and on and on.  I must also not forget that seeing the rest of the U.S., i.e. Hawaii and Alaska, and the South would be awesome as well.  By going to these places, I would learn so much from how things are done in different parts of the world, then take those experiences and add them to my mental toolbox so that I could use them with the other “parts” that I have gathered.

Anyway, I started this blog talking about Teach for America.  There is still much I need to learn about the organization, but I love what they stand for:  providing quality education to underprivileged schools around America.  What an awesome opportunity to spread my wings and put this mind to work.

Also had the best experience walking back from annie’s.  A dude jumped out from behind a bush on 16th and so. van ness, and scared a scream right out of me, but turns out I scared him just as much because he screamed just as loud and apologized with lots of heart.

I love this city.

There are some codes we need to know about in paper-labeling, they are:

PCF (Process Chlorine-Free) — fiber is recycled and unbleached, or bleached without the use of additional chlorine or chlorine additives

TCF (Totally Chlorine-Free) — indicates virgin fiber (including virgin tree-fiber) that is unbleached, or bleached without the use of additional chlorine or chlorine additives

* In both PCF and TCF, bleaching is done with benign elements.  It is important to note that the recycled material in PCF may have been bleached with chlorine or chlorine derivatives.

ECF (Elemental Chlorine-Free) — virgin or recycled fiber bleached with chlorine dioxide or other chlorine compounds.  Cleaner than gas bleaching, however still creates environmentall hazardous toxins.

PCW (Post-consumer Waste) — material collected from end-users and recycled.  Diverts solid waste from landfills.**

**Fibers can only be recycled about 7 times before needing to add virgin fibers, so look for high PCW proportions.

For the project, I think PCF or TCF will be fine, and of course, a high PCW level.

Source: Ecological Guide to Paper