Frus·tra·tion
noun
This week’s material reminded me of my frustration growing up. I think I say it every blog, but in case you didn’t know, I am from Oaxaca. Oaxaca is one of the states in Mexico with the lowest GDP per capita. My house is downtown, and I remember asking my parents why couldn’t we give money to people (very often children) on the streets? They told me that giving them money was not the solution, that it only created negative loops and that we didn’t know what they would use the money for and that helping was more complicated, etc… However, nobody was able to tell me what the solution was.
Frustration
La Hija de la Laguna movie reminded me of the nonsense we live in. I knew many resources are being used for gold extraction, but I haven’t reflected on the fact that we are using resources to take gold out of the ground to store it back on the ground. The only difference is that the second time is probably under the security chambers of a fancy bank in Switzerland.
Nonsense
I could keep going, but I am going to stop. Please let me know if you also felt frustrated engaging with this week’s material.
“Indeed, Garret Hardin could not have written his ‘Tragedy of the Commons’ had he studied how Swiss cheese came to his refrigerator (Netting, 1981). ” cited in this week’s reading.
References
Caffentzis, G., & Federici, S. (2014). Commons against and beyond capitalism. Community Development Journal, 49(suppl_1), i92-i105.
Netting, R. (1981) Balancing on an Alp: Ecological Change and Continuity in a Swiss Mountain Village, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.