Fabric softener

A few years ago a good friend of mine, a very successful investment banker, and I were discussing the relative merits of capitalism and communism, and he was telling me these stories of surplus and inefficient production under the Soviet economic system (where most production was under state control).

But since then I've begun to ask myself if the neo-liberal system of free market capitalism and economic freedom and deregulation is any more efficient in balancing consumption and demand with the means of production (labour, resources, machinery etc.) and, more importantly, doing so whilst sustaining a happy, healthy, and equitable society, and a habitable environment.

Consider an everyday supermarket shelf product: fabric softener. Millions of bottles of this chemical cocktail are produced every year, consuming vast amounts of natural resources and energy in their manufacture, packaging & transport, contaminating wastewater, consigning tonnes of plastic bottles to landfill, and adversely affecting the health of consumers (http://www.ourlittleplace.com/fabric.html). And what's more, global sales are increasing as the growing middle classes of developing countries aspire to 'western standards of living'.

Is having soft clothes a worthwhile justification for depleting our planet's ever-dwindling resources and contaminating our fragile environment, when one considers that, for millions of years prior to this product's introduction, humans were able to live without fluffy soft clothes? And especially when there is a natural product - ordinary vinegar - that does just as good a job of softening fabrics as the chemical product, and does so at a fraction of the cost and without the same levels of resource consumption, waste, health risk and environmental contamination? (Fabrics feel less soft after washing because of detergent residues binding to the fibres. As detergents are normally chemically base/alkaline, then any mild acid, such as vinegar, added to the rinsewater will react with the detergent to produce salts that are easily dissolved and rinsed away. In fact there are many other household products for which there exists a cheaper, safer and more natural alternative, see http://www.safersolutions.org.au/index.php?option=com_content&task=blogcategory&id=1&Itemid=136.)

Despite all this, millions of people are still willing to spend large amounts of money on chemical fabric softeners every year. Why? The simple answer to this question is 'capitalism'. Chemical companies, just like all other corporations, are expected/obliged by their shareholders, not only to make a profit every year, but to make a bigger profit every year in order to maximise dividend income and capital growth. To serve this growth, new products are developed and brought into the market. It is inconsequential to a company and its shareholders whether or not a new product benefits society in any useful way whatsoever, or what impact it has on the environment and health. The only thing that matters is that the company is able to manufacture the product at the lowest cost possible, and to conjure up enough demand to be able to sell it at the highest price and in the highest volumes possible.

How does a corporation create high levels of consumer demand for an essentially useless, inferior or overly expensive product? It uses highly skilled psychologists known as 'advertising consultants' to develop marketing campaigns that will make so many people think that they need to buy the product, that doing so becomes a social norm. Then it sits back, lets human habit take over, and watches the profits roll in.

Likewise, costs are minimised by placing the pursuit of profit above any duty of care to society and the environment, for example by exploiting workers and natural resources as far as regulations will allow - although governments can always be persuaded to relax regulations by bribing them with 'campaign contributions' or, thanks to free trade, they can be avoided altogether by moving production/waste disposal to other countries.

Arguably there are many useful products that have been developed through the capitalist/neo-liberal economic system (iPod?). But can not human ingenuity and invention exist without being driven by greed? Was the wheel invented in the pursuit of wealth?

In any case, the neo-liberal/capitalist system is inherently doomed. It is predicated on indefinite and exponential economic growth, and therefore on ever increasing levels of resource/energy consumption and waste production. But the Earth's resources are finite (we have already used over half our oil reserves) and its ability to assimilate waste products is limited (we are already beginning to suffer the consequences of pumping too much carbon dioxide into the atmosphere). At some point, in the very near future, we will have exhausted the Earth's resources to such an extent that, not only will we lack the means of production for further growth, we will lack even the means of survival. (Furthermore the system is inequitable because, invariably, the fruits of economic growth are enjoyed by the rich, while the poor continue to struggle.)

But none of this matters to today's corporate leaders. Their huge salaries and obscene bonuses depend only on the next financial quarter's growth. And even if they don't achieve the results expected of them and are forced to step down, their failure will be rewarded by their boardroom buddies with equally obscene golden handshakes and guaranteed pensions.

The financial crisis we are witnessing today, although more a consequence of inadequate financial regulation than of resource scarcity, is just a small taste of the problems the world faces in the near future. A complete rethinking of the global political economy is urgently needed. While the invisible hand of the free market arguably does a more efficient job of matching production to demand and providing consumer choice than, say, the Soviet system, much of this demand is artificially and unnecessarily generated through advertising - as in the case of fabric softener. And the cost in terms of resource/human/environmental exploitation is unsustainable, socially undesirable, and way beyond our means to repay.

What does this have to do with a cycling tour of South America? Nothing really. Just something I wanted to get off my chest, although I note that many people in Colombia and Ecuador do appear to have unreservedly and unquestioningly embraced the household products that multinational chemical companies, in their pursuit of global growth, have convinced them that they can't live without.

Panacea

With unemployment in Colombia around 12%, more than half the population in poverty, and not much of a welfare system, people hatch all kinds of schemes for making a few extra pesos. For example, you can rarely take a bus in Medellín without someone getting on and trying to sell you something: sweets, packs of biscuits, fruit, CDs of special Fathers' Day songs, DVDs, medicines, toys... you get the picture.

The usual modus operandi is (1) Board the bus, jumping over the turnstyle so not having to pay the fare. (2) Move through the bus, handing out your wares to every passenger. (3) Return to the front of the bus and give a 2-4 minute speech about your hardships, and the merits and outstanding value of what you're selling. (4) Move through the bus a second time retrieving your wares, or payment from those who want to keep them. (5) Give the driver his cut, jump off the bus and await the next one. I found it curious at first how most passengers would accept the product being handed out, even if they had no intention of buying it - politeness I suppose - but soon found myself doing the same.

I heard a great story of a guy who got on a bus, handed out blister packs of tablets, and proceeded to reel off a list of diseases and ailments that they could be used for. When he did his second pass through the bus, an elederly male passenger drew him aside and asked in a low voice, 'Can they be used for impotence as well?', to which the vendor replied, 'Si señor, certainly!'. The passenger bought two packets.

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Photos - chivas and frailejones

The amazing Santuario Las Lajas near Ipiales. Apparently someone a few years back was walking home from the pub and saw an image of Mary on the wall of this deep gorge. So naturally they built a cathedral inside the gorge, with the rock face where Mary was seen forming the back wall.

Rural public transport in Colombia, the chiva. These brightly painted, wooden buses can negotirate the steepest, muddiest, roughest roads you'll ever see. Quite handy if you're trying to ride up a steep, muddy road in the rain.
There was a recent referendum in Ecuador over changes to the constitution that will make for a fairer society. It was overwhelmingly supported, though rich landowners opposed it so much that they turned the walls of their haciendas into political billboards.

While indigenous farmers were in favour.

Australia has giant fruits along its highways. Ecuador has prehistoric animals.

El Angel's Millenium Monument.

Climbing up to El Angel Ecological Reserve, at this point I was starting to struggle for breath and still had another 100m to climb.

The extraordinary frailejones of the El Angel páramo (grassland). They have soft furry leaves (the locals call them rabbit ears) and flowers like small sunflowers. The whole area is a haven for wildlife, I saw wild rabbits, hummingbirds, owls and eagles. And the amazing thing was I had the whole place to myself (apart from the policeman in the ranger hut).

Glacial lake, the water was crystal clear but at 3,800m proably a bit cold for a swim.

In the clear dawn air you could see for miles in every direction, I think this is Volcán Chile, about 30km away.

Walking along the lakefront at dawn, I was startled to see this huge búho (prob. a Great Horned Owl) staring at me from its perch about 8m away and making a noise that sounded like a mix between a hoot and a gargle. It must have measured 0.5m head to tail.

Balmer - El Angel's maths teacher, taxista, bakery owner, photographer, and all-round nice guy - tries my bike out for size.

Hasta luego, Colombia!

As I crossed the border into Ecuador, I stopped to reflect on my four months in Colombia, and amongst all the wonderful memories of the mounains, the food, the villages and the coffee farms, it was the warmth and friendliness of the people that stood out. A few examples.

While I staying with Nati's aunt in Medellín, I used to take the dog for a walk every morning and afternoon. There was a lady, Judith, who lived a few doors away and always seemed to be pottering around in front of her house. I often stopped to talk to her, she was very friendly but a bit of a chatterbox and it was difficult to get away somtimes, so much so that I'd sometimes cross the street to avoid her. When I took the dog for a walk for the last time before leaving, I stopped to say goodbye, and when I returned home half an hour later, she was waiting on our doorstep with a bag so full of chocolates, sweets and other goodies that I had to give half of them away as I couldn't carry them all.

Riding from Manizales to Santa Rosa, a guy on an old racing bike pulled up alongside me and we got chatting. His name was Fernando and he was returning home from his job in a bakery. We rode together for about an hour and, as we were approaching his village of Chinchina, he first stopped at a fruit stall to buy us some grenadillas, then invited me for lunch with his family. When we arrived at the house I realised they were not the wealthiest of families . There were three rooms - kitchen, dressmaking workshop and one bedroom where he, his brother and his sister all slept. So I felt a little guilty when I was given the largest lunch. Even though I wasn't that hungry, they were watching me so expectantly that I forced myself to finish everything, even the frijoles with the bits of pork fat in it. After lunch, Fernando insisted on accompanying me to Santa Rosa, where I was able to repay at least some of his kindness with some fruit shakes and cakes.
Heading toward Santander de Quilchao, I had been warned a couple of times to avoid the villages of Candelaria and Villa Rica because 'they were full of Afro-Colombians and I would probably be robbed'. Well, as I was approaching Villa Rica, there was a big storm approaching and I was feeling hungry so I decided to stop there to get something to eat while the storm passed over. It was indeed a mostly Afro-Colombian community, and it was the friendliest place I'd been in all my time in Colombia. Just about everyone I passed smiled and greeted me (I tended to get quite a few menacing stares in other places), one guy bought be a coffee, and I had three people offer to put me up for the night. In retrospect I should have stayed, Santander was nowhwere near as welcoming.
And then of course there were Nati's family and friends in Medellín, who went out of their way to make my stay there enjoybale and make my submersion into Latin American life an easier one.