july july

july in warsaw is sweet as always. what more is there to say?

yoga at tucholska. incredibly regular!

my new room. I think it's good for writing, but I haven't proven it yet ;)

lots of wonderful couchsurfers...

frisbee. better than ever!

fairly traded ethiopian flip flops

and general love for warsaw
(here warsaw's new initiative on climat)

KDT

Bitwa o KDT - gaz w centrum Warszawy - wideo

30 people ended up in the hospital after the riot that took place today in the very city center of Warsaw. The parties of the riot were small business owners (who are getting evicted from a shopping center that will be demolished soon), security, police and a bunch of other people who apparently just wanted to put up a fight. The business owners had received a number of fair offers from the city about where to move, but none of them was accepted. On the grounds of the shopping center the city will build a new building for the museum of modern art. But still, does it justify the use of tear gas and violence. And what about those who went there just to fight? As always, none of the parties is right, none is wrong, it's just a shame it ends up like this.

yet another great video this week!

dumpster diving. recommended!

Skipping Waste from mirco on Vimeo.

hugging and not letting go WORKS! :)

Printer Vs Bin from RecycleNow on Vimeo.

ethical consumer delight

I could write a lot about what I have just read in the last issue of the Ethical Consumer, but it doesn't make much sense. Just subscribe it!!

But to encourage you a little bit, just let me tell you about how they treated the topic of refrigerators...
- a ranking of brands (how ethical are they)
- a ranking of energy saving fridges
- explanation of different eco labels
- tips about how to save even more energy (e.g. by not putting the fridge next to the dishwasher)
- tips about buying even greener (e.g. buy the smallest model that suites your needs)
- disussing the questions whether it's better in terms of sustainability to replace the old fridge with the new one
- info about disposing an old fridge
- info about the Furniture Re-Use Network, leasing, fridge sharing, producing an evaporative cooler and doing without a fridge
- company profiles with a special part about the cooperative one.

That's what I call a complete apporoach!! And that's why I love it!

maximum wage. makes sense

There are values of the free market that I find worth holding to, like freedom and belief in human mind and creativity. Still, to me it is clear that the free market is not working the way we would like it to both on the national and global scale. Inequalities in the world are getting deeper and deeper. Being lucky enough to live in the privileged part of the world and belonging to the privileged part of society we might often not notice it, but the truth is that the existing from of capitalism and free market has been proven to be more harmful than beneficial to vast masses of people all around the world. I would like the free market to regulate itself towards a more equal distribution of wealth and resources, but since it is based on an unequal society in the first place, there must be measures implemented in order to protect the underprivileged groups until everyone in the world is born with the same opportunities.

This is why the idea of implementing the maximum wage makes a lot of sense to me. Not only it will encourage a more fair distribution of wealth in the society, but also it will counteract the irrational drive towards extreme wealth that has become a part of this society. Even the lowest of the proposed levels of the salary ca seem high enough to me not only to provide for a good life of one’s family, but also to motivate her to make a full use of her potential. I also strongly believe that human beings are motivated by much more than just money and creating the system where money is not the ultimate goal will only let the people reclaim the other values.

The big question would be, of course, how to implement the maximum wage law in order to protect it from being misused and avoided by e.g. moving the company’s headquarters to other countries or outsourcing management services. But this is a topic for a whole different discussion. For now I will focus on the question “should”, not “can” the maximum wage be introduced.

Read the essay "Should maximum wage be introduced worldwide"

(I hope you won't mind essay's weird structure - it was an university assignment ;))

morninig at tucholska

ania's macedonian style coffee

paula's italian espresso

kasia's watery americano

pyzia's smelly cafe touba

all different all fairly traded!

(well, except for the smelly one...)