Here’s an older post, gently recycled for this Valentines day. A newer one can be found here.

[Photo credit:tjgiordano]

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In the past, I’ve used Valentine’s Day to tell the story of the things we’re meant to exchange today – notably chocolates and roses. If you’re interested, I’ve resurrected to the front page an older post about roses which ought to give you a sense of what it is we forget when we remember our love to one another through flowers. Lest I seem a little too curmudgeonly, though, this year I want change my approach. It’s wrong only to take a swipe at Valentines Day because the things we’re supposed to buy for each other have a seedy underbelly. This year, I’m going to get pissy with Valentines Day because of how we’re supposed to look.

The images of beauty and, indeed, love that are peddled at this time of year are a little exclusive, to say the least. That’s one of the reasons I liked Scott James’ column a couple of weeks ago (recentlypublicised by Chelsea Handler). And it’s why I like the work of another friend, a photographer named JJ Tizou whose work from Immokalee features in the book trailer , and whose manifesto – Everyone Is Photogenic I’ve pasted below. It isn’t just a piece of liberal feelgoodery. It’s an important an egalitarian message about being body positive and about how we learn to recognise beauty. Today, when some are made to feel less beautiful than others, it’s an important read. Yes, it made me feel better about myself too. As JJ puts it, this Valentines – and every – day, remember: I think you’re the cutest. The full manifesto is below the fold. Keep Reading »

Once again, Haitians take to the streets demanding political change and food. Keep Reading »

Again, on the question of “who bears the cost”, the answer is: the poor, women. More from the excellent Inter Press Service below the fold. Keep Reading »

You’ll have noticed my fondness for science fiction-related metaphor. And, in the world of genetically modified crops, there’s a lot of science and fiction. The benefits of using genetically modified crops are, for instance, largely fictional. But here’s an example of what happens when the science behind genetically modified crops hits the real world: unkillable plants that destroy machines.

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A top ten list of things that aren’t as cheap as you think.

#10 Bottled Water – Bottled water sounds like it should be cheaper – it’s 200 to 10,000 times more expensive than tap water. But in the US, the annual energy wasted on bottled water adds the equivalent to 100,000 cars on roads and 1 billion pounds of carbon dioxide to the atmosphere. And the price we pay for water doesn’t begin to address the longer term issues of global shortage for something that everyone needs to survive. Make a start: stop your local government from wasting your money on bottled water, as we did in San Francisco.

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Two new additions to the list of links I like. First, the Triple Crisis blog, which has contributions on crises in finance, development and the environment by, among others, the excellent South Asian economist Jayati Ghosh. I interviewed her for Stuffed and Starved, and have seldom encountered a sharper mind. Next, my friend and fellow-writing-grotto-partner Scott James who now has a column bearing his name in the New York Times Bay Area edition. Scott has been writing some fine columns for a while now but I wanted to flag his column for what I think’s one of the most important pieces in a long time. No, it’s not the column he’s about to publish, but his article on open gay marriage published last Friday. What’s so terrific about it is that, unpretentiously and honestly, challenges one of the most foundational social assumptions – that a marriage necessarily involves monogamy. In the debate around gay marriage, the judicial debates invokegay couples who very closely resemble the white-picket-fence world of the perfect straight couple. The debate around gay marriage can, however, be a way to discuss far richer and deeper questions that affect the whole of society: about how love can flourish in a range of different arrangements, monogamy being only one among many. It’s quiet, sensible, unflinching dynamite.

In general, it’s not healthy to think that the world is being run by a small cabal of men hidden in smoke filled rooms. This sort of thinking leads to the wearing of tin-foil hats and needless paranoia: most of the dangerous political and economic behaviour that alters our world happens in plain sight.

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I’ve just come across a piece by Frederick Kaufman in the British Medical Journal . He interviewed Amartya Sen as part of an investigation into the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation’s approach to fighting hunger through something called “Purchase for Progress”. You can read more about it at the BMJ or at Fred’s site, but the paragraphs that caught my eye are here:

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The North American book tour is winding down, and I’ve had many more invitations to speak than I’ve been able to accept. But that’s okay. In the course of a couple of months, I’ve had the opportunity to hone my presentation a little and one of my favourite events was at the Town Hall in Seattle on January 18th, 2010, Martin Luther King Day. Thanks to Ed Mays (who has a version of this talk as a Windows file), you can watch it below, all 70 minutes of it. It’s a more environmentally sustainable way of doing things than my flying around. And, yes, it’s free.

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