Hey there. Well I finally have my own apartment. By apartment I mean a 30 Sq M cute little studio. It's nothing fancy that's for sure, but it'll do the trick and it's closer to the way in which a Thai might live. The website for my apartment is http://www.rpguesthouse.com/ but keep in mind the webpage does a great job with trick photography and lighting to make the rooms look so nice.
So I've pretty much settled into my apartment, it's nice. I have to be more cognisant of costs now such as water and electricity. Electricity doesn't seem to be very cheap. It's quite expensive to be running air conditioners all the time. I'm interested to learn how Thailand acquires its power because I'm sure it consumes quite a bit. Hopefully the power comes from clean sources such as wind or solar but I'm somewhat doubting that. I'm trying to be ever more energy-consious. I'm not sure if you've heard but in Texas, plans are in the works to fast-track the approval process for 11 new Coal burning power plants. The power plants are in the works to be approved before the legislation comes into affect to mandate tougher restrictions on the effects of pollution caused by operating such plants. The problem is that these 11 plants would use the cheapest and most pollution causing technology on the market. I could bitch about this for a while but needless to say it's important these plants don't get approved. These 11 power plants by themselves would contribute to the equivalent of 10 million Cadillac Escalades being on the road. Boo.
I highly suggest visiting sights such as www.ran.org to stay current with some of the world problems affecting the environment.
On another note, I saw "Blood Diamond" tonight with Hong. Happy birthday Hong! It was quite thought provoking and defnitely opened my eyes to a worldwide problem I hadn't really known existed. I know, how naive of me... I'm trying to better myself through intellectual conversation and via the news and other articles, so it's coming along. I must say I enjoyed the film for the main fact that it opens viewers eyes to a global issue that has been going on for some time now. It's entertaining but also delivers a strong message. I highly suggest watching it for its portrayal of ethical and moral dilemna in the modern times. I'm not sure of the historical accuracy, however the official webpage does direct us to many external sources for additional information: http://blooddiamondmovie.warnerbros.com/
Ok, sorry no pictures this time, hope everyone is well. :)
1 comment:
First, I wanted to draw your attention to a couple typos in this blog post's fourth paragraph. The word "defnitely" should be "definitely" and the word "dilemna" should be "dilemma". You may want to correct them - and I hope you'd point out any errors on my blog as well.
Second, yes the worldwide problem of conflict diamonds, often called "blood diamonds", is truly a troubling one. The diamond industry appears to be attempting to do more, though, and that's a positive sign. For instance, their marketing messages frequently tout a new, uniquely engraved diamond tracking number to presumably track it back to the importer, distributor, wholesaler, and ultimately, the miner. Of course, another way to ensure you don't purchase a conflict diamond is to buy Canadian. BHP Billiton's Ekati diamond mine in the Northwest Territories is among the world's largest, I believe. And, there's a Kelowna connection. It was first discovered by Kelowna's most-famous "billionaire" Chuck Fipke. (Fipke is not actually a billionaire and is believed to only have a fortune of approximately $125 million, after having suffered a divorce from his wife Marilyn and being forced to pay her $125 million of his previous fortune of $250 million in what was, at the time, the country's most expensive divorce settlement.)
Other interesting stories to look into are the horrible labour conditions in the "shipbreaking" industry, which primarily operates on Bangladeshi coasts. Also, Human Rights Watch has an interesting report entitled 75-page report entitled: "Building Towers, Cheating Workers", which chronicles the slave-like conditions that workers in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, face while building glistening skyscrapers
Post a Comment