This interesting peice comes via John Grant.
A group of Chinese students have appealed to us (the west) to stop all the terrible wastefulness around Chritmas time.
I love the idea of redefining Christmas somehow. I have to confess I HATE CHRISTMAS and all the mindless consumerism that is attached. I've long thought about some sort of personal protest to this in the form of some kind of culture jamming/street art but reading this post started me thinking that people should be presented with some useful alternatives.
What if there was a place/brand/community/movement that encouraged the giving of more sustainable gifts. ie. six hours babysitting, a sexy massage or an offer to repair a garden wall or paint a ceiling.
Maybe there could be some sort of customisable downloadable gift certificates, so people could print them and give something physical?
They could be assigned catagories to make it more useable. For an example, I love cycling. The perfect gift ofr me isn't a bike or any amount of equipment. Actually, time to ride my bike(s) is far more valuable to me. If someone offered to wash them for me as well, then I'd be over the moon.
My point is, this kind of gift insight is useful. To me, to the giver, and to everybody else who'll benefit in the long run if Shimano don't manufacture so many small carbon fibre thing-a-me-jigs next year.
I could see this being in the spirit of 'change the world for a fiver'.
What do you reckon? Anyone fancy changing next Christmas fr the better? I know I'll be a lot happier come November if I knew I was doing something else this year.
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