RE: A Rastafari Reasoning 🤔 The State Of Humanity In Suriname
You are viewing a single comment's thread:
Well, first of all, I think your voice is really pleasant to listen to. It's so relaxed and soothing, that I remain calm even with topics that would otherwise get me upset. So please, do continue with your rasta-rants, as well as more positive topics, which I would also love to hear.
The issue with people's fear (in my opinion the root of most of the problems you mentioned) and the unpicked fruit, reminds me of organizing a fruit-saving group in Germany and Hungary. What a difference! In Germany most people with unpicked fruit trees in their yards were simply thrilled that someone came and took the fruit they couldnt pick themselves, since in most cases they were elderly. In Hungary, the same demographics in the same situation tended to eye us suspiciously, trying to figure out our scam. In the end they would decide they weren't interested, because they would need to let us enter their property. (Oh no!) Or, they would charge us by the kilo, above market prices, ignoring our time and work.
In my interpretation, these people have experienced so much rip-off and abuse throughout their lives (and those of people around them), that their defense mechanism was to adopt this fearful attitude. Of course, I'm sure that's only part of the reason, and there are lots of learned factors as well.
As for poverty, I like to think that it's not so much about the amount of possessions one has, but their attitude towards the world around them. This way you can have people and communities with very little resources be extremely rich, and others with a lot of accumulated wealth be utterly poor.
Your words ring true concerning attitude and experience affecting this much more than the poverty or wealth of a nation and its people. Your idea to start a program to make use of unpicked fruit is a good one, and it sounds like it was a success in some locations.
We just try to figure out who has abandoned their home here for a life in the Netherlands near us, and then we know it's safe to pick their trees, even despite the scornful looks we occasionally get from neighbors. I think it would be hard here to organize such a program, mostly because people here have large properties, nearly always fenced, and the house is always far from the fence, and the people are usually inside the house away from view.
Even casually approaching a house to make conversation about unpicked fruit is very awkward and uncomfortable, but we persist.
I will try to drum up another Rasta rant soon, although I'll try to be more positive in the next one. Give thanks!
!ENGAGE 150
Well, I can't take credit for the idea. That was some bloke from the UK, and there it seemed to work quite well too. I guess an important part was to wrap in a bit of PR, connect with the food bank or some other charity organization who receives the food (along with all the helpers, not to mention the owner of the tree), later team up with a local school to use the material (lots of fruit) to teach making jams and preserves. Looking like a "serious organization", you won't be seen as just a bunch of weirdos looking for free fruit... On the other hand, as the Hungarian example shows, the best organization (including media exposure) didn't help one bit. :-( But oh well, it was worth the try.
Okay, please don't get me wrong, I'm not trying to suggest you apply all this to your situation in Surinam, I'm just relating my own experiences. So I wish you the best luck with canvassing the neighborhood for unpicked fruit, and hope to find receptive folks. And hopefully the occasional mango and coconut will turn into bucketfuls of chutney for the whole town! Wouldn't that be something? ;-)
Give thanks for the good vibes. !ENGAGE 50
ENGAGEtokens.ENGAGEtokens.