Let's Eat this McDonald's in the Park & Then Leave it There

Hi everyone, just wanted to leave a note that I have an article up on IndyMedia Japan (http://japan.indymedia.org/newswire/index.php), and I guess I'll be writing for them for a while. It's a generally very pro Buy Nothing Day article, and if I had more time I would have liked to balance it out more, and have more facts & figures. Personally I think Buy Nothing Day's effectiveness is mainly for people who hear about it for the first time. Now that I've had the chance to know about Buy Nothing Day from the Laurier campus and reflect on what it's telling me, I dont really feel I need to participate in buying nothing on November 24th (November 23rd back home), but would rather participate in helping the causes with their more concrete efforts.

So, Tokyo is really clean. Rarely any litter, and what makes this very impressive is that there are rarely any rubbish & recycling bins kicking around anywhere. Eating in public is anathema, and the times I have done so when in a rush I found myself carrying banana peels around for half an hour. If they took out the garbage cans back home wouldn't there be more garbage? My house mate Klara told me that they tried to do this in Auckland, New Zealand's public parks, and as she said, "You'd just find a lot of trash in the bushes. If it's a choice between pride & convenience...".

Of course litter has upsides, like for a 6 or 7 year old going to his first Maple Leaf's game with my dad, and finding X-Men #1 all ripped up & dirty on the floor of Union Station. A big X-Men fan, I was really excited and sat down & started reading it and got myself filthy, and was furious when dad pulled me away. He just didnt understand X-Men at all.

Also, if anyone wants to know the names of the songs I linked, just send me a note...I'm a bit paranoid.