It is not length of life, but depth of life.Ralph Waldo Emerson

Inner Life Directions

Expanding Reality

Ggids

  • Flax Seed Oil and Floors

    Using a flax seed oil which dries like a resin much improves the lives of those with dirt floors.

    Earth Enable, I’d never heard of them, which is not surprising since they operate mainly in Rwanda and Uganda, but what they do is something that is bound to be of interest to anyone who cares about poverty and how to improve the lives of the poor. Earth Enable builds floors. That in itself may not sound revolutionary but it ended up being. Dirt floors invite disease. They cannot be cleaned properly, they do not show up the fecal matter that may be there for instance and when it rains they can turn to mud. The people who live with dirt floors cough and  are more prone to health issues such as diarrhea, particularly the children. And of course there is also the issue of comfort and dignity. So Gayatri Datar and Rick Zuzow along with a group of Stanford University students found an answer. Zuzow invented a flax seed oil which, when after it is applied, dries like a resin. It can be easily cleaned and it is cheap–2 to 3 dollars  a square foot or about 50 dollars per home. The people can pay it all at once or it can be stretched over several months.  In the past floors could be covered by cement, but cement floors can be more than 3 times the cost and are not environment friendly. The dirt floor conversion began in  Rwanda, and some floors have also been converted in neighboring Uganda. The flax seed has been imported from India but they now plan  to grow it in not far away Kenya so that the whole endeavor can be more local.  Earth Enable which began in 2014 is now a known and respected construction company branching out wherever it can be of use, in Mexico for example. Regardless of where it continues going, it’s an amazing story not only solving the problem of dirt floors but solving it with climate friendly flax seed oil!

  • Water Smart Cities

    There’s much we can do to combat droughts, recycle water, for one.

    Droughts have  brought water shortages to the forefront, and if one lives in southern California as I do, then hearing or reading about water shortages is unavoidable. It’s also worrisome, so reading about  water smart cities was not only comforting, it pointed to what we need to do and do now. Drought are often responsible  for food insecurity, poverty and inequalities as well as for political upheaval, they were in Syria cited as a cause for the rise of the Islamic State. They also require a change of life style and a new mindset.  Let me share some of the things water smart cities need to include, things we can do. I don’t think any one is new, but when they’re put together as a package as they were in the Bloomberg article I read, they add up to pointing to answers.

    Water is something we use once. We recycle plastic, but not water, so recycling water is important.  Recycling water is called greywater and greywater can be used for toilets and for landscaping, that alone accounts for a large portion of our usage. As much as 75% of domestic use of water can be reused as  grey water. Another item is for utilities companies to redesign how they charge us. The more water we use, the better for them. They need to be prevailed upon to think differently. And that would entail metering our usage differently.  Desalination is in the mix, also collecting rain water,  and although it wouldn’t amount to much collecting the water that stems from the use of air conditioning and even the mist of fog can matter. Every drop matters because any water that we use from an alternative source is water we do not take from a natural one in the environment.

    We ought to have begun thinking about water smart cities decades ago. Our infrastructure and policies must change and keep pace with the need. We must now seriously think about droughts if we are to avoid one  consequence of climate change.

  • Consequences of $70,000 a Year

    The CEO 0f a company who had raised his company’s minimum wage to $70,000 now says his revenues have tripled.

    Six years ago Dan Price CEO of Gravity Payments,  a credit card payment company, made news because  he raised the company’s minimum wage to $70,000 a year. There are those who applauded him and those who thought he was foolish. What has happened since? We now know. The company has tripled its revenue. And that was last year, the year many companies lost money because of the pandemic. Their revenue was 11 billion dollars. This year it is slated to go to 13.5 billion. Price said recently that when you pay workers enough they are less stressed and worried about certain problems and can better focus on their work. And not only that he added they can also better focus on their career progressions, that includes expanding their capabilities. He further believes that when people make a living wage there is a sense of pride,  a sense that their voice matters, and all that is good for productivity.

    When Price made his announcement in 2015 many businesses were shocked. He had learned that some of his employees had second jobs. One of his employees was working at McDonalds in order to make ends meet. He decided no one should have to do that and came up with the $70,000 figure as what would be a living wage.

    Now the number of  his customers has grown so has the number of his employees. Also employees  have felt more confident to have children and buy homes. Price calls it a baby boom. Employees were in addition able to pay down their debts and  pay into their 401-k

    Let’s hope Dan Price’s success begins a trend having proven the positive effects of a living wage.

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