On Judgement

On Judgement

Nothing is calculated to induce a hissing fit in me more than exposure to the religious establishment in Romania.  When visiting the graveyard to pay respects to a loved one, we were not allowed to bring our own flowers and candles, but had to buy them from the church-sponsored shop on site.  Graves are inspected regularly, and anyone who has the temerity to use their own flowers or candles will have them removed from the grave by the BMW-driving priest.  There has been an unprecedented spate of church building in the country, with hundreds of large, expensive churches being completed in small villages where the money would have been welcomed on infrastructure such as roads and schools - enormous expenditure, provided by the government.  For a country pulling itself as fast as possible into the fast stream, it is a shameful distortion of priorities and display of the vested interests between state and church.

And yet...

...cut to the news of the recent uprising in Ukraine, where priests from the same church have displayed awe-inspiring bravery, standing and praying for peace in the cobblestone littered devastation between the two warring factions.  It is impossible to view the pictures without respect for their courage in a very dangerous place.  It also reminds me that, when times have been hardest under oppressive regimes, churches have provided a rallying point, hope and leadership to so many people, and that perhaps I should not judge a whole institution, and all of the people in it on the basis of the actions of a venal few.

Posted by Ross

In praise of Swiss garbage

If you are looking for a well thought-out exercise in cause and effect, you need look no further than Swiss garbage collection - it is impressive!

You can buy, at any store at the counter (not off the shelf), the plastic bin liners for your district. These are potentially the most expensive plastic bags that you will buy at about CHF25 ($24, €18 or £15) for 10 pieces. You can put anything in these, and it will be re-cycled by the city, but you can appreciate that if you put everything in it, you need to be rich...

What happens if you use your own (cheaper) bin liner? The collection folks will go through your rubbish and find something that identifies you, and you will receive a polite letter telling you that if you do it again, you will be fined.

But you don't HAVE to spend your inheritance on garbage collection. Very much of what you have is re-cyclable. There are collection points in easy reach across the city for glass of various colours and metal tins. These were large above ground bins until recently, but have recently been dug into underground silos, with a small, neat pillarbox for the 'goods'. Plastic milk and joghurt cartons, and PET bottles are collected at special collection points in supermarkets. Paper and cardboard are collected frequently from the street outside your dwelling, and you can either use the calendar to tell you when they will be collected, or you can register your mobile and receive a message the night before collection. The paper and cardboard needs to be tied up neatly with string, and left outside on the streetside by about 7 in the morning. Twice a year, there are similar services for old clothes and leather goods, and these are channeled to charities who can either sell them and use the money, or ship them to countries which need them. Bags are provided, with the collection date on them, and you get the usual SMS the night before.

All of these services are free of charge, and if you use them, the bin-bag lasts MUCH longer.

It works. Being lazy is expensive, being conscientious is cheap, and quite franky, it's garbage - it's just not worth getting into a lengthy discussion with the authorities about it.