Earth Hour. Really?

Have you heard that millions of people are going to switch off some lights and maybe more on Saturday the 28th? I wish I hadn't.

Yes! Millions of people who don't know why they are switching off are going to become aware of how their uncontroled consumption is draining the world of it's electricity, filling the atmosphere with CO2, which in turn will melt the ice-caps, submerge coastal cities the world over and disrupt the climate. 

The Carniegie Institute is very wonderful - I have no doubt about that. That consumption in the West is contributing to CO2 production in the world is true. That CO2 in the atmosphere traps heat from the sun - like a greenhouse - may well be true. That human activity produces a significant percentage of CO2 compared with natural processes has yet to be proved, in the opinion of some scientists.

So a few people are going to switch things off for a while, sit around by candle-light, and maybe talk to each other instead of watching TV, surfing the web or otherwise improving their minds. (irony) Poor people - the majority on this planet - are going to be really impressed; they are going to question their actual need for a supply of safe water to their shack, for power to illuminate the dark hours, for books to help educate their children.

For one evening in the year? For one hour? 

What is it that makes me angry? First, the complete emptiness of the gesture. Awareness of the need to cut back is lacking, but the real reasons for cutting back are never discussed. I will try to list a few of the reasons I have in mind, don't expect originality; this is not a cleverly researched post.

1. The chasm between the haves and have-nots in the West is widening, and the divisions are destructive.

2. The 'third world' is slowly being promoted to the 'second' and its awareness of the 'first' (with all its excesses) is increasing. Think terrorizm.  

3. A life less devoted to earning for consumption could be a life with more time for human interaction with less stress.

4. A simpler life may be more healthy. 

How can the affluent few share resources with the needy majority without taking a cut in consumtion? The developinng nations cannot go through a process of industrialisation like we did - they have no Empires to steal resources from. If the wealthy nations help significantly with technology, skills, training, materials and so on, how can this happen without a levelling of living standards?  

The free market says "if you make something people want, they will buy it" It does not say "villagers in African want clean water, let's get it to them" But you and I want them to have it, Do we not?

making do on Corfu. Parathas, lesson 2.

Paratha Time. Cheese paratha actually. 'Making do' is on the back-burner for the moment. My supermarket's own brand flour is fine for this use. Parathas do not fry so hard as with more expensive flour. The cheapest cheese available here is German gouda at about 5.50 euros a kilo.

Parathas: lesson 2.

The flour makes a difference. hardly surprising eh? Hard flour can produce a tough cookie, but if you prefer the thin and slightly crispy variety, this is ok. A 17cm. pan does not provide much of a meal if the paratha is thin. To make a softer, thicker one with hard flour add a dessert spoon of oil to the water for the dough. Also you can fold the dough in two a couple of times in the early stages of cooking. Now you are getting professional.

The Cheese Paratha.

Flatten the dough to a long shape in the pan, put pieces of cheese on one half and fold the dough back to make an envelope. Continue pressing it out to cover the pan while thinking of eulogies to post in praise of Dr A. Cheese may seep through holes in the paratha, and depending on the variety will add excitement to this simple dish.

There was a time in Konitsa when I could afford cheese but very infrequently. The choice between milk or yoghurt was a daily reality, and your actual bread, as in loaf of, was a treat.
To see my tomatoes ripen and the onions spring, was a pleasure no amount of shopping could have competed with.

Well, that's not true obviously, but there is a serious truth in the assertion that the Western middle classes will be healthier and perhaps happier if, one day, they are forced to cut back on their comsumption, on their competition for and ambition for MORE MORE MORE.


The great majority will have to be forced back to a simpler life, you who have read this far will find the adjustment lass harrowing than people defined by their material possessions. The kind of possession I mean is the kind that does not add to a person's knowledge, understanding, and reverence for nature or human creativity.

This post was brought to you on the back of a simple pancake. Think what Dr A could do with a kilo of sell-by souvlakia.

Oh yes, could you leave a comment please, Dr A has been tinkering with the source code and he wants to see if it works. Thank you all very much.

Sunday again. oh dear! no bread......

.....no milk, no cornflakes, no greek yoghurt, no shops open. No problem.

The make-do paratha - better than bread anyway. Put about 3oz. water in a very small saucepan, add salt and pepper if you like. Add 5 dessert-spoons flour and mix quickly with a strong round-ended knife until you have dough.

Tip this into a frying pan and add olive oil as if you were frying an egg.

Flatten the dough with a spoon as it is cooking on a fairly high flame. reduce the flame if the oil begins to smoke.

Turn it over while it is still soft on the side you can see. Press it down with the spoon.

Keep turning until you think it's ready. Me, I fried two eggs (avga matia) slowly on both sides in the oil that was left. Lunch. avga matia - oh! get the stress right please, means 'eggs eyes'. The normal greek way of frying them is to burn them on one side while they are runny on the other. My properly cooked matia are always pale and filmed over (bit like my eyes really), but they dont stare at you accusingly like greek ones.

Wow! anthropology, language, cooking, all in one small post - where else do you get that then? You won't get this right the first time - the dough should be soft but not sticky; you need enough oil for the paratha to be crispy, or less oil for a more paratha-like texture. If it takes too long to cook it could be tough. Any old oil might be better actually, frying at a higher temperature.

Within two weeks of my arriving in Konitsa on the mainland, there was the biggest earthquake for over a century. Sadly I was staying in the next village towards Albania, and the effects were minimal. Konitsa had two hundred houses seriously damaged, many daubed with a red symbol which meant 'uninhabitable'. So of course most people moved back in and when 200 'containers' - portacabins were set up around the place, all with water and power laid on, a lot of them remained empty.

A friend gave me his, and use of a huge space to do what I liked in. And that is where I learned to cook parathas on a camp fire before fixing up facilities inside. Konitsa - now there's a place, pics one day.

Needs v Wants?

"People actually know what they NEED and just fool themselves into thinking that what they WANT is a necessity".

Think about that statement. Think about how many of your problems stem from you mistaking a “want” for a “need.”

I've reasoned that our “wants” are tied to short term, immediate desires while "needs" relate to our environment and long-term goals. Of course the two can overlap, but generally speaking, wants and needs are distinctly separate. We as humans tend to over-value the present and undervalue the future, making it seem almost logical to consider an immediate want more important than a distant need."


Thus blogged Musecatto . I think he may be heading towards the philosophy suggested herebelow but Dr A thinks the distinction between 'want' and 'need' is not so easy to determine. There are things (wants) available at the moment which should be taken before they disappear. And also to-day's want may turn out to be tomorrow's need. How would you know?

How you assess your future as a musician, MC, will drive your wants and needs now. Statistically you are probably not much cop as a musician, but to find out is a big need, and to focus efforts on this is important to avoid regret later.

Anyway education is your big need now, and home (as in your parents' place) while unlikely to be the best environment for making the most of yourself as a person and musician, it may be the best option for now. What Dr A is saying is 'get the hell out soon and show your gratitude to your parents by succeeding in your ambitions.

*hi* ! I should change my name to Aunty Awsom. And make a charge as well. Like my blog eh, Musecatto? Are you an OP or an EP? Leave some proper comments somewhere! (Extraordinary Person)

Corfubob says thanks, and go well, keep in touch.

Making do with less

If people in the West generally are getting impatient with the rate if improvement in education and social justice, it seems to me that a study of the social history of this hemisphere would provide the student with a calming sense of perspective. Great wealth has always gravitated to the privileged few, but the percentage of assets/earnings grabbed by the rich does not matter very much any more.

What matters is the real level of actual misery suffered by the poor. That's not hard to agree with is it? It may be hard to define the terms, and the 'law' may refuse to try, but a lot of people are slipping back into poverty at the moment.

This is bad. Poverty is no joke, even if this is a very relative term, for he who slipped it is upsetting. All the more so because it was not 'positive' to prepare for the worst. Nor was it 'politic' for the government or its media to suggest preparing to 'cut back' was a good idea.

I have my own ideas about making do with less. Of course there are limitations of education, location, skills, tools, physical strength, that I have to work with, but you do what you can.

I plan to continue this theme with descriptions of my environment, personal attempts at 'Making Do', reflections on Corfu life, and images.

I invite you to submit your own experiences and any ideas on the subject of making do with less, and would like to receive your images to illustrate your comments. Hopefully photo images will be enhanced and trimmed unless you have done so yourself and let me know.

Links to contributors' blogs will be featured of course - but I am struggling with the technology at the moment, so advice is most welcome. To be continued.......