First World No World

How many earths will it take when all the humans on this planet live like we do in Canada? Big cars, big homes, meat three times a day. Maybe 12? That sounds about right, except that we only have one earth and it's not ours.

This is the goal of the global economy ultimately: "prosperity" for all, or perhaps more accurately for a certain percentage of the population, since the World Bank and the IMF must understand that we can't physically achieve this goal. Or maybe they're insane. I'm inclined toward the latter statement.


So this shirt was created to remind people that as more people move into the category of First World, the less likely there will be a world in the end. You can't make a Hummer out of thin air.

Why not instead meet in a new place, neither First nor Third World? Where is that place? We'd better find out and quick.

Palestine

What's in a word? In the Middle East, a lot. For years, there were no Palestinians. They didn't exist according to people like Golda Meir. And most of the world bought it. The people of British Palestine were just Arabs, Jordanians or Syrians or Egyptians, certainly not a specific, unique group. Eventually, the sheer weight of sanity (and a few hijackings and suicide blasts) eventually moved people to recognize the Palestinian people, though no one is in a hurry to support them to a just solution to their conflict with the state of Israel.

But still no one will utter the word Palestine. Listen to the news, it's always West Bank this or Gaza that. Never Palestine; it doesn't exist. Yet. Not that I want to celebrate the creation of another oppressive and violent state on earth. But the name of this place matters.

Calling Palestine Palestine might actually change the world. And the best part is, you're unlikely to be accused of anti-Semitism for wearing one of these shirts. Well I'm sure that some people might try. But in the end it's just a word and that's all I was going for. A word, a powerful word.

And I really loved the prison stripes of this specific shirt. So many people wanted to buy it but I just couldn't part with it. It's too perfect an example of my work.

2012

Lots of people are sure that something big is coming in 2012 (check out this alarmist website I found). No one precisely knows what. I'm trusting that it's the moment that humans either grow up or die. We really only have two options.


The year 2012 is the end of the Mayan Calendar apparently and as with most humans through history (except us) the Mayans viewed life as cyclical as opposed to having a fixed start and finish. So at the end of the calendar the world is destroyed and renewed. I'm inclined toward the Mayan view of the world given that it reflects ecological realities as opposed to a weird end of days obsession. Life is cyclical. You are born, you grow, you reproduce, you die and your organic matter is recycled into countless other beings and in countless other forms, through time.

What could be more beautiful than that? Everlasting life without Jesus.

Fuck Facebook

Most people really like this stencil, despite the fact that they are Facebook drones (Facebookers?). Facebook, I think, is kind of like a 9-5 job, something you do due to a lack of options and hate every second of. But I guess it keeps you in touch with people, that's what most people tell me in response to this patch. But what kind of relationship do you have with a person with you read about their life on their digital wall?

I had an interesting thought about Facebook the other night. Talking with a friend about the commodification of the world I wondered where it would end. I guess ultimately the plan is for everything to have a price tag, or be associated with tiny pieces of paper or numbers on a computer. Good luck when air is commodified (though I don't think the morons that run the world will figure that one out before natural controls kick in).

So really, human relationships should have an economic dimension too. These social networking sites like Facebook basically celebrate and encourage the collection of "friends" like baseball cards. You don't actually have relationships with people of course, that doesn't matter; quantity over quality is the motto of the modern world.

Remember that kid who beat you up in primary school? Is he now on your facebook list? Fuck him and Fuck Facebook!

Subtract Economists

There's a great line from the Simpsons, you might remember it. The incomparable Lionel Hutz, sitting at the Simpson's kitchen table, asked the family to imagine a world without lawyers. They imagined a world of peace and happiness and joy. He shuddered.

Perhaps now economists are the new lawyers. Most people should be pretty pissed off at the people that have designed the shell game known as the global economy. How many people are living in tent camps outside of major cities having been evicted from their homes? How many people have lost their retirement incomes in a moment? Why isn't Allan Greenspan hanging from a tree? Why are the rich, the economists all collecting government bailouts while the poor, with their ranks growing every day, all toil and rot?

Originally I designed this shirt with a shotgun (easy for subtracting things) but it didn't look good on printing so I went back to school for the old subtraction formula.


Thanks to Drew for being such a good sport!

Fuck Don't Breed

This shirt kind of speaks for itself. I consider it part of my ongoing population series including the One Child Policy, Stop at Two and Vote for Human Extinction.


Humans are sexual animals; we like to fuck often. Nothing wrong with that, despite what various churches and politicians like to tell us. Sorry boys, nothing wrong with feeling good with another person (or bunch of people, but with polyamory good luck is all I can say). So this shirt celebrates the sexual urge but says, lets not be thoughtless when it comes to population.

Earth is certainly overpopulated and our numbers are poised to drop pretty soon once ecological reality finally dawns on us--unless of course we embrace birth control in a big way. Seriously though, if humans are the top predator in the global ecosystem then logically we should have the smallest number of members of our species. Remember that ecosystem pyramid from primary school: plants on the bottom with the largest population, followed by insects, then small mammals then large predatory animals, like eagles for instance, with the smallest population. We have smashed this natural pyramid pretty good.

So Fuck Don't Breed. Simple: have fun and choose abstinence. Live a great life and leave the earth a better place than when you entered it by not having children.

Fashion File

So I want to share my latest stencils with the world. If you like any that you see you are most welcome to copy my ideas (not for profit of course) or contact me and I'll mail you a shirt or patch, depending on what catches your eye. If you're in Halifax you can catch my table at the Halifax Craft Fair at the North Street Church, September 12-13.

I've got some new ideas and I'm going to do my best to post them here as I develop them. There are some missing still but I'll get them up eventually. As before, I'll post some of my thinking with each stencil.

These pictures were all taken at the Evolve Music Festival with a bunch of beautiful humans acting as my sexy models. Ah free labour!

Here's links to some of my old shirts, in case you'd forgotten:

I Am Compost
One Child Policy
Ethanol = Poverty
Stop at Two (kids)
Vote for Human Extinction
Self-Hating Human

Worth Reading

I'm so happy to hear that this discussion is taking place in the mainstream media. Finally we can get serious about what we're facing. I find myself, for the first time, disagreeing with George Monbiot. But you should make up your own minds and please, please read this debate and leave some comments, either there or here!

Scenes from a Garden

Our garden is looking fabulous. I wanted to share some pictures so you can see how much can be grown even in the wilds of Cape Breton. But seriously, we've done so much this year and I should be celebrating. So here it is. I hope I am not to prideful.

(By the way, these pictures are actually a few weeks old so imagine our garden being even more lush)

This is a picture (below) taken from my mother's bedroom window. The garden in the foreground is the old house garden which has always been a garden. You can see the start of the area that we opened up to garden just above it. It's pretty big and we can't capture it in its entirety from our available vantages.


Here are the zucchinis that I struggled to protect from cucumber beetles for numerous weeks until they took off. Now they have won the battle for all intents and purposes. We ate the first zucchini for lunch today (pretty pathetic compared with Ontario I know). The squash and pumpkins are doing well too.


Here is a picture of two of the potato beds with salad greens, kale and peas behind. You can also see the scarecrow that Matt and Erin made for us. The potatoes are so healthy and we have more kale than we know what to do with. I'm going to make kale chi one of these days (kim chi with kale).


We planted 1,000 strawberry plants earlier this summer and some of them are doing really well. A lot died though and we learned some useful tricks in the process. I actually spent most of today weeding the strawberries with mum. I also had a nap in the new hammock, a freecycle find if you can believe it.


Here is a closeup of the potatoes and their pretty flowers. We have lots of different varieties including blue potatoes and an amazingly yummy variety that you won't find at the grocery store. They are red skinned with red flesh inside and make amazing wedges.


I always say that onions are the basis of all food so we are trying to grow as many as we can. This bed looks impressive but it would probably only last us a few months in the winter. We'll need to grow a lot more next year. But some are very large sized which is amazing for a converted hayfield.


Here is a pretty picture that mum took of one of her market bouquets and some currents that came off our two small bushes. We definitely need more berries.


Dan makes an amazing beet salad and this was the first beet we picked. Looks pretty good doesn't it?


Living here, I've probably never eaten so healthy. For one thing, I no longer buy perogies from the superstore like I used to in Hamilton. And there's no more unhealthy soy burgers and the like. Just beans and grains and fresh veggies. Mum is the master of the salad and we eat at least one of these a day. Probably explains why we use so much oil and vinegar.


And so I'll conclude with the advice of a amazing, beautiful and wonderful special lady: Smile to myself because life is great. Thanks for reading!