Baraza

Derek

Paula, great interview.

Being able to see how Rhoda and her family live, from the rainwater container, to the beer-bottle decorated adobe wall in the kitchen, is nearly as interesting as what she has to say about life in Kenya.

I have mixed feelings, however, about what Rhoda says; of course having your health, being happy and able to realize the joys of family is all good, But Rhoda’s view of the future is disheartening. Ill tell you why.

Rhoda’s family produces about the average amount of CO2 per person as any average household in Kenya, around 0.3 tonnes CO2/person/year. The average American generates 67 times this amount/year (around 20 tonnes/person). For Rhoda to idolize America is at the very heart of the problem for our future.

How do we switch this perception around 180 degrees? Because that is really what is needed and what all the science says must be done within the next 30 years (well within Rhoda’s daughters lifetime). How do we show Rhoda (at-one-and-the-same-time) that her family’s life in Kenya is superior to any life in America, and that infact every American must begin idolizing – no – emulating the life of an average Kenyan?

Increasing the income of Rhoda’s family (slightly) may be good from the stand point of being able to make the switch away from kerosene/charcoal, but as she says herself with ‘too much’ increased wealth she would want to buy a car and electrical appliances.

I worry that firstly we dont have enough time to change this perception (as CO2 emissions continue to increase in the rate of release into the atmosphere each year) and that the idea of ‘wealth’ has been so totally dominated by money; these seem un-solvable problems.