tcpip | Entries tagged with altruism

The big announcement this week was the establishment of Avatar Mountain Pty Ltd, an environmental engineering consultancy company that has been on the back burner of my mind since I did my MSc internship at Zurich, where the idea was first proposed in late 2019. I didn't think much about it in 2020, but something was in the back of my mind as various journal entries would indicate. As the Plague hit the world, it was a sort of awakening for me, a call, a desire to engage effective altruism. Not terribly sure about what to do at the time I sold off a mountain of my personal possessions to raise money for Medecins sans Frontieres. More recently I have done the same again for the UNHCR in Ukraine.

But it was around this time last year that I sat in the backyard of a friend's home (thank you MCF) and considered deeply the prospect of the most good I could do - and my thoughts returned to the presentation at Zurich. So for the past year I've done a modicum of appropriate research, talked to the right people, and established a few worthwhile connections, all orientated toward one goal - setting up the structure that facilitates the adoption of new technologies in the People's Republic of China that reduce greenhouse gas emissions, starting in particular with the construction industry (Portland cement is not exactly nice to the environment). Fixing the world, one brick at a time. Thus, I am heading to Perth this week to attend the national conference of the Australia-China Friendship Society. For Perth friends, I am having a dinner get-together on Sunday, July 12. Please contact me for details.

In other news, I've taken the second step towards my desire for a motorbike license, expressed some time ago by taking up my first lesson on an old postie bike - you have to start somewhere - with Nick, who happens to be my dance instructor as well. In return, I feed him and teach him how to use a blade. Robbie K, rather delightfully, has produced a herald for The Rookery with the hilarious motto, "Thrust, Parry, Cha Cha Cha". The recent days have been quite celebratory; I made a rather delicious Sino-Franco fusion for JW on Wednesday (it's always nice when experiments work), LF hosted a new business celebration dinner with family on Friday, and tonight Andrew and Charmaine D and little Penny visited The Rookery for the first time that it's been in order (and Sabre Cat was not well-behaved). In the next few days, however, I will bury myself in studies - I have an exam for my first Psych course on Wednesday evening.

Current Mood: cheerful
Current Location: The Rookery

I have been pondering what to do with the leftover cash I'll have from the sale of Willsmere, and whilst most of my brain is terribly practical ("pay off most of the Rookery"), some of it is dearly missing my heartland of The South Island ("home is where the heart is"), some will be dedicated to the various causes I support. But following the lead of

funontheupfield (sometimes he leads and I follow, sometimes it the other way around, either way combined we make a good team), I've decided that some will be spent on something quite new for my lifestyle - a motorbike. I've made arrangements to get training at HART, whose reputation is quite positive among some friends, and hopefully I should be considered legally fit to have a throbbing machine between my legs in no time (ahem). The main objective of such a vehicle, even if it does mean an average reduction in life expectancy of several years, is countryside visits. Willsmere, whilst inner urban, did provide a great sense of closeness to untouched nature and I'm feeling that lack quite strongly in The Rookery. Besides, touring New Zealand by bike is an opportunity I can't miss.

However, being astoundingly ignorant about such things, I take this opportunity to ask the hive-mind what make and model that you would suggest? A few parameters are in place: (a) I don't want a monster machine and, being new to this, it will need to be something that is learner approved, (b) I don't want a scooter, as charming as they are, this will have to be a road bike, and (c) I am prepared to pay extra money for less maintenance; I know more about Zen than the art of motorcycle maintenance (kewpie doll to whoever gets that reference). Bonus question! Do you have a favourite motorcycle piece of music? From the industrial-goth there's a couple that come immediately to mind, "Sex on Wheels" by My Life with the Thrill Kill Kult and "Motorbike" by Sheep on Drugs. Other appropriate mood-music welcome.

Received a visit from Nitul D., and

caseopaya on Saturday; the nominal purpose of Nitul's visit was to sort out a bit of Isocracy Network material, but he was invited for dinner and drinks which resulted in a wide-ranging conversation about ethnic politics, economics, and culture. Meanwhile, most of the rest of my time has been taken up with UNHCR fundraising for Ukraine through the sale of my roleplaying collection with a few people per day dropping into The Rookery to collect material (and special thanks to Rade V. and Jay L. for an excellent conversation and advice on various health matters), along with many kilograms being sent across the country via Australia Post. The current effort now stands at $7827, which is pretty damn good for twelve days. Making the lives of others less miserable has always been a primary motivation in my life, even to the point of self-sacrifice, but this to me is a simple task that has a great effect. To put a Daoist spin on it, perhaps this "wu wei" morality (Lao Tzu is often considered an early anarchist). More expert opinion is welcome on that hypothesis.

Current Mood: hopeful
Current Location: The Rookery
Current Music: The Best of God Is An Astronaut

I have had reason recently to consider what is usually expressed as the dichotomy of victims and survivors, especially in regard to those who have experienced trauma. Reading my friend Halina's book, The Testimony is educational in this regard. Halina is a survivor of the Shoah, and the four-hour interview of her experiences on Youtube make for some challenging listening, as she retells the story of being in the Lodz ghetto, then to Auschwitz-Birkenau, then to finally to Stutthof; a fine way to spend your teenaged years! Moving to Melbourne post-war, Halina was instrumental in numerous activities, especially for the Humanist Society, youth homelessness issues, and, unsurprisingly, holocaust remembrance. Don't Remain a Victim was one of her catch-phrases. Of course, like most dichotomies, there is a continuum between victim and survivor. But there is also a dependency condition. In order for one to be a survivor, one must also have been a victim. As a result, it is perhaps inevitable that on occasion, there are triggers and there are bad days for our survivor friends, and we must always be there to support and care for them, as their experiences will not go away. To quote from the book: "Those who survive should testify until they die" - and quite recently, Halina did just that, helping to convict a Stutthof guard.

All of this turns my attention towards the issues of effective altruism, which continues to weigh heavily on my mind. I greatly admire those who have the opportunity and the inner strength to make such an approach to the dominant feature of their life. I am trying to do so myself, although the distractions of entertainments can quite strong (let's face it, once a fortnight I play the role of a sapient humanoid duck on a magical flat-earth, and that alternates with being a transhuman space octopus, or other such fantastical beings). I even find myself troubled by the time I spend watching television shows that I currently enjoy (e.g., Archer, The Man in the High Castle, Studio Ghibli films), even though that I spend probably around 90 minutes or so a day on such things, maximum. I cannot imagine that I would go down the path of self-mortification, and I know I am fortunate enough to have the sort of job whereby my daily activities do actually bring benefits the whole at a high level (the low, visceral level, is carried out by the baker and the candle-stick maker, not too sure about the butcher). As I get older, I find myself increasingly thinking, what is the most good I can do with the time that I have left? What generativity, to use Erik Erikson's term, can I provide?

Current Mood: tired
Current Location: Willsmere
Current Music: Achromata, Aesthesys
Crossposts: https://tcpip.livejournal.com/301843.html

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Entries tagged with altruism

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