on sustainability or self sufficiency ...

Years ago at one of my first university classes, the first in Economics for sure, I got on a heated disagreement with the professor teaching it, that would almost cost me to be expelled from the class. Years later I came to understand that the professor wasn't disagreeing with me but rather that for that specific basic class he taught I was asking questions that were not relevant. Furthermore I learned that there are different and opposing views to almost anything in life.

The basics of one thought on Economics is the principle of scarcity, the idea that there are only limited resources and unlimited needs and wants, therefore the basis of these studies, how to work around that issue; the invisible hand takes over and regulates a free market economy or a dictator comes along and he decides on the other end of the spectrum and everything and anything in between is the study of Economics. I am overly simplifying of course but this is not an Economics class to say the least, so for this purposes I am going to leave it at that, overly simplified. I questioned whether or not scarcity is a product of our own doing, I said that perhaps it is a point of view, a narrow view I said; this concept of scarcity and that perhaps is rather an issue of proper distribution of wealth and not of scarcity. Now let me clarify that my thought is not whether there is scarcity in the world today as a product of our consumption practices but rather whether there would be scarcity in this world if it was in balance. My argument is that we can balance this world production of food and our consumption, that it is an attainable goal. I firmly believe that we can all exist and our needs be fulfilled just fine in this world. Whether our wants can be is another topic, as I believe that to be the real issue: our wants are infinite and therefore scarcity does occur as we all try to hog the resources to satisfy our wants, not just our needs.

Perhaps this thought came to my head the other day as I served a couple for lunch at my restaurant; she, a Swiss citizen (God bless the Swiss mentality) commented, like many North Americans, how she went for some periods of time to Nepal to help and serve there in some rural communities. My curiosity started when she said that they were ready to leave the town after two years that she had gone twice a year; that this will be her last trip there, that they will then be in their way somewhere else, to help another town. How awful I thought! how could you go help someone and then leave them? That is not even cool! rude rather, horrible. My vision of "us" (developed countries) going places to "teach" others around the world "our" ways has always been skewed and something I disliked even as a child growing up on undeveloped or underdeveloped countries.

I was to learn a great lesson that day, as she explained to me that the basis of their projects was to promote self sufficiency on every place they go and at everything they get involved into. How? I asked, By giving them a hand on teaching them how to provide for themselves and putting the first "investment" so they can achieve these lofty plans. They teach them how to decide what to plant, they surely help them find water and build irrigation systems, they crop with them and guide them how to cook what they have even; they adapt to their particular geography, to their individual society, to their peculiar idiosyncrasies, by the end of this exercise it is time to go, move on to the next town. They surely go back to check on them, to see if further help is needed on a routinely basis but they let them govern themselves and use their own resources to survive. A town who almost had to cease to exist due to draught is now flourishing, their needs are met. The old saying of "give a man a fish and you will feed him for the day, teach him how to fish and you will feed him for life" surely came to mind.

Coming from a father of two children with all needs pertaining to it I can appreciate that often circumstances do take a toll on our capacity to cover even our basic needs. I have looked into many ways of thinking, into many philosophies or religions if you may and they all point in the same direction to help solve this issue:

a. Do not develop any attachment to any material things, in other words, differentiate between needs and wants; on this the teachings of Budhism come to mind of how the attachment to anything material is just a delusion, one that must be avoided to find enlightenment; Very close to the Christian believe that it is not riches a source of evil but rather the "love" of them.

b. Look to "educate" yourself on how to provide for your family, whether is formal or informal the concept of learning, of opening our eyes, of conquering ignorance is stressed. Ignorance is what needs to get conquered.

c. Place all your efforts on what you have learned and look for the opportunities as they will come. It is through hard work that things happen, not by merely standing passively.

d. Last but surely not least, learn the greatest lesson perhaps that it is in sharing and caring for our neighbour and his/her needs that we will find ours fulfilled also, it is in our attitude of gratitude that one finds solutions to our own paradigms of fulfilling our needs.

Can this apply to anything more than simply external basic things such as food or shelter? can it be possible that maybe my happiness should follow the same pattern? I like to think so, because as I also have emotional, spiritual, intellectual and social needs and wants; perhaps a deep review of differentiating them, what are my needs vs what are my wants should be my first step towards self sufficiency in all these areas. What do I want emotionally? What do I need emotionally? what do I want socially vs what do I need; yes needs vs wants in all aspects of life. What do I want from my partner vs what do I need from him/her even.

The idea is summarized on that these changes are to it work from the inside out apparently in order to work. Often certain ways or actions or projects that go out to help others work from the outside in, as we try to take people out of their poverty, out of their circumstances, out of the slums; The ideal is to take the poverty from inside us and then we will take ourselves out of those places. Change must be produced within and then and only then is that we can change our environment; 

Let us change not merely our human behaviour and the outwardly appearances, but rather our human nature, our inside by whichever means we might find appropiate and I am certain we will leave a better world for our children.