With apologies to Sir Thomas Wyatt and I find no peace. (piece).  

I find no joy with the end of this assessment.  My hopes to become an accomplished super cyber user have come to naught. I fly in the virtual world but do not rise to super flanuer like status.  From this prison I extricate myself; but no wiser now.  My lament for the stage managed identities (of which I am one) causes me dissonance.   

Full power to the students who retained their names in our virtual world.  To have the power not to hide behind the manipulated identities where misinformation about self flows as swiftly as a flooded river: but oh! the joy of creation reigns supreme and even in cyber world our “space is freedom and our place is security”.  (Tuan. p. 7) What may appear to be a lack of truth in the virtual world can be the truth and one’s identity in reality may be the lie because as Tuan says we can “suppress what can’t be expressed”.  (Tuan, p. 6).    

                                                                                            Go figure! 

                                               Reference.

Tuan, Y-F. (1997). Introduction.  In space and place: the perspectives of                 experience.  (p. 6 & 7). London, United Kingdom: Edward Arnold Ltd.

Wyatt, T. I find no peace.  retrieved from:

        http://freehelpstoenglishliterature.blogspot.com/2007/10/i-find-no-peace.html

All this talk of chocolate is making me hungry and feel guilty at the same time.  Whenever I am in the lolly aisle of Woollies or at the Uni coffee shop - salivating, I think of Augustus Gloop of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory fame to find the strength to make it through.  The problem with chocolate, like coffee, it is a sensory experience. 

How would you feel though if you knew children died as a part of the commodity chain of chocolate production? What value is human life?  It is a sad indictment of our society that many poor youngsters in an African nation have to pick cocoa pods to barely make enough money to survive, so that we in the West can have a chocolate bar, which for us is discretionary spending - [Some may disagree as their addiction to chocolate is high.] 

Is it enough that we endorse only those chocolatiers using ethically grown and picked resources? A hollow sentiment when children are still being maltreated, just not by the manufacturer we patronise.  A death by chocolate.

or – translated ‘man is what he eats’

or - perhaps as we know it ‘You Are What You Eat’.

I have never thought much about this saying.  I mean – it just goes without saying I guess what it means.  What you put in your mouth is what you consist of…  Eat fat, you are fat.  Eat well, you are well.  Yeh?  Simple? Agree?

I guess the saying also therefore implies in a roundabout way that we have a choice.  Yet you are asking the question of do we really have that choice given the selection of products in a vending machine for eg is controlled.

Don’t worry here – I am with you here.  This is no beat up “Marjorie Dawes from Little Britain” version from her fat fighting classes (“Sayitagain, sayitagain…”)

Patel writes that “Guided by the profit motive, the corporations that sell our food shape and constrain how we eat, and how we think about food”.  (Patel, 2007, p.1).  Your “OMG I need to eat something – right now” vending machine is strategically placed in the library as it is often the only late night option open to us.  Higher profit food lines (including vending machines) are set at height levels such as “eye level” in supermarkets and that “premium space” is expensively paid for by the corporations to attract our eye and tummy connection to buy them.  And we all know why the milk (a quick turnover, low profit commodity) is at the back of the shop – oh – and usually in line with the end of the lolly aisle – and that’s so you have to walk through the shop and all that way to get to your basic commodity.  If this makes sense at all - I think we have a choice – but we don’t have a choice.

References

Patel, R. (2007). “Introduction” in Stuffed and starved: markets, power and the hidden battle for the world food system. Victoria, Australia: Black Inc. an imprint of Schwartz Publishing Pty Ltd.

“Man is what he eats meaning” is from http://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/you%20are%20what%20you%20eat.html

Majorie Dawes appears courtesy of http://www.bbc.co.uk/comedy/littlebritain/characters/marjorie.shtml

I loved this week’s readings and lecture - and was saddened that we did not get to talk about the subjects in our tute.  I could probably blog for hours and bore the hell out of all of you, but this all really got me going and pushed some buttons.  No – I am not going to get on my high horse and spout environmental “blah blah” to you.  I must admit though, that after reading both journals, I immediately checked out if the coffee beans that I had hurriedly bought from the supermarket the other day claiming to be fair trade - was in fact undertaking what they were preaching.  I am pleased to say that my research showed up trumps. Check them out and you decide – great story of how this Aussie firm came to be http://www.republicacoffee.com.au/.  I did not have time to go to the weekend market and buy my favourite local coffee beans.  This raised a question for me.  Am I better off supporting locally grown beans or fair trade ones?  But that’s not what I want to talk about.

Both readings for me were very poignant.  Patel’s words rang true for this little fat duck.  But one comment really stuck in my mind (and maybe my gut!) and this was that “Large corporations are very reluctant to cede their control over the food system. Yet, Nestle, Starbucks and every other food system corporations have a rock solid alibi: us” (Patel, 2007, p.11).  Ultimately we have allowed this corporation system of food not only control what we eat and drink, but to physically shape us.  We have given them the power.  I am not saying we should hang our heads and wail hysterically over this, as I believe it has happened subversively over a long period of time.  We had not “entirely” noticed.   “At some stages in the chain that links our field to plate, power is concentrated in very few hands” (Patel, 2007, p.11) and “In every country, the contradictions of obesity, hunger, poverty and wealth are becoming acute” (Patel, 2011, p.3).

Patel is beautifully complimented by the Atkins and Bowler reading.  Atkins and Bowler claim that

“May (1996) argues that the consumption of exotic food has another function.  It is a (relatively cheap) way of establishing distinctions between social groups.  Demonstrating a knowledge of other cuisines, other cultures, and of culinary authenticity, thus has a status currency in those social groups who are perhaps less likely to be able to compete in purely materialistic terms”. (May, 1996, cited in Atkins & Bowler, 2001, p.285)

I refer back now to the heading of my blog.  If you know your coffee you would know that origin of the word macchiato is from the Italian word “macchiare” meaning to ‘mark or stain’ (Oxford Dictionaries. Online).  This means therefore to literally stain the espresso with milk – so very little milk is added.  It is pertinent to know this as coffee snobs, only second to wine ones, can only be impressed then by your demonstrated knowledge of coffee cuisine which will give you currency in your status. Many of us would remember, and do well to, that older siblings and generations grew up with instant coffee at home and in the workplace.  For the coffee snobs of the world (sorry I am a bit of one as I am sure many of us are now) they are now horrified to even contemplate going near the stuff.  Don’t get me wrong here - I “will drink it” unlike some people I know - but choose not to unless the option given is only of that.  I see “dissolvable coffee” very much as an entirely different drink from what we fondly call “real coffee”. 

If we go back to Allen who says that “Only by turning over some of the familiar assumptions about geography and power can we glimpse some of the many ways in which power puts us in place” (Allen, 2003, p2) can we understand why coffee farmers, very much based in developing or third world countries, are starved - and why the café cultures of the developed worlds are stuffed.  Power.  Geography.  Place.  The power perhaps lies in the corporation system of food.  But individually, we do have the power of choice.

And by the way – if you are going to get into Fair Trade products - look for this logo of authenticity!

References:

Allen, J. (2003). “Introduction” in Lost geographies of power. Oxford, UK: Blackwell Publishers.

Atkins, A., & Bowler, I. (2001). “The origins of taste” in Food in society: economy, culture, geography. London, Great Britain: Arnold.

Oxford Dictionary online.  Retrieved from http://oxforddictionaries.com/definition/macchiato

Patel, R. (2007). “Introduction” in Stuffed and starved: markets, power and the hidden battle for the world food system. Victoria, Australia: Black Inc. an imprint of Schwartz Publishing Pty Ltd.

The FAIRTRADE Mark is a registered certification label for products sourced from producers in developing countries. (© 2011) Fairtrade Foundation. UK.  Retrieved from

http://www.fairtrade.org.uk/what_is_fairtrade/fairtrade_certification_and_the_fairtrade_mark/the_fairtrade_mark.aspx

In my first year at JCU and now continuing into my second year, the vending machines have been my second worst enemy. My worst enemy: myself. It’s not the vending machines fault that the junk food it presents sounds so delicious as I now wipe the drool from my chin. The fault is mine. There is always going to more of an option for bad food than good food. In the canteen there is only one fridge that is somewhat dedicated to water but also holds a spot for sugary energy drinks. In the vending machines there is probably only one or two healthy fruit and nut bars and the rest is chocolate and packet chips. McDonalds, KFC and Hungry Jacks are just down the roads from JCU and they all have drive through. Lazy drive through + junk food + tired university students + vending machines – sleep = not healthy.

‘People are naturally suspicious about any new foods which do not fit with the traditional foodways that have delivered nutritional stability over generations’ (2001, p.272). What’s obvious to me in this statement is that people are naturally suspicious about anything. Most of the people doing this subject were curious and daunted with the idea of having to join a social networking site that they knew nothing about. Some joined sites and created new personas and have either failed or succeeded with continuing with their new online personality, and others decided to show their true identify, like I have on My Opera.

As we listened to each other discuss the pros and cons of our networking sites in the tutorials, I grew the assumption that all social websites were different and had contrasting factors about them. But as I began to read about the different tastes people develop for various samples of food, I started to contemplate about everyone’s different social networking sites and compared them to mine. Why hadn’t more people joined My Opera? It was just another blogging site with people from all sorts of backgrounds and cultures, why didn’t My Opera captivate the attention of others? I began to wonder if there was a reason for why I had developed a certain ‘taste’ for this social networking site and others hadn’t.

I had hoped that I’d learn something from this experience. I’ve discovered since doing this that when I feel the need to blog or write something, I have nothing to say, but when I’m not at a keyboard or have a pen in my hand a million thoughts run through my head. I might go grab some chocoalte to help my brain process.

Reference

Atkins, P., Bowler, I. (2001). ‘The origins of taste’. Food in society: economy, culture, geography. New York, NY: Arnold Publishing.

Language shapes our lives. Text brings with it both the denotation and connotation of the word and those meanings shape the context of the word but with that shape does truth come or is there social control in the context? Customs from the old land are brought to new lands when settled. Naming brings power and as Tuan says “the creative power to call something into being, to render the invisible visible, to impart certain character to things” (Tuan p.688) has significant power. Naming a mountain MountWarning, in New South Wales, which can be seen from Point Danger, in Queenslan, has enormous power. The words “warning” and “danger” are associated with each other and bring strong connotations for caution. Then there is the power to choose one’s own name in a virtual world or more power in the real world when people change their names by deed poll; such power for a simple process. Petameka cites Tuan (1991. p.688) who argues “the new name itself has the power to wipe out the past and call forth the new”. This is true, just ask anyone who has changed their name or the spelling of their name by deed poll.

                                                                                                                 Go figure!

Reference.

Tuan, Y-F. (1991). Language and the making of place. A narrative-descriptive approach.  Annals of the Association of American Geographers, Vol. 81, No 4 (Dec., 1991).  Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/2563430

I can understand what theamichael was writing about when saying that they can afford to lose a few ‘weak ties.’ By that I’m assuming they mean friends on their social networking site. Although I only have a couple of friends on my networking site My Opera, I have a fair few friends on Facebook. After finding out that I had been deleted by some people, I then started to go through my list of friends to see who I didn’t talk to anymore, had never talked to or simply had nothing in common with. Some of the people I deleted I couldn’t even remember where I knew them from, or if I had added them or if they had added me. As Buchanan states on page 149, ‘If someone has five thousand “friends”, after all, they clearly cannot all be close friends. No one has the time and social energy to maintain such strong bonds with a great many people’ (2002). So sometimes it seems necessary to ‘delete’ someone from your life that is no longer needed.

Reference

Buchanan, M. (2002). Tangled Web. In Nexus: small worlds and the groundbreaking science of networks. New York, NY: W. W. Norton and Company.

I am so behind with readings and doing blogs I have now realised that I didn’t do a blog or comment for week six and that I didn’t write a comment for week five. Having four jobs keeps you away from doing university work. And when coming into week seven and beginning to read about Gaia, I had absolutely no idea what I was going to write about. Fortunately, when I started reading Mark Buchanan’s Nexus: Small Worlds and the Groundbreaking Science of Networks (2002) I thankfully began to contemplate how some nature networks are related to social networks.

‘Each species fit into an ecosystem as a predator or prey’ (2002, p.144). This statement at first didn’t make sense to me when picturing my social networking site My Opera or any social networking site for that matter. But then I began to wondering around My Opera and take a glimpse at the profiles of others. Some individuals had bright pink backgrounds and had edited their profile photos to make themselves appear more creative. Others had done the same thing except with different colours and styles. Is this just one big competition, I began to wonder. Are we all just competing for attention on our own social networking site? Is this a form of hunting for attention? ‘Species interact by eating one another or by competing for the same prey or habitat’ (2002, p.148). Is our interaction with each other online based on our need for people to notice us? If I comment on someone’s page, another person will see that comment, and then go looking further onto my page. Therefore, I have caught the attention of someone else and have gained another link to my ecosystem.

Reference

Buchanan, M. (2002). Tangled Web. In Nexus: small worlds and the groundbreaking science of networks. New York, NY: W. W. Norton and Company.

I found it hard to relate my blogging at Tumblr to this week’s readings and food. The only way I can see a link is when I am snacking while writing online. Usually I try and resist the temptation of all the chocolate snacks at the university by bringing fruit and nuts to snack on.

However, too often I find myself sitting in the library, with an empty bag because I slept a little too long in the morning. Within a space like the university that means turning to the cafeteria, or worse, the vending machine. When I am looking at the selection of lighter snack in the cafeteria, Patel (2007,5) words “freedom of choice” comes to mind. I have the freedom to choice between all these options, but that is just the problem, there is too many and the chocolate bars seem to outnumber the healthier options. When the craving sneaks up my body really makes me believe that it is highly necessary for me to have a “pick me up” sugar hit. With this availability of unhealthy food and lack of healthy food, the temptation takes a hold of my bad character and I give in and buy the chocolate bar.

Atkins & Bowler (2001, 284) discuss the diffusion of food habits and mentions the introduction of milk to Indonesia, and its disadvantages for the Asian people’s health. I do the same – intentionally - I eat something that is not good for me, due to availability and taste. Atkins & Bowler further states that price is a major factor in our decision of food products and I have to agree. I consider the price when I make my choice, and the chocolate always seems more expensive than the nut bars. It makes me wonder, how free is really our choice, when the selection of products are so controlled?

References:

Atkins,P., Bowler, I. (2001) Food in society. Economy, culture, geopgraphy. London,Great Britain:Hodder Headline Group.

Patel, R. (2007) Stuffed and starved. Market, power and the hidden battle for the world food system. Melbourne, Australia: Black Inc.