Happy New Year to all!
The holiday times have just recently passed and the team at SOAS has been re-gearing for the New Year. The SOAS buildings were closed for a short time, giving the academic and support staff time away from the office and hopefully more time at home with family and friends. While I was wandering London’s streets over the holidays I saw parents rushing to get last minute gifts, families searching the aisles for large amounts of food, children buying small gifts and wrapping paper; London exuded the normal holiday joy, excitement and energy.
It was a nice…..until the cynic in me came out. The more I wandered
London, the more I began to see the excessiveness of this time of year.
In relation to water, I was thinking about how much extra water is used during the holiday season. When one thinks about the additional production of gifts like toys and clothing, greeting cards, food and beverages, wrapping papers and ribbons and decorations, Christmas trees, it becomes apparent how much water (and other resources) must be used to support this cultural celebration. Also a lot of the water (and other materials) used in production have been “virtually” outsourced to the countries which are producing the range of goods the West consumes during this time of year.
In addition, thanks to modern technologies of telecommunications, it is easy for people in developing countries to see the excess of the West and their relative lack, which reproduces global socio-economic hierarchies.
In that sense, the season can be seen as reproducing inequity and relative poverty, and also arguably promoting the modern, western culture of “want”.
So after my holiday break, I still have questions about water and development.
Since the holiday season is a global phenomenon with global effects, should holiday celebrations be scaled down for the betterment of the world? Here I have theorised some of the effects of the holidays, but what are some of the “real” effects of this season on developing countries where our food is grown and our toys are made? Are developing countries affected, or am I just being a post-modern, development Scrooge?
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