Friday, May 02, 2008

An Apology


Yesterday I did a very flippant post about a bath that measures how much water you are using. I received this comment from an Anonymous person in Africa.
I am an african and I adore your blog. Your taste is exquisite and you seem to have such an inquisitive mind.... Where I live the average person has a bath with one bucket of water and relaxing rarely comes into the equation. I understand that the issues of climate change are a drag and a bore for a lot of people in the west but please remember those who struggle daily for very little so that others can have a lot...Your blog spreads so much beauty and I hope it will continue to do so.
I felt so ashamed when I read this. It only goes to prove that we in the West take so much for granted and I apologise profusely to this person. I could try and talk my way out of this but I could not do so with a clear conscience.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

That bathtub is silly indeed. If you're going to take a bath, take a damed bath! But I see her point. I so wish natural resources could be redistributed where they are needed in the world. When I lived in France water was plentiful and I took daily baths. I think it would be unimaginable for a person from Africa, all this water! It is unfair. But saving it in England won't help Africa alas. Now I live in LA and we have five minute showers with low flow spigots. I only take baths when I am sick. I could afford a bath a day, but it;s not the point. You try to live responsibly with the natural resources of the country you live in.

Anonymous said...

One of the worst things anyone in the industrialized world can do is to feel bad for having a more comfortable life than most other people on the planet. I mean, if a person's been blessed with this kind of life and he/she isn't enjoying it, I think they're doing everyone a disservice. Of course, there's a clear line between enjoying life and being wasteful.

Anonymous said...

Hi, I really appreciated your response to my comment as it confirms that you are as stunning a person as your blog is beautiful....In response to Magnus, I wasnt implying that people shouldnt take long relaxing baths if that is thier choice but if climate change is always somebody else's problem then your part of the world might come to resemble my part of the world and that choice will go out of the window. Its not about guilting people in the western world into not enjoying there considerable blessings, but in a region where 2million sudanese have murdered each other over a period of thirty years and access to water is one of the cornerstones of the conflict its impossible for me to see it as just a bath ....Hugs and kisses Di, and keep up the excellent work.

monkey said...

do not feel sorry or apologise for the cards you were delt, climate change is a myth and is dreamed up by western fat cats that travel around the world by private gas guzzeling jets to tell us common folk to stop using our cars and polluting the planet.
we have given a unrecorded amount of money to eastern and african countries over the years so if they only have a bucket then so be it, i pay for that, the states and my own water and even then they ask for more.

Anonymous said...

monkey is an idiot