Bill's first legitimate post

That was a pretty sweet avant garde introduction, eh?

So, some of you may be wondering why the heck we are mailing ourselves to Tanzania to work for free for sixth months. The answer is pretty multi-faceted, it turns out, but here goes:

I accumulated a good chunk of change while working as an environmental consultant for Normandeau Associates. I worked predominantly for two nuclear power plants, Oyster Creek and Indian Point. Coming from a science-intensive environmentally-focussed work history, it became quite clear that corporate focussed scientific opinion bartering was making me money at the expense of the public. Both power plants are old (safety issues), have had significant fish kill issues linked to their fundamental design, and are run by exploitative capitalists. Why the U.S. insists on keeping public services private with minimal regulation has been a flawed inception since the railroad barons of the 19th century. Anyways, it became apparent that one some fundamental level, bartering scientific opinion for a price in dollars for the purpose of legal corporate protection, is wrong, at any price. So my first raise was donated to S.O.S. children's villages, a charity that Maria had done a service thing for during her semester at sea. Weird pay bumps went to other charities, one of which was the Tanzanian Childrens Fund. When my job at Normandeau was winding down, (completing the reciprocal work requirements for tuition reimbursement) the idea of volunteering was floated and embraced.

Tanzania Children's Fund fit the bill from the onset: a long duration (6 months), not religiously affiliated, the children's village model, the employment of local people, and the hand written thank you card that they sent in response to our donation of books and instruments.

Coming from an environmental standpoint, the wholesale embrace of capitalism leads to a manifest destiny for resources that is perpetually short-sighted for sustenance, as the profit motive seems to be an ultimately corrupting force. As you look for causes for environmental issues the trail leads to directly to social injustice. The quickest way to fix environmental issues is to empower the masses; as the empowered, un-ignorant populous can demand justice of it government institutions and corporations. Further, from a nihilist persepective, the world is not getting any better if you are not actively trying to seek to alleviate the injustice of others. If one only has a single chance to live a life, it is miserably unfair to deprive others of the relatively simple means to actualize themselves due to their particular circumstances of birth. Without having been born very wealthy, it's the best that we can do to alleviate some of the conditions caused by our mutual world-wide wealth diaspora.