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My green fetish

Ok, maybe the post’s title is not the most safe for work I ever wrote but the content definitely is not anything wrong. And if you’re wondering why this post will be shorter than usual and with more grammar errors, that’s because I’m again using the tablet to write and my thumbs haven’t gotten used to the letters’ disposition. Taking the so-called Smart Cover out makes it much nicer to write on, by the way. Even if I am using the Tucano Magico cover that keeps it attached to the back by itself.

In the past month I decided that it was time to get a subscription to Sky, the satellite TV provider, once again. I dropped it when I “took over” the house, but nowadays I just wish to be able to watch something before sleeping, and in English if at all possible, and they make it possible indeed. Besides the obvious series, there is something I love to watch and that is the National Geographic programme World’s Greenest Houses.

The reason why I love it, is that it shows mainly how it can be possible to actually have a cool house, with all accessories and trimmings, and yet being energy efficient. Indeed, that is something I wish I could do in my house as well. The obvious first problem of course is the money needed to do the work, and of course most of the houses they show were built since the start with green in mind, rather than adapted from a built, living house.

Okay, I maybe it also tickles that part of me that used to create new scenarios and buildings in his unofficial Ultima OnLine shard, which is likely the same one that likes to play with The Sims 3.

There is, unfortunately, something that airs from time to time in the same slots, with the same title, in Italian at least, but that shows a “challenge”. Said challenge is a more Big Brother alike programme, where two families take forced steps into what they define green living. While the target is indeed a greener life, I dislike this one with all my heart. For two main reasons: the first is that the whole point of going none to 100% is the kind of challenge that most people will look away from ever picking up; the second is that I think the authors are not into Green at all!

Indeed the one episode I tried to watch, I had to change channel disgusted right at the first ad break. Why, you ask? Well, in the teasers, they show the little child of one family on the verge of crying, as the parents tell him or her (sorry I forgot) that they would have to “cancel his birthday”, as they were forced by the programme not to use their car. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not a huge fan of cars either, heck I don’t even have a driving license, but that simple sound bite is so negative…

Okay, possibly the rest of the episode would show the family overcome the difficulty, either by planning a different kind of birthday party or by organising something that would use public transports or bikes… But let’s be honest, do you find such a tease before the ad break positive at all?

I’m not sure if the child in that episode overcame the scare of the “bad green”, but I’m wondering if other kids were to watch part of that episode, what would their impression of green be? And honestly, if I were to let my nephew watch something on TV beside the cartoons he watches every day, World’s Greenest Houses, the classic variant, would be my first choice. If nothing else he would see that if can be cool to help the environment. But especially considering how difficult is for most children I can think of, including me and some of my friends when we were young, to watch a show till the end, I’m afraid the challenges noted before would do nothing but scare them away…

To be honest I think that most of my personal feeling toward green have to find their source in the Walt Disney Italia comics, with their scouts knockoff… Thus why I feel that kids should be shown that you can be green and cool at the same time.

Ah well… To conclude I would also like to point out that similar scare tactics are applied more or less the same way with free software. To you to see if you can see the parallel, and agree or not with me…

Comments 2
  1. Such content is one of the reasons why I almost never watch TV at all. The fact that my computer provides better quality and more features than my old TV while enabling me to control what media I spend my time on (since nothing in the whole world changes from me viewing it, i wouldn’t call it consuming media).

  2. lost the thread of thought there:The fact that my computer provides better quality and more features than my old TV while enabling me to control what media I spend my time on (since nothing in the whole world changes from me viewing it, i wouldn’t call it consuming media) is another reason to not bother with TV.

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