Pur-ness

I bought a Pur water filtration system today at Target. I've been wanting one for a bit now, since the water out of my apartment faucet tastes a little better than sewage. The model I bought includes an option for flavor (I know, cool, right?). With the push of a button, I can inject flavor shots directly into my cup. Right now, I'm drinking 99.99% containment free, raspberry flavored water. As I drank my first glass, I thought to myself, "Wow...this tastes identical to Fiji water that I buy for $4.00 at the store!"

Which made me wonder, "Does Fiji water really come from Fiji?" I mean, really? It's a so far away from America. Truman Burbank told me so-"You can't get any further away before you start coming back" (Truman Show).

So, as anyone in my generation would do in order to research an question, I googled it. To my surprise, it actually does originate from the South Pacific Islands of Fiji. I could not believe that they actually ship that water 7,325 miles to my city of Lexington, Kentucky (I google "mapped" it). Which made me wonder, "Is it worth it?"

So, I did some more research, and it seems I was not the first to ask this question of the Fijian water company. First off, is this hurting the environment? Now, I'm not "green" in mostly any way. I don't recycle (I know, I know...), don't have solar panels on my apartment patio, and don't buy fully recycled grocery canvas bags. But, I do respect God's earth, and I hope to be a good steward of it. Anyways, one Fiji bottle is one liter, or 25g of plastic and and is made from PET (Polyethylene terephthalate)...thank-you, Dr. Brinkman (which, by the way, terephthalate is the single hardest word in the English language for me to pronounce).

Plastics of this type use around 6.45kg of oil per kg, 294.2kg of water per kg, and result in 3.723kg of greenhouse gas emissions per kg (http://www.petmachine.in/use_of_pet.htm). So, with a quick stoichiometry-like calculation on my Ti-83 (200kg/kg x 0.025kg[fossil fuels] = 5kg of water), 1 liter requires 5 liters of water in its manufacturing process. In other words, it requires 5x the amount of water to produce the one liter of it.

But, I also wanted to know how much it costs to ship Fiji H20 from Fiji. Let’s assume that the bottle producing company (which I also assume is not the Fiji company) and the shipping company charges 2x what it costs for them to produce it. I am not sure if these are valid assumptions, but who cares, it's just a blog, right? So, according to a groundbreaking research article in the Journal of Consumer Culture ("Bottled Water: The Pure Commodity") 160g of fossil fuels are used to make the bottle, 2g to deliver it to Fiji, (from China-our plastic maker) and 81g to deliver the full bottle to the me, in Kentucky.

So, going back to my macroeconomic class in college, the variable (opposite of fixed) cost is the fossil fuel (since we all know that the water that springs from the ground is free), which amounts to 0.25kg. A standard oil barrel holds 159 liters and one liter of oil weighs 850g/liter, therefore one barrel holds 135.15kg of oil (opec.com). One barrel costs between $50 and $70 (let’s say $60, unless OPEC decides to throw a tantrum), so 0.25kg would cost $0.11 (1 barrel/135.15kg x $60/barrel x 0.243kg). Then, since we assumed that the company charges 2x what it costs to produce, we'll say $.22. That's right - not even a fourth of a dollar for a liter of Fiji water. This leaves $3.78 for the manufacturer, retail store, etc.

Bottom line: drinking Fiji water is a colossal waste of money and an environmental absurdity. In fact, the Republic of Fiji is controlled by a military junta - a strict dictatorship. How does water bottled in a junta-controlled dictatorship get into the hands of Paris Hilton, Barack Obama, and Mary J. Blige (all of whom swear by it)? Morever, how does it become the epitome of chic?

To end this discussion, I leave you with a must-read article by Mother Jones Journalism called, "Fiji Water: Spin the Bottle." It outlines the ins-and-outs of how this dictatorship controls the P.R. of Fiji water.

On Fiji's website, one of their slogans reads, "And remember this—we saved you a trip to Fiji." I think I'll forget the Fijian trip and instead, reach into my fridge.

*Photo #1: http://www.prnewswire.com/mnr/purwater/37083/
*Photo #2: http://www.triplepundit.com/2009/08/does-drinking-fiji-water-prop-up-a-dictatorship/

Shaker Village

Stacey, my grandparents and I went to Shaker Village of Pleasant Hill, which is about 45 minutes from my apartment. We spent the afternoon there, being sent backwards in time nearly 200 years. It's an amazing part of history, and we thoroughly enjoyed it. Here are some pictures.

It was started as an offset of the Quaker movement, led by a woman name Mother Ann Lee. She started the religion, called the United Society of Believers in Christ’s Second Appearing...but they shortened it to "Shakers."

They rejected procreation.
They rejected earthly pleasure.
They rejected outside influences.

Mother Ann was "turned off" from sexuality from an early age. This manifested itself in never wanting to marry, until her father forced her to do so. Upon marrying, she got pregnant eight times--she lost four to stillbirths and another four before the age of six.

She was turned off from sexuality.

From there on out, she pursued perfection, but left out marriage and sex.

She became a radical.

She taught others that God had given her a vision-a vision that told of the attainment of perfection through the abolition of sexuality and marriage. They believed her. And the Shaker revolution began.

She believed that the convulsions experienced during worship was the Holy Spirit purging oneself of sin. And the name stuck-Shakers.

Obviously this was not popular and even shunned upon by her United Kingdom neighbors, so she decided to leave (after multiple arrests from the State) and head to America. And the rest is history--she told everyone she saw that she was the female embodiment of God on earth.

She claimed that she was perfectly sanctified.

And they believed every word she said, as if it were liquid gold, streaming from her lips. They would have served her, worshiped her, and even died for her. I sometimes wonder if she did it simply for the purpose of revolution. She said,

We [the Shakers] are the people who turned the world upside down.

As her fame grew, so did her spiritual power. She once claimed to speak to four clergymen for four straight hours in over seventy languages. She advocated that the only way to Heaven was through celibacy-that we can attain the road to the Pearly Gates if we could just keep our V-card in our pockets.

After several other miracles, around 1770, the society gave her titles like, "Mother in Spiritual Things," and my personal favorite, "Ann, the Word."

There were 6,000 Shakers at the height of the movement. Today, there are none.

Lasting, real Truth comes only from Above. Who are you believing in?



"Everybody is following somebody. Everybody has faith in something and somebody. We are all believers."

-Rob Bell