Books

I’m reading The Girl in the Picture by Denise Chong. In short, it’s about the life of the girl central to one of the most famous pictures from the Vietnam War. I wasn’t alive when the war was going on (so the history and politics surrounding it are a mystery to me), but I’m pretty sure everyone has seen that picture…

Paperback cover for <cite>The Girl in the Picture</cite>
Paperback cover for The Girl in the Picture

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Books, Kenya, The Farm

I started a very small farm at my house in Kenya because I was excited about being more self-sustained and also because I plan to use what I learn when I get back to the United States. I know vegetables aren’t by any means expensive here in Tala, but it’s the principle of the matter! A bonus is being able to control the inputs to my little ecosystem; which means all my crops will be “organic.” Well, I was pretty excited about my endeavors until I came across a passage in Paul Hawken’s The Ecology of Commerce. On page 20:

All present agriculture, whether it is slash-and-burn or sod-breaking, involves the reversion of a climax system to a pioneering one.

“Holy shit,” I thought, “he’s right.” Here’s an excerpt from earlier in the paragraph giving some background:

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