I was going to post that picture on Wednesday of me with a Zodiac in a Greenpeace Toronto action, since it was "Eco Day" at the Fringe, but I suddenly can't find it. (We got stopped by the OPP as we were going into the construction site of the Darlington nuclear power plant back in 1980, but unlike the other Zodiac, we did not get a ticket. Though when we were stopped, water starts coming in, someone didn't put the plug in the bottom of the Zodiac when we put it together, and the cop says "Oh, you're taking
on water". Well only when we were stopped.)
There was the advertised bike tuneup clinic, some seemed familiar faces so i think Santropol Roulant sent some of their people over (it was the group's day to fundraise too, they brought cupcakes). A couple of tables of what seemed like used clothing. Someone was planting something, I didn't stay that long.
But, this seemed another case of creating an event rather than showing reality. The Fringe hasn't been so great about recycling, it's often been a last minute thing, and the result of some volunteer taking it into their hands. It's never worked out so well, the bins were never clearly for recycling so the garbage goes in (and recyclables go into the garbage). The best recycling has always seemed to be by the scavengers coming by to dig the cans out of the garbage. Yet, just because of the makeup of the Fringe, it likely is more careful about such things, and we should be pointing that out, rather than adding a manufactured event.
There was a blog posting from someone a bit before the Fringe where someone related helping deliver Fringe programs. She pointed out that nobody at the Fringe had a driver's license or a car (and she revealed, she had to rent one for the task). That seems the norm. Maybe nobody has the money for gas or a car, maybe they aren't sprawled out in the surburbs which tends to require a car, maybe they make a deliberate decision. But the reasoning is less important than that it is the reality. It looks odd when an audience member pulls up at the Beer Tent in a taxi, something that is foreign to me (and that time, it turns out she needed to go further, to the actual venue).
Likewise, we've covered the hole in the park numerous times with scrap we've pulled from garbage. That we now have a sort of permanent cover does not negate the fact that someone pulled it from a pile of discards. When I was returning the Fringe for All flyers to Fringe HQ the week before the Fringe, I spotted some scrap wood and dragged it along, in case the commercial cable bridge didn't appear as promised, I was going to make one this year finally. For a decade I've saved the flyers after the Fringe for All, no big deal, I just can't bear to see it go to garbage. Not only a waste, but the artists have paid good money to have them printed. The Fringe even had garage sale one early year.
Since Fringe is "doing on the cheap", likely many of the troupes are using used, borrowed or recycled material for their shows. It's no big deal, it's just something that happens.
It's not uncommon in conversation with volunteers to find people who will pull things from the garbage. I picked up a halogen lamp when I was on the On the Spot historical walking tour, the lamp was just lying on the sidewalk (and it worked, bulb and all). One year, a woman was a venue manager after just moving to Montreal ("it seemed like a good way to meet people") and I mentioned something about July 1st being a good day for interesting things being tossed out, and she admitted she might be out looking for furniture for her new place. I didn't think she was cheap, I didn't think she was poor, I didn't even think she did it for ecological reasons, it was just something people do. I was so pleased to see her last week.
And maybe that's the best thing. The worst driver I've known couldn't get my point about her driving, yet she'd say "I should give it up for the pollution it causes". Decisons shouldn't be made because of some Grand Cause. I'll pull something from the garbage because I see it, and maybe it does mean I have money for something else that I know I can't find. But I'll buy at garage sales, and I did buy that LCD tv set a month ago (but I bought it on sale). Big Causes tell you to live completely free, when really it's likely a novelty for the promoter. Or tell you to Buy Nothing on the day after US Thanksgiving, yet it ignores the fact that the frugal will always try to buy things when on sale, freeing money for something else.
Or take bikes. It was a few months after Earth Day in 1970 when bike paths hit the island of Montreal. Yet it wasn't for some grand ecological reason, it was to assert the cyclist's right to space on the road. I suspect most people who bicycle are doing it for a variety of reasons, people who change "because it's the right thing" often don't change that much, and resent the change. Hence it's silly to promote the right of the cyclist to the road along ecological reasons, the right is there and has always been there. Demand that right, don't water it down by propping it up for some good cause. Ride your bike because you like to do it, because it's cheaper than buying a car or gas, because it's convenient, and revel in the fact that incidentally you are helping the world.
