Mob Justice Gets it Wrong

Mobs are unlike any human entity.  Any person involved to a certain extent gives up personal reason for the collective reason of the mob, in a sense adopting the consciousness that is portrayed by the whole.   People normally incapable of wrong or horrendous acts become able to commit them when backed by a mob and its thriving energy, pushing and pulling people often times down the wrong path.   This is what happened earlier this year in a South African slum.   While this mob in South Africa had its own energy and misaligned sense of justice, if you look at any mob, riot, or large group of enraged or energized group of people, they are all capable of acts not normally perpetrated by single individuals.  This mob in South Africa was out for justice.  The night before, as is normal in those slums, items were stolen from various shacks and two people were killed in the process.  The next day, people gathered, eager to find the perpetrators, and one young boy of fifteen, claimed to know where to find the criminals.  (Police presence in the slums is essentially non-existent).   With more and more people gathering by the minute, swelling eventually to over a hundred, they set out to find those men that had robbed and killed 2 people.  Winding their way through the narrow paths, they crossed a marshy area to an adjacent slum where the young boy claimed the criminals lived.  The boy pointed to a locked trailer and shack claiming it was the home of the criminals and mob readily tore it apart and set it ablaze.   After walking hours through the hot sun, however, this was not enough to quell the mob, not enough "justice" had been done, so they moved on.  They found another, small store, claimed by some other women to be the place where the criminals hung out in front of.  The boy once again led the way and the shop was ripped to shreds, looted, and once again set ablaze.  For some reason though, with two buildings demolished and on fire, the mob was still not satisfied, if anything, they were more enraged than before not having found the men who committed the crimes. 

Milling about the second fire set to the store, the mob was searching, looking for anyone suspicious to take out their vengeance on.  At that point, a young man came walking out of an alleyway, dressed nicely, talking on his cellphone.  He was immediately questioned by the mob and once they found out that he was not South African, but Zimbabwean (where many criminals are suspected to be from), they grabbed his cell phone, and started shoving him around.  Some demanded that he jump into the burning building.  A few who knew the man, shouted out his innocence, but these voices were drowned out by those demanding immediate vengeance.  For a few seconds, this man, Farai, broke free and made a run for it, but didn't make it far before being grabbed again.  At this point, the mob lost all sense of control and beat the man.  They used anything and everything available from their feet and fists to long wooden planks and concrete blocks.  The horrific incident was partly taped by a local and in that video, you could see the slow killing of this man.  He was kicked in the groin, beaten in the head with a plank, and in one instance had a concrete block thrown at his head by a young, teenage girl.  The police, a scant presence, arrive when Farai is breathing his last few breaths and nothing at that point can be done. 

Such is the mentality of a mob.   People get caught up in the energy of a mob, their often times misaligned sense of right and wrong, and will go along with whatever the mob deems just.  This does not just go for mobs seeking justice for wrong perpetrated against certain individuals, but also for inviduals that join riots or mobs just seeking to release energy.  If you take a look at any riot, which often starts as a peaceful protest, there are many instances where they turn violent resulting in cars being flipped, stores being looted, fires being started and police being attacked.   Many times the violence is started by one or two individuals and is collectively picked up by the mob.  While the instance in South Africa is unfortunately the worst example of mob violence and is also unfortunately a regular occurence in that country, mob mentality is universal.  All it takes is a few individuals, malevolent in nature, to start a mob in the wrong direction and incite perpetration of illegal and often horrific acts.   The worst part about mobs are, they often times find the closest person or object to take out their anger and energy on regardless of whether or not that person is innocent or guilty.  Regardless of whether a person is innocent or guilty, mob justice is perhaps the worst form of justice.  It often times goes overboard and is relentless in nature.  There is no clear mind in a mob to say "enough" or to stop the violence that begins.  It only ends when a person is killed or a the police finally get involved.  Sometimes, even police involvement is not enough to quell a riotous mob, but sometimes incites even worse anger and violence among them. 

So what do we do about mobs?  Stay away from them simple enough.  We see mobs even here, especially in CT where spring weekend and concerts sometimes lead to cars being flipped over, fires being lit, trash being strewn around, but luckily, usually don't end in a death or injuries.   Mobs alone are reason enough for a police presence.  Without police, anarchy ensues, and justice is taken into the hands of individuals.  Individuals often times get it wrong, whether alone or part of a mob.  People, mobs and invididuals, especially victims of a crime, are filled with a sense of vengeance and a need to find those responsible.  They will go through whatever means necessary to find someone they feel is guilty of the crime and exert their vengeance.  It could be off of a rumor by a friend or just intuition, but often times, they are wrong, and the person attacked in vengeance is innocence.  As much as we don't like the police sometimes, there is a definite need for them in order to sustain any civilized society.  If only there was more police presence in that slum in South Africa, maybe an innocent man with a wife and child would still be alive today, able to spend time with his family including three brothers.   Today, let us hope for increased civility in society, especially in developing nations where police presence is enforced in some areas and not in others. 

The Gulf Dead Zone

Last year was a devastating year in regards to the Gulf of Mexico.  If anyone reading this is living in a bubble, that is when the Deepwater Horizon exploded and spewed oil into the gulf for more than a month before it was finally stopped.  However, in the overall scheme of things, the oil was just the latest in a yearly cycle that affects the Gulf in a negative way.  Since the 1970's, the Gulf of Mexico has experience yearly dead zones near the mouth of the Mississippi River created by runoff from farms upstream.  This happens every spring after flood waters rush down the Mississippi, carrying all the extra fertilizer and manure with them and dumping them into the Gulf.  This year is expected to be the worst year so far with record flooding occurring due to excessive rains and all the run off from melting snows over the winter.  The main contaminants in the run off are nitrogen and phosphorous.  The nitrogen comes primarily from fertilizer used in corn and soybean crops and the phosphorous from manure.  These two chemicals feed the algae at the mouth of the river creating enormous algal blooms in the Gulf.  As these algal blooms die and decompose, they suck the oxygen from the surrounding water forcing any wildlife away.  At its worst, bottom feeders and marine life incapable of relocating die off and struggle to come back the year after.   How big can a dead zone be?  Well, in 2002, the largest dead zone yet was recorded reaching approximately the size of New Jersey.  If you look at the map on the article linked to this blog, you can see that the dead zone hugs the entire cost of Louisiana. 

While the flood waters primarily devastate the upper reaches of the Mississippi and the farmer's whose land is inundated with water, the fishermen downstream in the Gulf are also directly affected.  The oil last year had a devastating impact on the shrimping industry, but what we don't hear about is the yearly effect that the algal blooms have on the shrimpers.  Shrimp have difficulty re-locating around dead zones and are directly affected by this spring run off.  Altogether, nine states contribute to the chemicals that are carried downstream each year.  So what is being done about this?  Not that much altogether.  The EPA is not really getting involved and incentives and efforts to reduce this pollution are not having that large of an impact.  A few small areas are improving, but overall, farming continues the way it has for decades.  This is not an easy situation to solve.  Our population continues to grow and continues to crave foods based in corn and soybean production.  These crops are a necessity and as such, any effort to reform farming techniques must be done so with our growing population in mind.  We must find a balance between mitigating pollution in spring run off in the Mississippi and enabling production of these crops to remain unharmed.  One of the ideas that is being passed around is to educate farmers on better and more effective ways of using the fertilizer where it will be utilized more by the crops and little to no excess will make it into the waterways and consequently into the Mississippi and eventually the Gulf. 

For those of us not living near the Mississippi or the Gulf of Mexico, it is difficult to take any of this seriously.  We crave our food, whether it be shrimp from the gulf or corn and soybean products, and for most of us, we don't care how it gets onto our dinner plates as long as it is readily available.  What makes it even more difficult to pay attention to or care about these situations in the Midwest are that we are all dealing with a slowly recovering economy and have bigger concerns than pollution and dead zones.  However, if more of us don't start caring, the food on our dinner plates could be directly affected.   And lets all be honest, for those of us not living in that region, what can we honestly do to help mitigate what is going on?  If we press for changes, we will probably be lambasted for not understanding the true nature of the problem and for meddling in the livlihood of others.  We could contact our representatives and ask them to press for changes in the government, but how much good will that really do.  It takes months if not years for any changes to take effect in government and by that time, the problem could be much worse.  Perhaps the best alternative, while not direcly impacting the problem in that region, is to work on the environmental problems that we have in our own areas.  We all deal with a certain amount of pollution in our land and waterways, regardless of where we live.  This will eventually impact all of us if left unchecked.  We need to consider future generations for once and the world that they will inherit.  All it will take to change things are little steps taken by a lot of people, slowly changing the mentality of people around you and making a positive impact on the environment that you live in.  Today, even start by picking up one piece of garbage off the ground or street that is not yours.  That little step could go a long way in the long run.  If you do that every day, that is 365 pieces of garbage that will not be lying around our streets and towns.  Today, lets all start to make a positive impact on our environments. 

Clamshell Packaging is Moving On

I am sure that we have all bought items at a store that are completely engulfed in plastic, more commonly known as a clamshell package.  These are the ones that are almost impossible to open unless you have heavy duty scissors, razor sharp knives to cut through the plastic, or a blow torch to melt it.  Try opening it by hand and you will just get frustrated, hurt, or you might even damage the item inside.  Well, there is good news.  Manufacturers are moving away from the clamshell packaging, not necessarily because of consumer complaints like, "Why do I need a knife to get my knife out of the package?", but because of rising oil prices which has a direct impact on the cost of producing all that plastic which goes into the packaging.  The packaging, set aside from the difficulty of opening it, is incredibly wasteful, uses up valuable shelf space in stores, and most does not get recycled.  So you see, rising oil prices are not always a bad thing.  They may drain our pockets at the gas pump, but they are a direct incentive for companies to move away from plastics and come up with new and innovative ways to package items at stores.  Many retailers already, not even taking into account the clamshell, have made dedicated efforts to reduce the amount of plastic in their packaging.  Many are now using more cardboard and paper products in place of plastic, which, even if they make it to the landfill instead of getting recycled, can actually biodegrade much quicker and with less harm to the environment. 

So what is the new packaging going to look like that will replace the clamshell?  Well, in a lot of smaller items like Swiss Army Knives and such, it will be the blister pack.  This packaging still contains some plastic, but a considerably less amount than in previous packaging.  The blister pack is essentially two reinforced pieces of cardboard with a little plastic bubble in the middle that confroms to the item being sold.  The cardboard is harder to tear than normal, yet still able to opened with much more ease than the damn clamshell.  In addition to reducing the amount of plastic being used in the packaging, it also adds increased security value for stores selling items with this packaging.  This is because the magnetic security strip can be wedged in between the two strips of cardboard where it is not noticeable to the consumer whereas it used to be glued on to the clamshell packaging making it easier to rip off.  I know, for most honest consumers out there, who gives a damn about the magnetic strip unless the cashier forgets to slide it over their deactivating device and it goes off as we leave the store.  The best part though, especially from an environmental standpoint is the reduction in plastic.  I may be chastised for saying this, but if I knew that higher oil prices would lead to companies pushing for a reduction in plastic, I would have hoped for higher oil prices sooner. 

This is the type of innovation we need in this day and age, new solutions being found to reduce the amount of plastic in our every day lives and to reduce the amount that will eventually end up in the landfill.  We have already seen plastic bottles being reduced in thickness to keep plastic use to a minimum, now we need to look at every other way in which we use plastic, which there are many and see how we can either reduce or eliminate it.  Our society has become so overly dependent on plastic that if we were to eliminate it completely from our lives all at once, we really wouldn't be able to survive.  Plastics are a part of our phones, cars, garbage cans, storage containers, and a plethora of other items.  There needs to be a transition however if we are to sustain a growing population and ensure that our landfills don't get larger and larger.  Also, by reducing plastics in our lives, we can have a positive impact on wildlife around the world that yearly gets affected by plastics in the environment, either getting tangled in them, swallowing them, or simply from getting covered in the oil that is used to make the plastics we rely on.  Today, just to see how much plastic we really use, as you go throughout your day, think about every item you come in contact with a see if has plastic as part of its case or function.  I think that both you and I will be amazed out how much we rely on this oil based product to make it through the day.