It’s been a while but finally we have a new male shop assistant in Worlds End shop & I would like to introduce him to you. His name is Ray Noir.
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Recycling is Rubbish
Reposted from www.climaterevolution.com
For the past three years I have been trying to organise effective recycling within our company. I have found out, this seems to be a pretty impossible task to achieve.
Even though the general waste & the recycling bins are clearly marked & positioned around the studio, I constantly find unseparated waste in all of them. “Clean the food off of the plastic containers, don’t just trash it because you haven’t” merely falls on deaf ears.
I have sent in house e-mails & stuck notices around the building but 3 years down the line the problems are still the same.
The recycling bins outside where I live also continuously suffer the same complaints.
It seems that without some kind of reward or disciplinary treatment, people generally are not very interested in recycling; the proposed solution by local councils to this at the moment is to just burn all unrecycled waste in ‘Waste to Energy’ facilities.
But who is to blame? Where is the problem created in the first place?
Just look on the shelves of any supermarket. Packaging! Packaging! Packaging! Disposable plastic everywhere! – Why not prevent all this waste from being made in the first place?
I have done some research and came across the ‘Zero Waste’ philosophy which reminded me that when I was a child in the 60’s & 70’s most drinks came in glass bottles that had a refund paid on their return for re-use which we were always diligent to collect.
Also ‘Rag & Bone’ Men would come in a horse & cart around to the streets where we lived, ringing a bell. Anything we had to recycle was taken out to them & a fixed rate was paid back to us depending on what we had. Money being in short supply, everything possible was recycled (I have heard a saying that the best recyclers are either very poor or very rich).
“Zero waste” philosophy is to design environmentally friendly products, to reduce materials where and whenever possible; to use re-usable, reparable, more benign materials. Materials that that have a longer life cycle and that are not thrown aside and burnt after one time use and consumption.
Recycling – a word that carries a positive connotation – unfortunately is not the solution.
It uses a lot of energy which creates pollution in itself & it still does not deal with the bulk of our waste.
We need to stop making disposable goods!
Needless to say that without a public & political change we will see no improvements.
& Big business has to come to its senses!
Japan Has a Problem
Taro Yamamoto & Yohei Miyake
There is an Upper House Election on the 10th July & an effort is being made to prevent current Prime minister Shinzo Abe & his Liberal Democratic Party (which has been in power since 1955) from having the two thirds majority it needs to pass changes to the constitution of Japan in their next term after the election (they always win).
Japan, generally known for the populations political apathy does has its own activists & Green Party though & we here at Westwood want to help them as a new war with China & Russia as promoted by the USA is definitely not in the interest of any of the peoples of the world.
Yohei Miyake is the man we are supporting. A Japanese Reggie musician this is the second time he is standing for election. The first time was as a Green Party candidate, this time it is as an independent.
Yohei’s style is to do open air speeches in public which he calls ‘Election Fests’. The one he did on the 25th June was in the center of Tokyo in Shibuya & thousands listened.
Yohei is trying to encourage young people to vote as, as in other places in the world, they generally do not even though it is their future that is being written now & it is they that will live the longest under any new changes (or maybe not if there is another war).
These are some of the issues Yohei is is campaigning for:
・Stop changing constitution
・Stop radioactive Japan, stop nuclear plant
・Create a society where you can be the way you are ( for instance,the main party just suggested the idea of changing the constitution to say that the priority is not people anymore but the country)
・Stop TPP
・Free education (from primary school to University)
・Stop destruction but renewable public work (stop building just for building sake, aim for green society)
・Organic revolution (encourage to make organic food)
・Stop killing animals (we haven’t got many shelters for animals like the UK does)
・Agricultural education
To support Yohei, Vivienne has sent him a message…
…& this was his reply:
“Thank you so much Vivienne,
I’ll do my best for make better world with my lovely mates.
Connect the world to make true peace treaty.
Art is the power in any field, in any kind of time.
Vote our planet.
Power to the people!
One Love. Yohei Miyake”
More on Yohei here: http://flowerontheshit.com/yohei-miyake-the-election-festival/
& here: Twitter
& here: Facebook
This video from 2013
Cockroach Propaganda
A new batch of T-Shirts with the Cockroach Propaganda print on them are now in Worlds End shop. They come in one colour, beige.
I noticed that Teddy here at the office was wearing one & looked pretty good in it, so I asked him to quickly model for me which he kindly did.
There is some info about the print on a previous post here.
“Cockroach Propaganda”, kind of fitting after today’s EU vote result.
“First they came for…Assange”
This Sunday June 19th marks 4 years that Wikileaks founder & whistleblower Julian Assange has been unlawfully detained in the Ecuadorian Embassy here in London.
To mark the day a global event celebrating whistleblowers and freedom of expression will be held simultaneously in ten major cities.
The events will be simulcast on freeassangenow.org .
‘Before it is too late, the global event” First they came for Assange… “wants to stress that we live in a critical time in which everyone opposed to the political and financial powers might soon become a target’.
Vivienne Westwood, long time campaigner for Julian’s situation, has her MAN SS17 show in Milan on the same day & has made a video which will be broadcast both at her show & the Assange event later.
The title ‘First they came for…’ comes from the famous German Pastor Martin Niemöller poem about the cowardice of intellectuals and purging of dissidents, in his case in pre-war 1930’s Berlin, but it is also a popular model for describing the dangers of political apathy everywhere.
“First they came for the Socialists, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a Socialist.
Then they came for the Trade Unionists, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a Trade Unionist.
Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a Jew.
Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me”.
British filmmaker Ken Loach, one of many supporters taking part in the event says:
“our legal system is being manipulated to keep a brave man in isolation” and that “all who care about freedom of information should demand that the threats made against Julian should be lifted. He should be able to leave his place of safety without fear of deportation or being handed over to those who intend him harm.”
See a live stream of the Westwood show & video here:
Celia Humphries
Ben-Westwood-Otto-Dix-©-Celia-Humphries
This week’s post is from professional photographer Celia Humphries.
I met her in Tokyo where she is based & after seeing her work I asked her if she would write something about her connection to Worlds End & Westwood clothing. Here it is & Thank you Celia (& by the way I love what she did with the Dix scarf).