By means of introduction, a gobblelygook is a device that sits in your sink, that you run water through and it mashes up the food into waste water. From there it is mixed with all sorts of waste water delights like #1’s and #2’s and other stuff and pumped to the sewage treatment plant. In Hamilton’s case the water is then pumped back out into the Waikato River upstream of the Auckland domestic water supply intact.
Auckland water … yummy yummy. The Wiggles should rerecord there song!
Anyway, the other day I was putting some left over food down the gobblelygook and a guest said I should save it for another day. They then said “think of all the staving people in Africa”. Now this is not a dig at that person, because I have heard this statement a number of times in my life and I am sure it is more about not being wasteful than anything else.
But if we were really to stop and think about all the staving people in Africa, would it really change what we throw away. For me personally eating stale bread the next day is not my idea of fun and if I did it would not help the staving people in Africa or another place one iota.
I guess the point of this post is that there are heaps of statements that we make that really mean very little unless we are actually prepared to follow through on them. If I really thought of the staving people anywhere, and was compelled as a result, I would do stuff and give stuff (not left over bread) that would actually make a difference in their lives. If I don’t then there is little point raising it as an issue.
The person who made the comment may already do all of that, I don’t know, but I was challenged about the throw-away phrases I use that do the same thing.