Salient. Victoria University Student Newspaper. Vol 35 no. 4. 22 March 1972
Cut out the Crap Action Guide
Cut out the Crap Action Guide
Other Shopping
You don't need electric Gadgets round the kitchen. Unless you're disabled. There is no such thing as a time saving device.
Don't use Detergents that are non biodegradable (i.e. use those which are eaten by bacteria, etc). Sunlight soap in a shaker is better than most detergents. And much cheaper.
A recent survey has proved that people who use Toothpaste; regularly suffer more from tooth decay than those who never use it.
Shampoo's are mostly frauds - certainly there's no additive that will 'enrich' hair. Again "Sunlight" will do, rinse well.
Deodorant - who needs them - learn to ignore sweat or love it.
Make up - who needs it?
Tissue Papers are no better than soft toilet rolls - don't waste your money on puerile prejudices.
Children don't need expensive Toy's to keep them happy.
If a product is advertised on T.V. it could mean that they spend so much on advertising and packaging that the goods inside aren't worth the money.
Food
Don't buy food with excessive packaging. Refuse paper bags unless absolutely necessary.
"Free Gifts" and competitions might be fun but they make food more expensive.
Try not to buy food in plastic containers, especially in plastic bags.
If you've got a garden, or even a window ledge - grow your own.
You don't need more than one big meal each day (best in the morning).
Overeating is the enemy of the body and of sharing. Especially sharing with the undernourished. Buy foods in bulk. But don't forget that the more you have in your cupboard, the more you eat.
Support the students Food CO-OP - press for a wider range of goods, press for a full time, non profit, shop. Uncut loaves of Bread are preferable to cut loaves. Make your own.
Whole meal flour is not as cheap as refined flour but it is much better. And the more people buying, the cheaper it will become.
'Chapati' is easiest - flour, water, salt, rolled thin, baked ten minutes.
All power pollutes - including electricity - so have as many salads as you can stand.
Nothing is better cooked than raw. Well maybe potatoes. But remember, power is money, money is work, power is pollution.
Water
Save water don't waste it.
Shower don't bath. Do you really want to swill in your own dirt?
Don't run the cold tap while brushing your teeth. Grow a beard - save effort, money on razors, soap, water.
Salt and tobacco makes you thirsty. Thirst quenching necessitates too much pissing equals eating inefficiency.
Political
Do you know about family planning?
Does your cousin in Eketahuna?
If you want to have more than two Children, Adopt them. Especially adopt a child or two from a different race, born in N.Z. or in Asia.
Oppose building encroachment on parks.
Oppose legislation for more Motorways, especially in the city.
The Wellington motorway is surely a monstrous plot, beyond bureaucratic control.
Suggest improvements in public transport facilities. Think of ways to improve and build up this university community - think of ways to improve your city.
Cars
Don't drive them when you can walk or cycle. Support the dying buses.
If you live miles out, operate a Car Pool don't all have cars.
If you must have a car, have a small one.
Don't be bound by organisation or other peoples times.
Walk everywhere. If you want to get there in a hurry, run.
Taxis don't fill a demand, they create an imaginary one.
There's nothing worth hurrying for, though there are things worth leaving early for.
Accommodation
There are dozens of empty houses near the university and more far from it. Sleep in them, eat, work, and wash at university.
Squat in them, even illegally, until 'they' make it legal or find more houses.
When you do find satisfactory accommodation, don't forget those who haven't.
Tell your maiden aunt to leave her four bedroom house in Island Bay or Kelburn, and join or start an Oldies Commune
Fill the nearly empty houses, and you'll also be solving the old people's problems, of loneliness and inconvenience and high costs.
Recycling
What do you know about recycling? What does anybody know?
In the U.S., yippies and ecofreaks have started recycling factories and processes.
One firm boasts that no more trees are cut down to be made into their cigarette papers - they use only recycled paper.
Other., firms buy even small amounts of Scrap tin cans, etc, to be recycled.
Help stop the rape of the earth. Don't accumulate waste and don't make it.
Throw all organic scraps onto the Compost.
Clothing
Don't burn your bra, put it on the compost, for ecology, as well as liberation.
Resist the anti-human fashion exploitation industry, (wear coalsacks!)
Breast feed, don't start the baby on the bottle, the sterilisers, and the milk factories.
You can, think of lots more. Be aware, be Activist Don't leave it to 'the Authorities' anywhere. They're mostly old and self-interested. They have no conception of the enormity of The Problem, and would not in any case have the faintest notion how to set about solving it.
Rubbish these ideas if you think they're rubbish. Suggest better, suggest more. Be aware, be Activist.
'Economize on everything except education'