Conviviality III

Tonight, I am the one with the questions. 

1.  Is it convivial of us to stalk whales on the St. Lawrence River at the estuary of the Saguenay River, this tourism being a major source of employment and income for a very small local population?  And, where the poor stalked animals are vulnerable to injury caused by the propellers of watercraft?  Who advised us that we were entitled to do this, that somehow we have a right to disturb these animals in their habitat?  I'd love to see all the tourists pressure the Québec and Canadian governments to do something about the pollution of the Saguenay River which is causing the belugas to fail in reproducing successfully and increasing their numbers to hopeful levels.

2.  Is it convivial of us to waste food as we do, at home, in restaurants, wherever else we scarf down more than we need?  I watched an interesting segment on The Hour, a tv program on the CBC, where educated and privileged "freegans" are scavenging food from garbage bins and turning what they find into amazing dishes which are shared by a group who do this not because they are poor, but because they are concerned about how much we waste.

3.  Is it convivial of us to operate under a NIMBY and to refuse to accept our share of the burden of waste management just because we are more affluent?  I still choke over the statement made by former Chief Economist of the World Bank back in the early 1990s, Lawrence Summers (lately the ex-President of Harvard University), where he felt that toxic waste should be sent to the developing world because lives there were of less value than in the First World.  Check The Economist back in 1991, I think.  It's right there in print.

My suspicion is that the answer to the first three questions is "no".  Read on for questions to which I think the answer is a definite "yes":

4.  Is it convivial of us to have adaptation programs for new immigrants (many from war-torn countries) to Canada which include a visit to a national park with an opportunity to hear the clear message that "in the same way we protect special places here in Canada, we will also protect you"?  Idea from a wonderful ex-colleague called Jack Ricou whose work at Parks Canada inspired me 14 years ago.

5.  Is it convivial of us to "dwell responsibly", that is, with other human beings as well as the more-than-human world?  This idea is developed with great tenderness by a woman called Lisa Guenther in an article in the Canadian Journal of Environmental Education, Volume 7 (2) 2002.  I heard Lisa present this idea at the conference of the Canadian Network for Environmental Education and Communication in Whitehorse in July 2001.  She proposes that an "ethics of dwelling based on hospitality and respect demands that we resist the temptation to believe...that we are the same as the other, that there is no difference between a person and a tree and a lynx across the river".  Conviviality to me would mean that our encounters go beyond those we experience with our own kind.

6.  Is it convivial of a family, former teachers to support a young writer whom I welcomed on this site several weeks ago?  Mellissa Desrosiers was a student of mine last term and I posted portions of an essay she wrote on climate change.  Former teachers (one of whom was just beginning the mourning process after losing her husband) wrote words of encouragement; an older brother affirmed his younger sister.  I felt waves of conventment from reading each message to Mellissa.  I felt drawn into this conviviality on line!

In a spirit of conviviality, may I thank Amy Lenzo and Heather Withom as well as Linda Buzzell-Saltzman for the thoughts on and responses to my first two conviviality posts which have nourished me in my quest for an understanding of this issue.

Comments

[Lori P]

I don't check this blog as often as I would like, but I wanted to share in this conversation. What I particularly like about the word conviviality is what I imagine to be its root words -- living together. Conviviality is about learning to live together in a joyous, festive way, to celebrate our living together, people with other people, people within the environment that supports us.

Thank you Ann for these thoughts.