Introduction:
“Have you ever
wondered where all the stuff that we buy comes from?” The story of stuff by Annie Leonard (Story Of
Stuff, 2012) is a presentation about the materials economy, which it consist of
5 stages, extraction, production, distribution, consumption and disposal, also
I will talk in this essay about consumerism in the UAE. In this essay, I’m
going to talk about these stages and all of them.
Extraction:
The first step of the body materials process
starts with extraction. Extraction is natural resource exploitation, which
means actually trashing the plant, because we cut the trees and destroys the
mountains to get the metal inside these mountains. We also use the all water
and kill the whole wildlife in that area. We are using too much stuff. In last
three decades, one-third of the planet’s neutral resources that had consumed
gone, because they are cutting and trashing the planet so fast.
Production:
The second step in the material
economy is called production. Production is a compound product of natural
resources and energy that gives us a toxic contaminated product. People uses
over than 100,000 synthetic chemical in their products. Only a few of the
products have been tested for health impacts, so this is will be problem for
us, because we are bringing these toxic stuff to our homes, workplaces, and
schools, Actually to our body, like BFRs, it makes things more fireproof but
it’s so toxic which it effects in the brain. "The absence in the United
States of those vast accumulations of wealth which favor the expenditures of
large sums on articles of mere luxury... impact to the productions of American
industry a character distinct from that of other countries' industries.
[Production is geared toward] articles suited to the wants of the whole
people". (De Tocqueville, 1835)
Distribution:
The third
step in that process is called distribution. Distribution means selling all
toxic-contaminated products as fast as possible. They keep the prices down,
keep people buying and keep inventory moving.” How do they keep Prices down?
Well, they don’t pay the store workers very much and they skimp on health
insurance every time they can” (Story of Stuff, 2012). It’s all about
externalizing the costs, which means the real costs of making the stuff not in
their price.
Consumption:
The forth
step of that process is called consumption. Consumption is actually the
important step in the system. This is what makes the system moves without stop
because people are shopping too much and became consumers not teachers or
mothers, but the problem they don’t care as past as they care now because
people are throwing their stuff after almost six months and also because people
consumes double as they did before 51 years ago. There are two ways to makes
people throw their stuff and buy a new one. First way is planned obsolescence
which means they make people buy stuff that it broken as quickly as possible
and throw it to buy new one. Second way is perceived obsolescence which
convinces us to throw the stuff that still working by using a lot of
advertising.
Disposal:
The last step
of the materials process finishes with disposal. Disposal is throwing the
rubbish to the curb. How they get rid these rubbish, they just burn the waste
and dumped in a landfill. This is actually effects to the water, air and land.
Incineration is really bad because it produce dioxin which is the most toxic
man made substance known to science. So we could stop producing dioxin by
stopping incineration.
Consumerism in the UAE:
Consumption in the UAE is too much. A
lot of emirates think that increasing the consumerism is the great risk to
national identity because the number of Emirates is small while the number of migrants
is increasing in each year. So, here we should remember Sheikh Zayed’s word
“Heritage represents the spirit, the wisdom and the various creativities of the
people. Nations are measured by their heritage. A nation without heritage is a
nation without a land to live on or a shore to reach before getting lost in the
ocean.”( Sheikh Zayed). People in the
UAE are buying too much stuff even if they not need it. I know its bad habit
and we must change it, but the reason is UAE had a lot of sources which means a
nice salary for Emirates.
Conclusion
To conclude
all things discussed before, story of stuff taught us about the things that we
bought and throw. How people deal with these things and how do they make us
throw these even if we bought week ago. This paper discussed about materials
economy. In addition, the 5 steps took a part of this paper. In other word, how
it starts from extraction and finish in disposal. The other part was about the
consumerism in the UAE. In my opinion, story of stuff is real great example to
show us what we are doing in this world and how could we do better without
destroying the trees and killing the animals.
References
Gerson, J.
(2008, October 4). 'Consumerism and foreigners' greatest identity threats - The
National. Latest and breaking news | thenational.ae - The National.
Retrieved December 10, 2012, from
http://www.thenational.ae/news/uae-news/consumerism-and-foreigners-greatest-identity-threats
Humaid, s.
(2011, April 27). Heritage must be our shelter from the consumerist tide - The
National. Latest and breaking news | thenational.ae - The National.
Retrieved December 10, 2012, from
http://www.thenational.ae/thenationalconversation/comment/heritage-must-be-our-shelter-from-the-consumerist-tide
leonard, A.
(n.d.). Story of Stuff آ« The Story of Stuff Project. The Story of Stuff Project. Retrieved
December 10, 2012, from http://www.storyofstuff.org/movies-all/story-of-stuff/
Mithra, S.
(2011, March 17). UAE consumers get more online-friendly: MasterCard. cnmeonline.
Retrieved December 10, 2012, from www.cnmeonline.com/features/uae-consumers-get-more-online-friendly-mastercard/
Tocqueville, D.
(n.d.). Mass production - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Wikipedia, the
free encyclopedia. Retrieved December 10, 2012, from
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mass_production
