Sandalwood & Rosewood & Such (Kinda Longish)

[Guest guest]

Hey Anya,

 

>>Mysore Sandalwood is like Brazilian Rosewood in that it brings out the

>>best (or is it the worst) in those who either are .. or are wannabe

>>Greens .. and don't have all the facts. The facts they have are most

>>often out of context and not applicable to the real situation.

>

> Thanks for the post, Butch. As usual, I'm going to put in the Files

> section on natural perfumery. FYI, while I was basically offline due

> to two weeks of Wilma damage, your buddy Tony Burfield, the Greenie,

> unsubbed me from his Aroma Research group. He's all in a lather (even

> though he admits he *doesn't know the law* about ambergris. Seems his

> deal buddy Kendra, who lurked on my group for many years, and who was

> welcome to post his Cropwatch updates there, took a post where we were

> discussing a certain natural perfumer who uses beach-harvested

> ambergris, sent it to him, and *despite not knowing the law*, he kept

> hassling me to post an attack on that man on my group.

 

Policing up ambergris on a beach is a terrible thing to do Anya. Its

almost as bad as wearing skins from animals that were raised for the

purpose of providing skins .. or eating meat from animals/fish/birds

that are raised to be slaughtered and eaten .. but not near as bad as

criticizing the above actions while wearing the perfume and wearing

leather shoes and leather belts .. and criticizing an industry (that

provides jobs for thousands of folks) for polluting the atmosphere

while driving an SUV and owning stock in General Motors. ;-)

 

Without getting personal .. I'll give my opinion of particular attitudes

and it matters not from which geographic, socio-economic or political

direction the attitudes come .. be they individual, organizational or

(Gawd Save Us All) fundamentalist, idealist .. and/or governmental.

 

The below will be controversial for some folks .. especially for those

who live to find controversy. ;-) But I never have a need to post

unless its on a controversial subject .. even what is and what ain't a

dang natural preservative is controversial. ;-) And truth is that we

all learn from controversial subjects .. we either learn that the one

posting is right .. or we learn (in our own minds) that that person is

full of crap as a Christmas goose. We don't learn as much maybe as we

learn when someone tells us how to keep dawg piss from ruining the lawn

or on how to make a chocolate cake .. but its hard to know in advance

which subjects will affect which folks when there is far more than 1,000

different noggins on a list. ;-)

 

Folks often choose to champion a cause because they need to feel good

about themselves .. or justify their existence .. i. e., keep a job. I

often question the motives and the sincerity of those who are parochial

in their views of issues and pious in their denouncement of others who

don't see things as they do .. and want to show the world that they are

progressives on humanitarian issues, global poverty, world courts and

the environment .. and they are tolerant .. while disregarding anyone

who disagrees with them. We all read a lot of this kind of extremist

crap coming from one direction or another .. without regard to counter

arguments or even the possibility that they could be wrong. It only

bothers us enough to speak out when it begins to affect our own personal

lives .. as was quite evident by the many posts to this and other lists

in opposition to the CODEX issues/restrictions.

 

I have been forced by the circumstances of my existence and training to

face, accept and deal with the world as a reality that is influenced by

more than just one selected issue .. and I know that any change(s) we

affect will be felt (negatively or positively) in other issues/areas.

 

I'll never forget the lesson example they gave us when I attended a

Foreign Area Officer course in the U.S. Army .. the example was how a

group of Peace Corps Volunteers damn near destroyed the economy of a

village by pushing the villagers to remove all the stones from their

fields .. and to pile them up out of the way so the ground could be more

completely plowed over. The result was a drying of the soil and total

failure of the crops that year. There are many other examples of

well meaning but narrowly viewed/poorly planned attempts to implement

Utopian schemes without regard to the overall effects of the changes.

 

In my 30 years military service I often offered assistance .. common

sense and technical .. to individuals, organizations and governments in

Africa, Asia and the Middle East, but I always ran those recommendations

past " expert think tanks " afore I laid them out on the table. And more

than once I was advised to NOT make such recommendations because of this

or that logical and practical reason. There is an impact to almost any

action we take .. might be positive, might be negative, might be small

and might be great .. but there IS an impact!

 

Folks who choose to " fall on their swords " over issues should try to get

all the facts .. if they do this .. they'll have more time to champion

their causes because they'll be able to spend less time trying to find

ways to defend their own actions and caste blame on others for actions

that were based on their own narrow views and resulted in failure.

 

This recommendation can also apply to using or not using preservatives

in products that are sold .. or to knowing the facts or shooting in the

dark and guessing what percentage level of this or that EO is safe when

making blends for use by other folks. Its about covering the butt.

 

I think a good example of good intent and bad results is one that some

of our European cousins will disagree with .. but most will validate

from their own personal experiences. For 50 + years, the EU/EC has

worked to create a perfect society .. and this required a lot of liberal

or revolutionary change because the intent was to ensure Europeans never

returned to a life of war lords, dictators, cruel monarchs, world wars,

racism and other such negative baddies. All admirable these goals ..

and I salute the intent.

 

But it hasn't been all that easy .. and now we find more and more cases

of where governments are having to explain away their failures. This is

not, of course, particular to just European governments .. " Plausible

Deniability " is a normal means of avoiding blame for all governments on

Earth .. and those who have known me for a while know that I strongly

believe that LESS government is BEST government and all governments eat

dung and howl at the moon. My point here is that .. idealistic changes

affect areas other than the area that is being targeted .. and in many

cases these changes cause damage that is sometimes irreversible.

 

True it is that I have been critical of the European Parliament for a

long time .. and I'm not likely to change from this position .. or from

my opinion that the United Nations is as useless as tits on a boar hawg,

and a perfect example of that is their recent lack of appropriate

reaction to the international terrorism going down in the Indian Ocean

by pirates from a basket case country that has been ruled by various war

lords since 1991 .. Somalia, attacking cruise ships and even ships

carrying food supplies from international relief agencies.

 

I believe that the reasons for creating the European Parliament and the

United Nations were honorable .. its the execution of responsibilities I

have problems with. But its not just those organizations I am critical

of .. I am also critical of many of the policies of the United States

Homeland Security apparatus .. and I'm a retired cop!

 

The above examples of good causes resulting in some unplanned and often

unwanted results is directly in line with the impact that can and often

is caused by wrong thinking from those who claim to be above the rest in

championing environmental issues.

 

One writer has suggested, " The premises of an increasingly ossified and

undemocratic European Union are as admirable in theory as they are

ludicrous in reality. *** The utopian dream of a 35-hour workweek,

lifelong job tenure and cradle-to-grave benefits falls victim to a

bothersome reality. " That reality was primarily an economic one ..

world competition. Another reality is loss of personal freedoms .. the

freedom of choice that CODEX and other under the table regulations have

attempted to take from people. The only way the EU can deal with the

reality of world competition is to tighten the quality control standards

for import into the EU .. and further subsidize their own industries.

Basically .. isolation from world trade and higher taxes. The only way

they can deal with the reality of restricting personal freedoms at the

check out counter is .. Plausible Deniability!

 

I use this as an example because I hear from MANY of my European friends

via e-mail daily .. they discuss the EU rules affecting natural products

and curtailment of a citizen's right to self administer .. and they are

perturbed (sometimes furious and almost always without hope) because

they believe that there is no turning back from what they see as wrong

paths even though there is overwhelming evidence available to support

the wrongness of many of these " enlightened " changes. Martin Watt is a

good example of one who is furious .. and Tony has also come on line

more than once to denounce many of these changes .. and I know that both

of them have worked (unsuccessfully) to fight many of those changes.

 

Ideal it is to create a Nirvana of benevolent socialism, universal and

free medical care, sophisticated high culture and standardization (if

the intent is to obtain better quality .. not reduce competition and

feather the nests of multi-national corporations). The intent in most

cases is good .. and those who set out to accomplish the tasks are

probably (in most cases) well meaning, concerned but questionable as

being experts in the areas in which they are claiming to be experts.

So we can say the intent is good .. but what we are seeing is not what

they planned to create.

 

What we are seeing in many cases is higher demand being placed on the

governments and less acceptance of personal responsibility. This is not

(to me) unusual when a government takes personal responsibility from

their citizens and begins to tell them what is and isn't good for them.

 

Behind the strikes, urban riots and anger at the U.S. (common in many

parts of Europe now) is the harsh reality of dismal economic growth and

fewer new jobs. So behind all the achievements of the European Union,

and its central goals of government mandated equality and security .. is

the reality that such actions did not work out as they hoped because of

the negative impact they have had in other critical areas.

 

My European friends who live with this on a daily basis .. tell me that

they do not see a light at the end of the tunnel .. that they are tired

of fighting a system that proclaims to have all the answers and refuses

to listen to the folks in the trenches when they want to advise of the

negative impact many of the well meaning changes will result in.

 

Most of the European friends I refer to ARE experts in the field of

Natural, Alternative and Complementary medicine or treatments .. and

they are frustrated because the decisions being implemented are made by

folks who are not experts .. by folks who are purely politicians or who

are experts in various areas but not in the areas in which they advise.

 

If the above appears to be unrelated to what we are discussing here,

its probably because to many American readers the intent of the changes

are admirable .. and I won't disagree with that .. and to many of the

European readers .. there might be a tendency to feel a need to defend

against words from one who doesn't live the life he's discussing now ..

but I have lived that life since 1988 .. I live in a country that is

doing all they can to qualify themselves to join the EU/EC .. and I am

doing all I can to convince as many Turks as I can that they need to

look at the repercussions of changes that will have a permanent impact

on their society and though some of the changes will be positive .. the

majority will be negative for their economy and personal freedom.

 

I tell them that if they enlist the aid of professors and other experts

in various disciplines, the odds of success will be far greater than if

decisions are made by self concerned politicians, judges and extremists

who champion this or that cause (in a vacuum) and with total disregard

to the impact it will have on the overall society.

 

Do I expect to be heard by these folks? Yea .. but I expect no change

to result from my efforts. ;-)

 

I live in Turkey now because I like the life here. I like the life in

the USA too .. but for various reasons I choose to live in Turkey now.

If and when Turkey is accepted into the EU/EC I intend to purchase a one

way ticket back to the USA.

 

> Kendra was booted from my group for violating a guideline we have

> " anybody who forwards a post from this private group to someone

> outside the group with the intent of inciting...etc., will be

> unsubbed. Zero tolerance for troublemakers. " So, I guess, in

> retaliation, or perhaps because of embarrassment at not knowing the

> law, and afraid I'd bring this up on his group when he is blathering

> about the situation, he unsubbed me. Not very ethical. Oh, ....

> but...it's Tony, lol.

 

Your List Guidelines are insignificant when compared to the Greater

Cause some folks are working toward. ;-)

 

>>I won't go into the wild tales on Rosewood .. less'n somebody really

>>wants to know the facts. ;-)

>

> OK, post that too, for our Files ;-)

 

Gonna do it .. right now. They are all old posts made to this list,

from 2003 and 2004 and probably not in the archives now .. and they are

public domain. As for you putting them on your list .. I think Chris,

the List Mama, will not object .. but she has to make that call. A

couple of the posts coming involve some bantering twixt Martin and I ..

something I love to do cause arguing with that Ol' Green Limey Troll is

one of the highlights of my News Group life .. but Martin is a good

feller .. a smart feller .. a dedicated feller .. and a good friend of

mine .. regardless of the fact that he is a Social Democrat. ;-)

 

>>Smart folks are them whut are on Natural Perfumery .. which can be

>>joined at URL NaturalPerfumery/

>

> Everyone from oils and herbs is very welcome over there. Lurk, ask

> newbie questions, spend a year going through our archives and Files,

> and always keep the prize in mind -- you'll learn how to create your

> own natural perfume ;-)

 

I been monitoring the Natural Perfumery list a long time .. but its rare

that I post because the area of expertise there is in a different area

than my own. For those who want to experiment and succeed in making

their own perfumes .. I guarantee they will not be bored on that list.

 

And they might learn that though international trade in ambergris has

been outlawed .. collecting those rare pieces that float on the surface

or wash up on the beach is perfectly logical and legal .. and that what

is usually called Sperm Whale vomit is a cholesterol derivative caused

by undigested squid beaks .. and ambergris was once a rare delicacy

consumed by European royalty .. along with eggs .. for breakfast ..

uuuuuugggggggghhhhh .. gaaaagggggg. ;-)

 

> Anya

> http://naturalperfumery.com

> The premier site on the Web to discover the beauty of Natural Perfume

>

> Join to study natural perfumery

 

Y'all keep smiling. :-) Butch http://www.AV-AT.com

 

Owner of a Politically Incorrect (by some folks' standards) but an

Environmentally Conscious company that keeps 3 folks employed in an

economically depressed area of Appalachia .. Maryland, USA and sells

proven quality essential oils and tested hydrosols. ;-)

[Guest guest]

, Butch Owen <butchbsi@s...> wrote:

>

> Hey Anya,

>

> >>Mysore Sandalwood is like Brazilian Rosewood in that it brings out the

> >>best

 

Re: this and the other posts that followed quickly:

 

Oy yoy yoy, Butch, I don't know where you get the energy to post all

these lengthy replies, but I appreciate it! I'm going to same and

archive them. Maybe edit them a bit, just to make them flow if some of

the back-and-forth can be expendable.

 

Thanks a bunch!

http://naturalperfumery.com

The premier site on the Web to discover the beauty of Natural erfume

 

Join to study natural perfumery