Dear People at Natural Directions,

I thought you might want to know why I’ve decided against your products countless times at the grocery store. I always opt organic and admire your company for doing so as well. However, every time I pick up one of your products, with intentions to support your business, I find an unnecessary amount of plastic in its packaging.Plastic goes against my environmental and health standards just as much as non-organic processes do. Plastic ketchup bottles and plastic caps on milk cartons, to name a few, will divert me from your products for as long as you choose to use them in your packaging.

I hope you will consider the long-term impact your company is making on our environment and your customers’ health by your choice in using plastic in your packaging. I imagine that a company as conscious as yours would consider all factors that go into your products. I look forward to purchasing your products in the future, if and when they are plastic-free.

Sincerely,

Briena Sash

Briena’s 2012 New Year’s Resolutions:

1. Slow down.

I have a habit of taking on as much as I can. Furthermore, I have a hard time saying ‘no’. To give an idea, back in October, I was working six jobs. No, that wasn’t a typo. Six.I’ve been pretty good at keeping with just two this year. Still need to start yoga.

2. Eliminate plastic waste from my life as much as possible.

No, I’m not delusional, I know I’ll never get rid of it all. It’s bothered me for years. And it’s getting worse. Especially the more I learn about plastic, the energy cost, the implications of recycling, the lasting effects on the environment, the damage it causes to our health, the death it causes to animals. I don’t like it. I don’t want to have a part in it. I want it out of my life.

Plastic is always on my mind. I use it to brush my teeth when I wake up. To dispense my face wash from when I shower.  I clip it into my hair to hold  my bangs out of my face. And individually wrap the pastries in it at work. Just about everything I purchase comes packaged in plastic, if it’s not also made of it. And I’m now making plans and taking strides to eliminate it from my life. One of my steps in this process is to declare it to the world (or at least to the two or so people reading my blog . I hereby declare plastic elimination from my life. This is the beginning of the end… or perhaps the beginning of a new beginning.

I’m done with one time affairs. Use it and lose it and then it’s there like a stain on your conscience forever. You know it didn’t just go away. It didn’t just not happen. It’s off somewhere else in the world, doing its harm out of site, out of mind. I refuse to be an enabler any longer. This is the regeneration of my New Year’s resolution. I am eliminating plastic from my life.

Oh yeah… and I’m signing up for yoga this week.

1. English is the primary language, although it’s next to impossible to understand the Jamaican dialect. Jamaicans are, for the most part, very friendly and will speak ‘American’ so that you can understand them.

2. US currency is widely accepted, especially in major tourist destinations. However, you should always carry some Jamaican $ on you. At the time of writing, US$1 is equal to approximately JA$80. Jamaican bills start at JA$50 and coins, although they exist, are virtually useless.

3. Women! (especially whiteys):  Jamaican men love you and the women pretty much don’t. Prepare to be hit on from the time you arrive, to the moment you leave. For me, it started at the airport with my bus driver who threatened to take me home and ended at the airport with the luggage guy threatening not to let me leave and then threatening to hide in my luggage.

4. They want your money! It’s true. And they’ll try to get as much of it as possible. Cab drivers will charge you $25 for a $5 ride. Be sure to barter and hold your ground!

5. Electricity: Electrical currency and outlets are the same as the US. If you are coming from the US, don’t worry about bringing adapters.

6. Taxis: I used cabs a lot for local transport. Like I mentioned, they will try to get as much money as possible from you. Ask your hosts to give you an idea of how much to pay a cab driver to get to different locations. For instance, you shouldn’t pay more than 10 bucks US to get just about anywhere around Montego Bay (and that’s on the expensive end).

• Agree on a price before jumping in.
• Always take a cab at night. Never walk after dark.
• Technically, certified cab drivers have a red license plate (rather than white with blue letters). No one really seems to know what this means other than they have a sticker in their window, a red plate, and you might get fined if a cop pulls you over. I rode with certified drivers who way over charged me and had no clue where my destination was, getting us lost and having to stop several times to ask others where we were going… and rode with non-certified drivers who overcharged me by less (but still overcharged me) and knew exactly where it was I was going without getting lost or stopping to asking.

8. Transportation (long-distance): Jamaica is a pretty small island. You can get around easily by bus.

Private buses run between major tourist cities and are a safe, easy way to get around. I paid US$25 to get from Montego Bay to Ocho Rios, using different services  each direction. Here are the bus lines I used:

• KNUTSFORD EXPRESS: www.knutsfordexpress.com 1-876-971-1822

Provides comfortable, air conditioned service between Montego Bay, Ocho Rios & Kingston. Transport will soon be offered to Negril and Falmouth as well. Vessels are plush tourist buses, and they played old school Fresh Prince of Bel Air epis on my trip. These guys only stop at their main stations and will not provide door to door service. You can book online as well as look up schedule and departure locations.

• JAMAICA TOURS LIMITED: www.jamaicatoursltd.com 1-876-953-2825

This company offers excursions as well as airport transfers. Their vessels (mini buses) may not be as luxurious, but they will drop you to the door of your resort, hotel, or dive motel (in my case). These guys take their time making stops along the way, giving little tour guide blurbs, playing loud reggae music and, accordingly, my 1.45 hr trip to Ochi took 3.5 hrs. My guide also threatened to keep me for three days. But it was fun!

9. Pot: You will most definitely be offered plentiful pot’.

10. Food! The food you absolutely must try: Jerk Chicken. Look for Scotchies in Montego Bay (located along the main road following the north coast between MoBay and Ochi) a well-known ‘jerk’ pit enjoyed by tourists and locals alike.

11. Water: The water in Jamaica is superb! Bring your own water bottle to avoid spending extra money on nasty bottled water… and save Jamaica from the extra plastic garbage, which you will find is already unfortunate and plentiful.

• Passport
• ATM Card/Credit Card
• Sunglasses
• Sun hat
• Sun screen (I used SPF 15 and was fine)
• Beach towel
• Camera
• Mini size Dr. Bronners (for washing clothes… you can bath in the ocean!)
• Toothbrush/paste
• Flip flops
• Water sandals (if you want to do any outdoor excursions)
• Beach bag to double as shopping bag (save Jamaica some plastic by bringing your own bag!)
• Nalgene Bottle (the water here is superb – refill, save money, and avoid buying disposable water bottles)
• Bathing suit
• Bathing suit cover (big shirt/dress… I wore mine all the time)
• 2 Tank tops
• 1 Pair shorts
• 1 Pair of light lounge pants (i.e. yoga pants)
• 1 Long sleeve shirt for cool nights
• A couple pair of undies

That’s it!

Even if you don’t drink diet soda… or soda at all for that matter… this is an awesome short video to explain how your body processes foods as acidic or alkaline and what that means to your health.

Copy, paste, and enjoy…

I am writing in response to my recent experience with your airline. My journey with Delta took me to and from Jamaica just last week. I had four flights from Portland to Jamaica and back.

Your crew was very friendly, and in Jamaica the woman at the check-in counter, Simone, went out of her way to rearrange my flights because, due to a late departure, she feared I would miss my connecting flight which originally had me routed through Minneapolis. I hadn’t asked her to do that. It was on her own initiative and I was very appreciative.

I found your planes to be very comfortable. The seats are plush and large, with plenty of leg room and, although the flights were full, no one seemed to have troubles finding space for their bags in the overhead bins.

I must be honest, I tend to book national flights with Southwest Airlines and international flights with United. My recent experience with your airline was so pleasant, however, that I imagined myself changing my mind about which airline I opt to use in the future.

One thing on this voyage, however, was particularly disturbing. It was an ad which was posted liberally throughout each aircraft. Perhaps you know the ad to which I’m referring. It is an ad endorsed by your company, which promotes women’s ‘heart health’ awareness. Normally, I would think a promotion of this sort to be a wonderful thing. However, this one was not.

Before I go any further, please allow me to briefly introduce myself. I am Briena Sash, a world traveler and a barista and photographer in Portland, Oregon. I enjoy hiking, finger food, baking cookies, traversing America’s never-ending miles of roads by motorcycle, sleeping under the stars and spending time with my dad. I instantly love people when I meet them, and even when I don’t.

Please review the photo below that I took of my personal tv screen on my Delta flight departing from Jamaica.

Although this ad does not directly claim a relationship between Diet Coke and heart health, it most certainly eludes to it. Very blatantly so. In my opinion, this ad is entirely misleading and in a disturbingly indecent way. There is absolutely nothing ‘heart healthy’ about Diet Coke or any Coke product for that matter.

If all of your passengers and all the people of our country and our world were well educated, this ad and its misleading demeanor would simply be something to laugh at. But let’s face it, this simply is not the case. In fact, there are millions of uneducated people in our country and all over the world. My point is that people viewing this ad may very well be swayed by this propaganda in the exact way it appears Coca Cola intends, by assuming Diet Coke to be a ‘heart healthy’ alternative to other drinks. It absolutely is not, as you and I both (I hope) are very aware.

How unfortunate for your passengers, especially those uneducated, to be confined to a seat for hours with this ad rotating on the personal screen in front of them. How will you feel if and when your passengers are misled to take this ad literally to mean that Diet Coke is heart healthy, and then proceed to drink such an unhealthy product, thinking they are doing the opposite?

Please note that my roommate’s brother from Corpus Christi, Texas drinks two cans of soda pop each morning for breakfast. When I questioned the healthiness of his decision, he declared to me one morning that, “Soda is no less healthy than coffee”.

Pardon me, but if you know anything about anything, you very well know that soda pop is WAY worse for your health than coffee. Indeed, studies have shown coffee to actually pertain health benefits. Studies have never revealed soda pop to pertain any such health benefits, but contrarily, health risks.

My roommate’s mother drinks Diet Coke for breakfast every morning.

Please also note that mothers in Central American countries such as Nicaragua commonly give their children soda (often Coke) rather than water. I once asked a child why that was and the child responded, “Because soda is healthier than water”.

How do you feel about these things?

If you still feel okay about your endorsement of this campaign, perhaps you are not aware that Diet Coke, which I have heard referred to as ‘chemical soup’ promotes itself as containing zero calories, which is true because it substitutes the original Coke ingredient, high fructose corn syrup, for an ingredient called aspartame.

Are you familiar with aspartame? If not, aspartame is a sugar replacement which, a quick internet search reveals, is highly toxic.

Because obesity is said to have direct correlation to heart disease, and because caloric intake is believed to affect weight, and because sugar is high in calories, many people turn to sugar replacements such as aspartame believing that it is a ‘healthier’ alternative.

If you did research yourself, you might visit the website mercola.com and, more specifically the page aspartame.mercola.com, in which New York Times bestselling author and Osteopathic physician, doctor Mercola, who has been featured on national and local news such as Today Show, CNN, ABC’s World News Tonight, Time Magazine, and Forbes Magazine among others, talks of the major health risks of this ingredient… and they are major. Posted articles have titles such as, ‘It Can Destroy Your Immune System and is Like Eating an Insecticide’; ‘Aspartame Is, by Far, the Most Dangerous Substance on the Market That is Added to Foods’; ‘Are Diet Sodas Making You Fat?’; and ‘The Caloric Mistake that DOUBLES Your Risk of Gaining Pounds’.

I would like to share a few descriptive quotes about these articles, taken from the website, which say a lot in themselves on the risks of aspartame and which directly pertain to the matter of Diet Coke and its relation to obesity and heart disease:

“If you’re a diet soda drinker who’s been packing on the pounds and you can’t figure out why, you must read this article.”

“Avoiding Artificial Sweeteners? This Study Will Surprise You… It destroys your body’s ability to keep track of satiety, promotes a heavy profile and doubles your obesity risk. And it’s highly addictive…”

“Have you fallen into the trap of eating these “health” foods that will make you pack on extra pounds?”

If your company does not find these things and the intention behind this ad to be questionable, indecent and disturbing, I question and challenge your company’s ethical standards.

This ad does not affect me. I never drink Coke or Diet Coke and never will. And the ad will never threaten to convince me, as the Coca Cola Company apparently wishes to, that Diet Coke is a heart healthy choice. But I am not the only person sitting on your planes and staring at these ads for hours on end.

When I introduced myself earlier in this letter, I told you that I instantly love people when I meet them, and even when I don’t. This includes every single person that was on your plane with me, headed back from Jamaica. This also includes every person who will be on that plane in the future. Your passengers.

I hope you care for them too.

My concern in this matter is for every one of your passengers, many of them uneducated and many easily persuaded, who will be exposed to this misleading, deceiving, ill-intentioned advertisement which is endorsed by YOU.

I would hope that Delta, being a decent and well respected company, would refrain from endorsing and promoting such misleading propaganda. I would love to consider further business with Delta, but at this time I honestly have encountered a major personal abstention due to this very matter.

Thank you for your time and consideration in learning about my experiences with, and opinion of, your company’s endorsement of the ‘Diet Coke for Heart Health’ campaign.

Sincerely,

Briena Sash

This advertisement was posted all over the Delta planes that carried me to and from Jamaica. Printed in the Delta Sky Magazine and rotating on the personal tv screens.

‘Diet Coke’ and ‘Heart Health’ should never be in the same advertisement unless it is a campaign to warn people of how un-heart-healthy Diet Coke is.

This is particularly disturbing, knowing that there are actually people out there who drink Coke for breakfast and declare soda pop to be no less healthy than coffee. (This would be my roommate’s brother, Logan. A stout, Keystone Light guzzling meat-’n-potatoes boy from Texas who, on his recent visit to Portland, substituted french fries -not a side salad- for coleslaw by looking intensely into the servers eyes and sternly insisting that he ‘don’t eat vegetables’).

It is also particularly disturbing knowing that there are countries where mothers water their children with pop because, in the words of the children, “Soda is healthier than water”. This would be in Nicaragua and most Central American countries, where the population suffers from a devastating epidemic of rotting teeth. While working in a Guatemalan orphanage, I witnessed children the sweet age of three already suffering and in pain from severely rotten teeth.

Jamaica is known to be an extremely high theft/high crime country. I was warned of this before coming… by tourists and Jamaicans alike. (Just FYI, with a healthy dose of extreme paranoia lugging 10k worth of photo gear around, combined with staying in higher security areas, I haven’t faced any problems whatsoever.) Even tourist beaches are often fee-based and are patrolled by beefy men and women sporting uniforms and security badges.

This was the view from my balcony at dive motel Crystal Ripple (which I absolutely loved) in Ocho Rios…

The beach at the motel where I was staying in Ochi was beautiful. I could step out my door and sink into soft alabaster sand which was raked each day for trash (tons of plastic litter around here) and I often witnessed the beach patrol shooing locals away… or chasing them away with sticks… no exaggeration. Locals were allowed on the east side of the dock, but as it seemed, they were exclusively confined to that ‘other’ side.

The pristine alabaster sand on ‘our’ side of the beach…

This guy was part of a fishing crew who were allowed onto ‘our’ beach while bringing in their nets, but then were made to leave…

In fact, one morning I was sitting at the edge of the dock, visiting with a Jamaican fisherman who came to talk with me when patrol man, Roberto, suited up in his blue button-up uniform and sporting a wooden baton approached, jabbering something incomprehensible in Jamaican. The fisherman responded by standing up, shaking my hand, wishing me a nice stay in Jamaica, and walking away… exiting the dock to the east side, of course.

I didn’t ask anyone to send him away and was actually rather enjoying his company. He was an old man, weathered, and without any teeth. I’m sure he had caught many fish in his day. And in that moment, I was feeling uncomfortably close to white America, 1952.

Once the fisherman exited stage left, security man Roberto himself  proceeded to mac on me. Don’t get me wrong, he was gorgeous. He wanted to take me all around, to show me the whole island. That seems to be the pick-up theme here, along with reggae party invitations and pot offerings. Or, in the case of the day before, invitations to be whisked upstream on a giant bamboo raft.

You’ve seen him before, here’s security man Roberto, complete with blue button-up uniform and flogging rod. Did I mention he was gorgeous? …

… I’m sorry to have to make you look at that again. I know it hurts.

In another instance, I was sitting in the soft white sand when a local Rasta man (they really do call them that) hocking conch shells paraded up the beach. An enormous man with a gigantically protruding belly and a heavy accent sitting in a beach chair nearby showed some interest. At this hopeful response, the Jamaican raised the shell high in the air in a grand display, and then violently threw the shell against the shore, repeatedly, until  blood gushed over his hands and spattered onto the wet sand. The man yanked out the orange innards of the conch, waived them at the man, and threw them back into the sea. At this, the fat man was happy and paid the Jamaican for the conch, but not before the Jamaican was first chased away by two security guards hollering at him and waving their batons.

How many tourists feel okay about this entire situation?

Apparently a lot, because I see it happening everywhere.

Please be aware, when visiting Jamaica, that perfectly intact conch shells are very beautiful, but are almost always gathered inhumanely, as through my brief research I have discovered that in order to extract the meat of a conch for food, the end of the shell must be broken off, thereby deeming it imperfect and less valuable. Starfish and conchs alike are killed solely for the delight of tourists (and the money for the harvesters, of course).

The scene was brutal and disturbing and one that I hope never to see again. Before participating in such a scene, please consult your god as to the ethical conundrums and spiritual penalties and repercussions of contributing to this practice.

‘Work’.

The wedding I was shooting was at an all-inclusive resort called Sandals Grande Riviera. It consisted of 15 restaurants, 7 pools, a gorgeous stretch of white sandy beach, exclusive Martha Stuart wedding themes, and hoards of overdressed western tourists getting drunk and indecent on the seashore. Something to know about Jamaica… tourists tend to stick to resort towns and many never exit the gates. Beach property is incredibly desirable, particularly in resort towns, and is incredibly expensive, and typically belongs to… well, not Jamaicans.

That said, if you’re into ‘vacationing’, I think the all inclusive resort is just about as good as it gets. Once you’re in, you don’t pay a dime for a thing (except at the gift shop, of course, where you’ll be burned at 20 bucks a pair of sunnys). Everything is included… all tips and gratuity, airport transfer, meals, drinks, snorkeling, boat rides, and… if you’re certified… even scuba diving! The beaches are pristine (perhaps with imported sand?), there’s cheesy 90′s elevator music serenading you on your romantic boardwalk  strolls, and you are well protected from the reality of the country (i.e. trash, theft, poverty). All you have to care about is which swimsuit you should wear and should you eat dinner at the sushi bar, or the buffet, or both?

What a wonderfully glutenous life we westerners are allowed to live!

Back on the ‘outside’… I arrived at the resort and my taxi was stopped at the gate. Luckily, my name was on the exclusive ‘wedding guest list’. It was a very royal entrance. As I lugged my 10,000 dollar bag of gear up the enormous tiled steps to the ominous check in desk, I stubbed my toe on the highest step. It hurt. It hurt bad. Really really bad…

Did I break it? I wasn’t sure. It seems to be customary, however, that I injure a toe while enjoying a tropical vacation of sorts. Last year, while surfing in Maui, I broke my fourth toe on my left foot. I was just setting off on a 3 month solo adventure through Europe. Of course! And, appropriately, this year (on this very day) I broke – or in any case severely  bruised – my big toe on my left foot just before shooting the most important gig of my life to date (my dream job, getting paid to travel = highly important). Perhaps it’s the way of the universe to tell me to sit still once paradise is reached.

I suppose, in Jamaica, I don’t have major objections to sitting still.

I awoke my first morning, after a gruelingly long red-eye flight from Portland and a 1.45 hour Jamaican time (equivilant to 3.5 hours American time) bus ride to my destination town of Ocho Rios (otherwise known as Ochi), to laughter.

Beautiful belly laughter.

It was calm and clear and the breezy air was cool with warm undertones. Jamaica was still asleep, but her people were slowly waking up.

Morning Fisher

From what I can tell, Jamaican life revolves around the sea. The people sluggishly awake. Walk to the end of the dock. Dive in for a morning bath. Fish. Jump off the dock some more… or perhaps my perception is drawn entirely from the view of room 204 at Crystal Ripple Lodge… the dock… which has very apparently become a main focus of my photos …

Jamaicans on the Dock

The other morning, while I was enjoying some coffee and eavesdropping on the conversation of the German family next to me (They were very chatty, thinking their soft boiled eggs needed to be boiled at least two minutes longer and finally decided to put the eggs in the microwave),  I sat contentedly and got to watch some fishermen bring in their nets…