Going Barefoot is Thinking Green

Smoking crack is thinking green.

 

Hahaha, what's that supposed to mean? Even at night? What is so out of bounds about going barefoot at night. When you go out to bars or parties or hanging out with friends at night is the coolest time to be barefoot.

 

I used to do this as a kid but I havn't in years.

 

Please read...

Thousands of children receive life-changing shoes in Panama


By Marti Ostrander

PANAMA CITY, Panama, 20 March 2009 – More than 30,000 school-age boys and girls in the indigenous areas of the Ngobe Buglé, Emberá-Wounáan and Kuna Yala, as well as in the Darien province and other emergency-declared areas, received a pair of Crocs footwear as a health promotion intervention, aimed at reducing skin infections, fungus growth and other infectious diseases linked to bare feet.
SolesUnited Foundation, the philanthropic branch of Crocs, in partnership with UNICEF, donated the shoes to benefit the children in the most remote areas of the country, where poverty strikes more than 90 per cent of the children, and more than 50 per cent suffer from chronic malnourishment.
This ground-breaking, first-time collaboration between Crocs and UNICEF was supported by the Panamanian Ministry of Health and Ministry of Education.
Along with the pairs of Crocs, families – and the communities who helped organize the distribution – also received information in their own language on the importance of wearing shoes to prevent diseases and infections. This massive distribution of footwear took place right before the start of the school year so that the children could arrive to the first day of classes in their colourful new shoes.
Opening school doors
© UNICEF Panama/2009/Ostrander A boy in the community of El Real, in Darien, proudly holds his new pair of Crocs. In addition, the Panamanian Minister of Education also announced that Crocs footwear will be fully accepted and welcomed as part of the school uniform in remote and rural areas. This announcement opens the door to thousands of children who were previously excluded from schools for lack of shoes.
One such child is José Luis Montezuma, 13, who used to work in agricultural plantations in the highlands of Chiriquí. Since he was 8, he worked 10-hour days carrying heavy loads of coffee, onions or tomatoes, to help his mother feed his other 5 siblings, and to be able to afford school supplies. But with no money left over for shoes, he often had to go barefoot.
“I am very happy I am getting a pair of shoes that lasts. They protect my feet from sickness,” he said.
Thanks to the simple gift of shoes, José can now go to school, where he wants to study to be a doctor or an engineer.
Simple solutions to child health
UNICEF Representative in Panama Mark Connolly said this was a great example of how the private sector, UNICEF, the Government and the community can work together to make a difference.
© UNICEF Panama/2009/Ostrander A boy in Vista Alegre, in the Emberá Wounáan territory, back flips in his new pair of shoes into the Tuira River. “All the key players partnered so that 30,000 boys and girls would be healthier, so they can have a long-lasting pair of shoes to prevent parasites, infections and other diseases, and to keep them in school,” he said.
“Through the SolesUnited programme, I have been exposed to the reality of what having a pair of shoes means,” said SolesUnited Director Melissa Koester. “Something this simple can help keep a child healthy, and we are thrilled to partner with UNICEF to provide Crocs shoes to families in impoverished areas of Panama.”


(Bold added for emphasis)
ZW

 

OMG, that is so sad. They want to wipe out barefooting all over the world. Well, I have 2 arguments for this.

1. I have lived without any shoes for 2 years now and I have been in some nasty places w/o shoes. I haven't gotten any of these ailments they are talking about.

2. There are people in even more remote regions (Brazillian jungle, Aboriginal Australia, Paupa New Guinea) who have never seen shoes, and sometimes live completely naked. They have done so for over 10,000 years and have very healthy feet. Some of them live to ripe old ages. Explain that one.

If shoes were a needed for absolute survival, our species would have been doomed 10,000 years ago. We were created with what we need to survive. People in western societies have extremely week and sensitive feet because they have grown dependant on shoes.

 

You are naive my friend...

Hookworm disease

Hookworm disease is one of the most common parasitic roundworm infections of the intestines. This disease is widespread in tropical and subtropical countries where people may defecate on the ground and where the soil moisture is most favorable for hookworm eggs to develop into larvae (immature worms).
The World Health Organization estimates hookworm disease affects 740 million people worldwide. Once a big problem in the southeastern United States, hookworm disease is now largely controlled in this country.


Transmission

You can get hookworms by walking barefoot over contaminated soil. In penetrating your skin, the hookworm larvae (immature worms) may cause an allergic reaction. It is from the itchy patch at the place where the larvae entered your body that the early infection came to be known as "ground itch."
Once larvae have broken through your skin, they enter your bloodstream and are carried to your lungs. Unlike ascarids, another form of parasitic roundworm, hookworms do not usually cause pneumonia.
The larvae migrate from your lungs to your windpipe, which is then swallowed and carried back down to your small intestine.



Prevention

If you are in an area where hookworm disease is common, or where human feces may be in the soil or sand, you

• Should not walk barefoot on the soil or sand
• Should not touch the soil or sand with your bare hands

Hookworm prevention booklet distributed to school children by the Mississippi State Board of Health. Booklet courtesy Mississippi Department of Archives and History.

 

There you have it. So no need to scare everyone with your cartoons from the 1920's and 30's. Yes, we did once have hookworm here before modern sanitation. Hookworms develop and thrive where raw sewage runs through the streets and leaks into the ground. Just look at the last two frames of the cartoon you posted. They are not telling people to wear shoes, they are telling them to take a dump in the toilet so that hookworms don't get into the soil. I don't know how it is where you live, but I don't see people shitting in the streets anymore...lol

You have a better chance of getting hit by lightening than to get hookworm from going barefoot in the North America in 2010.

Like it or not there are plenty of barefoot hippies around. There have been since the 1960s and we are not going to the hospital in droves because we got exotic illnesses just from not wearing shoes.

Obviously you don't like the idea of people not wanting to wear shoes..... just get over it!!

 

Are you fucking retarded?
You just don't get the point so you would rather attack me with your petty assumptions. Can you understand this?
This disease is widespread in tropical and subtropical countries where people may defecate on the ground and where the soil moisture is most favorable for hookworm eggs to develop into larvae (immature worms).
The World Health Organization estimates hookworm disease affects 740 million people.

Get a fucking clue, children in the third world need to wear shoes because sanitation in those country tends to not be the greatest.

I could give a fuck if you don't wear shoes. I have been going barefoot for probably longer than you, fuckwad, but I'm not gonna pretend it's some sacred a hippy value to be defended.
Acting like a Fascist isn't a good hippy image you know, so why don't you just get over it?

ZW

 

WoW, such harsh words!! I just hope that you find peace and learn to channel away all of that negative energy inside of you.

Peace and Happiness,
Jaime

 

This site (like all internet sites) is worldwide, not just the US, so someone mentioning the dangers of hookworms isn't a scare tactic, it is common sense.

Approximately 1 out of every 7 people on the planet are infected, so you can't even argue that it is a rare thing, except in highly developed nations. Except in certain circumstances, such as where people gather outside the developed areas... such as in the forest where gatherings happen or where people are squatting with no sanitation. In other words, the places that 'hippies' like to go and hang out.

Talking about it isn't an attack an anyone or any ideal, it is sharing information, which is the purpose of the internet.

Perhaps you should examine your own stated beliefs and ask yourself why someone sharing information scares you to the point where you take it as an attack against you personally.

 

Just because you didn't use profanity doesn't make this a less aggressive statement.
You have accused me of being intolerant for no good reason.
That is what triggered my harsh words.

Your statement about my "negative energy" is a stock phrase I constantly hear PC types like you use. Delivered with passive-aggressive undertones, your intention is not only to hurt the recipient but to making yourself feel superior.

You don't see me in the barefoot forum heckling folks do you?

I'm done here.


ZW eace:

 

Can this be spread by animals? Or do we only need to worry about human shit?

 

from;

http://www.essortment.com/all/wormsinfestatio_rgdx.htm

 

The part I love about the attitude that it is some sort of 'crusade' is that it totally ignores that some people don't live in climates where it is possible for most of the year.

I would love to see some of the "barefoot nazi's" come up here and follow their obsession when it is -40 outside.

 

I think you totally misunderstand. The "crusade" you speak of has been going on since the late 60's when hippies started to disown footwear. We just want the right to be barefoot (if we choose). Also, I think that people should leave other cultures be. Let's clothe the poor savages who go naked in the jungle, let's indoctrinate the natives who believe in other religions. How about just let them be, and maybe try to learn something from them? Let's learn how to go "back to the Earth", instead of forcing our western materialism on everyone.

Other than that, I totally agree with you that shoes may be a requirement for places that reach (-40 F). I can stand it down to about zero, but after that it's just not comfortable to be outside for any length of time with exposed skin.

 

Hehehe think i was more daring years and years ago...i did have my days when i walked around barefoot...even in my family home garden...even at a time when we had loads of prickly flowers...

Im just too afraid of hurting my foot now so that’s why i probably why I wouldn’t do it now…

If I am honest I not certain why I did want to be barefoot…could have been my obsession with animals…

 

Mabey cuz goin' barefoot just feels good.


I like to play golf barefoot (I never use a cart)
...'cept on the putting greens they use alot of chemicals, fungicides and what-not. I keep a pair of thongs in my golf bag to slip on when I putt.

Barefoot on a beach is the best (if the sand isn't too hot)

Barefootjamie... you a'ight?...Wee's coo'?
ZW