You are reading this!!!! You must be a
super cool person! Read on.... :)
When I was growing up in the Soviet Union, people really didn't have a
choice in almost anything - the government was very strict. I decided to
never take the freedoms I have now for granted by being aware and by being
proactive citizen, keeping myself educated on what's going on in the
world around me. I honestly do believe, that one person can make difference to make our world a better place. And together, we can make a big
difference. You may say I'm a dreamer, but I'm not the only one :)
Right?
On this page I wrote about my passions besides music - promoting cultural
understanding, recycling and environmental activism. Thank you for taking
the time to read this! Hugs, Marina :)
ON A CULTURAL MISSION When I was 15 years old, I was very lucky to win a scholarship (sponsored by the US government) to attend high school in rural America (I was placed to Springfield, IL). The goal of this program was for a foreign student (me) to educate American peers about other cultures (Russian culture in my case) and to promote mutual cultural understanding. That year in America made me realize that one person, just a normal teenager like myself, can actually make a big difference. For many people in Springfield I was the first Russian person they had ever met, and I was representing not only myself, but my whole culture and my entire country (and often all of Europe). Some people were expecting a 6'5" burly creature with mustache when they thought of a Russian female, but I managed to break those stereotypes with my height of 5'6" and the absence of mustache. I showed pictures of Moscow and told them about the beauty of Russia and the kindness of Russian people (among other things not often shown on TV). But most importantly, my mere presence in the school promoted cultural tolerance and provided them with a friendly "face" to put on a big former enemy called Russia.
Even now, with the internet and more accessible travel, many people are
not aware of the breath-taking architecture of my home country, or the
beautiful music & art, the folk arts & crafts, or the gorgeous landscapes of the Russian countryside.
I still feel like I am on a mission - to tell the world about
Russia (and now, about America as well, since I recently became a US
citizen and I often travel abroad), the way I see it - with my eyes and with my heart.
There are many things we can can do to improve the situation in both
countries. There is so much beauty in this world, we can really make it a
better together, if we try.
You can see my pictures from Russia & other places on my pictures page.
Other links for Russia:
world-famous traditional Russian shawls,
famous Moscow Metro at metro.ru
(sorry, it's only in Russian, so randomly click anywhere:)
P.S. I was recently invited to perform at the Russian Cultural Center in
Washington, DC. The Center's mission is to promote Russian-American
relations, and I was very honored that they asked me to play at two events
at the Center.
I LOVE THE ENVIRONMENT & RECYCLING
I love nature. I love beautiful forests, the ocean, open fields and
meadows. I enjoy breathing fresh air (not so much the brown L.A. smog) and drinking clean water. I also love
big cities and really love it when they're clean and green. It simply breaks
my heart to see how many things are wasted and thrown away every day. I am
a minimalist by nature, but in this world we have a lot more than we
actually need, and so many things are manufactured only to be thrown away
after one time use.
I am absolutely freaked out about all of the trash and the
ever-growing landfills. Think of all the fast food cups (Americans
alone throw away 25 BILLION disposable cups EACH YEAR - and they
take hundreds of years to decompose!!), straws,
napkins, grocery bags
(500 billion plastic bags are used and
thrown out worldwide each year), product packaging and other disposable things that
accumulate in millions every day in our trash bins.
I am also very concerned about my own health and the health of the people I
love. I live in L.A. and the smog gets to be simply unbearable. The majority
of food that is sold to us is just unacceptable -with all of the
preservatives, artificial ingredients, chemicals, pesticides and fertilizers
that are commonly used in making food (or hormone, steroid and antibiotic use
in growing cattle/poultry). And more than ever, the highest
numbers of children (and adults) suffer from asthma, obesity & other food
and pollution-related illnesses. But, there are things we can do to improve
the situation.
- recycle everything & get your friends to
recycle
making things out of recycled
products requires no natural materials and less energy, hence reducing the
pollution. Recycling reduces
pollutions and saves national resources, including precious trees that
absorb carbon dioxide. If 100,000 people who currently don't recycle
begin to do so, they would collectively reduce carbon emissions by 42,000
TONS per year.
- bring your own cup to a coffee shop and re-fill your water bottle
- bring your own cloth bag to the grocery store
(read WHY)
Americans alone use more than 12
MILLION barrels of oil each year just to produce plastic grocery bags that
end up in landfills after only ONE USE and then take CENTURIES to decompose.
15 MILLION TREES are cut down annually to produce the 10 BILLION paper bags
we go through each year in the U.S. alone. So when they ask you, paper or
plastic, say NEITHER.
- buy products with minimal packaging
- buy 100% recycled paper towels/toilet paper
(harder to find in a regular
store, try Trader Joe's or Whole Foods). No Kleenex or other
Kimberly-Clarke products, they cut down beautiful forests to make something
for blowing our nose in!
- vote for politicians who will fight for our health and our environment!
and who are more interested in what is better for their constituents than
for their big money lobbyists
- walk wherever you can, and get a car with the highest MPG, a hybrid or a bio-diesel car
(like Willie Nelson!)
more about bio-diesel on Willie's site
www.biowillie.com
I am currently driving Toyota Prius - a hybrid vehicle with an average of
50 mpg, and I love it!!! Nick & I actually manage to put all of the gear
and merch and luggage in it while touring!
- use
fluorescent light bulbs
(if every household in the U.S. substituted
even ONE conventional light bulb with a compact fluorescent bulb, it would
have the same effect on pollution levels as removing a MILLION CARS from the
nation's roads!!!)
- buy bio-degradable detergent
Trader Joe's and Whole Foods have great
choices!
- buy organic foods or foods with no preservatives or artificial
ingredients, no high fructose corn syrup or hydrogenated oil, etc :)
(chemicals used in modern agriculture pollute
the water and require energy to produce, plus they're horrible for
our bodies!!!)
- read news online
It takes more than 500,000
trees to supply Americans with their Sunday newspaper EACH WEEK
- re-use things!
use Tupperware instead of
zip-lock bags, get a re-usable water bottle
and re-fill it at home instead of buying a bottle every day/week. I just
bought a great stainless steel bottle in Whole Foods and it's been great!!
- learn more about the issues &
become active - online and in the real world
see below
GREAT LINKS
SierraClub.org
www.TOYOTA.com I
am a fan of Toyota and their super cool Prius!!! Nick & I tour in it and we
fit ALL OF THE GEAR, merchandise and clothes in it!! It's the best car!!!
Al Gore his book Assault on Reason is
amazing!!
Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC)
- one of my favorites
Environmental
Defense - take a minute to help us protect our planet
http://www.defenders.org/ -
defenders of wildlife - online activist network
UNDOit.org
Rainn (The Rape, Abuse and Incest National
Network)
American Cancer Society
(my aunt Elena died of cancer at 50 years old in 2005.
My grandma died in her mid 60s. With research money and raising the
awareness for early detection, we can make a difference!)
National Parks Conservation Association (USA)
Green Peace
FAST FOOD NATION- a great book (recommended to me
back in 2004 by Jack Douglas, an eye-opening book)
CLEAN MONEY CAMPAIGN http://www.89now.org
PAPER OR PLASTIC?
Neither!!! :)
more info at epa.gov
Who Killed the Electric Car -
the movie you have to see :)
www.biowillie.com - Willie Nelson's cool website about bio diesel
www.climatecrisis.net/ -
An Inconvenient Truth (if you look very carefully, you will see me in the
audience when Al Gore was giving the presentation!!)
Intelligent, wonderful and inspiring:
Bill Maher, Al Franken, Michael Moore,
PaulMcCartney
& CrocodileHunter
Contact the White House
ProgressiveTalkAM1150.com - with Ed Schultz & Randi Rhodes!!
Whole Foods and
Trader Joe's - my favorite grocery
stores!!!
