Meaning of Life

We'll all turn back to dust and be forgotten...so while we're here, let's be happy and kind!

Hope and Frustration

Has anyone ever seen that episode of South Park where Cartman goes to teach at an inner city school? The kids are just about given up and Cartman turns around and says to: "How do reach these kids?!"

Just in case you haven't:

That's exactly how I feel when people ask me about veganism. They clearly get it, animals should not be abused, but are unwilling to end the cycle of violence and exploitation. At which point I cradle my head in my hands and scream "How do I reach these omnivores?!" Although admittedly, my accent is significantly more British!

A few days ago I had my dad visiting me and we had gone out for meal. He's sat there, enjoying his pork dumplings and chicken curry while talking about how much he loves animals.

I hear this sort of thing from so many people, I can only conclude that either the whole world is totally f***ing insane, or it's just me.

It's like pausing mid-rape to express your devotion to women's rights.

I can only think of one solution - forget GMO labeling for now, instead let's have a label showing the moment of harvest, photographed by an independent organization. I would have absolutely no problem looking at a picture on my food package of a combine harvester working its way around a field, or a farmer's hand reaching up to pick some fruit. In fact I think it would be a great idea! That way I can ensure that there's no child labour, no sweatshops, no burning rainforest in the background. It would really make my food producers think about the ethics of their operation.

By the same token, if you're buying beef then it would reasonable to show that cow being bolted or having it's carotid slashed. Why not? Surely you'd want to check that your meal was being 'ethically' slaughtered. If you don't like what you see, then go vegan.

We live in a society where we are fed lies about where our food comes from. We see fried chicken places with a grinning rooster, dairy products with winking cows and BBQ places with pictures of pigs working the grill. At the entrance to death camps, do they have statues of prisoners grinning and giving the thumbs up?

It's very important to know where our food comes from and what we are eating - or am I somehow unique in this viewpoint? Maybe I'll start out with a petition to help make this reality, please give me any ideas you might have...

Tough Times

Sometime life throws us a tough few days, weeks or even years! This last week has been quite rough for me, to start with I had to have some dental work done. Unfortunately when I went in for stage one a couple of weeks ago the anesthesia wore off.

It started out as a mild discomfort then started to really smart. The dentist changed the drill head went back in and it was like lighting hit my mouth! Crack! Starting from my tooth, pain traveled at light speed along my spine, making my fingers and toes shake and tingle. Luckily it was over in an instant. She took the drill out and injected the roof of my mouth, "now this might hurt...quite a bit," the dentist said before she stuck the needle in. Anyway, as uncomfortable as it was it was all over in a few minutes.

This time when I went back in, I wasn't really too worried. I knew that worst case it would be sharp pain and in a few moments it would be over. Oh, why didn't my body agree with my brain? As soon as I sat down my back feels like a clammy waterfall. Regardless of how much I rationalized it and knew there was nothing to be scared of, I was terrified! Fortunately it went better this time and was relatively pain free. The dentist - a superstar - even asked for my cell number and called me at about 8:30pm to see if I was ok!

There's also the US Department of Homeland Security to worry about. I need to apply to remove the conditions on my residency in the US, provide a whole heap of paperwork and pay $590 for the privilege. Last time I dealt with them it was a process that was meant to take three months that ended up taking nine months during which time I was unable to work. Goodbye life savings! I'd call them to check on the progress, wait on hold for 45 minutes, would ask one question, they'd answer and hang up - I had more questions than that! This happened more than once.

Anyhow, good news they collected the money from the check and wrote to me saying they'd extend the green card by one year (which now means I have to carry my green card and a letter of explanation of why it's expired around with me) while they investigate my case. apparently it'll take about nine months. I'm not so sure why it takes so long since I've provided them with all of the documentation required and paid $590...but there you go.

Then there was work on Thursday. Another guy at the office started about a month before me, being the new guys we really hit it off and became close friends. A few months ago I was promoted and ended up becoming his manager. It seemed he was doing his job well until I was called into the CEO's office on Thursday.

My CEO (I report directly to him) showed me a report that shone a pretty harsh light on the shortcomings of my colleague, as a result of which I was told to get rid of him that day. I ended up calling one of my best friends into the office to fire him. It made me feel sick, because I know right now is a very difficult time for him personally with various family problems, so loosing his job was the last thing he needed.

Next is my family - my mum is going though a very difficult time right now.  On Tuesday she called me in tears to let me know she was dying.  Things seem to be a little better since then, all I can say is it's tough being so far away!

So that's where I am right now. I'm not going to pretend it's worse than it is, because I'll be ok, but it's been a difficult week. All of this reminds me of what caused me to become vegetarian. It was before I came to the States and I was at a real low point. Now whatever I go though to I can think back to the and think "well, if I survived that then I can get though this!"

It must have been nearly five years ago, I was sat down eating a chicken sandwich and worried sick with my own problems. I looked at the meat in that sandwich and realized that now matter how bad things were for me things had been a whole lot worse for that chicken. I'd have done just about anything to get out of my situation, yet here I am causing something a whole lot worse, and because of what...I liked the taste of it?

I cared so much for my own life and those of my loved ones, but I had complete disregard for the lives of the animals I ate. From that point on I realized I no longer had any moral justification for eating meat, and since then it's never even crossed my mind that I made the wrong decision. What sort of a person would I be to want to kill animals just for my own pleasure? That was the last chicken sandwich I ever had.

Several months later veganism was explained to me (by my hero!) there was no additional thought required. From that moment on I was vegan! How could I defend my stance that animals should not be killed and abused and still support the veal industry, the massacre of fluffy male chicks who go "peep, peep, peep!" I had no other recourse other than to become vegan.

The worse things get for me, the more it opens my eyes to the range of suffering that is possible, and the less it makes me want to be part of the suffering of others. 

What sort of a vegan blog would this be without...

The food post :)

Yup, like all vegans, I enjoy taking bad pictures of homemade food. Vegans/vegetarians on the whole seem to love food a lot more than the non vegan population, and for good reason! Veganism is often seen as such a restrictive diet, on the contrary, it's really opened my palate to so many great foods! It exposes you up to all of the nicest food from all over the world. When you're watching some program me about weird food on the Discovery Channel do you go "Ewww!" when they bust out the salad or the monkey brain? Enough said! 

Wherever you are, you know vegan food will be good, and with all of the meat substitutes these days you really don't have to change much if you don't want to.

Anyway, last night was one of those nights I was expecting to be fed, so didn't have a meal planned. That turned out not to be the case so I peered into the fridge. Half a head of broccoli, cold rice from last night, a few mushrooms left in the box and a block of tofu met my gaze.

About fifteen minutes later it had turned into this:

Ingredients

Broccoli

Tofu

Mushrooms

Rice

Sauce

Rice Vinegar (tablespoon)

Mirin (tablespoon)

Soy sauce (tablespoon)

Sesame/Vegetable oil (teaspoon)

Sugar (teaspoon)

Garlic (1 or 2 cloves)

I put the broccoli on to steam, chopped some tofu and crushed up some garlic. In a large frying pan I put a little vegetable and sesame oil on a medium heat, immediately I added the other sauce ingredients (excluding garlic) and stirred until it started to simmer. I then added the garlic, simmered for a minute little longer and reduce the heat.

I poured the sauce into a new sauce-pan set to a low heat, put the frying pan back on the heat and added the tofu into the frying pan, this way as it cooks it mops up the delicious savory flavor from the sauce! About now the broccoli was done steaming, so I added it to the pan with the sauce I also added last night's cold rice to the mix and gave it a good stir!

The tofu was coming on nicely so I added the mushrooms. I cooked for a further 4 or 5 minutes until the mushrooms and tofu were cooked though.

I put the broccoli and rice on a plate and then topped with the mushrooms and tofu. 

Moments later I was being a typical nerdy vegan photographing my food.

Anger!

There are few species that could claim to be as abused as chickens:

• More chickens are slaughtered each year in the US than there are people in the world.
• Chicken naturally live for 6 or more years, most are dead by six weeks.
• Male chickens of the egg breeds are killed within 72 hours of hatching, many by being discarded, live, into grinders.

It's easy to draw a few conclusions:

• The egg industry is a machine of genocide, killing half of chickens at birth, keeping the other half as slaves.
• At birth the date of death is already decided, welcome to Auschwitz.
• For these animals, there is no hope, there is no one coming to save them and they will die against their will as infants at the hand of man.

Are we all being good and moral by not involving ourselves with this by being vegan, vegetarian or, shudder, - 'flexitarian'? Yes, in part we are, but only to the same extent that we can claim to be good moral people by not exhibiting the same behavior towards humans. How crazy would it be to hear someone say, "You know, I try to be good, I gave up murdering people, I don't keep any slaves in my dungeon and I have't orchestrated any war crimes recently." Hmmm!

I don't know about you, but I would find it very hard to sleep at night knowing this is going on and I'm not doing anything to stop it.

We are born free, a luxury that not all our fellow earthlings have. Use your voice, write to businesses, sign petitions, tell your friends about compassion, be an example, show love, kindness, adopt, make a donation, invite people for cruelty free meals, support ethical businesses! Use your anger in a positive way, it's the catalyst for change.

To acknowledge suffering is bad is to acknowledge veganism is good!

If you haven't done so already, check out the video in that last post, he's a fantastic speaker :)