Don't Be Dictated To

My recent post about The Occupy Movement has got me thinking more and more about how we should stand up for what we believe in. One of my pet hates is when people tell me that I shouldn’t be so stubborn, and I should just back down to other people because it makes life easier. Why should I? If everyone did that, laws would never change, technology would never develop, our human rights would be ignored and we'd probably all still be living in caves. A few years ago, I was lucky to work with a young Hungarian woman who had grown up during communist rule. She taught me that when you are fortunate to have freedom, you should use it as much as possible.

For anyone who has been living under a rock the past few weeks and doesn’t know, we had local elections here in the UK on Thursday 3^rd May. For the month running up to the elections, my letter box was bombarded by junk mail from the two main political parties in my neighbourhood. I found the literature from the Welsh Liberal Democrats to be particularly arrogant. First of all, they announced to everyone that they had been ‘running’ Cardiff since 2004. We live in a country that is governed by the National Assembly which, unlike England, is designed so that our politics aren’t about a particular party ruling over us. The Lib Dems then had the cheek to tell us that our only voting options in Roath are the Welsh Lib Dems or the Welsh Labour Party. Wow, I thought, that’s really strange because when I go and vote there are at least another four options on my ballot paper. Surely the fact that we are lucky enough to have the vote in the UK means that we have the choice to vote for whoever we want, otherwise we might as well live under a dictatorship. If every person in my neighbourhood didn’t listen to the propaganda about there ‘only being two political parties in Roath’, that accepted norm would probably soon disappear. So my message is to stand by what you believe in. And remember, it only takes one person to knock the balance the other way.

What's Your Occupy Movement?

As I have said in earlier blogs, what started as me recording my efforts to follow a plant-based diet has evolved into a platform for me to talk about all subjects that affect our future as a species. I think it would be naïve of me to not include the recent coverage of the Occupy Movement in that. In recent months, the Occupy Movement has taken up a lot of column inches, but the most poignant for me is a photo essay by Tom Campbell in The Big Issue. Rather than focus on the political aspects of the movement or it’s ramifications on recent history, Campbell chose instead to base his essay around a series of portraits of some of the individuals involved.

The portraits are a stunning collection of art. I have scanned a couple onto this blog, but my meagre attempts at reproduction do not do the artist justice.

It has been said that a picture speaks a thousand words, and Campbell’s photos are definitely proof of that. Even if you don’t read the accompanying text, by looking at the photos you begin to see the story of the subjects, and the passion with which they live their lives. These people have built a community, and it is a community that will stay strong and continue no matter how many times they are evicted and moved on.

When it comes to my personal opinion of things such as the Occupy Movement, some people would describe me as being ‘sat on the fence’, but I see it more as being open-minded. In any debate, I always try to see things from the viewpoint of every side and understand where they are coming from and why. With campaigns and demonstrations such as the Occupy Movement, regardless of what the outcome is and how much they achieve towards making the world a ‘better’ place, I think the important thing is that someone is doing something. It makes me question why more people don’t stand by what they believe in, and why they don’t share their views. When I first turned vegetarian, for me it was a private thing and I disliked other vegetarians who were trying to convert the world. My opinion was that it was everyone’s choice what they ate. Now that I eat a plant-based diet, and I understand the importance of everyone following a more planet friendly lifestyle to preserve our species, I shout about it much more, hence this blog. Don’t get me wrong, I’m still not trying to convert the world, I just want everyone to be more educated about the issues that are important to us. We don’t all have to drastically change our lives, but if reading this blog helps one person to make one small step in the right direction then it is worth it.

What the Occupy Movement is showing us is that we don’t have to just sit back and accept the norm. Just because we live in a world that is controlled by big business and leaders, it does not mean that it always has to be like that. In the same way, just because we have been told in the West that eating meat is good for us, it doesn’t mean that we can’t change. After all, before Christopher Columbus came along, everyone knew that the Earth was flat. The greatest gift we have as humans is education. We all need to listen to each other, learn from each other and absorb as much as possible. As the Occupy Movement has shown, if we’re stronger together then we don’t need leaders. Maybe if we were all more open with our own beliefs, we would find it easier to be accepting of other people’s.

Israeli potatoes - really?

As you may have noticed, due to the change of season here in the UK I have been a bit (OK, a lot) obsessed with local, seasonal produce recently. One of the great things about following a plant-based diet and writing this blog is that it instigates discussions and ideas sharing with other people. Only the other day I was talking to one of my friends about buying British. Like me, my friend tries to buy local whenever possible, although she does admit that pineapple is a weakness for her. With all the will in the world, I don't think we'll ever be able to grow descent pineapples here. My friend had noticed, however, that our local Co-operative is selling potatoes from Israel. Really?????? Although we may not have the most exotic choice of fruit and vegetables in the UK, the one thing we can grow really well and in abundance is potatoes. So why do we need to import them from Israel?

Strawberries

Oh my gosh - I am soooo excited. There are loads of fruits and vegetables coming into season in the UK at the moment. I popped into the supermarket earlier to pick up some salad for my lunch tomorrow and also found British strawberries. And they taste delicious. For anyone outside the UK who is reading this, if you ever visit our beautiful shores then I recommend you try strawberries whilst you're here.
Although I love all fruit (apart from grapefruit, I could never get my head round that), strawberries hold a special place in my heart. When I was a kid growing up in Blackpool, my parents used to grow strawberries around an old corrugated iron swimming pool that stood in the middle of our garden. And boy did they grow. We used to have buckets and buckets of strawberries every week in the summer, they grow so well here. One of my fondest memories of my chilhood is standing on a stool in the kitchen, helping my mum to wash and hull them all.

Woo hoo! New food!

I'm so happy this week. Salad crops are starting to come into season in the UK. I've been eating salad all week - fresh tomatoes, cucumber, peppers, and I bought some amazing lettuce and spinach at Roath Real Food Market yesterday. It's so nice to have a change in diet. Don't get me wrong, I love winter vegetables, but it does get a bit tiresome by April.

I read in yesterday's Metro that the British Prime Minister David Cameron has agreed to more wind turbines being built. For me personally, this can only be good news. There are still lots of NIMBY's against this, icluding 100 MPs. Although I can sympathise with the noise levels which must be loud if you live in an otherwise quiet part of the countryside, I really don't think there is any valid argument against wind turbines. There is one near my house in Cardiff, and I think it is fantastic that we have this beautiful piece of modern engineering to provide us with clean energy. A few weeks ago, I was on a plane that flew over the wind turbines in the English Channel. It was such an incredible, awe-inspiring sight. People say that the turbines are ugly, but I disagree. If you look at the history of traditional windmills, they too were considered big, ugly, dirty machines in their time, yet we now preserve them as a piece of our heritage. I can't help but wonder if in 100 years time out descendants will be desperately trying to preserve the wind turbines that David Cameron's generation built, whilst thinking us crazy for not appreciating their beauty and benefit.

Is it natural for us to eat meat?

A thought has just occured to me. A lot of meat eaters argue that it is natural for humans to eat meat. That we would have the instinct to go out and hunt our food (or select it from Tesco) regardless of what other food is availabe. I don't know about you, but if I was living in the prehistoric world where I had to fend for myself, I would find it a lot easier to dig up a plant than to hunt and kill an animal. Maybe our predecessors only went to the trouble of chasing down other mammals because their plant supplies had dwindled.