is it safe yet?

can i come out of hiding? is the 'fleshtival' over?

can i walk into a supermarket without my eyes being drawn to the tinselled, highly lit dismembered bodies of sentient beings murdered for human consumption? can i turn on the television without being assailed by the horrendous imagery of body parts of beings i consider someone, not a food ingredient? unfortunately this happens all year, but the bombardment of butchery increases dramatically at this time when religion and commercialism get together with 'celebration'...

i hope edgar's mission don't mind my use of their banner!

i had this week off work, not for the celebratory time some see it as - i'm not religious so don't subscribe to the fairytale fable - but because i couldn’t, didn't want to, deal with the inevitable and often distressingly (disturbingly!, alarmingly!) descriptive conversations about 'festive food' - who people would be eating and how they would be serving them...

from evolve campaigns

while many sat down on 25 december to 'family feasts' of necrovore gluttony in the form of putrid, decaying flesh and body fats (yes, if you hadn’t thought about it, the moment someone dies they start to decompose no matter how you ‘dress them up’) - i sat down and decided it was time to watch speciesism, the movie…

not sure what speciesism is? a huffington post article '"speciesism : the movie" may change your world view' states “The word "speciesism," which has been popularized by Princeton bioethicist Peter Singer, refers to the assumption that a vast gulf exists between the ethical value of human interests and the ethical value of the interests of other animals. At its extreme, we may see ourselves as the only species that matters morally, and view other animals as existing merely for our use: to eat, to make into clothing, to perform experiments on, to be entertained by in circuses and zoos. Like those who grew up having overt racist beliefs assimilated into their worldview, some degree of speciesism has been so well-assimilated into the worldview of most of us that it does not even appear to be worth questioning.” ... in other words, subscribing to the human superiority myth...

i was definitely in for some mental stimulation watching this film…

this is the first film by mark devries and, according to an article on the free from harm website 'could mark devries' first film change the world' “Before making his maiden movie, 25-year-old George Washington University law student Mark Devries was, well, a speciesist. He believed, as most of us do, that the arguments for animal rights and against speciesism were absurd and easily dismissable. But in the course of his interviews with the world’s leading philosophers on the subject — Peter Singer, Gary Francione, Tom Regan, evolutionary biologists Richard Dawkins and Marc Bekoff — he had a complete shift in consciousness and became a vegan. He claims that their arguments make an irrefutable case for animal rights, and he’s equally moved by the absence of valid counter arguments."

it doesn’t contain the full-on, in-your-face confronting imagery of ‘earthlings’ or ‘meat the truth’, but it questions the processes and secrecy surrounding big agricultural facilities, it exposes the environmental damage and searches for answers - it is definitely thought-provoking and no less confronting morally and ethically… it's another important expose of the continuing holocaust of those we brutalise and enslave by the billions year in and year out – they are someone, not something…

“The word "holocaust" is defined as "destruction or slaughter on a mass scale." In modern times, the word is applied most often to the plight of European Jews at the hands of Hitler, but the word was not invented for this event. There have been many holocausts before and after, many on a larger scale. Even so, to compare the slaughter of non-human animals to the slaughter of humans is not to degrade the deaths of humans but to dignify the deaths of non humans.”... dan piraro

the two articles mentioned above speak volumes on this movie and are both worth reading, and i would highly recommend watching the movie if you can get your hands on a copy (i bought mine online here and will be donating it to my local library)...

have i mentioned i hate this time of year? sadly there's another form of necrovore delight prevalent on these lovely summer evenings - the barbecue - unfortunately evenings are often tainted with the smell of burning flesh from yet more victims of speciesism - you know that invasive, pervasive odor that can't be 'locked out' - there is no escape...yes, there are definitely  moments when i hate this time of year...

for anyone who has read down to here, and is interested in the etymology of words, holocaust has actually been around since the 13th century... you can read more at the online etymology dictionary...

you can change the world...

how? by thinking about your food choices... veganism, animal rights, worker's rights, child labour - lauren ornelas connects all the dots in this short video - perhaps she will make you think outside the box, make you look behind the propoganda and see the slavery that exists amongst human and nonhuman animals alike...

you can find out more on the food empowerment website or check out her appetite for justice blog...

and while on food choices, i just had to share this graphic from vegan street

from vegan street's daily meme 7/11/2013

we're bombarded on a daily basis with 'meat industry' propoganda - brainwashing by any other name - yet i'll bet there isn't a vegan around that hasn't been accused of 'pushing' their philosophy on to others, and often all that takes is to say 'no thanks, i'm vegan'... please, think about your food choices, question the industries that benefit from exploitation, help change the world...

still procrastinating...

well, here it is, october now and i still don't have the incentive to get back into blogging - amazing considering there is a wealth of subject matter out there... i often think about it, but then i just move on without doing anything... i've had a lot of personal stuff to deal with over the last few months and it seems to have worn me out... so while i procrastinate a little bit longer and try to find my spark again i'll just share this youtube video with you... blues-y, rock-y music with a message, by a young man who goes by the name of evan rock...

a 'share' from vegan feminist agitator...

i'm almost back to blogging - but not quite... having just moved - yes, time to get my own space again, with shadow and petey of course, and dealing with 'life crap' - the ending of something i should have realised had ended ages ago, a sick mother hospitalised, etc. etc.,  i just couldn't pass up sharing this brilliant post from the wonderful marla of vegan feminist agitator...

Looking at Life Through the Vegan Lens

“It's not what you're looking at that matters, it's what you see.” - Henry David Thoreau

For most of my life, I have walked around in a comfortably fuzzy world; it’s a misty place with blurred, dull edges, and I love it here for the most part. Acclimated to my astigmatism and poor eyesight, I still prefer it this way. I recently got glasses, though, and suddenly everything is so very sharp and crisp. I am noticing faces in a way that I didn’t before but this new clarity of vision also means that the dirt on the floor is much more pronounced to me as well. There is comfort in the blurred edges and sometimes the laser-sharp clarity of the world I can see so much better now has me longing to retreat to that old hazy landscape. It’s better to be able to see but it’s not without its challenges. 

I believe that the same could be said about those of us who have altered the lens through which we see the world. This is what happens when you go vegan. I think that once you can truly see life from this new, radically different framework, the lens through which you view the world is likely to be altered forever. For some of us, when the old lens shatters, it becomes obsolete, useless to us. We can no longer pretend to see things the way we did before so we can not go back to living as we did before. Others do what they can to tape the broken lens back together, a piece of tape here, some glue there, in order to not have to discard it. A successfully transformed perspective from a shattered and replaced lens is one that rearranges how we see our place in the world; though it is unsettling to suddenly see things that our culture doesn’t want us to see, things that are pervasive and disturbing, we can remedy that disharmony by changing our lives to accommodate our new vision. Whether it was because of a searing epiphany or a more gradual toppling of the excuses we clung to, the end result is that we are not the same as we once were. We are changed in fundamental ways that are often invisible but no less tangible, and this altered perspective can often make us incompatible with accepting what we once did as “the way things are.”  We are vegan.

A fundamental aspect of being vegan means that we now see the world in new ways: we see dead cows where others see hamburgers, we see tortured birds where others see omelets, we understand that we are equals in suffering. It’s not because we necessarily want to see this way but because we often cannot “un-see” it. It is our new lens no matter the challenges because living with a clarity of vision is so essential to us.

As vegans, we are often told that we are insipid or melodramatic for seeing things the way we do, and, implicitly or explicitly, we are asked to stop making life uncomfortable for those who want to continue eating animals unabated. How can we do that, though? Simply by existing and often without words, as vegans, we represent the elephant in the room and the truth about the violence we inflict needlessly. Most would prefer not to see this. We are provocative simply by existing and we can’t help that. The dissonance between what we see and what we are asked to pretend not to see is a bizarre tension vegans are expected to simply accept as an unspoken condition of adapting to life.

Needless to say, this is hard to accept.

We are being asked to not see (or to behave as if we don’t see) something that would be obvious to anyone who wasn’t complicit in maintaining the avoidance of this, and something that we see nakedly, without artifice and without trying. That we see violence and we see killing isn’t necessarily a judgment, it is a statement of fact: we see this because this is what is happening. We’re not supposed to say, think or even see this, though. When vegans, approximately 2% of the population, are told that we are oppressing others because we speak, think and simply see the truth about the horrors that are inflicted on animals, a dysfunctional dynamic is in place. We are being asked to maintain a lie about something when we cannot avoid seeing the truth.

We are looking at the world through a different lens and this lens changes everything. It makes life challenging at times but being able to clearly see and then act on what we see is an incredible honor and privilege. How fortunate we are to have this rare vision. What a responsibility, too. That we could spend a fraction of our lives letting people know what we are able to see and perhaps help them to develop a new lens is a blessing beyond measure."

marla's wonderful 'wordsmithing' never ceases to uplift me and put a smile on my face for her articulation and validation of me and my thoughts - you can't 'un-see- what you have seen, you can't 'un-know' what you know... thank you wonderful womon...

strength, bravery and compassion...

what a combination... and they all come rolled up in this one man, damien mander, ex special operations unit sniper for the royal australian navy - now avid environmental and animal rights activist and founder of the international anti-poaching foundation (iapf)

the following video is 'doing the rounds' at the moment... i first read of it on the free from harm blog where the author of the article, ashley capps, states... 

"I’m always grateful to come across stories of men whose own struggles with received ideas about masculinity and violence have led them to confront, and openly challenge, meat’s grip on the male psyche. How does a self-described extreme meat-eater and former hunter, for example, a professional killer with the words “SEEK AND DESTROY” tattooed huge across his chest, become inspired to stop eating animals and devote his life full-time to animal rights and wildlife conservation?"

want to know the answer to that question? well, with so many sharing this i felt compelled to share his powerful message too, and to introduce you to one of the most inspiring men i have listened to in a long time - damien is a rivetting orator and watching this will be 12 of the most incredibly mesmerising minutes you could imagine - believe me, this is 12 minutes well spent!

oh if only there were many more damien manders in this world - who knows, perhaps this will be the inspiration that will allow others to look into their own hearts and find compassion, search their own psyche and find wisdom... perhaps this will help some make the connection, understand the truth of speciesism and the need to fight for justice for all...

wise words from a defiant daughter...

a month since posting… hmmm, appears i have been ‘neglecting’ my blog somewhat so i thought it was time to at least add something new to read – although not something i have written… i've been reading many blogs and articles lately so thought i would share something that - as a vegan and womyn's liberationist - i found inspiring, refreshing and totally 'in tune' with my views...

ruby at edgar's mission

‘Intersecting oppressions: perspectives from a Muslim vegan feminist’ is by australian journalist ruby hamad, whose writing i have shared before because i just think she is brilliant…

she talks of her childhood growing up at “the tail end of a family of seven children in 1980s Australia…"

"Life was good… until puberty hit. That’s when the illusion of equality was shattered.

I first noticed it at about the age of eleven. Whereas before, my brother and I would loiter around the playground hanging off the monkey bars until it started to get dark, my mother began demanding I come directly home after school. The pleas for permission to play a game of touch football with the neighbourhood kids (mostly boys) were treated with open-mouthed expressions of horror.

You want to play with the boys?

By the time I was twelve, I too was being saddled with chores. The chore I hated most, the one that had me seething with unspoken rage, was the task of making the bed of my younger brother.

No longer my equal.

That’s when I knew.

I knew that the gap between how my brothers were treated and how my sisters and I were treated was only going to grow, and that the reason was our girl bodies. I knew that my days of freedom were numbered.”

** i have to say here that her experience was not much different from a girl growing up in a family that had christianity in the form of catholicism as its religion in the 1950s & 60s australia - my brother could do anything, get away with anything, never had to take responsibility for anything (and still doesn't!!) hey as far as everyone was concerned 'the sun shone out of his arse' (and pretty much still does!!!) - took me until my late teens to understand patriarchy and religion were inextricably linked, and male privilege was inherent in both...  anyway, back to ruby's story...

she goes on to speak of her “deep discomfort with the practice of eating meat.”

"It all started with a chicken. I am often saddened at the inability of many adults to recall just how much children view animals as equals. At the age of five, I was thrilled to wander in to the backyard one day and find a chicken scratching away in the garden. She seemed to come out of nowhere and I didn’t think to ask what she was doing there because there she was and that was good enough for me.. I quickly informed her she was my new best friend and immediately set about chasing her all over the yard. So it struck my five year old self as nothing short of tragic to see myself go, a few short days later, from trying to settle on a name for her to witnessing my father hold her fragile body in his big hands and, invoking the name of God, slice her little head clean off her neck. Yes, it’s true. Headless chickens really do run around like…headless chickens.

I was too shocked to scream. Instead, I fled to the garage, which had been her short-lived home, and lay there trembling for hours, curled amongst the straw and her stray feathers. My parents thought my devastation was sweet but entirely unnecessary. It never crossed their minds that I was grieving the loss of my best friend.

That was my first brush with what Carol Adams calls the patriarchal model of meat consumption. I didn’t know it then, but eating meat is, in its very nature, an expression of male power and control over the bodies of others. There is no denying this now. We are all, vegetarian and meat-eater alike, aware of how closely aligned eating meat is with the stereotypical notion of ‘masculinity’. I remember the Australian advertising campaigns of the 1980s urging housewives to ‘Feed the man meat!’

The reason meat made me uncomfortable as a child was because it was a reminder of my own powerlessness.  Much like women, animals suffer because they are treated as commodities. Relegated to the status of objects, their own desires are irrelevant. They simply exist to be used and abused. This is not specific to one culture or religion, it is a global, structural problem that stems from the belief that the powerful have the right to dominate the weak.

Feminists who eat meat may be fighting for their own liberation, but as long as they participate in animal exploitation—Feed the man meat!—they are propping up the very system they are fighting against.

My early rejection of patriarchal authority and my repeated attempts at living a meat-free life were indeed related. I was rejecting control over both my body and the bodies of animals who I have always identified with.”

there's so much more that she has to say, and you can read the entire article at the scavenger – which itself is an edited exerpt from a new book “Defiant Daughters: 21 Women on Art, Activism,Animals, and The Sexual Politics of Meat” in which ruby has written a chapter entitled “Halal”, but my favourite statement from the article is this one...

“I am a feminist and a vegan because I am opposed to all oppression, to all violence, to all discrimination. I am opposed to the so-called ‘natural order’ that regards perceived inferiority as permission to deny basic rights.”

i hear you sister… that’s exactly how I feel too…to know there are younger womyn like ruby who have made the connection and really ‘get it’ is uplifting - that's the sisterhood i align myself with, not the 'watered-down' version of feminism that has lost its connection to nature…

right on sister...

blogging has been one of the last things on my mind while melting through the heat and humidity of an extended heatwave here in melbourne, but that's not to say i haven't been reading the posts of others... i've had ideas but no inclination to put 'pen to paper' - well, fingers to keyboard these days! - i even let international womyn's day go by without acknowledgement...

but, having just read an article that resonated deep within me, i felt i had to share a short excerpt... it's from one of my favourite blogs - veganism is nonviolence... the writer, trisha roberts, so very passionately articulates my views time after time, and with "even when her shackles are very different from my own" she gives eloquence to my thoughts yet again...

"... Yesterday, on International Women’s Day, did we remember the 99.99% of the planet’s population who are non-human? Did we remember all the non-human mothers in the world? Did we consider in particular the non-human mothers we use as resources? If we did not, then we need to include them in our thoughts and our actions and consider that ALL mothers and their children, no matter what species, should be free of exploitation. Because if non-human mothers are not free, none of us are free. In fact there are parallels with how patriarchal society views and treats women, and how we use, exploit and control the reproduction of non-human females. The two are not unrelated. Women are no longer considered legal property as non-human animals are, but violence against women is at epidemic proportions today and violence against nonhumans is greater still."

 

all womyn - especially those who call themselves 'feminist' or 'womyn's liberationist' - need to make the connection... you can read the complete article here...

so, what’s the problem?

flesh is flesh, isn't it? so why are carnists so upset at finding meat in their meat? horsemeat to be precise, in their cowmeat!? flesh masquerading as flesh!! tell me, what’s the difference between one species and another? why is the slaughter and consumption of one more acceptable than another?

if you eat flesh, why the outrage? why the shock and revulsion at the mere thought of eating horse rather than cow, or sheep, or pig…?

if you're here in australia perhaps you're not even concerned - maybe you think australia is somehow immune from the 'dilemma', immune from the 'horsemeat scandal' sweeping europe, immune from even thinking about the horse slaughter industry - hey, we love our horses, we're a horse loving nation, we wouldn't slaughter them, we certainly wouldn't eat them! according to a recent article in the courier mail...

“SEVEN hundred horses a month - many young fillies and colts bred for racing - are slaughtered at two Australian abattoirs and shipped overseas for human consumption, including to Europe, the centre of the horsemeat scandal.

The majority are slaughtered in Queensland at Caboolture's Meramist Abattoir, where 500 horses are processed each month.

A further 200 a month are killed at a South Australian abattoir, Samex Peterborough (formerly Metro Velda).

Thousands more are processed at 33 knackeries across Australia for petmeat and hides each year, with industry reports indicating the annual cull totals around 40,000.”

hmmm, 'knackeries' and abattoirs legally slaughtering horses, here... maybe it's time to think again... if horses are 'processed' here, it's only logical to assume some of them end up as food here... do you really believe you haven't 'inadvertently' eaten horse, or kangaroo, or camel, or some other 'unacceptable' flesh at some time in your life? i was told many years ago by a 'friend of a friend', a butcher, how commonplace substitution was, that horse and kangaroo were often 'hidden in mince' - how flour was a wonderful lightener of colour, a perfect mask...

if that shocks or horrifies you, then i have to ask again, why is the flesh of cows, sheep, pigs, chickens, turkeys, etc. etc. acceptable – why do you eat some, and not others? why are you not outraged at the slaughter of all?

according to melanie joy, author of ‘why we love dogs, eat pigs, and wear cows…' 

"... in meat-eating cultures around the world, even though the type of species consumed changes, people tend to have only a small handful of animals they have learned to classify as edible. All the rest they classify as inedible and thus disgusting and often offensive to consume.

So when it comes to eating animals, what is striking is not the presence of disgust -- disgust is the norm, the rule, rather than the exception. What is striking is the absence of disgust. The question we would do well to ask ourselves is why are we not disgusted by the select few species we have been taught to think of as edible. And why don't we ever ask why? When the stakes are so high -- our food choices are truly a matter of life and death, particularly for the 10 billion sentient individuals in the U.S. every year who are no less sensitive and conscious than those we consider friends and family yet who subsist in abject misery, as their bodies are unnecessarily turned into units of production. Why do we leave our choices so unexamined? Why don't we consider that so-called edible animals have lives that matter to them, just as horses and dogs and cats do?” read more in “Why Horsemeat Is Delicious and Disgusting”

shades of sadness...

i got a phone call from my mother last friday and on answering was told "something terrible has happened..." many scenarios raced through my mind in a few short seconds, but none involved the suicide of my 'cousin' that took place the evening before that they had just been notified of...

my first thoughts were 'how?', 'why?' - numbing disbelief was what i felt - surely i'd heard wrong - but then shock moved aside and reality kicked in, and it didn't matter the 'how' or 'why' but that he was dead - his life journey had ended, and my major concern became how 'aunty eileen' was coping - the death of a child is not something a parent expects to have to deal with... eileen and her kids, although not blood relatives, have been part of my family all of my life, eileen being my mother's best friend of over 80 years and a nurturer, confidant and friend to me for all of my 57 years...

identification had to be made and the coronial inquest was over quickly on saturday morning - there was little to be analysed, it was a 'cut and dried' suicide with a letter left for the family...  adrian was the youngest of all of the 'kids', only 48 years old, but sadly his life had taken a path he felt he could no longer walk along...

we all came together to deal with our sadness while sorting out the 'practicalities' of death, and to celebrate the lovely, funny, but lonely young man that was adrian... that's what 'my family' does, accepts and then continues on with the necessities of life, albeit with a shift to accommodate the void left, the heavy hearts, but that weight lessened by shared memories, laughter and tears (although the funeral is still to come, so there will be many more shared moments).... some need someone or something to blame initially, but that soon dissipates... oh how sadness comes in many shades...

being into astronomy as he was, what more can i say but fly high and shine brightly mate, you will always be in our hearts...

“but it’s just not natural…”

if i had a dollar for every time i've heard or read that about veganism…

having had that said to me yet again just the other day i thought it fortuitous that i had recently watched a presentation by social psychologist and professor of psychology and sociology melanie joy, author of ‘why we love dogs, eat pigs and wear cows : an introduction to carnism’ because her wonderfully articulate words were fresh in my mind...

“what we call natural is simply the dominant culture’s interpretation of history - it refers not to human history, but to carnistic history - it references not our fruit eating ancestors, but their flesh eating descendents… we only look as far back in history as we need to justify current carnistic practices…”

in her article "shattering the meat myth : humans are natural vegetarians" author kathy freston states

"I noticed the frequently stated notion that eating meat was an essential step in human evolution. While this notion may comfort the meat industry, it's simply not true, scientifically. Dr. T. Colin Campbell, professor emeritus at Cornell University and author of The China Study, explains that in fact, we only recently (historically speaking) began eating meat, and that the inclusion of meat in our diet came well after we became who we are today..."

alas, this fallacious argument is being 'redefined' by some to entrench carnism as the norm in the guise of "humane meat"...

“The new wave of pro-meat arguments is in part an attempt to defend the weakened meat-eating establishment against the very real threat posed by an increasingly powerful vegan movement. “Happy meat,” locavorism, and “paleo dieting” are signs of society’s willingness to examine the ethics of eating meat, eggs, and dairy, and they reflect people’s genuine concern for animals (and the environment and health). But they also reflect the resistance of the dominant, meat-eating culture to truly embracing a vegan ethic. The new pro-meat arguments are part of a carnistic backlash against the growing popularity of veganism, and vegans and non-vegans alike must understand and appreciate them in order to move toward a more humane and just society.” ... melanie joy (from understanding neocarnism)

graphic from "the blood shed from humane slaughter - was your food treated unkindly" on one of my favourite blogs - provoked... by the way we use animals

as an ethical vegan, totally eliminating any use and every abuse of our earthling kin is what’s important to me… so this notion of ‘humane meat’ is definitely something i find unbelievabe, let alone unbelievably frightening - a threat to real change in this world...

acccording to howard lyman, ex cattle rancher, now vegan, author and animal advocate

"My life experience has given me a better understanding of what is happening, and what a mistake it is to believe there is anything called "humane" slaughter. Animals have families and feelings, and to think that kindness before killing them is an answer is totally wrong. Humans have no need for animal products. And when we consume animal products, we're not just killing the animals. In the long run, we're killing the planet, and ourselves.

I'm sure that it will take many years before the majority of humans learn as I have that actions, and not words, are the true proof of our understanding of the term humane. Living my life as I do now, as a total vegan, gives me great joy in knowing that no animal has to die for me to live."

do you believe the myth? want more information? why not check out humanemyth.org - "deconstructing the myth of humane animal agriculture" - there are some 'well worth the read' articles...

and of course here's melanie joy's presentation - see if she gives you something to think about...