Monday, April 30, 2012
Vegan Green & Exploitation
I just had someone delete my post title and the entire start of this post.
I was saying, I just bought some 'non-green' cleaners and felt it wasn't "me" but I don't pay for the packaged green.
I've been prefering eucalyptus steeped in coconut oil as a cleaner (with one other thing) but I need more of the oil I've used first, to make a new batch.
It felt a little "off" to get the other kinds of cleaners but it will work in the meantime.
I wrote a paper recently about having some kind of balance and sometimes I think that works. I started out thinking I was going to write a paper against GMOs and how this leads to disrespect for women's reproductive rights. I'm taking a "Gender & the Environment" class and it connects gender and treatment of women with environmental issues. So in one article it talked about how women in Bangladesh were being forced to get sterilized in order to receive food aid. They were being required to present a certificate of sterility in order to get a few kilos of wheat. The article before this one, was about how lack of biodiversity in farming creates an unsustainable production and puts third world countries into poverty in the first place, and how we need biodiversity and should ban GMOs that threaten such.
At first, I thought my argument was going to be how biodiversity will lead to better production and reduce threat to putting women in a vulnerable position to begin with. But I changed my mind, after the first sentence, because to ban GMOs where a problem is already there, is not going to solve human suffering in the short-term. If there is a shortfall in food supply, if it can be met by GMOs as a temporary solution, I agree with that, as long as long-term goals are in mind to promote the biodiversity in farming in the first place. I am not going to be the one to tell a woman, "Sorry, but our small biodiversity farms aren't producing enough food yet, and we're trying to repair damages done already, but it's going to take some time, so unfortunately, I have to tell you and your kids to starve." If it is not a matter of food supply, or shortage, if the short term and long term goals are being worked at, then it is a problem of distribution and power and who has the power and ability to make decisions that affect the lives of others.
Regardless of how food is produced, what a shock it might be to some farmers, to know that their efforts to make money for themselves and provide quality and services for others, is being used to extort rights away from selected individuals.
From personal experience, there was no problem with money available for housing for me when I was trying to navigate a corrupt kidnapping of my son and the color-of-law documentation used to try to validate a form of fraud and crime. There was plenty of money. I qualified and I signed up. But then, because of the people who were and are in power, they attempted to drive me out of all natural resources, plump up their own to appear more attractive, and then after forcing me into an outrageous position of unnecessary vulnerability, in this country, they then allowed others to use me, exploit me, torture me, and tried to extort eggs from me. Which, is outright disrespect for my reproductive rights and an attempt to exploit something that's not theirs, for themselves.
So when I argue in favor of actual ways to stabilize food production and alleviate hunger and suffering, it is with numbers in mind, but this is always with the inclusion of the knowledge that suffering and enforcement of human rights is then dependent upon those who are in positions of power.
Therefore, extending this to cleaners, I suppose it doesn't hurt to use something that kills germs now and then, but those who use these chemicals the most are the ones who end up with allegeries. Studies find the rate of household sanitation is commensurate with rate of allergies because you're killing off the body's natural defenses.
I don't think I'm a hypocrite. I think I state my values and that I'm not a fanatic about being "vegan" or "earthy" or "green". I take issue with others who want to point fingers over very small things, however, as if to say "there is proof her ideals don't match her practices."
First of all, try going through what I've been through, and then let's see how streamlined all your habits and practices are. It takes financial stability and a normal amount of respect for rights in order to accomplish anything, and sometimes, to fulfill what you're ideals may be ultimately.
I had people freaking out over the idea that I wasn't really "vegan" when I said I was, or that I didn't eat fruits when I said I didn't. I didn't. And I didn't for several months, and if then I include them again, all of a sudden, I'm supposedly a liar about everything. I've been vegetarian for over 2 years (I think) and almost completely vegan (minus a few small things) for about 1 year. At one point, I couldn't be vegan bc it cost too much. Just as some people have to accept GMOs even if they don't prefer this, because of cost. Now that I have a little more to live off of, I feel I can be vegan again. The only thing in my house that's not vegan, is margarine I'm not really using, and bee pollen. I have a few cans of soups with non-vegan items in a separate part of my house, so I know not to eat it but keep it with my son in mind.
I have also noticed how some are very gifted with psychic abilities or predictive abilities and they use this to get ahead and counter what they already see as possibly taking place. It doesn't mean they are blessed by God. It just means they are strategists, trying to get ahead of a game they know they would otherwise lose. That's sort of an artificial fix to something natural, isn't it? Even Herod tried that one and it's not new. This goes on all the time, and sometimes, things that are not meant to happen, do happen, and not because "it's meant to be" but because there is evil in the world, and avarice. You can go to the Bible and read about how those who have faith believe he is the rewarder of good things for those with faith, and then you can go to solomon who says I have seen that man's lot does not depend upon how good or bad he is, but that time and chance happen to both. Yes, strive for good, and believe and trust in God. but you can't tell Job or innocent people in prisons or held hostage, or tortured, that they must have done something wrong or that they are not blessed because God is angry with them.
I guess I consider carefully. I was even reading a book for history about how "most historians say this, but the truth is..." and then different forms of evidence are used--one is that dates entered into a journal or diary for military tell the times and dates. I think this is good evidence most of the time, but even with that, people can alter diaries, or change dates, and even deliberately construct times that are not actual, with a motive in mind. They can force others to do this too.
Just because there is a suicide letter, doesn't mean the person who is dead committed suicide.
Most of the time, sure. But sometimes, documentation is fabricated for a cover for crimes.
My state of mind, when I've written certain things, was without motive. Sometimes, people create documentation with motives though, which is why you always look to "motive" as why anyone would do something wrong to begin with. My son was kidnapped from me and we've been tortured.
Instead of my hashing out what I think it is, or the different motives coming into play, what do you think possible motives are?
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