Archiv der Kategorie: Alex & Taru

Pleased to found out that there's a (supposedly) good techno/electro party in Panama City tonight, has been hard to find the underground types since we left Europe behind two and a half years ago. Techno is not exactly what they listen to in the Caribbean islands. Hoping it won't be too much fun though since we're planning on picking up our friend Michael on the airport tomorrow around noon!

I've been without meat and most dairy products for a little more than a week now which has been quite an interesting time. I wish I could say "I feel great", because that's what you are supposed to say but I think I need more time to see what effect it really has on my body, health and mind. Momentarily I get a flashback from that divine Argentinian steak that I so much adore, the ever so wonderful confit de canard or a simple cheeseburger - and I think to myself "what have I gotten into, will I really be strong enough to resist some of the most wonderful meals on the planet?". Still feeling convinced my choice is the right one though and I love the fact that I am in charge of my mind and my choices, it gives me strength, but it is also a challenge no doubt. Old routines and lifestyle patterns always takes time to adjust and clean up, but it is all for the better in the end.

Thankful that it is easier than ever to be a vegetarian or a vegan and many restaurants encourage you to stay focused with the help of their well varied menus. Like the restaurant, cafe and bar in the very hotel we stay in this weekend. Close to half of the dishes on the menu are suitable for a vegetarian like myself who complement meals with fish and seafood, but tries to limit the dairy intake. Yesterday's lunch consisted of a delicious lima bean soup for starters followed by a merete al panko (fried local fish) with yucca plant in garlic and herbs. Going to try out some of the other vegetarian dishes on the menu for tonights dinner. Finding it exciting discovering and experimenting with the new selection of food that has appeared before my consciousness. It isn't as hard to find good substitutes as some might wish you to believe, though certain countries and areas of the world haven't adopted the philosophy quite as much as others. I believe South East Asia and Asia will have a lot of wonderful choices whenever we get that far.

I have an announcement to make. It's a little embarrassing to realize it took so long, but nevertheless, I have decided to quit supporting the meat and dairy industries. It hasn't been an easy overnight decision let me tell you, the decision is something that's been contemplated, twisted and turned inside of my mind for a year or more. While I always loved and I still love the flavor and taste of a well made meat dish, I have for a very long time lived with feelings of guilt almost every-time I've eaten a steak or a burger. And I feel that I've now run out of valid excuses to continue supporting an unethical lifestyle.

Just like you, meat lover, I have in my Facebook feed and on other places on the world wide web been exposed to images of maltreated animals crammed onto trucks, without food nor water they're shipped long distances to a mass slaughter. Many die during transport, and others are too sick or weak to walk off the truck after they reach the slaughterhouse. The animals who survive this hellish ordeal are hung upside-down and their throats are slit, often while they're completely conscious. And many of these animals are still alive while they are skinned, hacked into pieces, or scalded in the de-feathering tanks. 

Just like you, I have absorbed some of these images, I've processed them through my mind and quickly thrown them out from my membrane. My defense mechanism as a devoted meat eater made sure not to take these images too seriously, as, c'mon: these images are just propaganda and it can be that way all the times, and: I never have to meet these animals, and: I will never be involved in the cruelty myself, and: All this vegan/vegetarian ramble seem to be just a silly trend. Seriously, why be so complicated with everything, and why not just leave me to eat my delicious meat if I want to, we're born to do just so!

But then one day not so long ago I suddenly felt the change within me was too overwhelming. I felt, wait a minute: I know these poor defenseless animals are being maltreated, and that only for our egoistic tastes, yet I still continue to support the meat industry by buying into it? I had some sort of wake up call that told me this is so not me, being unable to take such an ethically easy stand. 

Having always been the one who stands up for bullied kids in school when I was younger and made sure to bring justice to the ones who weren't able to speak for themselves. I've always been the one protecting people, not only my friends and family members, but also complete strangers if I knew they were being unfairly treated or hurt. I've also literally been raised on a farm, riding horses all my life, had dogs and cats and mice and rats as my close friends. And now in my adulthood I can look myself in the mirror knowing that for every second that I breathe, 1.680 animals are being viciously slaughtered because a humongous mass of people, including me, pretend to look the other way? It makes me sick only thinking of how brainwashed I have been, and I am thankful for the propaganda that is spread as it helped in awakening me from my ignorance much faster.

Having said all this, I still do believe that human beings are omnivores, meaning we are made to eat a combined diet mixed of plants and meat. We have done it for millions of years and the human pancreas produces a full load of digestive enzymes to digest all sorts of food, including meat. But what is the big difference between a caveman who hunt his rabbit to feed his family some two million years ago, and a modern human being of today? 

The difference is that the caveman went out to hunt his food himself and never took more of mother nature than what was needed to feed him and his peers. No terrible fourteen day delivery needed in inhuman conditions where animals are packed onto each other gasping for air. No force-feeding the rabbit to give the hunter a more enjoyable meal. 

Today we live in a disgustingly greedy, selfish, capitalistic world where the only thing that matters for businesses - slaughterhouses, fur companies and dairy businesses included - is to make as much profit as humanly possible. We live in a fucked up world where people look to gain maximum pleasure and enjoyment without bothering to consider the potential pain and suffering others have to risk on the way.

The meat industry doesn't give a god damn shit about our well being as they pump the hormones into the animals to give us larger steaks and more effectively be able to milk the cows for our morning cereal. They couldn't care less about how the animals feel when their newborn babies are being taken away from them as the milk of a female cow is supposed to go to said cereal, and not to the poor screaming calf desperate to get back to the comfort of its mother. The meat industry has no empathy whatsoever towards the small male pigs that gets their testicles pulled out by hand, castrated without any painkillers, as long as we get our crispy bacon served with our scrambled eggs each morning.  

Farmed chickens and turkeys spend their brief lives in dark and crowded warehouses, many of them so cramped they can't even turn around or spread a single wing. They are left abandoned in their own waste, the stench of ammonia fills the air and their utter lives are a sad, inhuman proof of how egoistic and greedy the human being has turned into. A greed and suffering for which we ignorant consumers ultimately are to be blamed. Knowing all of this and having made my homework now for a few months (as I needed to go to the bottom of health and ethics before I made my absolute choice) I just know I can't go back to ignorantly eating food merchandised by the factory farming industry. No matter how much I love a delicious tenderloin steak medium rare with a creamy Pommes Dauphinoise and red wine sauce, I can not and will not continue to support the vicious circle that the greedy meat business stands for.

While I've still been functioning in slow mode, Alex has, of course, reunited with his boat-projects. Here's that water maker finally mounted and installed in place again (it was previously installed on the old boat). Alex's everlasting determination and energy is quite admirable. Of course it comes with a (sometimes a little more than necessary) portion of swearing, grumbling and complaining from his side but at least he gets his shit done.

I on the other hand have spent my last few days in bed, mostly reading and watching youtube clips, while trying to convince Alex that I must be depressed or something to be in this sort of low state for so many (ok, only 4) days in a row. But when not even him believes it and dismisses my pathetic whining as laziness, I feel it's better to stop playing and get up and get on with it again. We have the power to choose our life as well as our mental well being (in most cases), so why not settle for a mindset less dramatic and more enjoyable for all. 

We have very much to look forward to this weekend so I better get started on shaping myself up again. Maybe a long swim in the pool of the marina would do for a healthy beginning.