Al G Smith

The old adage “pleased to meat you” was a popular if excruciating epithet for butchers in my ‘home country’! One thing is for certain — the video below should not please anyone who considers they have an ounce of humanity in their mind, body or soul! To be sure this is evidence that ‘one man’s meat is another man’s poison’ — for much of these activities displayed are truly poisonous on a deeply psychological level… And just another part of the current paradigm that has to shift soon…

As a lifelong meat-eater who has been ‘progressing’ (perhaps too slowly) towards vegetarianism over the last few years for philosophical, ethical and (dare I say) — spiritual — reasons (not to mention being cajoled by an increasing number of other parties)… this may be the video that helps tip the balance and achieve the objective in 2012…

Let me be clear I still tend towards the viewpoint that eating meat is ‘natural’ for ‘omnivores’ such as Homo sapiens — and indeed, such eating habits — along with cooking food — may well have contributed positively towards our evolution into the ‘thinking being’ that we are supposed to be… But that said — there perhaps comes a time when the occasional animal caught in the wild and made into a meal is a far cry from the horrific reality of the ‘meat industry’ of today. Taking a wild animal who has led a free and natural existence. and therefore had some quality of life, maybe still seem cruel yet the the beast has not be subjected to barbarism en route to the plate!

There can be NO moral or ethical justification for the barbarous, inhumane and ‘inhuman’ methods employed on a supposedly acceptable level by the industry as a whole, and on a wholly unacceptable level by the those who have become ‘desensitized’ and ‘psychologically impaired’ individuals who are unfortunate enough to have to work in this travesty that is called an ‘industry’.

One might observe that ‘living creatures’ have become no more than ‘machines’ that produce meat — BUT this would still be inaccurate as machines are generally treated far better than these poor animals…

The meat industry is an aspect of humanity that OUGHT to make us ashamed to be humans – and proves at this time beyond doubt — that we are (s long as we do not speak out against such practices) not only complicit in this torture — but also far less than the so-called ’sentient’ and ‘conscious’ advanced-beings that we like to think that we are…

Shocking and sickening scenes — you have been warned — but don’t fail to watch this — then pass it on to everyone you know… and THINK about any morsel of ‘manufactured meat’ that passes your lips in 2012!

Some light relief at last — well done to the creator of this fun video — and well done to the mutt whose expressions convince us that the words are just right…

Quite like this video (below) recently promoted via Yahoo!.

It makes some key points — most important of which may be that the typical American uses 100 gallons of water a day… No wonder T Boone Pickens, the Bush family and their ilk see water as the way to make their next billion …especially as the world’s oil dries up!

A typical Ethiopian uses maybe 2.5 gallons of water a day! It’s therefore obvious that there are a good many compromises yet to be made by the wealthy Western nations if we are truly to strive for global equality…

Such issues as water availability will become increasingly relevant as we enter an era of water rationing and rocketing water cost! Indeed if India is to become the home to the ‘typical’ of 30 year hence due to its burgeoning population… the needs of both China and India, let alone the impoverished African states such as Ethiopia, will continue to grow immensely… YET water suplies will at best remain static, and most likely diminish due to the weather changes already occurring…

No doubt we can expect plenty of protestations along the way… as those of us who are fortunate just now to be able to turn on taps and sprinklers with ‘gay abandon’, HAVE to become more responsible in our use of resources that are essential to life — such as H20! Now that WOULD be typical…

NOTE: Updated Jan 2012 — The original video subject of this blog entry seems to have been taken down — if I find a copy I will re-post, but meanwhile here is 19 minute documentary on the topic of water that ought to be viewed:

And here’s the first part (with subsequent parts linked thereafter via YouTube) of the acclaimed documentary “Flow” — hailed as the ’scariest movie’ in 2008 when it was aired at the famous Sundance festival! An eye opener if you didn’t ‘get the message’ already…

Or simply watch the whole movie in HD here… while it is available. A shocking indictment — and something that is happening as we speak, yet few people know about many of these issues, yet will soon be jumping up and down (if they are still able?)when their health, their pocket and their children’s future are impacted by what is happening to — Water!:

God knows that we have to hope that human beings are not like rats, and not just for the reasons that may spring immediately to mind! But what is certain is that we have all been treated like guinea-pigs, in a global laboratory experiment that has already been running for most of the last decade… genetic modification and genetic engineering of currently widely consumed food crops!

This interview (videos below) with Dr. Arpad Pusztai makes it clear that we can only hope that we are not as susceptible as rats seem to be to what is termed ‘proliferative growth’ in the small intestine when we consume Genetically Modified foods. It is apparent that products such as the ‘Flavr Savr’ tomato (an early gentically modified — GM — product to be found on the supermarket shelves) which apparently caused pin-point bleeding in the rats’ bowel, and GM poatoes (experimental work on which became Dr. Pusztai’s widely media covered ‘downfall’, when he happened to utter a few words of true scientific concern about potential problems with GM food much to the discontent of powerful corporate concerns that wield international political power!) which may also cause abnormalities in the gut and/or liver (in rats!).

Additionally, more recent studies (as referred to by Pusztai) have also indicated similar concerns.

The problem being that unlike MOST prior scinetific work, that has to be done on innovative products with intense scrutiny BEFORE they get anywhere near the public-cosumption stage — this work has been done in ‘reverse order. WE have been eating GM for years — and well before exhaustive tests have been run, and in continued defiance of the negative evidence that work like Pusztai’s and others have provided!

Sources suggest that perhaps 70 to 80 percent of products on the typical US supermarket shelves now contains one or more GM ingredient.

It has been widely suggested that almost all soya and corn (maize) and related derivatves and ingredients are contaminated with GM strains (if not wholly and deliberately manufactured from such agricultural sources).

Genetically Modified Organisms are simply a spuriously justified, unnatural initiative, that has been pushed forward by corporate concerns looking to make huge profits. In effect companies such as Monsanto (amongst others) are manoeuvering themselves into a position to ‘own the food chain’ by exploiting GM related trademarked crops. They have callously destroyed small farmers who have not ‘trodden their path’, enabled to do this thanks to shocking legislation, enacted by former employes of the ‘concerned parties’ who have been awarded critical political positions in the legal system in the US. Such legislation protects the GM producers whilst demanding the impossible of the small farmer who is determined to farm in natural way — i.e. avoiding the use of GM seed crops, and employing seed saving methods that have been the tradition of real farming for thousands of years.

As humans seem to suffer ever more from strange and essentially ‘inexplicable’ ailments, according to ‘medical science’ — and in light of the observation of the Russian Nobel Laureate, Dr. Elie Metchnikoff, in the early 1900’s, that ‘death begins in the colon‘ — it seems likely that we will begin to reap a truly bitter GM harvest in years to come…

From beneficial insects (such as ladybirds/ladybugs — the digsetive deterioration of which creatures is identified by Dr Pusztai as the ‘canary in the coalmine’ that awakened his own suspicions about the problems of GM potatoes), through honey bees, dying off in their millions to God alone knows what ultimate disastrous natural effect (some sources suggesting that it is the self-same detrimental effect of GM on their digestive tract that is responsibile for this species declne), through to laboratory rats… and potentially humans, too… The travesty of GM, backed by the billions of the greed-driven corporates, is that it CANNOT coexist with the ‘natural option’… Due to Nature itself, GM crops WILL cross-pollinate, unnatural genetics WILL find their way into the natural crops… And as Pusztai implies… even watering down the ‘Frankenstien genetics’ may well NOT reduce their potential for health-impugning impact!

It may take a few generations for the human race to become evidently and widely affected by the impact of GM on the digestive tract… By which time it will be too late to stop the rot! As billions die early from genetically induced digestive, hepatic or as yet un-expected disease — from ‘proliferative growth’ in the intestines or perhaps in the liver, maybe elsewhere — then those that were responsible will all have passed on (hopefully to the place they deserve!)… Leaving our future generations to watch our species decline… and wonder if the issues (which by then will have probably have inflitrated all food crops and animals globally, as they almost have already!) can ever be resolved?

If one was of a ‘conspiratorial bent’ then one might suggest that this is all part of the widely-suspected ‘grand plot’ to reduce the human population by substantial numbers… The problem with such a suggestion, naturally being, that those who perpetrate this crime against Nature, and Humanity, will also have to ‘eat from the same pot’ — so they will be killing their own families too!… But then, perhaps they don’t really care about this, as long as they all make a ‘buck’ today!! When will we stand up to to this type of exploitation?

When will we stop listening to the media clap-trap about positive reasons for meddling with genetics and for pursuing the spurious and dangerous GM agenda? I am guessing — if ever — it will be when it is too late to stop the problem from becoming yet another of the ’sins of the Fathers’ that our children, grand-children and beyond will have to TRY and deal with!

Banning the pursuance of the development and use of ALL GM seed crops and livestock is an immediate requirement. It may already be too late to pull-back from the brink of what is potentially the foundation of an unimaginable natural calamity… But it is past time that more people woke-up and stopped allowing themselves and their families to be pushed around, exploited for gain, and ultimately probably physically harmed by being ‘unknowing’ guinea-pigs… not to mention the harm already visited upon the Earth and innumerable other species — even the laboratory rats!

If you haven’t seen this film, based on Helena Norberg Hodge’s book Ancient Futures, then here is an opportunty to do just that…

And why, you might ask, should you want to?

Well — albeit that this video was originally published in 1993 — the film effectvely encapsulates the issues that beset developing countries, and indigenous cultures, as they become increasingly enticed by, and embroiled in, the media-manufactured demand for so-called ‘progress’. In the name of aspiring to acquire the supposed ‘benefits’ of western civilization, all that is good and wholesome about their long-established traditional way of life can soon be sacrificed… with a whole raft of well-recognized social inequities, malaise and issues taking the place of once beautiful and synergsitic ways of life.

In the name of cheap consumer gods — and typically coca-cola and fast food, too — centuries of traditional, successful, cooperative, community based lifestyle that has weathered even the harshest of terrains and provided a harmonious and happy basis for many generations to enjoy truly ‘living’ and providing for themselves is being eroded and, potentially, forever lost…

And as Norberg Hodge observes — this provides a great insight into what has already gone, and what continues to go wrong with today’s most ‘advanced’ societies! It also highlights that human tendency to fail to appreciate just what you have, until it has gone! Reclaiming that which you have lost, is so much more difficult (if not impossible) once certain things have changed… But then this seems to have been the way of the human race since the days of the Garden of Eden — and as the man one said (or, rather, sang) ‘when will we ever learn?‘…

Insightful, and by turns heartwarming and heartbreaking — well worth an hour of your day: