The Covid !9 diaries, PART I

BATEATER {colloquialism, noun}

– Someone whose decisions generally fuck everything up for everybody.

‘ It was at this point that Donald knew he was a bateater’

I remember the moment when I realized COVID!9 was actually going to become a thing here in our red-brown country on the corner of the global map.

Unlike fast internet, a transparent or unbiased government, well-dressed people or mass immigration, it was actually going to be our reality.  I thought: ‘fuck, even white people are going to get this’.  Surely, like the moment we realized we could ship our landfill to more polluted countries and fuck them up instead, it was an epiphanic moment for our government too and indeed, the looming specter of threat to white people saw the world very much swing into action around us, while we all thought what the fuck?

The Real Thing ©

Constantly posting and tweeting and sharing, what is your effort really worth? Its just another click in the hundreds of your day (and anyone else’s); another bit of noise filling someone’s feed for them to scroll mindlessly past, flick over, ignore, adding to their desensitization, contributing to their disconnect, alienating them, but providing you with some gratification for ‘spreading the word’. But its so noisy out there – who hears?

Who’s to say any of your 1000+ friends even read the content? The blurb with the link? Its just another black-faced child, or tumbling forest, or murky ocean, screaming protesters, smoggy powerplant – everyone is sick of it. Surely then, isn’t it really missing the point?

But you’re helping to raise awareness!

Do you actually know this? Could you be doing more? Whats another banner, another photo, another petition, in the literally thousands of flashing, coming, going images we see online and elsewhere, every single day?

If ‘raising awareness’ or effecting change are real priorities, why do you only give these things the same amount of time – or really,  far less time – than you give #instagram, or #facebook or #candycrush, #catvideoes or mastering today’s #picoftheday?

Everyone should sign your petition for animal rights, but did you know:

Unilever – who cunningly claim that they ‘are committed to ending animal testing everywhere [we] operate’ – were recently implicated in abuses on animals.

Worse, these ‘tests’ weren’t even to test the safety of their products, but merely to make gratuitous claims regarding their health benefits, driven by the en vogue #superfoods craze.

Despite them saying they’re against animal testing, Unilever (as well as Nestle) were reported by the British Union for the Abolition of Vivisection (BUAV) in 2013, as having ‘killed heavily pregnant rabbits, pigs and mice’, also ‘bleeding some animals to death’, and ‘injecting others with deadly bacteria’, for the purpose of their tests…

Keep clicking #share on those petitions though, while you still buy Nestle’s water, their coffee, chocolate, icecream – even 30% of Body Shop, Maybelline, Diesel and all the other brands under the L’oreal banner are owned by Nestle; and you still buy Unilever’s Dove soap, Ponds cosmetics, Axe deodorant …

Do the companies you support use their profits to build products that use animal testing?

Would you buy them still, if they carried imagery on their packaging – like cigarette companies in some countries are now forced to do – of the tortured, mangled animals used to ‘test’ and ultimately, sell you their products?

Think about it

Everyone should sign up to protect the Amazon, but did you know:

Pepsico recently had their product Pepsi True pulled from online stores, owing to a huge protest against their irresponsible policies relating to the hugely controversial production and use of palm oil, which is causing massive amounts of deforestation in South-East Asia, and also threatening local Orangutan and Sumatran tiger populations (close to the point of extinction).

Other companies (Nestle, Mars, Kelloggs, P&G, Ferrero, Unilever) producing the foods you snack on while you retweet that latest change.org petition, have ‘pledged’ to ‘move towards’ ‘zero deforestation policies’.

The obvious questions remain: How do ‘socially conscious’ corporations behave like this in the first place? How long will it take, and how committed are they when obviously, stopping at nothing to secure their bottom line was formerly company policy?

You’re worried that not enough is being done to protect our waterways – #sharethispetition – but did you know:

Your favourite soft drink manufacturer Coca Cola has been accused of draining groundwater supplies in their Indian production plants and further, dumping the resulting toxic waste in the surrounding waterways.

This isn’t the first time they’ve been accused of such practices, and the fines imposed on them in such countries are literally barely equivalent to the money Coca Cola would make in one second.

They’ll surely do it again – but will you stop buying what they sell? – Or just keep reposting images of the poverty-stricken and downtrodden, and asking the world whats wrong, like you’re not a part of it?

Think about it.

You cry out that governments should ban GMO foods, but:

The following companies have and are investing millions into research and development of GMO foods and the GMO industry:

Coca Cola (which includes vitamin water and smart water et. al)

Pepsico (which includes Tropicana, Naked Juice and Ocean Spray et. al)

Nestle

Kelloggs

Kraft

Heinz

Campbells

– All these companies include dozens more subsidiaries – many of them neatly disguised – and arent required to notify the public in the frequent case of a corporate merger.

But will that motivate you to buy local, raise and produce your own food, cook from scratch or avoid processed, packaged food? Even just occasionally? – Or will you just keep #sharing those petitions..

Spend some time researching the brands that you use:

If you don’t think that boycotting these companies will make a difference, why do you think that a blip in someone’s social media will? 

You post and post about saving the environment:

So why do you always drive? Why don’t you curb your water usage, your electricity usage? In Australia, even the big banks are investing in coal mining – using your money – a hugely, environmentally destructive practice.

But still, you buy more things you don’t need – like your Ralph Lauren: responsible for massive deforestation through clear-cutting forests in Brasil, Indonesia and elsewhere – where they plant single-tree plantations, and pulp them with toxins to turn the wood into a white fluffy powder they can then weave and sell back to you at massively inflated prices.

You pay them back – with interest – adding to the trillions, empowering the banks, the corporations, contradicting your armchair activism……..

There are always choices, but its becoming harder and harder to hear through the noise of everything fed to you, and so much easier to just regurgitate and recycle your ‘feed’ – #Delicious…

And consider a plastic water bottle:

• 2 gallons of water is needed to purify 1 gallon for consumption;
• Fill your bottle ¼ full, and that’s how much oil it took to produce it; The plastic lid on the bottle top isn’t recyclable either, and is ending up in the ocean. – A recently found dead albatross in Hawaii, had 119 bottle caps in its stomach #howpretty

Imagine if the corps automatically posted on your behalf every time you went against your so-called ‘beliefs’? Would you be embarrassed? Would you feel a fool? Would your ‘socially conscious’ efforts seem dissolved?

#wakeup

Why wont you think twice about these choices, but you will think twice to post and repost? – Socially conscious speak from one side of your mouth, complete hypocrisy from the other/Look how aware I am/Look how unaware I am.

You may believe in raising awareness and contributing to the collective consciousness – don’t stop now – so surely its time to take your beliefs a step further?

Move outside of your lifetime of habitual, repetitive, convenience-driven behavior, and put your money where your mouth is!

In a world ever-filling with noise – in the biosphere and the digisphere – people are tuning out. And actions speak louder than words.

Next time you buy something, think about the effect your purchase is contributing to. Picture the last screaming, grief-drawn face you posted, the last smouldering forest; the last squealing pig, suffering chicken, bleeding cow – and put your money where your mouth is.

Solution-based answers

Courtesy of Karma Chow

Here’s a great example of a positive, solution-based answer/response to something that might well piss you off..

3 things you can make for christmas gifts

Everything we buy has some cost outside of what we actually pay at the counter.  Whether its the cost to the person who made it and the precious time that they might have to spend away from their family, the cost on our environment or shipping lanes and the wildlife effected, or the cost of fuel to transport something from its origin of manufacturing to the store, there is always a hidden story within every product we consume and use.  More often than not unfortunately, this cost isn’t factored in to how much we pay for a product, basically meaning that the earth or the person or people that made it, are barely even getting any thanks for what they’ve provided!

a little stash of my sister’s old clothes. just need a little paint, some scissors, stitching here and there, some glue, a few embellishments and a creative twist!

One way we can avoid making an unnecessary impact on our planet, or avoid needless exploitation, is by buying locally produced goods.  Beyond this though, why not try making your Christmas gifts (or gifts for any other time, for that matter)?  It means virtually no impact on the planet (depending on whether or not you have to buy anything additional) and not least, spending less money!  Here are my ‘3 things’.

My sister is moving overseas this year, so i was lucky enough to be able to have a search through all of her old clothes and accessories, and found quite a stash of potential pre-loved pieces that ill be able to perfectly prime for presentation to some precious peeps.

  Think recycled fashion and wares, once loved, now re-loved.

Pieces can be adorned with little embellishments you might find lying around, and all it takes is a bit of creativity and some simple stitching or good quality glue to refashion something old, into something unique and refreshed – all with your own personal, loving touch!

Another little treasure i discovered lying around at home – and the second of my ‘3 things ill be making for Christmas’ – are these little ceramic pots (pictured below).  With a bit of love, there are so many ways that they can be turned into something special and fun.  I’m going to paint them with chalkboard paint (which you can easily find at any hardware store) so i can write little messages on them for the giftees (they’ll then be able to rub it off and use it anyway they like – who needs post-it notes!).  I also plan on using dried flowers, stuck firm in a little cork base to keep them standing tall, and after cleaning and lining the pots with plastic, they’ll be ready to fill with number three of the little gifts ill be making this Christmas!

little ceramic pots i found in the garage. so many other uses

Making food or giving food as gifts is a great Christmas idea that reduces our impact on the earth, provides a little personal touch and also benefits others, helping them to reduce their impact too!  For my third homemade xmas gift, I’ll be filling these little pots with some homemade icecream i’ll be making – something that is much easier to make than you may think, might i add.  – All you really need is some eggs, sugar, lots of cream and some funky flavours to make it memorable.  I’m going to make mine with almond, gin and orange zest.  Find a recipe online and get involved!

There really is no limit to the ways in which we can look at our gift-giving choices throughout the year – only your creativity.  One thing that is for sure though, is that there is a new lease on life to be found in so many things that we think we can no longer use!  So get inspired and re-use, recycle and re-love this Christmas.  Save your cash and save a piece of the planet too!

‘3things’ is an initiative of Oxfam Australia.  It is a:  “movement for global goodness. The idea is that if we all take steps to act ethically, sustainably and generously we can change the world one individual decision at a time. This can happen on a local, national or global scale – and through our combined small actions we can reduce poverty, live in a world where everyone has the opportunity to express their basic human rights and the environment is sustained.”

find out more here

 

Need to clean up your act?

one ENOURMOUS bag of rubbish, from one small stretch of creek-bank

The plastic bag in the image on the left is filled with litter collected from what would have been an approximately ten metre length of creek’s edge, around a twenty minute walk from my current home in the suburbs of Brisbane, Australia.

That i can find this much waste in such a small area is quite astonishing, and perhaps an assessment – with very poor results – of the people local to this area.  I fear however, that this isn’t a phenomenon unique to this locale.

Sure, the existence of a McDonalds just a few hundred metres away ensured that there was a majority of their packaging littering the shoreline (which city or suburb doesn’t have a McDonalds these days? – keep up the good work Ronald) but we live in a country where rubbish bins aren’t necessarily few and far between.

Nevertheless, most of what i picked up were discarded food wrappers and packaging (along with quite a few plastic bags – no doubt from the nearby supermarket, a load of cigarette butts – an insidious, all too often thrown, disgusting piece of matter, beer bottles and alchopop cans) that could surely have been held onto, and disposed of properly,  with care and thought of the impact that not doing so can have.

Fact is, most people (dare i say, most Australians) are far too mindless, lazy and dare i say stupid to consider hanging on to their chocolate bar wrapper, or paper bag, or burnt out cigarette, or finished soda can until they can get to a rubbish bin. 

In my suburb, this basically means no more than a 500 metre walk (until you will pass a bin on the side of the street).  – In the CBD (where insane littering is still rife) you’d probably pass a rubbish bin every 200 metres.

Why it is so easy for most people to engage in this ugly habit is a mostly unanswerable question – we all know the consequences of letting our waste go to ground. But still, single-celled organisms take better care of their living environment.  As do most birds, insects and sea life.

Perhaps there is part of the blame to be squared on the shoulders of the over-packaging producers of the goods we consume, but consider:  If not one single person let one single piece of litter reach the ground, how much healthier would our oceans be, our gardens look, our streets appear, and how much would we all benefit from an untainted human habitat?  A clean habitat for our food sources?  An increase in productivity from not having to allocate resources and manpower to constantly cleaning up our mess?  And the love that our mother earth would provide us with in return?   Im sure i can be forgiven for using the word ‘stupid’ ..

Think about it.

Home

The youtube video below is a link to a revealing, informative and harrowing look at the evolution of modern man, and our impact on the earth, our home.  It raises some very important points about the toll our modern lifestyles and systems are taking on the earth, and provides some excellent – if frightening – statistics and information that can certainly empower or enlighten us all.

‘Home’

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jqxENMKaeCU&feature=share

(apologies for not being able to embed this file, as this function has been nullified by the author or authors of the film)

 

 

 

Please take some time to watch this powerful film and if you believe in it, it resonates with you, or you simply find it interesting, thought-provoking or stimulating, please pass it on to your friends in your social networks and beyond, by posting it to your social media(s), blogspots, t-shirts, skywriters, billboards, mental environment, shopping centres, bumper stickers, dog’s collars, hair cuts, cigarette packets, business cards etc..

Spread the word

We are all in this together.

 

Yours sincerely,

C