Today's Vegetarian

“We should always be clear that animal exploitation is wrong because it involves speciesism. And speciesism is wrong because, like racism, sexism, homophobia, anti-semitism, classism, and all other forms of human discrimination, speciesism involves violence inflicted on members of the moral community where that infliction of violence cannot be morally justified. But that means that those of us who oppose speciesism necessarily oppose discrimination against humans. It makes no sense to say that speciesism is wrong because it is like racism (or any other form of discrimination) but that we do not have a position about racism. We do. We should be opposed to it and we should always be clear about that.” 
― Gary L. Francione

My beautiful little "lion" Wahkan Nobu (Wahkan: sacred, Nobu: vow)

Apply for a Car? Yes, please!

Maybe I'm becoming Ms. Grump, but after a call to Oslo's garbage collectors costumer's service, I'm having serious doubts about a few issues.

Oslo's inhabitants have started sorting their garbage, we use different bags for scraps of food, plastic and everything else. They must not be larger than a carrier bag, though, otherwise the garbage trucks could get damaged (!), and if I want to turn in glass I have to walk to a usually full container and possibly dump my jam jars outside it. For dangerous garbage I need to have a car or travel for 45 minutes to deposit - which means you have to be highly motivated to do so. I'm also one of those somewhat nutty people who don't want a car due to not wanting to support an infrastructure I find almost scary. I travel by bike or public transport. There should be more carpools, having the possibility of taking out a car when in need of materials or for the weekend, not owning one when living in the city and having access to public transport. Actually I think we should have strict criteria for owning a car - like being walking impaired or elderly when living in the city. We need more exercise and seeing a line of cars standing on the highway in the morning with one person in every car when the public transport is running like it should, makes me a bit sad.

The green garbage bags are for food and the contents will be turned into bio gas, which will be used for fuel (!) and heating. We are not allowed to put old plants into the garbage as they are not good for the plant that makes the gas. The girl I talked to at the costumer's service did not know what will happen to the parts of the food that will not turn into gas either. And making bio gas! It seems a reflection of what we are already doing, how our infrastructure is not serving us, but is just being a monument to our thoughtlessness. We behave like we are endlessly rich when one billion people are starving. But  then, we will not turn around before we are forced to do so and our politicians may be more concerned about winning the next election than making some unpopular decisions. Do they not have children?

Ad for the Norwegian State Railways: Raise you hand if you vote for taking the train

Well, Mr. Cravan, I think we may have a case of the blind leading the blind again. But then I don't know everything, do I.

A One Year Shopping Hiatus

On the 13TH it is my birthday. My mother asked me to get myself something nice. I got a small artwork and a vegan cookbook. I also made a vow:

• no more shopping for a year - exceptions maybe absolutely necessary items of clothing, but no more little gifts to stoke my ego and use just a little more of the world's resources. I will keep you posted about my project. Keeping you posted should keep me in line, hopefully.

I Have Decided to Trust Nina

When I was little, one of the highlights in life was to walk through the woods around the cottage with my mother to fetch the newspaper. Occasionally we stopped at Mrs. Nygård's place. She was the kindest lady, not used to great comfort, but generous and kindly talkative. We sat in her garden by the sea and talked of all the important things like life, nature and animals. I got to admire her garden and she served bread with jam, cake and coffee. She saw life with kind eyes.

Today Nina told me there still are people like that left - kind, content with their life without having to have every comfort. I've decided to believe her.