Category Archives: Ethics

Cork

I do so love my new cork wallet. 

It’s hard to believe it’s made from tree. 

Dennis and John

Dennis and John are two very nice gentlemen from Cardiff. We met two days ago, but apparently I was too drunk to remember. 

We conversed again this evening. They asked if it would be acceptable to call me Gaz, I said that would be bearable. 

They have a friend who is now off out to buy kip. Dirty bastard. 

Bikes & trains & kip

Whenever I travel by train in Europe, which isn’t often enough, I’m reminded of the poor state of the UK’s rail network. Trains in Europe are more modern and, because they have no Victorian track legacy, larger. 

They’re significantly cheaper too. When recently booking trains in Germany, I found tickets to excellent value, with first class a lot cheaper than the UK standard fare. And then today, with a return from Ostend to Ghent costing only €10.80.

That’s €10.80 for a 120 mile round trip, on a shiny new train with tons of leg room. 

Another thing which has impressed me about our long weekend in Belgium has been the number of bikes on the road. And cycle lanes, lots of cycle lanes. Another thing in which the UK is deficient. 

Anyway, in Oostende, Brugge and Gent there were a lot of bikes. 

Moving on to a different subject, Belgium is something of a vegan desert. That’s desert, not dessert. I’ve eaten a lot of crisps in Ostend. People eat a lot of kip here (dead bird).

Ghent, though, was different. While we only found a few places, apparently there are more vegetarian/vegan eateries than in London. We found pizza in a mental converted church. 

The Holy Food Market was mad, but amazing. Imagine a huge old church full of eateries and bars. 

So today wasn’t about beer. The cultural stuff kept getting in the way. 

We did manage to stumble across Belgium’s only comic bar though. 

Also mad. 

I did love the emerging veggie revolution in Ghent. Here’s an example on a wall of a meaty restaurant.

Carnage

How could anyone eat a bird? The vegan comedy film Carnage is now available on BBC iPlayer. 

Beneath the humour, the messages are very real. It’s worth watching. 

Death pledge

Despite two divorces, my second mortgage (the first was paid off a few months ago) is no more. 

While I knew this was going to happen, I was so looking forward to this letter. 

The damn thing would have been paid off sooner, but I chose an ethical mortgage. Well, I didn’t want to contribute to arms deals or exploitation. 

So we now own this little lump of Sodhouse Bank. 

M&S

I have to say, I’m quite impressed with Messrs Marks and Spencer. While having left us many years ago, in body that is, they’re still producing cool things. 

For example, their ever growing range of gelatine (melted down bones and tissue) free sweets. 

But, this very evening, I have purchased a packet of their crisps. Salted, multi-coloured crisps. 

Naturally, one would assume that purple crisps would contain food colourants. And, perhaps, that chemicals are needed to prolong their shelf life. 

But, no, that’s not the case. These crisps have only three ingredients. 

Corpse consumption

I suspect that this will not happen in my lifetime, but it’s strange (or not so) how studies carried out years ago are only in recent years being replicated on a scale which makes them reportable in the mass media. 

It’s nice, in a not so nice way, to see the findings of those early studies being vindicated. 

For example, the acceptance that consuming processed animal bits can massively increase the risk of cancer, not to mention heart attack. Then there are the other, now accepted, related ailments. Type II diabetes for instance. 

There’s one certain fact though. It’s only a matter of time before we (vegetarians and vegans) will rule the ‘civilised’ world. 

Like I say, maybe not in my lifetime. But it’s moving in the right direction. 

Money

Money. We need it, all of us. But a few years ago, on 17 April 2010, someone took quite a bit of money from my house. I wasn’t aware of this until a few weeks later, though, because the money was just sitting there in its special place. 

And then it was gone. I did the knee jerk thing and questioned (blamed) as to whether an obvious person (no one else had been in the house at the time, or so I believed), had taken it. They hadn’t, of course. I knew that too, so I felt bad that I’d questioned their integrity. 

I wasn’t present at the time, but a few weeks ago I learned more about the events of the day. I won’t go into detail because. Well, because. 

Then, a couple of days ago, something happened that made me think about events of six and a bit years ago. All the pieces of the jigsaw slotted together and I realised what had happened. 

It was somewhat disturbing, but (I like to look for the positive in life) I’m glad it’s resolved. Well, resolved in that I’m pretty sure as what happened that morning. 

As for the money that went missing, It was in my house so I replaced it. 

This probably doesn’t make a lot of sense. Mostly because I don’t want to go into detail about the event or the people around at the time. 

Anyway, it’s in the past where it belongs. I had a nice day today. 

CAMRA

I’ve been a (pretty inactive) member of CAMRA for a year and a half. Apart from moaning about finings in beer to a few other members, my goal of infiltrating the organisation and covertly influencing change from within remains unfulfilled.

One factor behind my failure was my inability to motivate myself to begin my mission. However, the main reason was that things were already starting to change. Don’t get me wrong, most CAMRA members I’ve encountered to date have seemed to consider vegans an oddity. I’ve never declared myself to be a vegan, it’s something assumed when I’ve said that I don’t do fish in beer. They generally don’t understand that beer fined with isinglas isn’t actually suitable for vegetarians, although many vegetarians either don’t realise this or don’t care. 

Perhaps I shouldn’t generalise, but I can only relate my experience. Anyway, back to the point. Things were already beginning to change. Not for ethical reasons, of course, but because adding finings isn’t natural (which it isn’t). And because finings remove a lot of what makes beer taste like beer (which they do). 

While I’d be very happy if ethics were a driver, I’m certainly not complaining that CAMRA could be on the brink of a pretty huge change, one that could influence an industry. Guinness’ plans to revert to unfined beer by the end of the year may also contribute. 

There’s more about this here.