Midlife Crisis the wrong way? Why I cut my dread locks and changed from veganism to vegetarianism

Saturday a week ago I went to a West End Hairdresser and cut my long dread locks. It was sad but also uplifting. The thinking process around that took months. I was quite happy with my dreads really except the middle front part which seemed to never lock. My dreadlocks to me stood as a symbol to a variety of affinities and life paths. In 1995 I had written my SOAS BA dissertation about Rastafarianism as Political Youth Culture in Freetown, Sierra Leone, for which I carried out on location research by meeting young people in question in Sierra Leone. Further most of my adult life I had spent with African people, thinking about Jews and African people in the diaspora and have a West African life partner. My green believes and veganism likewise were motives, because dread locks were associated with eco warriors, and anarchists.

I loved going to Sylvia (name changed) my hairdresser, specialised in locks until I discovered not so long ago that they did a bad job, after my wife did a great job of twisting and I went for some reorganization after a month and the hair ended up being worse in a day. Like all it became clear that they did not work too well in order to keep their business going. On enquiry I found a skilled hairdresser who would do it properly for 80 quit or once again my wife in a 5 hour retwisting frenzy.

Then the problem of sleeping (locks have to be tied and covered to stay orderly) and hair washing, always a longer more complicated procedure in the light of my young daughter needing to learn how to swim, as well as myself wishing to cycle more which meant in London weather more rain exposure.

So the hair high in maintenance (not the opposite to anyone's mistaken belief) maybe had to go, as we are short of cash and time at the moment, neither do I live in a social commune where others gladly would twist everyone's hair...

Once off I lost perhaps some bona fide on sight credit from young people, some people of African backgrounds and some anarchists, but I gained the other freedoms, and perhaps also a more accepted way within business (in first sight scenarios).

What about the veganism? Let me be clear I resolutely continue to believe that animals are not treated well, do not need to be killed and that all people ought to reduce their intake of animal sourced nutrition or clothing. I remain a vegan to 85% - 90%. But I believe these days that the 100% vegan closes his eyes to 1000s of years of human evolution, from the use of honey and milk to cheese traditions and egg consumption. I do not agree that animals should be killed for their or meat after they have given us some of theirs, neither that they should be mass farmed, caged etc... I will always try to get the best possible option if I have a choice . Most of the time there is no choice 99.9 percent of milk and eggs comes from animals that will be slaughtered. But I believe I also am a human being and social in that sense. It is not right to trash people who have baked a cake for you or to refuse this special cheese (I promised myself not to eat any cheap mass market cheeses as much as I can). I believe that a different way of getting some animal produce and enjoying human traditions is possible. Under no circumstances however do I wish to consume or eat meat. Killing and consumption of killed conscious beings is not something I wish to directly partake in, even though my former vegan friends tell me rightly that by eating cheese or eggs I am supporting the chain. They are correct of course, but I believe neither the vegan society nor the vegetarian society in Britain have considered seriously a third way, the cruelty free farm for life! All animals on it can live, and are treated in a way that is not harmful to them and that respects their full life capacity. Feathers may be taken, eggs, even milk as long as it is not too invasive. I know that vegans believe that even that would go beyond the rule that we should not rule the lives of other freely born creatures. In that respect I agree with one abstention, namely that evolutionarily we are resourceful all eaters (omnivores). A case can be made even for meat as being part of who we are as a creature, though there are strong moral reasons to not to.

With eggs and milk I believe a compromise can be made here that comes true with human nature as well as morality, ideally with animals living out their life span after their productive years and male animals having a likewise right to life. Leather could still be produced but from fallen animals that have died naturally.

My main diet is now still vegan, but the slightly open option gives me the possibility to also eat Quorn products (a main procuder of modern protein rich replacement to meat) the occasional cheese or egg containing product. I can now taste again the traditions of 1000s of cultures, without going as far as meat, but likewise without rejecting them out right. Also the B12 problem is lessened. That was another factor, whilst vegan diets are OK long term, they are difficult to balance out right, and I am more confident now that I can do so. I have repeatedly asked the vegan society to offer us health based cooking courses with practical suggestions, but the best I got was a variety of sometimes rather difficult books. For someone who learns from doing there was little help unless one was willing to pay a very high rate for this help from a Croydon based nutrition specialist.

I still consume lots of soy produce and often eat meals without any animal ingredient. I will ask on airplanes for a vegan meal etc..

I though that it would be important to put these deliberations down, as this is actually a significant change in my life.

I would not be surprised if my vegan or Rastafarian readers would beg me now to change ways. Please do write your pieces I will read them with the respect they deserve. My other friends may congractulate me, you too may of course write in friendship!




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UK assesment 2009

Before I came to Britain I thought that class was an antiquated gibberish used by socialists attempting to measure the presence with the yard stick of the past. However having lived in the UK for nearly 20 years now, I become to realise that Britain is truly a master of the theory in the presence, regardless of what Margaret Thatcher would have Britons think back in the late 70s, perhaps with well intended efforts. So here you have the social elite in terms of politicians taking liberties on the expenses of the people, and the bankers (yes I know not just a UK issue, but I remember vividly how Brown took exception to defend the city's privileges just a couple of years before the crisis that hit us) taking and taking with but only little reinvestment into the system in which all of us live. When I arrived in Britain some tube trains still had first class sections...

Compare the UK with a Scandinavian country and it becomes remarkably clear what difference it makes if everything in a society is geared towards an improvement of the collective rather than that of the few, and that still within a wider capitalist strada.

Just months ago tamiflu the medication for swine flu was purchasable in UK pharmacies by those who had the necessary cash, in spite of warning's that lay-person misuse of the drug could be just as dangerous (for making viruses drug resistant) and in spite of the NHS. And there are plenty of other stories about what is a partial two tier health system in spite some efforts to rescue it.

There is not a day of my life here where I can not see how developments that ought to be expected in a rich country such as Britain are simply missing. From cycle paths to elderly care it seems in Britain there is simply no vision, apart from an occasional short programme run by a politician or two. Blair did something in order to bring about changes that were implemented in other countries decades earlier, but he was unable to clear up a block of thought that seems ingrained very deeply in the psyche here, so deep that the very same man (Blair) rushed into various war-fares as the co-spearhead (alongside the US) of a number of nations, financed by the people's taxes. The same people that suffer lack of housing, education and health provision had to hear how their country helps building up countries far away, after their British army had bombed a significant amount to ground earlier. Well thank goodness the Gurkha's experienced charitability (not that the leadership felt it necessary from the outset).

Britain's lack of change frustrates me in the imperative. Things are so bad compared to other places around the globe I would love do nothing more than leave its shores, was it not for being tied to a family I married into here. Just have a look at Monocle's top 50 of the most live-able cities around the world, none of them are here in Britain - for good reason. You may get cultural life in London, but you pay with bad infrastructure, killing yourself on a bike or by exposure with London youth. Edinburgh, Birmingham, Bristol...you name them, there is always a few good things with a dozen of bad things (The statistics in Monocle relate to life quality, in that sense they count health system, safety, cultural life on offer, public transport infrastructure, tolerance and diversity, as well sustainability).

I have no idea how things could improve, but it seems to me that one of the important ingredients would be the humility that the elite here don't know best on most occasions, though there are exceptions. Perhaps these can allow one hope.

What's even stranger is that some things that were good about the UK, like outstanding customer service, it's engineering industry, politeness, are attributes of a distant past, the good old days, the very same days in which racism, colonialism were also ripe.

What is needed most is an in depth education of social thought alongside a real democratic systematic change of organisation. But I won't get my hopes high, not in a year where UKIP and the BNP excelled in elections here.

MP's Expense claims

The revelations of MPs expense claims, especially of costs to their second homes is the most disgusting feat in Great Britain, and deserves rightly the most in depth persecution. First time buyers like my own family have been put out first through spiralling housing costs and now through near impossible mortgages that don't buy much. One is not surprised anymore, that no political answers for first time buyers came about. I never thought much about class, that is until I learnt more and more about Britain. I hope that this will be the equaliser of democracy that people are hoping for. Westminster, and the old and new political and economic aristocracies are overdue for a reform and revolution.

If you live abroad and missed the lot this BBC summary gives you all you need to know:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/7840678.stm

Swine Flu is swine flu even if it is human flu. Abolish all factory Livestock Farming Wirldwide

There is a political attempt, as witnessed by US President Obama yesterday to take out the swine out of the term swine flu. Even the BBC news program Today discussed it today. The main issue is that swine flu is now an inter human flu, not requiring pigs to be a carrier. It is hence a human flu now. However part of the issue and the BBC acknowledged this too, is that the pig industry is heavily affected (people not buying their produce) and politicians, including in the EU are trying to safe guard it. I find the debates at the moment ridiculous. Sure we need to talk about preventing a spread and saving those affected. But why we are moving into a scenario where we try to no longer talk about its origin and how to prevent other outbreaks is a shear eco-political spinning exercise. In the light of pandemic diseases this is a disgusting dictat. I hope people are not that stupid. Swine fli is swine flu because it came from human contact in industrialized pig farms, as most commentators agree upon.


Anyone who fancies cheap bacon, chicken, lamb, eggs, milk, leather etc... is consuming the system that may cause the death of her most loved child.

We reformed the banks, let's reform food production and our global tastes for high levels of meat, poultry and fish.

Abolish Livestock factory farming now globally. Let us raise the standards on animal keeping and produce to save our loved grand-parents and children, who are most vulnerable to pandemic flu, and ultimately ourselves.

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Michelle Obama speech at London EGA Girls school: Some girls still wasting outside school?

It is rather heartbreaking. Who wasn't touched by Michelle Obama's speech at EGA girl's secondary in Islington, London. One of the issues she raised in particular was school attendance. Today I have seen the same group of teenage young women, mainly of East African background, what appeared to be skipping classes in a nearby park. The same I saw in the park before Michelle held her speech. I do suspect they are not attending school unless they always go for a smoke in their break time for 30 minutes or longer... They are from EGA because of their school dress.

If it was skipping, I am deeply saddened by that. it would be proof that a short visit, even by someone as significant as Michelle Obama, can't change the ingrained attitudes of teenagers over night. What is so much more saddening is the background of the six girls in relation to the Obamas.

from Islington, Daniel

Where is the G20 or UN livestock reform?

Question: What is worse the banks and mortgage lenders who caused the world economic crisis or the livestock producers who give you cheap meat and poultry?

David Kirby on Swine Flu and Industrialized process of pig farming in Mexico
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/david-kirby/swine-flu-outbreak----nat_b_191408.html

Swine-flu linked to Smithfield Factory Farms
http://www.grist.org/article/2009-04-25-swine-flu-smithfield/

Swine flu linked to industrial pig unit
http://www.fwi.co.uk/Articles/2009/04/28/115342/swine-flu-outbreak-linked-to-industrial-pig-unit.html

Is industrial age to blame for swine flu?
http://www.fwi.co.uk/Articles/2009/04/28/115342/swine-flu-outbreak-linked-to-industrial-pig-unit.html


I would rephrase the last headlines above. Not the industrial age or factory farms are to blame, but each one of those amongst us who buy and demand cheap meat on a daily basis. It is a little bit like the banking industry. Bankers backed up irresponsible mortgages, taking fat incomes for themselves, and people took advantage of it, even if they knew they were not good for them. Industrialized size livestock farmers are also fat earners, and they make the world literally fat with them, but as we now know kill beyond the animals they produce, or the heart attacks and cancers caused by excessive meat consumption, they kill by spreading deadly diseases.

As for meat and poultry, as a vegan myself I was attacked countlessly for my choice of dietary lifestyle. Opponents claim, it would be unnatural, and a perversity and "look at the teeth in your mouth, they are designed for animal consumption too." I must say that I do agree that humans throughout evolution did eat other animals. But the perversion is not on my shoulders. I may choose not to consume any animal products at all, and live well to prove that it is possible, but nobody can tell me that it is natural to consume the amount of meat and animal produce of the present day.

At no stage in human history was it possible to breed so many animals so cheaply and at no stage of human evolution did societies expect to have meat in every single meal, and huge quantities of the produce of the animals milk or eggs and at the quantities it is eaten.

It is time for a tough muscle approach in the farming world and a reform of global food supply and habits. Something similar to the G20 talks on banks.

The banks robbed the world of its wealth, some people may die out of starvation because of the imbalances it caused on the global economic stage, but a pandemic of flu as we are now experiencing as a threat is actually worse than the global economic crisis. How many people may perish in that? The only difference is that majority of the world population, except in very poor communities has been supporting the system that caused first the bird flu and now the swine flu, plus BSE, foot and mouth and so many other diseases and other ones in recent history.

As a vegan some people may think I wish to see the demise of the meat and poultry industry. I would be lying if I wouldn't say I am sympathetic to that notion. But I am a realist and pragmatist. I understand that it is impossible to demand this from most people and I understand that part of human cultures in some countries is the way they prepare their meats and how they make cheeses, and work with leather etc, a change if at all here would have to be gradual.
What I am rather talking about is a ban on industrialised farming full stop and a reduction in livestock farming to numbers that are containable, manageable and sustainable on all levels.

Sure all meats are going to be more expensive as a result, we may resort to the days when a chicken was eaten on the weekend, and part of a cow or goat on special days, but it means that it will taste better, be special, and above all that we no longer suffer the degrees of fear of death we had to endure in the past. Only the industrialised livestock farmers may suffer, most farmers will be OK because the value of their animals and their produces will go up. Shoes and leather items will be produced to last longer than just a few months and the industries that repair them will get a lift.

Is this a proposal too radical to ask for in the light of fearing for the life of our children, just because ham and bacon, steak and chicken sandwich are supposedly a given right, perhaps a natural? Isn't it a price too high to pay, even if these produces appear so cheap and are apparently so yummy? How much more yummy if it is eaten on special days only? How much more care would go in its preparation?

The bankers were an easy target to poo upon. After all most of us are not bankers. But to reform the meat and poultry industries, requires everyone to act and agree. I believe that we are not seeing the end of pandemic killer diseases, because it is a step that would not be popular in the eyes of politicians and people alike. But the problems are around every corner. Even bee hives are severely affected by industrialised bee keeping, threatening farming due to insufficient pollination, meaning we may have a shortage of staple grains soon overfishing is already causing severe disruptions to the health of our oceans,...

If you read ecological documents you will be able to continue without end: The water needed for cattle farming, the manure poisoning water supplies, cattle taking away grains or fields where they grow that could feed 1000s of people but maybe 10 cows, cow farts contributing to the destruction of the ozone layer....

All this has been said before and perhaps light heartedly laughed at. But these are real facts, and the dead in Mexico are real people like us, and the pandemic flu outbreak is hanging above us like a sword of Damocles.

How much more does it take to change the supposed most intelligent species on earth to change its course?

Aren't we all eating so we can live? So what the hell is wrong with us, if what we eat is killing us, our children and people far and close?

Who is worse the bankers or the livestock farmers? Which sector ought to be reformed without delay?


P.S. I am aware that traditional methods of animal farming are also factors, for example in the avian flu case, where poultry in South East Asia and China is kept in close affinity to people who own them. I am not excluding such practises from my call for reform, and have written about it elsewhere on the blog.

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