Veganism is not a Diet and not a Social Club

 

(If the above is difficult to read due to its print, here's what it says below):

"The word “vegan” was invented in 1944, by Elsie Shrigley and Donald Watson, who founded the UK Vegan Society. The British Vegan Society defines veganism this way:

The word “veganism” denotes a philosophy and way of living which seeks to exclude — as far as is possible and practical — all forms of exploitation of, and cruelty to, animals for food, clothing or any other purpose; and by extension, promotes the development and use of animal-free alternatives for the benefit of humans, animals and the environment. In dietary terms it denotes the practice of dispensing with all products derived wholly or partly from animals.

If you wish it to mean something different, invent your own word."


My major concern regarding animal rights are people--even animal rights people--thinking that all one has to do to be vegan is not eat any animal products. A non-vegan even had the audacity to tell me that veganism has been re-defined for some time and it's definition is it's a diet only. People who take it further to include not using animals in any way is an "animal rights vegan", he says. 

He is wrong!

Veganism is not a Diet


A vegan is someone who does not eat, wear or use any animal/animal parts in any way, shape or form. It never was a diet per se and has not been re-defined as a diet. Only the person who coined the term vegan (the British Vegan Society) really has the right to alter the definition. 

Vegan History

"The Vegan Society, the world's first, was born in November 1944 - after a lengthy gestation. As early as 1909 the ethics of consuming dairy products were hotly debated within the vegetarian movement. In August 1944, Elsie Shrigley and Donald Watson (a conscientious objector later to be acclaimed as the Vegan Society's Founder) agreed the desirability of coordinating 'non-dairy vegetarians'; despite opposition from prominent vegetarians unwilling to even consider adopting a diet free of all animal products.

In November, Donald organised a London meeting of six like-minded 'non-dairy vegetarians' at which it was decided to form a new society and adopt a new name to describe themselves - vegan derived from VEGetariAN.

It was a Sunday, with sunshine, and a blue sky, an auspicious day for the birth of an idealistic new movement.

Today, the Society remains as determined as ever to promote vegan lifestyles - that is, ways of living that seek to exclude, as far as is possible and practical, all forms of exploitation of animals for food, clothing or any other purpose.

The Society aims to make veganism an easily adopted and widely recognised approach to reducing animal and human suffering and environmental damage by means of meaningful, peaceful and factual dialogue with individuals and organisations."

(Source: The Vegan Society website) 

 Veganism is not a Social Club

Being vegan means being involved in a very serious cause, like all other very serious causes.  Ideally, vegans should not be involved in any officially organized vegan group. The closest thing to being a "group" should be vegans having their own personal circle of vegan friends where they all trust each other, stick up for each other and are loyal to each other. And within that circle go out and educate people about veganism as well as vote on important animal rights issues. 

I hope I have  cleared up any confusion as to what it genuinely means to be vegan. It's not my definition--or anyone elses definition--except from the ones who originally coined the term vegan. As when anyone who has defined a term, we should not unethically try to change it. Afterall, how would you like it if you created something than someone else tried to publically change its definition. 

For a similar, excellent blogpost on the definition of vegan, check out:

Vegan – has a meaning, let’s use it

Year of the Dog

 

 WARNING: My short synopsis (in green) of the film, Year of the Dog, may contain spoilers!


Peggy and her dog beagle, Pencil, are inseparable companions. They sleep together, eat together, do everything together. Life is uncomplicated and safe, and Peggy is happily entrenched in a satisfying relationship with her beloved pet. 

But Peggy’s world comes crashing down when Pencil meets a mysterious death. Peggy now desperately seeks to fill the gaping void of love that was found with Pencil. She fills that gap by working to get animals adopted, then later she becomes a vegan and animal rights activist.


Year of the Dog (2007) is not as good as Bold Native (I've updated my review on Bold Native today), but it is a sweet animal rights film that definitely makes people aware of the suffering of animals in the world and what you can do actively about it. This film is rated PG-13 (contains some graphic photos of animal suffering), which makes it a better age appropriate animal rights film for kids to see than Bold Native--which is rated R.

Jain Society of Chicago Celebrates Mahavir Jayanti

The Jain Society of Metropolitan Chicago’s (JSMC) temple will be celebrating Mahavir Jayanti this month. Mahavir Janma Kalyanak (Jayanti) is celebrated across the world as birth anniversary of Bhagwan Mahavir, the 24th Tirthankar (enlightened one) of Jain philosophy.

He was born in 599 BC and this year marks the 2,614 years since the birth of the apostle of peace. His message of ahimsha (non-violence), aparigraha (non-possessiveness) and anekantvad (non-absolutism) are universal in nature and has been the guiding force for generations of Jains and many cultures in the Indus Valley Civilization. He was the son of King Siddhartha and Queen Trishala. On the night of conception his mother, Trishala, had a dream depicting 14 different auspicious things. The astrologers interpreted the auspicious dreams and predicted that the child would be either an emperor or a Tirthankar.

This year JSMC is celebrating its 20th anniversary and it being the first major event of the year, the chairman of JSMC, Arvind Shah, and Board of Trustees, presented the state of the JSMC. They also presented important information on the current and future initiatives undertaken by the managing team and shared the financial health of the society.

The JSMC president, Tejas Shah, said that the entire Jain community throughout the Chicagoland area, Indiana, and Wisconsin celebrated Mahavir Jayanti at the Bartlett Jain Temple. The facility was beautifully decorated including the Pratimaji (Idol) of Mahavir Swami. Mahavir Swami is the main deity at the Jain Temple of JSMC.

 

This is also an auspicious time of Ayambil Oli. Ayambil is a penance where the observer eats only once a day where a completely boiled Jain vegan menu is served. The Ayambil Oli is observed over a period of nine days and this year it runs parallel to the Mahavir Jayanti celebrations. About 65 members observed penance for the entire nine days and many more did it for a day or two.

 

For more information and how to register for the JSMC event, visit their website, at: www.jsmconline.org

Animal Abolition v/s Animal Welfare--Who's Right? Neither!

Recently, I have been talking to animal abolition and animal welfare people. In case you may not know the difference I'll describe the two in their basic belief system.

Animal abolitionists (the many I have spoken to) are anti-animal law. They do not believe in the legal system at all for animals. For example, they would not rejoice if hunting was abolished on this planet. They believe save all animals now or allow them to all suffer. They DO have an all or nothing mentality, regardless of what they may say, when it comes to saving animals in the legal way. They believe the ONLY solution to saving animals is by education and education alone. Nothing else matters whatsoever.

Animal welfarists definitely believes in animal law. But so much to the point of being just as irrational as not believing in animal law at all. For instance, they rejoice in hearing it become law when over-crowded chicks are allowed an inch more space in factory farming. They believe in working moreso on causing less animal suffering than totally ending animal suffering.

Both views are ignorant, misinformed and just plain assinine.

I talked with one animal abolitionist and asked if there was a petition to sign into law where ALL animals in the world would be legally protected from any kind of suffering, using, etc. and could have their freedom except flies and you signing it would make that law, would you sign it. The person said no. (In fairness, I answered my own question by saying I definitely would sign and then work my hardest to prevent suffering to flies. I believe all animals should be free unless basically their sole purpose in life is to cause misery, pain, desease, and maybe even death to another being, like for instance fleas. Flies have been known to be quite postive-productive in the world!)

There are other ways to help animals. Education is just one way. Animal laws are just as important in the animal rights movment to save all animals as education. But by spending so much time making law, for example, one inch more space for chicks is ridiculous. The way to effectively work in animal law is to totally end something--like hunting (which Costa Rica did recently--Bravo!), or even shutting down cruel places of businesses. That's ending cruelty.

Animal Abolitionists care nothing about the individual animal. Actually, I'm not sure if they really even care about animals at all, going by their mentality. They seem to be on this hellbent "all or nothing" way that they loose sight on saving any and all animal suffering. I don't know who started this animal abolitionist crap but those that bought into it--if the animal abolitionists I've talked to are correct in their definition as stated above--are deluded.

At least animal welfarists believe in animal activism multi-tasking. They believe we should educate, petition and vote. This is excellent. We need to do all we can for animals, and not just educate.

I don't believe in animal abolition or animal welfare. But I do believe in animal rights. And the way that animals get rights is by doing sensible, intelligent actions.

Mason Bee Homes and Gold Certification

My church has an official Backyard Habitat (Gold) Certification. We just received the Gold certification early this year.

 

One of the ways one can get certified is to have (among many other things required) Mason Bee Homes. I had never heard of Mason Bee Homes so I Googled it to find out what they looked like before I searched to find ours on the church grounds. As you can see below, there is more shelf space to the left and right of the church to have even more Mason Bee Homes; maybe we'll get more soon.

Click on photo for larger image.

 

 

    

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The church's Gold stamp of approval!

 

 

 

 

 

As I was taking photos, I noticed a bee so took pictures of him. Too bad I didn't have my bigger and better camera with me as the image of the bee would have come out much sharper up close.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This was taken near my home. I think it's awesome the owner would rather cut holes in the wooden fence than break the tree's branches--loves it!

 

 

 

I've asked to be on the mailing list as a volunteer to help maintain the church's Certified Habitat. I'm really excited about it and can't wait to participate in the program!

 

"If you're the smartest one in the room, you're in the wrong room."

The title and photo quote of my blog has been around for awhile.

Surrounding ourselves with people smarter than we are, meaning, people who are better at something than we are, has several advantages:

1. The people are always interesting.

2. We can always learn something from them.

3. We avoid an inflated ego.

4. When we hang out with people who are already where we want to be, we are inspired, encouraged and motivated toward our own goals.

This message really resonated with me today, especially in regards to Animal Rights. When I visit animal rights sites or when I'm hanging out with animal rights people, I find myself being the "teacher", the motivator; it wouldn't be so bad if they felt inspired by me, but I don't think they do. Most of the animal rights people I've met are too complacent, too apathetic to really, truly care about the plight of animals, and it shows in their minimalist actions. Actually, I find such people bringing me down!

I love the part of the intro of an animal rights podcast that says "You know that you can do better than that."

Minimalist animal rights people seem to know this but simply don't care to do better.

We all can do better for the animals and I want to be around people smart enough to not only realize that but do check themselves from time-to-time to make sure they are doing better--I do all the time. I want to be motivated to do more for animals as I motivate others as well.

I don't want to be the smartest person in the room, but I don't care to be the dumbest person in the room either, where no one learns from me. Ideally, I would like to be in a room where there's a partnership of we educate each other, we comfort each other and motivate and inspire each other. A room where we both contribute something to the vegan table.

I will be on the lookout for such "rooms"--online and offline--where we are all on the same page and can learn from each other.

Looking Back, Moving Forward

As I was listening to the podcast ARZone, it brought back memories in my early days of animal activism...This is a very good episode everyone should here. It certainly inspired me!

In this special Looking Back, Moving Forward podcast, ARZone presents the thoughts of 35 long-time advocates and activists from around the world - looking back on 2012 and moving forward into 2013.


Audio Podcast, approx 2 hours 27 minutes.

ARZone Podcast 61: Looking Back, Moving Forward