Most people are other people. Their thoughts are someone else's opinions, their lives a mimicry, their passions a quotation.
Oscar Wilde, De Profundis, 1905
I was very busy now-a-days, I didn’t have time to do a thorough “retail therapy” lately. This Saturday I had a meeting in the morning in Town so I have decided to do my shopping in one of the big malls. I usually like to hang around places and just watch what other people do around me, how they act and react to certain things.
But this weekend something else caught my attention. I have realised how “uniform” people are. They have the same or very similar hair style, they dress the same way and most of all they all act and react the same way. I know nothing is new, there was always fashion and we all are humans so we have similar behaviour. It is all true but in the “old times” we had more “individuals” around. With the strong presence of the media and especially the commercials that we are “bombarded every minute in our lives we slowly but surely lose our own identities. And sadly it is much deeper than hair style or clothing...
Our thinking is also hugely influenced by the media. We actually do not want to think anymore. We became too lazy to form our own opinion or if some of us try to do it those are “stamped” as weird or stupid or even something worse. So the real “individuals” are close to extinction… It clearly should not be the case. In a way we all are unique and different. We all experience and/or explain things (or at least we should) a bit differently. We should be proud of our differences; this supposed to make the world exciting.
The problem is that this “uniform-ism” starts at early age and becomes part of our lives without even realising it. We want to have exactly the same things the others have, we say and do exactly the same things others do. Even those whom “would like to be” different too scared to express it. How many of us are “shocked” to see someone dressing “out of ordinary” or saying something that is not what the majority is saying.
I cannot really figure it out if we just became comfortable, too stupid to think for ourselves or we are insecure, afraid to be different. I am different and I “suffer” in a way because I cannot share my views very openly with others. Every now and again I meet someone who “speaks my language” but most of the time I go against walls. I usually am not very pushy to express my different feelings or views. I test the water before I try to swim but most of the time I do not find it “suitable”.
The problem that I see in the long run is that by being so uniform the human race is becoming more and more controllable without even realising it. Slowly but surely we are losing the values we represent or got used to represent. We accept obvious lies; we obey insane or even abusive rules/laws etc. We support bad/wrong ideas; we agree to comply with things that we do not feel right… where will it lead us?
Well I do not want to think about it but in the meantime I stay the way I am, I will do things and say things that I want to even if it is “out of the box” because I am who I am… luckily there are some people out there to whom I can relate to. They do not necessarily think in the same way I do but at least we can talk and share ideas. The really good thing about this "bad" situation is that one can find real friends and one will cherise those relationships for ever.
Sunday, 16 September 2007
Sunday, 12 August 2007
You Are What You Eat
High-tech tomatoes. Mysterious milk. Supersquash.
Are we supposed to eat this stuff? Or is it going to eat us?
Annita Manning
I work in the food industry and encounter the ignorance and misconception from the average person every day regarding the production, processing and distribution of our food.
Food is usually at the bottom of the priority list in an average person's life. Surely we have to eat to survive, therefore we need food but what we are eating is in many cases only a minor importance. And I am not talking about the content of our diet in the sense of what are the "components" but rather where that food is coming from.
We are what we eat… so it is better to know WHAT we are eating!!!
Most people assume that any products that "make the shelves" of the supermarkets are safe. I was so disgusted once when I asked someone from an Eastern country if they were interested in organic produce. His answer was that for his company the only important thing when it came to food safety was that the person who consumes the product wouldn’t die immediately from poisoning so they couldn’t be sued… It might have been a joke though it sounded quite “sincere”. Well most of the retailers are using food safety as either a marketing tool or to avoid possible law suits and still most of them would procure products from ANYWHERE to fill their shelves. And when it comes to processed food only "God knows" what are certain products really contain and how it was made. Labels are not much of help as they can be misleading easily.
South Africa made the news recently about GMO labelling whether it is necessary or not as well as what impact it would have on food prices.
http://www.fin24.co.za/articles/default/display_article.aspx?Nav=ns&ArticleID=1518-1786_2156552
http://www.freshplaza.com/news_detail.asp?id=5462
The reality is that food production is getting more and more expensive. Theoretically suppliers have to comply with strict standards and regulations to ensure healthier, safer and better quality food. In reality there are loads of "short cuts" that offer cheaper "alternatives" to match with the requirements. Apart from the fact that it is not fair to suppliers that are committed to supply the best possible products it is "cheating" on the consumer. There is no way that everyone every time can be "caught" when they do or not do something that they should in terms of supplying the safest food. Of course we have the third party auditing systems to make sure that food safety measures are in place but it is meaningless if it is not maintained.
Once I have been asked to do an assessment on food safety standards at a bakery that supplies many supermarkets as well as fast food outlets with their products. They had some kind of paperwork in place regarding their procedures (i.e. what and how should have been done in the factory) but nothing was implemented... no disciplines were introduced, no training to the staff has been done... no wonder that when I entered to the place I have found workers without protective clothing and one even had a cigarette in a "quiet corner". The place was filthy and untidy... needless to say that I stopped buying any products from this factory. And yet when it was the day of the audit everything run smoothly, paperwork was "up-to-date", food safety measures were in place... Luckily it was not me who had to handle the audit because I possibly couldn't have made peace with my conscience.
I am not writing this article to "threaten" anyone but rather to raise awareness. Food prices are on the "hike" as all other things in our lives become more expensive. We have the right to know what we spend on money on and when it comes to food we have to know if it is the best we can get and it is what we want to get.
Getting back to the GMO labelling issue. It is a very contraversial and highly debated topic. One side is so devoted to the new possibilities and opportunities that this technology promises that they say it is not necessary to label GMO because it is just as safe as any other conventional food with possible addititional benefits like higher nutrition value etc. The other side claims that apart from the possible negative impact on the environment it can also promote health risks as we do not have enough information to discard this option.
The truth is that most (even if labelled “independent”) studies and researches are funded by someone that want to make sure that their money spent “wisely”, other words the results most often reflect or interpret the mandator’s interest. And it is especially true for government and company financed researches… Bottom line is that we do not have adequate evidence on the safety of GMO food. Through the history of scientific research there are many examples that something was “proven” as safe for us and a decade or two later it turned out exactly the opposite. Many chemicals we used in agriculture turned out to be very harmful not only for the environment but for humans too. Same applies to many medicines that were proven to be rather a health risk then benefit.
To whom you belive it is your personal choice... and CHOICE is the key word. By proper labelling and legitimate information we would be able to make informed decisions when we buy our food... it still seems to be far away... in the meantime if more and more of us inquire more and more information about the food we buy we put more and more pressure on the supermarkets to make sure that our food is as healthy indeed as they claim.
For those who would like to know more about GMO there is a video that is an eye-opener. The link below contains many other food industry related information too which might be for your benefit.
Genetically Modified Food - Panacea or poison (Video): A very interesting documentary on genetically engineer food or GE, GMO. GE food raises serious concern about its safety… http://rs6.net/tn.jsp?t=8zxp6acab.0.cpup6acab.iqnuv6bab.37930&ts=S0254&p=http%3A%2F%2Ftinyurl.com%2F2eesxo
Are we supposed to eat this stuff? Or is it going to eat us?
Annita Manning
I work in the food industry and encounter the ignorance and misconception from the average person every day regarding the production, processing and distribution of our food.
Food is usually at the bottom of the priority list in an average person's life. Surely we have to eat to survive, therefore we need food but what we are eating is in many cases only a minor importance. And I am not talking about the content of our diet in the sense of what are the "components" but rather where that food is coming from.
We are what we eat… so it is better to know WHAT we are eating!!!
Most people assume that any products that "make the shelves" of the supermarkets are safe. I was so disgusted once when I asked someone from an Eastern country if they were interested in organic produce. His answer was that for his company the only important thing when it came to food safety was that the person who consumes the product wouldn’t die immediately from poisoning so they couldn’t be sued… It might have been a joke though it sounded quite “sincere”. Well most of the retailers are using food safety as either a marketing tool or to avoid possible law suits and still most of them would procure products from ANYWHERE to fill their shelves. And when it comes to processed food only "God knows" what are certain products really contain and how it was made. Labels are not much of help as they can be misleading easily.
South Africa made the news recently about GMO labelling whether it is necessary or not as well as what impact it would have on food prices.
http://www.fin24.co.za/articles/default/display_article.aspx?Nav=ns&ArticleID=1518-1786_2156552
http://www.freshplaza.com/news_detail.asp?id=5462
The reality is that food production is getting more and more expensive. Theoretically suppliers have to comply with strict standards and regulations to ensure healthier, safer and better quality food. In reality there are loads of "short cuts" that offer cheaper "alternatives" to match with the requirements. Apart from the fact that it is not fair to suppliers that are committed to supply the best possible products it is "cheating" on the consumer. There is no way that everyone every time can be "caught" when they do or not do something that they should in terms of supplying the safest food. Of course we have the third party auditing systems to make sure that food safety measures are in place but it is meaningless if it is not maintained.
Once I have been asked to do an assessment on food safety standards at a bakery that supplies many supermarkets as well as fast food outlets with their products. They had some kind of paperwork in place regarding their procedures (i.e. what and how should have been done in the factory) but nothing was implemented... no disciplines were introduced, no training to the staff has been done... no wonder that when I entered to the place I have found workers without protective clothing and one even had a cigarette in a "quiet corner". The place was filthy and untidy... needless to say that I stopped buying any products from this factory. And yet when it was the day of the audit everything run smoothly, paperwork was "up-to-date", food safety measures were in place... Luckily it was not me who had to handle the audit because I possibly couldn't have made peace with my conscience.
I am not writing this article to "threaten" anyone but rather to raise awareness. Food prices are on the "hike" as all other things in our lives become more expensive. We have the right to know what we spend on money on and when it comes to food we have to know if it is the best we can get and it is what we want to get.
Getting back to the GMO labelling issue. It is a very contraversial and highly debated topic. One side is so devoted to the new possibilities and opportunities that this technology promises that they say it is not necessary to label GMO because it is just as safe as any other conventional food with possible addititional benefits like higher nutrition value etc. The other side claims that apart from the possible negative impact on the environment it can also promote health risks as we do not have enough information to discard this option.
The truth is that most (even if labelled “independent”) studies and researches are funded by someone that want to make sure that their money spent “wisely”, other words the results most often reflect or interpret the mandator’s interest. And it is especially true for government and company financed researches… Bottom line is that we do not have adequate evidence on the safety of GMO food. Through the history of scientific research there are many examples that something was “proven” as safe for us and a decade or two later it turned out exactly the opposite. Many chemicals we used in agriculture turned out to be very harmful not only for the environment but for humans too. Same applies to many medicines that were proven to be rather a health risk then benefit.
To whom you belive it is your personal choice... and CHOICE is the key word. By proper labelling and legitimate information we would be able to make informed decisions when we buy our food... it still seems to be far away... in the meantime if more and more of us inquire more and more information about the food we buy we put more and more pressure on the supermarkets to make sure that our food is as healthy indeed as they claim.
For those who would like to know more about GMO there is a video that is an eye-opener. The link below contains many other food industry related information too which might be for your benefit.
Genetically Modified Food - Panacea or poison (Video): A very interesting documentary on genetically engineer food or GE, GMO. GE food raises serious concern about its safety… http://rs6.net/tn.jsp?t=8zxp6acab.0.cpup6acab.iqnuv6bab.37930&ts=S0254&p=http%3A%2F%2Ftinyurl.com%2F2eesxo
Saturday, 24 March 2007
Trust
You may be deceived if you trust too much,
but you will live in torment unless you trust enough.
Frank Crane
ANITA
I am writing this article because something happened to me recently that made me think about trust and what it really means in our lives. It made me think how vulnerable we are when we have to make our decisions. (In my case the upsetting part is that I tried to trust in someone despite of my intuition.) Every one of us has been, is or will be at some stage in a situation when trust is broken. It can be as little as a white lie that turns out to affect us deeper than it was intended or it can be as big as trusting in our political leaders that they keep our individual needs and well-being in mind when they make their decisions or even become a victim of such decisions.
Trust by definition is a prediction of reliance on an action, based on what a party knows about the other party. Trust is a statement about what is otherwise unknown -- for example, because it is far away, cannot be verified, or is in the future.
Trust is a choice and we should use it wisely. There are people that trust blindly in anything and everything they hear and experience and there are others that live in paranoia because they can not trust anyone or anything. What is better?
If you follow what is happening in the world today, trust becomes an issue. Politicians deceive us on a daily basis, corruption is blooming in every corner of the Planet and very often it seems to be supported by governments. And in our private lives we all experience dishonesty and disrespect towards each other that can easily grow to legal disputes but even the law that supposed to protect the honest and innocent seems to rather support the deceivers.
But if we allow our leaders to set deception as a “standard” what can we expect from the “little man”? The example is there in front of us every day; we all watch television, listen to the radio, read news papers or the internet. Some of us might think that if George W. Bush can attack Iraq killing many innocent citizens then anyone can kill anybody that he/she wants and can get away with it… this is of course a bit far fetched example but the question remains: What justifies one person’s actions (regardless of his/her position) and restricts another from doing it? Are we suspiciously heading towards that “George Orwellian” famous “Seventh Commandment” in the Animal Farm: "All animals are created equal, but some animals are more equal than others"? (Our leaders already successfully adopted the “Sixth Commandment” of the above-mentioned classic: "No animal shall kill another animal without cause"). Maybe it is in someone’s best interest to confuse us, to divide our focus from what is really happening, or to cover up something. Or maybe it is human nature…
Our trust is manipulated and influenced in every level of our lives. We tend to ignore the ones that are affecting our lives indirectly (or we believe they have no direct influence on us) and care more about the ones that we experience directly. A very good example of this is my own neighbour who is so upset about the petrol prices going up and blames our government’s incompetence for it but supports George W. Bush in any move he makes. We easily say that we do not trust this or that person because he/she did something that cost us money or had any other undesirable effect on us but we still easily justify an Afghanistan or Iraq because we trust it is for our own protection…
It is one of the oldest tricks in the book that politicians appeal to people’s religious believes to gain their trust (and of course their votes, as much as it counts now-a-days’ so called democratic elections…). Many wars were fought in the name of one or another God. People support religious reasoning without second thought BUT what if your God is defeated in the “battle”? You won’t believe/trust in Him anymore? You loose your faith? You turn to another God? NO… Most likely the above-mentioned politicians (probably highly supported by religious leaders) will explain to you that what happened must have happened in this way to fulfil a prophecy of some kind...and your belief/trust is restored...
Another good example is the “WAR AGAINST TERRORISM”. It sounds like it is for our protection but who is the enemy here? We should trust in our leaders that they can unmistakeably identify and eliminate those whom intention is to harm mankind. We all support this idea till we experience on our own skin what it means to become a suspect. You might have different opinion from your government and you find yourself “stamped” as a terrorist any time.
So the question remains: what is better? Trust unconditionally or doubt everything? Of course the logical answer would be to find the golden middle way but are we capable of doing it under the current circumstances? Most of us are too comfortable to think for ourselves. It is so convenient to trust in anything that is “dished” for us and accept that there are “more clever” people amongst us that know what is best for us even if deep inside we know it is indeed NOT the best for us. Or the opposite: some of us live in constant fear of deception, we doubt the intentions of other people towards us, and we question anything and everything that happens around us or with us, we make false assumptions, we “see” traps behind everything. Either way we become victims of some kind of delusion…
Is there a solution? Will the world become a place where our trust is honoured with honesty and good-doing? I doubt it but we must keep in mind that we always HAVE a choice…We can choose to seek the TRUTH before we blindly accept anything and everything that is presented to us. By becoming more aware of what is happening around us we are able to make better choices.
Trust by definition is a prediction of reliance on an action, based on what a party knows about the other party. Trust is a statement about what is otherwise unknown -- for example, because it is far away, cannot be verified, or is in the future.
Trust is a choice and we should use it wisely. There are people that trust blindly in anything and everything they hear and experience and there are others that live in paranoia because they can not trust anyone or anything. What is better?
If you follow what is happening in the world today, trust becomes an issue. Politicians deceive us on a daily basis, corruption is blooming in every corner of the Planet and very often it seems to be supported by governments. And in our private lives we all experience dishonesty and disrespect towards each other that can easily grow to legal disputes but even the law that supposed to protect the honest and innocent seems to rather support the deceivers.
But if we allow our leaders to set deception as a “standard” what can we expect from the “little man”? The example is there in front of us every day; we all watch television, listen to the radio, read news papers or the internet. Some of us might think that if George W. Bush can attack Iraq killing many innocent citizens then anyone can kill anybody that he/she wants and can get away with it… this is of course a bit far fetched example but the question remains: What justifies one person’s actions (regardless of his/her position) and restricts another from doing it? Are we suspiciously heading towards that “George Orwellian” famous “Seventh Commandment” in the Animal Farm: "All animals are created equal, but some animals are more equal than others"? (Our leaders already successfully adopted the “Sixth Commandment” of the above-mentioned classic: "No animal shall kill another animal without cause"). Maybe it is in someone’s best interest to confuse us, to divide our focus from what is really happening, or to cover up something. Or maybe it is human nature…
Our trust is manipulated and influenced in every level of our lives. We tend to ignore the ones that are affecting our lives indirectly (or we believe they have no direct influence on us) and care more about the ones that we experience directly. A very good example of this is my own neighbour who is so upset about the petrol prices going up and blames our government’s incompetence for it but supports George W. Bush in any move he makes. We easily say that we do not trust this or that person because he/she did something that cost us money or had any other undesirable effect on us but we still easily justify an Afghanistan or Iraq because we trust it is for our own protection…
It is one of the oldest tricks in the book that politicians appeal to people’s religious believes to gain their trust (and of course their votes, as much as it counts now-a-days’ so called democratic elections…). Many wars were fought in the name of one or another God. People support religious reasoning without second thought BUT what if your God is defeated in the “battle”? You won’t believe/trust in Him anymore? You loose your faith? You turn to another God? NO… Most likely the above-mentioned politicians (probably highly supported by religious leaders) will explain to you that what happened must have happened in this way to fulfil a prophecy of some kind...and your belief/trust is restored...
Another good example is the “WAR AGAINST TERRORISM”. It sounds like it is for our protection but who is the enemy here? We should trust in our leaders that they can unmistakeably identify and eliminate those whom intention is to harm mankind. We all support this idea till we experience on our own skin what it means to become a suspect. You might have different opinion from your government and you find yourself “stamped” as a terrorist any time.
So the question remains: what is better? Trust unconditionally or doubt everything? Of course the logical answer would be to find the golden middle way but are we capable of doing it under the current circumstances? Most of us are too comfortable to think for ourselves. It is so convenient to trust in anything that is “dished” for us and accept that there are “more clever” people amongst us that know what is best for us even if deep inside we know it is indeed NOT the best for us. Or the opposite: some of us live in constant fear of deception, we doubt the intentions of other people towards us, and we question anything and everything that happens around us or with us, we make false assumptions, we “see” traps behind everything. Either way we become victims of some kind of delusion…
Is there a solution? Will the world become a place where our trust is honoured with honesty and good-doing? I doubt it but we must keep in mind that we always HAVE a choice…We can choose to seek the TRUTH before we blindly accept anything and everything that is presented to us. By becoming more aware of what is happening around us we are able to make better choices.
Sunday, 18 March 2007
First
I dedicate my first article to my friend who is constantly "nagging" me to start writing my articles... ;)
Friendship is unnecessary, like philosophy, like art.... It has no survival
value; rather it is one of those things that give value to survival.
C.S. Lewis
Friendship is unnecessary, like philosophy, like art.... It has no survival
value; rather it is one of those things that give value to survival.
C.S. Lewis
I have read the above quote recently and it made me think. Living in a foreign country for 7 years C.S. Lewis' words make perfect sense to me.
When I moved to South Africa I left all of my family and friends behind. Today's technology makes it easy to keep contact with your loved ones and friends but it can not substitute the need to surround yourself with "blood and flesh" people. Phone calls and emails can not give you the same fulfillment then it would be sharing something personally with others.
It is interesting to think back how I built my friendships in the past few years. I have gone through the same process then one goes through from childhood to adulthood, gradually maturing in quality, expectations and meaning of friendships.
At first I was so much in need of people around me that I called about anyone and everyone my friend that was nice to me. Then I started to narrow my "circle of friends" to those I actually enjoyed being with and I found something common with. I connect to people easily but I do not open up to them easily. It took really long time to find "real" friends. My definition of real friend is a person I can be completely intimate with, sharing my inner most thoughts, completely trust in and have the need to give as much as I receive in the relationship.
Recently I was very fortunate to meet someone I can call a "real" friend. They say it is very difficult to build meaningful friendships in adulthood as most of us are already in marriages or other serious relationships, there are children, jobs and many other factors that takes up most of our time. Some people are very lucky to have friends from their childhood but in today's world we "move around" too much and it is almost impossible to keep those early relationships as close as they got used to be. Most of us are "out there" constantly seeking for friends. Some of us never find true friendship some of us have many.
I had to wait 35 years to find the kind of friendship I always was looking for and what I never experienced before. It is truly an amazing feeling when you can talk to someone openly about anything and everything without the "fear" that the other judging you or laughing at you. It is a truly nice feeling that the other is just as "keen" on maintaining the relationship as you do. It is a wonderful feeling to help the other to learn more about himself and you also learn more about yourself.
I hope this friendship will last long and it will become even stronger with time. It necessarily will change over time as it matures but this is the exciting part of it. I know that from my side I will do everything to keep this relationship alive as long as I feel that my friend needs me and that I can give him something to make his life better.
Ian, thanks to be my friend. Happy birthday!!!
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