fyi

fyi, this is my personal blog with my thoughts, my journey, my happiness, my cribs, and some intriguing statistical posts.

Rant a bit I might(as in my previous post). I am a passionate individual.

Your choice to judge the book by one page.

disclaimer: rants are not to be taken personally:)

Have a great weekend.

Missionaries or not

I have had it with people comparing veganism and the supporters of Veganism to religious cults and missionaries.

Really?

Of course this is a deep uncomfortable discussion. confrontational, emotional and so many other things.

Someone tells you the truth and "makes " you feel bad, does not equate to the person being an insistent missionary shoving down his thoughts down your throat.

Irritation and feeling bad are 2 different things.

A fact is a fact and if you can categorize it as making you feel bad, then it probably is.

A fact that a living being is being brutally abused, tortured every single minute of his life in a tiny black hell hole, and ruthlessly slaughtered with pain and blood everywhere, for a pleasurable meal for you, is a "fact".

As someone eating it, you can either choose to ignore it and hence not feel anything about the said fact,

Or, feel something. That "something" is not being shoved down your throat.

That something comes from inside you. It is "your" reaction to the said fact.

It is not me.

or anyone else who put the information and picture in front of you to see and read!

It is not us.

And you feel bad , a teeny bit bad, for your choices at that instant, and then forget about it.

What about the people who have to look at you gorge down the bloodied animal and go mmmmm, or eat loads of cheese and take triple helpings.. ever see slowly staving to death baby calves?.

It freaking hurts so bad you wouldnt know. There is a tangible pain as if someone shot me in the heart.

It hurts, but I have to put that away and try to eat or continue with whatever discussions that were going on.. and shove some golf or tech down my throat.

Life goes on.. say "non dairy cheese" for the next picture.

end rant..

Phil Wollen, Australian Philanthropist, Former VP of Citibank, Makes an amazing Speech.

Watch his speech above or read the transcript below. Just a few minutes of your day.

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Transcript, borrowed from http://freefromharm.org/videos/educational-inspiring-talks/philip-wollen-australian-philanthropist-former-vp-of-citibank-makes-blazing-animal-rights-speech/

King Lear, late at night on the cliffs asks the blind Earl of Gloucester “How do you see the world?”

And the blind man Gloucester replies “I see it feelingly”.

Shouldn’t we all?

Animals must be off the menu because tonight they are screaming in terror in the slaughterhouse, in crates, and cages. Vile ignoble gulags of despair.
I heard the screams of my dying father as his body was ravaged by the cancer that killed him. And I realised I had heard these screams before.
In the slaughterhouse, eyes stabbed out and tendons slashed, on the cattle ships to the Middle East and the dying mother whale as a Japanese harpoon explodes in her brain as she calls out to her calf.
Their cries were the cries of my father.
I discovered when we suffer, we suffer as equals.
And in their capacity to suffer, a dog is a pig is a bear. . . . . . is a boy.
Meat is the new asbestos – more murderous than tobacco.

CO2, Methane, and Nitrous Oxide from the livestock industry are killing our oceans with acidic, hypoxic Dead Zones.
90% of small fish are ground into pellets to feed livestock.
Vegetarian cows are now the world’s largest ocean predator.
The oceans are dying in our time. By 2048 all our fisheries will be dead. The lungs and the arteries of the earth.
Billions of bouncy little chicks are ground up alive simply because they are male.

Only 100 billion people have ever lived. 7 billion alive today. And we torture and kill 2 billion animals every week.
10,000 entire species are wiped out every year because of the actions of one species.
We are now facing the 6th mass extinction in cosmological history.
If any other organism did this a biologist would call it a virus.
It is a crime against humanity of unimaginable proportions.
The world has changed.
10 years ago Twitter was a bird sound, www was a stuck keyboard, Cloud was in the sky, 4 g was a parking place, Google was a baby burp, Skype was a typo and Al Kider was my plumber.
Victor Hugo said “there is nothing more powerful than an idea whose time has come”.

Animal Rights is now the greatest Social Justice issue since the abolition of slavery.
There are over 600 million vegetarians in the world.
That is bigger than the US, England, France, Germany, Spain, Italy, Canada, Australia combined! If we were one nation we would be bigger than the 27 countries in the European Union!!
Despite this massive footprint, we are still drowned out by the raucous huntin’, shootin’, killin’ cartels who believe that violence is the answer – when it shouldn’t even be a question.
Meat is a killing industry – animals, us and our economies.
Medicare has already bankrupted the US. They will need $8 trillion invested in Treasury bills just to pay the interest. It has precisely zero!!
They could shut every school, army, navy, air force, and Marines, the FBI and CIA – and they still won’t be able to pay for it.
Cornell and Harvard say’s that the optimum amount of meat for a healthy diet is precisely ZERO.
Water is the new oil. Nations will soon be going to war for it.
Underground aquifers that took millions of years to fill are running dry.
It takes 50,000 litres of water to produce one kilo of beef.
1 billion people today are hungry. 20 million people will die from malnutrition. Cutting meat by only 10% will feed 100 million people. Eliminating meat will end starvation forever.

If everyone ate a Western diet, we would need 2 Planet Earths to feed them. We only have one. And she is dying.
Greenhouse gas from livestock is 50% more than transport . . . . . planes, trains, trucks, cars, and ships.
Poor countries sell their grain to the West while their own children starve in their arms. And we feed it to livestock. So we can eat a steak? Am I the only one who sees this as a crime? Every morsel of meat we eat is slapping the tear-stained face of a starving child. When I look into her eyes, should I be silent?
The earth can produce enough for everyone’s need. But not enough for everyone’s greed.
We are facing the perfect storm.
If any nation had developed weapons that could wreak such havoc on the planet, we would launch a pre-emptive military strike and bomb it into the Bronze Age.
But it is not a rogue state. It is an industry.
The good news is we don’t have to bomb it. We can just stop buying it.
George Bush was wrong. The Axis of Evil doesn’t run through Iraq, or Iran or North Korea. It runs through our dining tables. Weapons of Mass Destruction are our knives and forks.

This is the Swiss Army Knife of the future – it solves our environmental, water, health problems and ends cruelty forever.
The Stone Age didn’t end because we ran out of stones. This cruel industry will end because we run out of excuses.
Meat is like 1 and 2 cent coins. It costs more to make than it is worth.
And farmers are the ones with the most to gain. Farming won’t end. It would boom. Only the product line would change. Farmers would make so much money they wouldn’t even bother counting it.
Governments will love us. New industries would emerge and flourish. Health insurance premiums would plummet. Hospital waiting lists would disappear.
Hell “We’d be so healthy; we’d have to shoot someone just to start a cemetery!”
So tonight I have 2 Challenges for the opposition:
1. Meat causes a wide range of cancers and heart disease. Will they name one disease caused by a vegetarian diet?
2. I am funding the Earthlings trilogy. If the opposition is so sure of their ground, I challenge them to send the Earthlings DVD to all their colleagues and customers. Go on I DARE YOU.
Animals are not just other species. They are other nations. And we murder them at our peril.

The peace map is drawn on a menu. Peace is not just the absence of war. It is the presence of Justice.
Justice must be blind to race, colour, religion or species. If she is not blind, she will be a weapon of terror. And there is unimaginable terror in those ghastly Guantanamos.
If slaughterhouses had glass walls, we wouldn’t need this debate.
I believe another world is possible.
On a quiet night, I can hear her breathing.
Let’s get the animals off the menu and out of these torture chambers.
Please vote tonight for those who have no voice.
Thank you.

conversations

V: we dont use milk coz cow isnt treated well and cows are not happy. (no one beleives that calves are killed)

Relatives(cousins and wives in India on the phone): where did you go to check on the cow if the cow wasnt happy.

V: we know

R: here the cows are happy, we give them peda(indian sweet made of cows milk!)

V: ok, we use cashew milk

R: why make cashew milk, eat the cashews. cow milk is complete food

V: it is not food for us, it is food for the calf.

R: dont drink tea or coffee. tea and coffee is bad for health

V: ok

R: ok we need to drink milk tea and gajar halwa now

V: omg ghor paap! (absolute sin... eating non veg is considered sin in certain castes in india.. so repeating the same thing for milk)

R: ok, talk to you later

Why Vegan- Part 4

So, if you think that there are higher powers like the government or corporations, who will protect you from all the crazy additives, processed crap, genetically modified, cancer causing, deathly horrendous things........ you would be So Wrong...

For example, think about Smoking.

Smoking is directly linked to several cancers. Over 40 carcinogens have been identified in cigarette smoke. In the US, smoking is estimated to cause 90% of lung cancer. Men who smoke two packs a day increase their risk more than 25 times compared with non-smokers. Of the 180,000 people diagnosed in the United States alone each year, 86% will die within 5 years of diagnosis.

And what does the government do? put a tiny warning at the bottom of a pack.. Get the drift??

This is exactly the problem with the food industry. No one is going to tell you dairy is bad. The dairy industry, like the tobacco industry is large enough to lobby and make you believe otherwise.

You know Why it is difficult to quit Smoking.. because it is addictive and the withdrawal effects make it very difficult... do you think a smoker can think clearly and logically think and decline a smoke, without rock hard determination?

It is a similar problem with things like cheese. They are addictive.. If you say you cannot give up cheese because you love it too much.. it is like a smoker with lung cancer saying I cannot give up Smoking because I love it too much.

That is Not your logical brain speaking.

Ma and her discussions

CCW: Chana chor-garam wala( roadside vendor who sells fried chickpea snacks).

CCW to Ma: aunty take some chana chor today

Ma: oh it is fried

CCW: it is good and fresh and you take it all the time

Ma: what did you fry it in

CCW: same old regular oil

Ma: which oil, kerosene?

CCW: no no peanut oil i think

Ma: tell me properly which oil

CCW: phalli oil

Ma: which phalli

CCW: soybean oil

Ma: i cant eat soybeans

CCW: but its soybean oil

Ma: I cant eat soybeans coz of thyroid problem and most likely that soybean is gmo. Is it organic soybean oil?

CCW: what is organic

Ma: ok, you lost a customer.

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Me to Ma: Did you reduce your milk consumption, since 70% of all milk in india contains detergent and urea.

Ma: yes, we get it from milk man now, so it not polluted, the cows have access to a field, and we dont drink at night( 1 glass less consumption).

Me: Did you ask your milk man what the cow eats

Ma: yeah some dried fodder from his field

Me: cow should eat fresh grass

some days later after mom's  investigation.

Ma: cow goes into field once she finishes weaning calf and eats green grass

Me: where does the calf go and who decides when he is weaned ?

Ma: offo, Talk to dad

some days later

Ma: They sell bull calf to neighboring farmer

Me: are you sure?

Ma: I will get you their phone number to ask these questions

Numbers 2

The ecological Footprint:

■ 70 per cent of forestland cleared in Amazon was to get plain pastures for livestock

■ 6 kilograms of plant protein when consumed by the animal makes 1 kilo gram of animal protein that can be further consumed. This is called energy-in to energy-out ratio and is on an average 25:1. 25 calories consumed by an animal produce 1 calorie of protein. This ratio is the lowest in a cow – 40:1.

■ 40 percent of all the grains of the world, grown on one third of all arable lands, are fed to the livestock.

■ 73 percent of maize, 95 percent of oilmeal is fed to animals.

Excretions:

■ Livestock excreta is 130 times more in volume than that of the entire human population put together.

■ Rate of production is 87,000 pounds per second

Emission:

■ Belching and flatulence of cattle releases methane. And as per the industry figures, the ratio of meat to the total carbon emitted is:

■ 1 kg of beef – 34.6 kg carbon

■ 1 kg of lamb – 17.4 kg carbon

■ 1 kg of chicken – 4.75 kg carbon.

Source below. Viewer discretion is advised for some meat pictures : http://www.gobartimes.org/themes/gobartimes/poster/2010_march_meat_mania.pdf

Cant give up Cheese? Its because cheese is Dairy Crack!

Researchers discovered the protein casein, which breaks into casomorphins when it is digested and also produces opiate effects. In cheese, casein is concentrated, and so is the level of casomorphins, so the pleasurable effect is greater. Neal Barnard, MD said, “Since cheese is processed to express out all the liquid, it’s an incredibly concentrated source of casomorphins—you might call it dairy crack.”

It turns out that morphine is found in cow milk and human, purportedly to ensure offspring will bond very strongly with their mothers and get all the nutrients they need to grow.

Read more: http://www.care2.com/greenliving/cheese-contains-morphine.html#ixzz1hKgF1Ymi 
Watch a fun Video at http://screen.yahoo.com/why-cheese-is-addictive-27621244.html
or Watch Dr Neal Barnard's Video about food addictions.. how chocolate, cheese, meat, and sugar release opiate-like substances. Dr. Barnard also discusses how industry, aided by government, exploits these natural cravings, pushing us to eat more and more unhealthy foods.

Another day another Crap! nip some men.. shall we

So another state in India is now killing dogs left, right and center and all possible other directions as well. People get paid 20 Rupees , that is 40 cents to kill a dog.

This is the brilliant measure to control the stray dog population..

Read more about it below. Viewer discretion is advised coz the pictures on the link are not pretty.

http://keralatourism.strays.in/

The petition to sign is here http://keralatourism.strays.in/index.php/2011/11/sign-the-petition-boycott-kerala-tourism-to-stop-animal-slaughter/

Though I am not sure how much help it will be.. but sometimes petitions do work.. We can try!

On another note, there is a Bear hunt in NJ here.. where 200 bears were already killed and the total the govt is planning will get harvested is 600..!!

yes 600 bears will be slaughtered to control the population.

Cant we humans come up with ways to co-exist with the animals!

Oh wait, we cant, because there are almost 7 BBillion of us, and since there arent any predators to keep the human population in check.. we have to check the population of the other animals for our frigging convenience.

I dont know what happened to that program in India, where the government was awarding monetary compensation if men voluntarily got neutered after 3 kids.. now that is something that needs to be implemented far and wide...

Snip Snip..

some random blab.. not so..

We went towards Veganism because of my love for dogs.. though now I talk more about other animals, dogs always hold a dear place in my heart..

some stories will always make my heart cry out so loud that I want to just catch hold of everyone around me ..on the street.. on my friend circle.. anywhere and just drill this into their heads till they agree.. like totally drill it with a drilling machine if u will...

PLEASE THE HELL ADOPT.. DONT BUY A PUP!

Read a story about another set of tortured dogs here http://www.pasadosafehaven.org/2011/11/pasados-seeks-maximum-sentencing-in-akc-judge-backyard-breeding-case/

"It is hope that dies last, and their dejection broke our hearts."

..Seriously.. an AKC judge who judges the breed championships for crying out aloud..

you cant really trust any so called "Nice" breeder.. with a slightly better home in issaquah.. and the not so suitable dogs hidden away in a dark basement in burien. 100 dogs were rescued... and the breeder might not even get charged..!!

The basement was so dark that you couldn’t see your hand in front of your face. The windows were blacked out and there was ripped up plastic hanging from the door jam at the entrance of the room. There had to be a pungent stench of urine and feces. The sound of dogs frantically barking almost overpowered a radio.

Neurotic dogs going in circles, eating themselves in a dark dark dungeon..

I will judge you, if you were told by me and other people about not buying and you still choose to buy.. i will.. i am sorry but i will.

This is washington state, where western part atleast has single digit kill rates and 20% or so in the eastern part.

CA has kill rates of 60% in so any counties.. that its just ridiculous the way dogs are treated like the newest fashion..

gaah.. this crazy world and humans..

I am sorry but i Will judge you!

To tell or not to tell Part 2

Part 1 here http://offspaces.blogspot.com/2011/11/to-tell-or-not-to-tell.html

Come to think about it, if I had a sudden problem or life threatening occurrence and the tests showed the c word, and I needed an emergency action like finding the right doctor and then immediate surgery and so on.. would I want to know about whats going on?.. I might totally be in nervous hell anyway.

or if i had an accident and lost 3 of my limbs.. would I want to know before the surgery which will try to attach some of them?

Another thing that I dont get.. is not letting anyone stay with the patient in the ICU. someone who just woke up from an unknown and stressful surgery, finds no one around.. how ridiculous is that? Some places might not have personal room ICUs but most do.. i remember vaguely that there was this thing with a call button.. but I could never find the remote thing or focus thoughts in my mind to figure out its location and the location of the call button.. duhh.. the patient is doped up and the brain is half shut people.. there needs to be someone around to listen to the whispers or tiny actions..

Hubbs says I have a bit of angst against doctors.. well its not the doctors really.. its the medical system and the way things work. I know It cannot be perfect anywhere, but the least everyone could try to do, is find ways to help the patient with anything, help them be more comfortable, painfree ... that... does not happen.

To tell or not to tell

I just found out a major difference in the way severe news is dealt with in India versus here in the US.

If you get tests done and are diagnosed with the T or the C word, the doctors are not going to tell You in India. You will be the last to hear most likely once the treatment has already been decided. The decision is usually left on your family or whoever is with you.

On the other hand, in the US, The doc will either call you for an appointment or just call and tell you on the phone while you are at work all alone with no support really. Yeah thats what my totally heartless primary care physician did.. of course I changed him for this and some other reasons..

But the question here is, what is better.. should the patient immediately know? or slowly get to understand? the slow realization is what happens with the news slowly trickling in because of tests, doc visits and hints by the family.

Does that help you be stronger about the problem, or just the one full on smack on the head is easier.

And what about your own say in your treatment and doctors and information. I am quite a control freak, and I probably wouldnt be able to trust someone else's judgement about my treatment plan. would you?

I remember I was a total control freak all through my stay in the hospital, asking nurses about the meds they were giving me and dosage and such. that brain activity and knowledge saved me from a couple of errors for sure.

What do u think?

Why Vegan? Reverse Diabetes

A 2006 study, conducted by the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine with the George Washington University and the University of Toronto, looked at the health benefits of a low-fat, unrefined, vegan diet (excluding all animal products) in people with type 2 diabetes.⁵ Portions of vegetables, grains, fruits, and legumes were unlimited. The vegan diet group was compared with a group following a diet based on American Diabetes Association (ADA) guidelines. The results of this 22-week study were astounding:

• Forty-three percent of the vegan group and 26 percent of the ADA group reduced their diabetes medications. Among those whose medications remained constant, the vegan group lowered hemoglobin A1C, an index of long-term blood glucose control, by 1.2 points, three times the change in the ADA group.
• The vegan group lost an average of about 13 pounds, compared with only about 9 pounds in the ADA group.
• Among those participants who didn’t change their lipid-lowering medications, the vegan group also had more substantial decreases in their total and LDL cholesterol levels compared to the ADA group.

Read the rest of the article here http://www.pcrm.org/search/?cid=129

and some success stories at PCRM here http://www.pcrm.org/search/?cid=612

Video about how a plant based diet helps reverse type-2 Diabetes.

Why Vegan? Part 4

Why no dairy?

If you think about the figures,theres a 50% chance of bull calf being born .. and even with a requirement of the bulls in india by farmers, the dairy industry produces so much in excess that about 8 Million calves are slaughtered or starved to death every year.

There is no way to ensure the pasture fed, free range, well cared for, not slaughtered or anything esp in India. Cow slaughter is illegal in India and so is dowry, bride killing, and girl child abortion.

As far as US is concerned, there is a big veal and beef industry but the dairy industry still produces an excess of about 700,000 calves/year which are disposed off at birth. and most pasture fed, happy cow labels are misleading. check http://www.cornucopia.org/dairysurvey/index.html for your local dairy listings. even 5 star rating means low cull rate, not NO cull rate.

Why Vegan? The last heart attack

Dr Sanjay Gupta at CNN explores plant based diet and its effects in reducing and reversing heart disease and talk to Bill Clinton. Watch the video here.

Why Vegan? Part 3

Why Cow's milk, or goat's or buffalo's milk? why not Hyena's milk. it is much higher in Calcium! its because these animals are herd animals, herbivores, docile and easy to control. If we could control the carnivorous and ferocious hyena, they would be factory farmed for their milk too.

There is NO nutritional component of Cows milk that is necessary for humans more than a hyena's milk.

Cows do not "give" milk. We steal it from them.

Humans are the only mammals drinking any kind of milk into adulthood. -Colleen Patrick-Goudreau

See her video here..

Why Vegan? Continued..

Photo courtesy: julieoneill.

That is a dying baby calf.. starving slowly to death in a local, small, family run, "caring" dairy farm in the holy city of Rishikesh.. where cows are "worshipped".

From Julie's blog post.

"In north India there is a holy city called Rishikesh. It is a par­adise for yoga lov­ing veg­e­tar­i­ans. The respect for cows fills the air here. As they roam freely, vis­i­tors and res­i­dents alike gen­tly stroke their fore­heads and offer them treats of fruits and veg­eta­bles. Through the streets traffic patiently waits for the noble beasts to pass.

Here espe­cially, the cow is con­sid­ered sacred and no meat is allowed in the entire city! But plenty of milk is con­sumed. I decided to pop into a small fam­ily run dairy just off of the main drag in Rishikesh. I fig­ured that if any­where in the world mother cows would be treated well it would be here. If there was any­where that I could have a guilt free cheese sand­wich it should be here. The fol­low­ing pho­tos are from this small fam­ily run dairy."

Please read her entire post here. http://www.julieoneill.com/blog/?p=1438

Why Vegan?

It is not about giving up your favorite foods!

It is about replacing them with similar foods which are pain free!

It is not about restricting your diet and suffering from the nutritional consequences.

It is about opening it up instead, to fresher plant based foods and knowing what and how nutritionally balanced food your body needs!

It is not difficult to go Vegan. Just think about anyone you love, who has feelings and can feel pain, going through the pain and suffering animals have to go through.

It is about living healthy, eliminating diseases created and made worse by us, by our food choices.

It is not just a diet, it is a state of mind about everything around you. If you dont eat your dog, you cannot possibly wear fur.

There are lots more facets to this state of mind. Find atleast some in yours.

Beauty from the eyes of a volunteer

Some pictures from Animal Aid Unlimited, a sanctuary for the neglected beings!

Scrub me tooo!


We all live together

cute piggies

See the rest of the album here http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.278328435510884.78832.100000011890735

a day break

screwed up my eyes coz of over reading.. someone tell me to stop!!!