Thursday, July 30, 2015

Are immigrants in Calais not human???!

On Wednesday (29/7/15) during his tour of South East Asia David Cameron said he sympathised with holidaymakers stuck in Calais due to the disturbances (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-33699141).

"A swarm" that was what the PM of a free world called human beings running away from persecution (http://m.huffpost.com/uk/entry/7901450). Disturbances. Immigrants problem. Did he mean some desperate asylum seekers trying to get into any vehicle - even endangering their own lives - that caused a huge traffic jam for tourist going from Britain to France and vice versa? 

So there are two groups of humans here: holidaymakers, and immigrants/asylum seekers. One group are going on holiday, to have fun and spend some money. The other group are desperate to find a place to live. To live, to avoid death, to flee being killed.

And David Cameron the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom of Great Britain, said that he has every sympathy with the holidaymakers.

I thought my old ears were hearing things instead of the news on the radio. But I was not hearing things. I heard what the PM said: sympathised with the holidaymakers.

The rage in my head! I wish to scream at him: 
What about the immigrants who have been travelling through hostile countries, storm in the sea, being abused and raped on their journey to runaway from war? Are they not deserving sympathy? Are they less human than holidaymakers? Why? Are they less human because they were not born in Europe? Have we forgotten the Universal Declaration of Human Rights? 

I despair. We are living in a twisted world where news about a lion receives more reaction than dying humans (http://m.huffpost.com/uk/entry/7894342)



Sunday, July 5, 2015

Luwak Coffee? It's not worth buying the faeces of tortured animals

We human like to venture out and try on new things. Once the novelty is popularised on the mass media and sold as 'exotic' in big department store in a capital city of a developed country, the thing became a hit. Celebrities tried and endorse it, and everyone in the developing countries want to produce it.

Even though the thung is shit. Literally, faeces of a shy nocturnal animal from South East Asia, has become a big hit in London. 'Kopi Luwak' or Luwak coffee came from the faeces of civets (in Indonesian: Luwak, or its Latin name: Paradoxurus hermaphroditus).

In its natural habitats, the rain forests of Indonesia, they eat and cofee beans - either wild coffee plants or steal some from plantations. Human collected their droppings, and found that the coffee is nicer after being digested by the civets. So the original coffee luwak was discovered. Today, the coffee luwak sold in London's famous Harods department store with  ridiculously expensive price, does not come from civets living happilly in their natural habitat. Today there are luwak farms all over Indonesia, both producing luwak coffee and marketed as tourist destinations. 
(Photo from www.kuncitips.com)

Now here's the news: the civets living in cages are not happy at all. While their natural diet consist of but not exclusively coffee beans, in their cages in luwak farms they are forced to eat coffee and coffee only! Here is an article in Indonesian exposing their living condition in farms (http://www.kuncitips.com/2015/05/kisah-tragis-di-balik-nikmatnya-kopi.html?m=1). Not a pleasant live at all. Even the person who introduced Luwak coffee to the UK is now campaigning against farmed Luwak coffee.... http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/wordofmouth/2013/sep/13/civet-coffee-cut-the-crap

Personally, I never wanted to try luwak coffee because it's an overpriced shit (literally coming from back end of the creature, right?). If anyone else wanted to spend lots of money on that, I did not care. But now that we know that the industry is hurting innocent civets.... Come on, wake up and let's campaign against this cruelty. My argument is: it's not worth buying the faeces of tortured animals.

We consumers have the power to boicott and spread the words to boicott this ill treatment of fellow Earth dwellings. So please save your money and save these lovely shy creature by not buying the shit luwak coffee... Want is different than need. We do not need to have faeces coffee. There are many other delcious coffees produced and sold in fair trade system, choose them instead.

PETA has a good article on this. Disturbing report by their investigator http://www.peta.org.uk/blog/civet-coffee-a-sip-of-cruelty/