Actors, designers, pop stars have all got behind the hot new ethical campaign: food. From saving species to investigating conditions for pigs, star quality is pushing it to the foreground

It is, by anybody’s standards, an arresting image: a truly beautiful photograph of a luscious, radiant creature, all shiny eyes and silky skin. And Greta Scacchi, who is pictured clutching the cod to her naked body, doesn’t look bad either. In the months and years to come, this picture, flashed throughout the British media last week, will doubtless come to be seen as the seminal image for a particular moment, when the gruelling, knotty business of campaigning around food issues finally became sexy. The use of celebrity skin to push an ethical issue is nothing new, of course. In the 1990s, Peta – People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals – convinced a bunch of supermodels, including Naomi Campbell, to appear in the buff under the legend “I’d rather go nude than wear fur”. But fur is just so passé. And, in any case, Campbell proved just how fickle the modern celebrity can be by soon deciding that actually, come to think of it, she would much rather wear fur than go nude, and did so on the catwalk in Milan.

Where celebrities are concerned, it seems, food is the new fur. The current set of images featuring Scacchi alongside actress Emilia Fox, director Terry Gilliam and actor Richard E Grant, were launched to back the cinematic release of The End Of The Line, a film about the threat of overfishing – but they are only a part of it. Tomorrow, Paul McCartney and his daughters Stella and Mary are launching a campaign to convince the public to go meat-free for one day a week. Another movie, Food Inc, which looks at the excesses and foul side-effects of industrial food production has just been released in the US and will shortly arrive here. Plus there is a major investigation by environmental campaigner Tracy Worcester into the dark underbelly of the global pig-rearing business which is about to be screened on digital channel More4. Food, and more importantly, really bad food, is hot.

What marks out these campaigns is their sophistication. It began a couple of weeks ago with the news that Nobu, the global high-end chain of Japanese restaurants favoured by the glitterati, was still serving bluefin tuna despite it being an endangered species. The restaurant had added a note to its menu pointing out the threat to the magnificent bluefin and inviting diners to ask for an alternative, but had refused to stop serving it, unlike big-name chefs such as Gordon Ramsay and Jamie Oliver.

This was an old story; it had first been reported in September. It reared its head again because it features in The End Of The Line, the film version of a book by respected journalist Charles Clover.

Cue a letter from a familiar roster of celebrities – Jemima Goldsmith, Trudie Styler, Elle Macpherson – demanding Nobu remove it from their menus so they could eat at the restaurant with a clear conscience. Stephen Fry took to twittering about the issue. “It’s astounding lunacy to serve up endangered species for sushi,” he later said. “There’s no justification for peddling extinction, yet that is exactly what Nobu is doing in its restaurants around the world.” For its part, Nobu has refused to change its policy; apparently it feels it can do without the custom of Trudie and Stephen.

The producers of The End of The Line weren’t finished, though. Clover had been discussing how to publicise the film with Nicholas Rohl and Elizabeth Bennett, friends of his who run the highly regarded ethical London sushi restaurant Soseki and who have helped pioneer sustainable fishing methods. “It was they who suggested getting celebrities on board,” Clover says. “It was basically using celebrities to shame other celebrities and I’m rather keen on that.”

Nicholas Rohl, who as well as co-owning Soseki is a screenwriter, has long known Scacchi. “I contacted her and she opened up her address book,” he says. “It took us two or three weeks to set up. We sent out hundreds of emails and made hundreds of calls, but eventually we got the names together.”

The photographer Rankin agreed to take the shots. Richard E Grant, pictured bare-chested with two feet of lovely, silvery, long-snouted fish, says he was motivated to get behind the campaign by his 30 years of scuba diving. “Commercial sea-floor dredging is an abomination,” he says. “And free celebrity endorsement is the cheapest way to publicise an issue without wasting valuable funds, which are better spent on the cause itself.”

Clover agrees. “The fact is that if you want to put an issue into the popular mind you have to get it into Heat magazine,” he says. Scacchi even appeared on the Today programme to argue the case. “She’s much better suited for doing something like that than me, and catches people’s attention in the way I can’t,” Clover adds. But isn’t it frustrating that, because of the way the media work, an actress who knows almost nothing about the subject is favoured over the man who literally wrote the book? Clover says not. “When you start hearing what you’ve been saying for five years in the mouth of someone who didn’t know anything about it until five minutes before, it’s awesome. It blows your mind.”

Food writer and television cook Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, who has used his shows to argue for improvements in the way cheap chickens are raised in this country, sees nothing intrinsically wrong in non-expert celebrities getting involved. “What matters is how well they carry the message and whether they are in it for the long haul,” he explains.

Nevertheless, there are bound to be some complications with celebrity-driven campaigns, not least the way they are, by habit, completely micro-managed. For example, Paul McCartney has sent letters to people in the media inviting them to a lunch tomorrow to launch his meat-free Monday campaign.

“Livestock continues to have a greater impact on climate change than the combined transportation sector,” he writes. “This industry amounts to a huge 18% of the global warming effect – a terrifying statistic … Help us to encourage the nation to reduce their meat intake by cutting it out just one day a week.”

It sounds like an eminently sensible idea, but no more can be said about it, because the McCartneys have agreed an exclusive interview deal with another, unnamed newspaper and so will not talk to us, or anybody else for that matter, until tomorrow.

So why are all these campaigns happening now? Fearnley-Whittingstall believes the current burst of interest around food is a direct response to government inaction. “I certainly thought it was worth doing something like the chicken campaign, because government wasn’t doing enough,” he says. “If you want to save fish stocks or improve conditions for livestock, do you take it to politicians or do you take it to television and cinema? The latter seems the better way to work right now.”

He credits Jamie Oliver with paving the way for campaigns like his, both by his efforts to improve school meals and his project to recruit jobless youngsters for his restaurants. “His shows marked a crossover for campaigning TV from dry documentary to more mainstream popular TV,” he says. “The crunch question is to what degree the audience are converted.”

It is a question Food Inc tries to answer. The feature-length documentary digs deep beneath the glossy, groaning piles of fresh produce in US supermarkets to reveal the less than appetising methods used to produce them – which have been held responsible for fatal outbreaks of e. coli and salmonella. The film is designed to be a wake-up call, its creators say. They include Eric Schlosser, author of Fast Food Nation, and Michael Pollan, author of In Defence of Food, who narrates the movie. “A lot of it is hard to watch,” Pollan has said, “but I think people are ready to take a good, unflinching look at how their food is produced.”

Naturally it comes with celebrity endorsement from the likes of US chef Alice Waters and lifestyle guru and sometime jailbird Martha Stewart, for no food campaign would be complete without that. But perhaps more intriguing is the 300-page book published alongside the film, full of essays on issues surrounding climate change, the environment and agriculture and offering advice on what consumers can do to make a difference.

“This is one of the most interesting social movements afoot right now,” Pollan told Newsweek last week. “The politicians haven’t quite recognised it yet. Hopefully this movie will be a part of the change.”

Those who regard issues around food, which affect everything from the environment to healthcare and economic sustainability, as one of the greatest challenges currently facing the developed world will hope that he’s right. They will also hope that no well-meaning celebrities have a Campbellesque change of heart and are caught feasting on bluefin tuna sashimi with a side order of baby panda rissoles any day soon.

They are what we eat

• Jamie Oliver has campaigned on many food issues. He caught public attention with his Jamie’s School Dinners TV series in 2005 which campaigned to improve the standard of school meals. Jamie Saves Our Bacon this year highlighted the plight of many pigs reared in the UK and abroad.

• In 2008 Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall presented Hugh’s Chicken Run in which he created three chicken farms, one intensive, one free range, and a community farm staffed by volunteers.

• Eric Schlosser examined the global influence of the US fast food industry in Fast Food Nation, published in 2001. The book was made into a 2006 film, including graphic footage from a slaughterhouse.

• American film-maker Morgan Spurlock, above, demonstrated the health effects of McDonald’s food in his documentary Super Size Me by eating nothing but the chain’s meals three times a day, every day, for 30 days.

Source: Guardian.co.uk Caroline White

” ( Diane Mastrull, Philadelphia Inquirer Staff Writer reporting ) For their first act, they built the wildly successful sports-apparel company And 1. Now, these entrepreneurial college friends are trying to build a new sector of the economy.

From a converted house in Berwyn, And 1 alumni Jay Coen Gilbert and husband and wife Bart and Chrissy Houlahan are pushing a new type of corporation. Its name is but a single letter: B.

“B” stands for benefit, as in the social and environmental contributions a company makes. A B corporation might, for instance, buy its supplies from local companies and hire underprivileged people from the surrounding community.

Coen Gilbert, the Houlahans, and another Stanford University pal, Andrew Kassoy, have created a nonprofit, B Lab, to certify businesses as B corporations and advocate for them.

Their ultimate goal is to get B corporations legally recognized by local and state governments and the Internal Revenue Service so they can qualify for tax breaks, among other incentives. What B corporations currently cite as benefits are customer loyalty and networking with other socially like-minded businesses that helps reduce operating costs.

In explaining why he believes such corporations deserve more, Coen Gilbert said: “The underlying notion here is that these companies are creating benefits for all of us, not just for themselves.”

It is a concept that seems to be catching on.

Last week, Philadelphia City Council’s Finance Committee forwarded to the full Council for consideration a proposal to give a business-privilege tax credit of $4,000 annually to companies meeting B Lab certification standards. If the plan is approved, Philadelphia would be the first city in the country to recognize sustainable businesses in that way.

B Lab is working to get legislation introduced in six states, including Pennsylvania, that would legally recognize B corporations and, more to the point, qualify them for investment, procurement, and/or tax incentives.

Increasingly, companies have been moving toward a more sustainable, less wasteful way of doing business, not only to trim operating costs but to appeal to green-minded customers and investors.

B corporation certification is done, in part, through a rating system developed by B Lab with a panel of eight independent advisers. It uses about 200 questions – the exact number depends on the size of the business and the industry sector – to assess a company’s effect on its stakeholders: community, employees, environment, suppliers, and customers.

But certification also requires what Bart Houlahan acknowledged “is not a modest task”: To become a B corporation, a company must amend its articles of incorporation to include consideration of stakeholder interests.

“We’re asking an organization to fundamentally change the responsibilities of the business by amending their governing documents,” Houlahan said.

That is required so “the commitment that was so important to that social entrepreneur when they started the company – toward the environment, and their employees, and the community – can be preserved even if new money comes in the door, or new management, and even new ownership,” he said.

Such transparent accounting of companies’ activities is important to “an increasing number of investors that are looking to invest for both financial and social returns,” Coen Gilbert said. “Those investors want to make sure that they’re getting what they paid for – that they’re not just getting a pretty annual report with green grass and blue skies and windmills.”

Though other entities rate products and practices on their sustainability, B Lab is believed to be the only one assessing companies in their entirety and requiring them to legally expand their corporate responsibilities to include stakeholders’ interests. Recertification is required every two years.

In written testimony submitted last week to the City Council panel, Leanne Krueger-Braneky, executive director of the 500-member Greater Philadelphia Sustainable Business Network, lauded B Lab’s random audits of the companies it certifies to ensure that those firms “are doing the good things they say they are doing.”

“This eliminates the potential for greenwashing, a growing problem in larger companies that are spending more on their marketing budgets than they are spending on programs with real impact,” Krueger-Braneky said.

Since B Lab’s creation in 2006, 240 companies in 28 states – including 34 from the Philadelphia region – have been certified as B corporations. They represent 54 industries and have a combined $1.1 billion in revenue and $7 billion in assets.

With annual revenue of $1.5 million, B Lab, which has 12 employees stationed throughout the country, was fully supported by philanthropies such as the Rockefeller Foundation for its first 21/2 years.

It began collecting certification fees six months ago. Those vary depending on a company’s net revenue. For example, a company with annual revenue of $3 million would pay $3,000. For a company with $30 million in revenue, the licensing fee would be $20,000. Fees are capped at $25,000.

A passing certification score is 80 out of 200 points.

The first company to be certified was Untours, a 34-year-old cultural-immersion travel company in Media that uses profits from European vacations to help relieve poverty through the Untours Foundation.

General manager Brian Taussig-Lux said he was not convinced Untours’ purchase of carbon offsets or its commitment to recycling was helping the bottom line. But he credited recent fund-raising successes and employees’ loyalty to Untours’ overall commitment to doing good by the environment, the community, and its workers – all elements of B corporation certification.

“A lot of the benefits are still to come,” Taussig-Lux said. “It’s a long-term investment.”

Bottom Line on B Corporations

Seventy-two percent use renewable energy.

Fifty-one percent have public-transit or carpooling incentives.

They are 30 times more likely to be located in green buildings.

Eighty-two percent have programs for volunteering in their local community.

Seventy-four percent are affiliated with local charities, and they are 30 times more likely to donate at least 10 percent of their profits to charity.

Nine out of 10 are locally owned, and they are three times more likely to be owned by minorities or women.

Forty-four percent offer some form of employee ownership.

They are twice as likely to offer health insurance and retirement plans.

Twenty-five percent are saving money as a direct result of their B certification.

Source: B Lab

Earning B Ratings

Some questions asked of companies seeking B corporation certification:

Has the company explicitly integrated social performance into its corporate mission?

Has the company explicitly integrated environmental performance into its corporate mission?

Does the company share financial information (except salary information) with its employees?

What portion of your managers are evaluated on their performance with regard to corporate social and environmental targets?

Are all company political contributions and lobbying efforts fully disclosed and transparent?

Source: B Lab  “

. . .

Collated and Transcribed by CHANNEL Krai, an Imprint of INFINITI Consultancy Bureaux. ∞

Lakseoppdrettsanleggene er rene smittebombene, og villfisken vår er i alvorlig fare, advarer forsker Bengt Finstad. Dette er i tråd med andre graverende sider ved fiskeindustrien som har kommet frem i det siste: En ny klimarapport som ble overlevert miljøvernminister Erik Solheim viste at norske fiskerier vil bli betydelig påvirket dersom havene blir varmere, skrev Dagbladet.

Bilde lånt fra End of the line

Videre stod det at i Nordsjøen kan den allerede overfiskede Nordsjø-torsken dø ut, og bli erstattet av eksotiske arter som sardiner og ansjos. Også andre verdifulle fiskearter, som makrellen, flytter nordover. Norsk laks vil også bli påvirket dersom temperaturene stiger. Inntil en viss grad kan forholdene bli bedre og produktiviteten øke. Men risikoen for sykdom øker, og oppdrettsnæringen kan bli nødt til å se seg om etter lokaliteter lenger nord.

- Fisk er ett av de områdene det forskes mest på, men som forskerne likevel vet minst om, sier Asbjørn Aaheim.
- Det som skjer med havet er blant de mest dramatiske virkningene av klimaendringene. At fisken forsvinner, at tareskogen på sørlandskysten og korallrevene er vestlandskysten er truet, tror vi skyldes global oppvarming, sier miljøvernminister Erik Solheim.

Den vanlige regla
Det er den vanlige regla om global oppvarming som gjentas. Det er ingen som nevner overfiske eller bunntråling i sammenheng med at fisken forsvinner. Det er veldokumentert at bunntråling ødelegger livsgrunnlaget på havbunnen. Selv om et norsk selskap nå tester ut noe de kaller pelagisk bunntrål, som visstnok skal gi mindre negativ miljøpåvirkning, så gjøres dette i et ønske om profittmaksimering og økt fangst/utnyttelse av naturressursene. Pelagisk bunntrål er en tilpasset bunntrål som blir dratt med pelagiske tråldører.Pelagisk bunntrål fører til en reduksjon i drivstoffbruken, og skal (ifølge produsenten) altså være mer skånsom for havbunnen, da det er en demersal trålemetode (demersal tråling foregår like over havbunnen, mens bentisk tråling skraper havbunnen – Kilde: Wikipedia, http://no.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bunntråling ; 28.08.2009).

Ifølge en omstridt dokumentarfilm som kanskje vil vises i Norge snart (?), så vil sjømat kun være et være fortidsminne allerede i 2048 dersom menneskene fortsetter rovfisket på dagens nivå. Filmen er omstridt fordi kritikerne hevder at fiskebestanden har en tendens til å bygge seg selv opp igjen, og at dette derfor ikke er noe problem. Filmen tar blant annet opp uttynningen av torskebestanden ved Newfoundlandskysten på 1990 tallet og hvordan oppdrettsfisk som en løsning på fiskemangelen er en myte.

End of The Line legger ansvaret hos forbrukere som kjøper utryddningstruet fisk, politikere som ignorerer rådene fra havforskere, fiskere som bryter kvotene og fisker ulovlig, og den globale fiskeindustrien som ikke reagerer raskt nok på det som er i ferd med å skje. Blant annet er det også flere i den norske fiskeflåten som dumper død småfisk i havet – det er ingen penger å hente i småfisk.

Somaliske pirater
En annen ting er at de somaliske piratene i Aidenbukta hevder at de har blitt tvunget til å livnære seg som pirater, fordi vestlige fiskefartøy har ødelagt livsgrunnlaget for fiskebestanden utenfor Somalia. – Fabrikktrålere fra Russland, EU og Sør-Korea legger seg i kystvann utenfor fattige land i Afrika og tømmer havet for fisk (A-Magasinet, 21.08.09; 33). Hva skal en fisker gjøre når han ikke lenger kan leve av å fiske? Hva gjør du når brønnen er tom?

Er dette bare skremselspropaganda?
Tømmes virkelig havet for fisk? Nylig gjennomførte Boris Worm ved Dalhousie University i Canada, en undersøkelse i samarbeid med kollegaer fra univeristeter og organisasjoner i USA, UK, Australia, New Zealand, Kenya, and Argentina, hvor de analyserte de globale akvamarine trender rundt om i verden, og de presenterer sine funn i Journal Science, 31. juli (du kan også lese et intervju med Boris Worm på nettsidene til AAAS). Undersøkelsen sier at bestanden av bunnlevende fisk har synket med 56% siden industrielt, moderne trålefiske tok til, omkring to tredjedeler av de undersøkte bestandene er utsatt for rovfiske, og mengden fisk i havet har blitt redusert med en tredjedel (A-Magasinet, 21.08.09; 33).

Problemene ligger i overfiske (noen vil kanskje også hevde at det er det moderne kapitalistiske system som er årsaken til overfiske, ettersom maksimering av profitt medfører utnytting av både mennesker og naturressurser). Det nytter med andre ord ikke å sikte seg inn på å fiske et antall fisk som ligger for tett opp til den bærekraftige utnyttelsen av denne felles ressursen – ettersom dette fører til at mange fiskebestander er nære ved å kollapse. Noen fiskerier har allerede tilpasset fiskekvotene, men fremdeles trenger minst 60% av verdens fiskebestand hjelp til å komme seg opp på et akseptabelt nivå – og enda lavere kvoter må til for å unngå kollaps av de mest utsatte artene. I en bildeserie i Aftenposten står det en setning om ett av tiltakene: “Det er krise i villlaksbestanden flere steder i Alaska og interessegrupper har bedt myndighetene spesielt om beskyttelse av Bristol Bay som er hjemmet til verdens mest produktive lakseelver.” (Aftenposten; bilde 10).

Forskningen underbygger med andre ord påstandene som blir fremsatt i End of The Line. Har ikke sett denne filmen selv, men det skal bli spennende å se, om den da i det hele tatt dukker opp på kino eller tv her til lands…
Så får vi bare håpe at det skjer før fiskene i havet er borte for godt…

———————————————-
Og når det gjelder artikkelen om lakseoppdrettsanleggenes forurensning og skadevirkninger på miljøet, så kan vi nok ikke forvente at noe blir gjort med den saken. For som debattanten Salmo påpeker i debattfeltet så er det et spørsmål om habilitet:
Ҥ 6. (habilitetskrav).
En offentlig tjenestemann er ugild til å tilrettelegge grunnlaget for en avgjørelse eller til å treffe avgjørelse i en forvaltningssak

a) når han selv er part i saken;
b) når han er i slekt eller svogerskap med en part i opp- eller nedstigende linje eller i sidelinje så nær som søsken;
c) når han er eller har vært gift med eller er forlovet med eller er fosterfar, fostermor eller fosterbarn til en part;
d) når han er verge eller fullmektig for en part i saken eller har vært verge eller fullmektig for en part etter at saken begynte;
e) når han leder eller har ledende stilling i, eller er medlem av styret eller bedriftsforsamling for, et selskap som er part i saken og ikke helt ut eies av stat eller kommune, et samvirkeforetak, eller en forening, sparebank eller stiftelse som er part i saken.

Likeså er han ugild når andre særegne forhold foreligger som er egnet til å svekke tilliten til hans upartiskhet; blant annet skal legges vekt på om avgjørelsen i saken kan innebære særlig fordel, tap eller ulempe for ham selv eller noen som han har nær personlig tilknytning til. Det skal også legges vekt på om ugildhetsinnsigelse er reist av en part.

Dette sier forvaltningsloven om habilitet. Kan noen av disse stemme overens med vår nye fiskeriminister? Døm selv! Kanskje a,b,c samt andre særegne forhold stemmer bra, mener nå jeg. Styrevervet har hun trukket seg ut av antar jeg, litt vanskelig med de andre forholdene. Bukken og havresekken!”

http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg20227112.600-ithe-end-of-the-linei-plenty-of-fish-in-the-sea.html
http://endoftheline.com/film
http://www.aaas.org/news/releases/2009/0730sp_fish.shtml
http://www.dagbladet.no/2009/08/27/nyheter/miljo/fiskeri/fiskeridepartementet/fiskeripolitikk/7843340/
http://www.bellona.no/norwegian_import_area/casefile/forvaltning/biomangfold/korallrev/1138834829.32
http://www.blv.no/nyheter/article3427635.ece?service=print
TV2 – Frykter laksekatastrofe
TV2 – Fiskeriministeren i krisemøte om lakselus
VG – Tålegrensen for oppdrettslaks er overskredet
Adressa.no – Flere fiskeritopper i dobbeltroller
VG – Lakselus sprer dødelig parasitt

“So many signals from old express the same, although in different ways – those read via the great pyramid more distinctly than any. In spit of our not knowing Harald’s ideas and ways of thinking, we may conclude that his new faith had made him enter a radical change, and that his own change influenced his surroundings – perhaps similar to what was described by Rupert Shaldrake in his Book, ‘The Hundreth Ape’ : As Soon as a few apes had made a radical step of discovery ( like peeling a banana ), this phenomena would influence the entire world of apes ; a great many would start doing the same, even at a large distance from the discoverer. Humans may possibly confirm that same law, according to Spiritual laws. It has taken a millennia to capture and mature what Harald had begun to understand.” ( Transcribed from the Book ‘A Riddle of Rings’ Pg. 61, by Bodvar Schjelderup – On the Life of Danish King Harald ).

+  +  +  +   +  +   +  +   +   +  +   +

The disappointments and agonies of hundreds of years of compounded errors and privileges have arisen and resurfaced to further compound the Ordeal of the Homo Sapiens : ‘The Wise Human’. The problem is clear to see even on the premise of stating a declaration as extended and all encompassing as the horizontally crucified effigy portrayed in that first Sentence. The author himself is a member of the ‘Wise Humans’ Community and Phenomena he is speaking of.

Is an act of Preface then a Hypocrisy?

The idea of expressing a regard for a time previous to this present time a floundering poppycock act of lunatic romance, offered in variegated and delicately plucked themed tendrils of Oo-Laa-laa? More Choleric drivel to Avoid for the “Positivist” on the way to Yoga Class, and more Over-Intellected, un-founded vehemence to the “Realist” – too busy for such unsolicited and unprofitable truth on his way to pick up the latest Copy of The Financial Times? Too Piquant for the “Pacifist” in his ardor to master the gentlest way to tickle the voluptuously distended orifice of his lover?

And so it goes on the arbitrary Categorization of The Wise Human Community, in a listless and conscripted set of crutches, like the gassed and gunned down Dead from First World War, walking through the vapors of time, invading the Cool and Serene preoccupation of sipping a Free Sample of Whole Foods Organic Tea, and on the way back from Fresh Grocers staring with a startled look of self-excitement at the discounted and marshaled Goods and Services of the Day of Age, the Peace of Mind so easily jilted looked for and found in Social Network sites blazing with piques and prods of the profit margin to reduce the sole remaining and latest adventure in Human Wisdom to Finally Show Face.

Everyone is (unequally) on the Side of the Guilty, and Everyone is (unequally) on the Side of the Blessed. Yet, Distinctions are not Wise to make, when the disappointment, agonies, and calumnious riot of Cause and Effect will not leave undisturbed the pretenses of “Scientific Potential”, – Naïve Belief in a ‘Know How Saving the Day’, clearly, Know-How and Wisdom are perhaps wrangling in the Zone together, sprawled naked, rather uptight and cylindrical, in a battle that Exists in Only One Real and Palpable Sphere of Influence: In My Own Consciousness and Your’s.

For I, The Wise Human, and You, my Neighbor have Inherited it All, – the tanks, the guns, the scientists, the buffoonery, the saints, the greats, the sages, and the whole lot of our litany, - and the Hands that are typing this message, prop up and down, fingers moving and ricocheting off the plastic key slits, impressing thought beyond the horizon of action and reaction, Yes, beyond your brain, into your Heart : Where Citations, Errors, and Right-Doings and Wrong-Doings, in the word of the Great Persian Poet Rumi, also a Wise Human like you and me, do not prevail before what is manifesting in the Prime and Cardinal Order of things as a Universal, Collective, Irrevocable One and Single Necessity: To Love.

Yet the ones esteemed so long, so long for their privileges and disappointments, for their venerable pouch like faces and their expressive facial overhangs, ponderous valleys and cliffs, joints, and constitutions, the Great and Self-Elected Elders of your era and mine : Our Wise Human Eras, have not Quite Safeguarded this Institution you and I regard by that Term of the Heart, rather than of the Brain : The Term Love. Do you, the Wise Human, Know what this Means? This Term? Love?

This is what A.S. Eddington, a Homo Sapien, wrote on Page Three Hundred and Eighteen of the Book “The Nature of the Physical World” :

“It will perhaps be said that the conclusion to be drawn from these arguments from modern science is that religion first became possible for a reasonable Scientific man about the year 1927. If we must consider that tiresome person, the consistently reasonable man, we may point out that not merely religion, but most of the ordinary aspects of life first became possible for him in that year. Certain common activities ( e.g. falling in love ) are I fancy, still forbidden him. If our expectation should prove well founded, that 1927 has seen the final overthrow of strict causality by Heisenberg, Bohr, Born and others, the year will certainly rank as one of the greatest epochs in the development of scientific philosophy.”

Mister Eddington, the premiere Homo Sapien, the Wisest of his Race in the Year Nineteen Twenty Seven, clearly did not Outlive his message. For “the final overthrow of strict Causality” has Not Been Solved as a “Problem”, nor has any of the many profound Problems of Cause and Effect since his eras, – but rather the most superficial constructions and re-constructions of Causal forces have provided on Two Thousand and Nine, for the Wise Human his great lot : His Scientific Revolution, his Agricultural Revolution, and his self-proclaimed “Revolution” in Cybernetics : The Desire to render Inorganic and Unfallow – to Cause the forces of Negation and Pestilence to stir and breed and corrupt the last bastion of the Organic : The State of Human Mind, has reversed the progress of the War to End All Wars. By Claiming Conquest, Man has Bred it. By Show of Force, Man has Come Under Force. By Hypocrisy, Man has inherited A Startling Lie. The Food that does not provide Nutrition, the Romance that does not last beyond the first night’s affectionate embrace, the Lust in the body that can not be quelled even if Three Fourths of Europe was to be turned into a Temple for it, and the Seventh Grade English media empire, that has conscripted for its own services all Seventh Graders in the Universe: including the Two Billion or so living in the ‘First World Nations’, in any one of which, Mister A.S. Eddington’s corpse must be by now have fully rotted and reclaimed unto ‘The Nature of the Physical World’ he was so prolifically interpreting back in Nineteen Hundred and Twenty Seven.

The Problem is Clear to See. The wealthiest and most aware and Scientific of Wise Humans are tormenting and vanquishing millions of acres of Life Enriching Eucalyptus Forests, by mowing them down to produce paper fiber. The Stock Markets – driven by the Wild, Reckless, Wanton and “Realistic” covet of Money Makers and King Makers are ransacking the Wealth of Nations, through their “Invisible Hand”. The Greatest Nation in the World, the United States of America is being governed by a Kleptocracy, – Wise Humans and Seventh Graders that the Media venerates and places on a tall podium to exude their aura. Animals are being colonized, bred, and slaughtered in masses to satiate the Carnivorous Zeal of the Homo Sapien. Every thought, directed with the Individual’s appetite for Survival is being less luxuriously directed to acknowledge the Greatest and Most Common and Prevalent Truth : Selfishness. To emphasize one’s own lowest possible concept of Self : The Self that exists to Eat and go unstarved, to Reproduce to satiate its base purpose, to excrete out of Necessity. Witnessing the punctility and unreasonableness of the biological compulsions, the Wise Human rationalizes. “It is Not My Problem, but the World’s”. But Who Is the World? Who Is Paying? Who Is Profiting? Everyone, and No One. Every Body, and No Body. Every Misery, and No Misery, Life and Death lock lips in the Cradle and in the Grave, as Theoretical Evil becomes Practical Necessity, and Life becomes a Retreat – A March – Into Death. With Slogans of “Positivism”, “Realism”, “Pacifism”, and “Negativism” no one is becoming happier, felicity nor survival is growing in harvest, no problem is in appearance or in reality Going Away, – A War to End all Wars, is now the Slogan of every Institution, Corporation, Individual, Nation State, and Jurisdiction in the World. Confusing seems to be the Costume and even the Unwashed Underwear of the Emperor that no longer has any clothes.

The disappointments and agonies of hundreds of years continue to compound the errors and privileges that rise and resurface to further compound the Ordeal of the Homo Sapiens : ‘The Wise Human’. The problem is clear to see even on the premise of stating a declaration as extended and all encompassing as the horizontally crucified effigy portrayed in that first Sentence. The author himself is a member of the ‘Wise Humans’ Community and Phenomena he is speaking of. And he is Speaking to the Heart when he is Asking you the Wise Human to Defer For A Change, and Respond rather than React, to the Question Proposed before You: Do you, the Wise Human, Know what this Means? This Term? Love?

Another Wise Human – Doctor Albert Schweitzer speaks to Us as an Expositor of the Phenomena of Love. He too speaks from his Grave :

“ Thought cannot avoid the ethical or reverence and love for all life. It will abandon the old confined systems of ethics and be forced to recognize the ethics that knows no bounds. But on the other hand, those who believe in love for all creation must realize clearly the difficulties involved in the problem of a boundless ethic and must be resolved not to veil from [humankind] the conflicts which this ethic will involve [us], but allow [us] really to experience them. To think out in every implication the ethic of love for all creation — this is the difficult task which confronts our age.”

You the Homo Sapien must be Asking, “What Could That Possibly Mean?”.  ‘The Ethics that knows no bounds’ is certainly beyond the Confines of the Codeces that are managed the world, the “Systems” if you will, and the Societies that continue to bequeath upon them the doubtful blessings that always make the most noise and rely on the aid of the mischievous, illiterate, and the unethical to make itself known.

For, the disappointments and agonies of hundreds of years of compounded errors and privileges have arisen and resurfaced to further compound the Ordeal of the Homo Sapiens : ‘The Wise Human’. The problem is clear to see even on the premise of stating a declaration as extended and all encompassing as the horizontally crucified effigy portrayed in that first Sentence. The author himself is a member of the ‘Wise Humans’ Community and Phenomena he is speaking of.

Who else is claiming the Wisdom of Humanity today in Speaking their Minds? Who else is Waging the War to End All Wars? The Iranian mob points fingers to the false prophets, the false prophets point fingers to America, America points finger to its ministers, its committees, its values, and its ministers, its committees, its values, point fingers to everyone else in the World, Nation States that crumble under the efforts expended and invested in the Act of Accusation, as the finger licking denizens of Mac Donalds and Panera Breads, and Deli De Luca, and Seven Eleven, are Youtubing their Way into thought Systems, alternating between Advertisements of Free Pornography on the Internet, Dating Sites, and Dot Coms, blaming everyone from Barney the Purple Dinosaur, Ex-Wives, Girlfriends, the Vatican, the Police, Loud Neighbors, Churches, Synagogues and Imaginary Rogues.

The Homo Sapien, reared from Cradle to Grave by the Experiments of Dead Societies and Dead Men of Dead Letters, creak and crank – its Youth defeated by its Dead Ancestors, its Youngest indebted by its Oldest, the most Respectable Institutions desecrating the most Respectable Virtues, – in the Tall Tale Talks of Infrastructure Investment, the Mortgage System, the Debt and the Despair, everyone feels entitled to Complain, and too Few feel the Privilege to Amend, to Make Better, to Act to Restore, to Take Responsibility.

Meanwhile, the multiplying numbers of the Irresponsible and Uneducated feel Entitled to sag their dry minds and spirits on the Crutches of Fact Invention and Castigation. The Christians are in an uproar, believing their troubles are caused by the heathens, the browns, the blacks, and the asiatics. The Apologists of every Religion are rising anew with “Inspiration” to leech anecdotes from magazines and New York Times to Copy and Paste their way into “Great Reformation”, the Hot Steam of the Ego could Seer the Stone Faces of Statutes, and stop a Racing Horse dead in its Tracks, as if it has been gored by a Locomotive. The Muslims either have all Given Up, or All Died “From the War On Terror”. The “War on Error” is being fought at all fronts, at all times, by those that feel that they are entitled to be counted as “amongst the Right”. The “Blame Game” has become an International Sport, in Spare Time and in Quality Time, and all Available Portions, Packets, Bouqets, and Vellums of Time, it is an Unceasing Marvel the likes of which the world has yet to match. Secular Men are blaming the Vatican – as “Hidden Demons” conscript every avenue of Self-Advertisement on National Television and Hire every Private Eye to pay their ways out of Sins. The “Hunters of Facts” and Finger Pointers, Travel in all Directions and Latitudes, screeching “It’s the Freemasons! It’s the Freemasons!”.

So Where and in Whom does the Solution Lie? In Scientific Revelation? In Books and Start Ups? In “Money Making Schemes”, and “Executing an Act of Justice”? To Avenge a Dead Religion, or in Advocate a New Prophet? What about You? You the Wise Human? Do You Know What the Term Love means? Do you believe rather that it is an Opinion,  A trifling passing Season, an aromatic Whiff, a Way of Life, Spare Change, a Theology, an Alternative Way of Living, or a Secret Society? That it’s a Thing to be Had, and a Congregation to Visit, or an “Order” to Join?

You the Wise Human, the Homo Sapien, you and me, live today in a World of Choice. In a World where Beauty stares at us Compassionately from every Corner and Every Crenellation, Unhidden, Transparent, in Plain Sight and Profound View. No amount of manufacture, no quantity of rhetoric and noise, no gaggle of Venture Capitalists and Angel Investors, no number of Sponsors and Advertisers can drown out or Ransack – What Remains within your Access: You the Homo Sapien. The Lakes and Ponds of the World defy the Pollution you have bred into the air with your lament, the sewerage that your way of life produces has filled every water body on Earth, yet Mountains, Forests, Lakes, Herbs, Seeds, the Sun, the Seasons, all alternate around you, looking at you in Silence, observing you, holding you, healing you, and caressing you. You who claim that the world is all bad, have you ever experienced a Rose that did not Smell Blessed? You who claim that Reality or “Realism” is discovered in Economics and Social Networks, have you ever held the hand of a Child? You who claim money printed and backed by nothing “Talks”, have you ever had a Conversation that fulfilled a craving of feeling with a perfect Stranger? You who compare your lessers, and contrast your betters – Do you Realize to Stare into the Mirror and See your Own Face? Who Do You Think You Are? Are not the Wise Human? The One who forgot everything just to remember that Life is a Gift, and Love alone Conquers?

I, A Wise Human, regard and by transcription proclaim it as Self Evident and Naturally and Divinely  Fulfilled that :

True words aren’t eloquent;
eloquent words aren’t true.
Wise men don’t need to prove their point;
men who need to prove their point aren’t wise.

The Tao nourishes by not forcing.
By not dominating, the Master leads.

- ( Lao Tse ) -

May you immerse your Self in Knowing that :

- (1) -   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G8IozVfph7I

- ( 2 ) – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i3byt7xMSCA

- ( 3 ) – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lbpuSPL-FNU

- ( 4 ) – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LiWlvBro9eI

- ( 5 ) – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yL33hii4Y9U

- ( 6 ) – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cgz5BELaYW0

- ( 7 ) – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NwdWqBzdvtQ

- ( 8 ) -  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6NwfGA4cxJQ

- ( 9 ) -  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6w3tndTJ-hI

- ( 10 ) – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8aufuwMiKmE

- ( 11 ) – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wop91_Gvwos

- ( 12 ) – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J5kBqrHphjo

What you do Today, resounds in Eternity. You the Wise Human must Do. It is in Doing that you must Place your Faith, if Wise is the mode of that which is termed as Humanity.

– # # # –

Alexander K. Rai ( The Homo Sapien Author of this modest Screed ) is a Self Styled International Designer, Author, Commentator, Spiritualist, Traditionalist, and Transcendentalist. His Life as a Wise Human has not extended so very many years as to become either enviable, ironic, lucrative, or quintessential. This Homo Sapien is inclined to Hope that you the Wise Human – the Reader – will aid in the Author intending things to be kept that way, after reading this modest commentary offered by a fellow of your own Genus, Species, and Taxonomie in the Categories of things known and unknown, lamented and pardoned. The fact a quixotic Sixty Eight year old Man from New Jersey – a retired veteran of the Korean War – thought highly enough of him a few years back to solicit him to join the Adult Fraternity of Free and Accepted Masons of Philadelphia not so long ago, does not make him a “member of a Global Conspiracy”, any more than offering a human being a napkin after he has had the most inconvenient of sneezes, makes a Wise Human any wiser than he ought to be.  As a Christian by Deed, a Mystic by nature, and a Humanist in Principle, Alexander believes that Decency is the highest Obligation of all Free Men, and the Only Binding Contract between all Men is the unwritten manifesto of Life itself, which, blessed by the mercies of Virtues, Providence, and God, salvages all Men from the bondage formed by their Great and Modest Delusions, which causes them to Suffer Tragedies and Comedies of their own Errors of essential and otherwise irreversible Fallibility. Alexander’s “True Political Views” as an American is contained within two words and one name : ‘Ron Paul’. ( Google the phrase on ‘Youtube.com’) . He believes Barack Obama is -  all things considered – indeed an Honorable Man, while also believing that all Honorable Men should Strive to Be the Change they can Truly Believe ( And Invest ) In. As a Cardholding Libertarian Alexander has as much Faith in the Republican Party as he does in the fundamental Sanctity and Integrity of  a Banana Peel being tossed about between a bellicose and noisy bunch of Apes.

Static 'End Of The Line' Edition of 40 Size: 50 x 50 cm £95 Each

Here are 2 NEW prints just released by the Static Collective. Above is called ‘End Of The Line’. It is a 50 x 50 cm 1 colour screenprint with watercolour, acrylics and 4 layers of varnish. There is an edition size of 40 available for the price of £95 each. The piece below is called ‘Clean Up Crew’ (The Rat Catchers) it too is a 50 x 50 cm screenprint with watercolour, acrylics and 4 layers of varnish but this time the edition size is only 25 and the price is still £95 each. Fully check the entire Static edition page, there are all sorts of beautiful one off’s available.

Static 'Clean Up Crew' Edition of 25 Size: 50 x 50 cm £95 Each

]]> http://thewhitbyindependent.wordpress.com/2009/07/15/end-of-the-line-film/ Wed, 15 Jul 2009 21:18:57 +0000 thewhitbyindependent http://thewhitbyindependent.wordpress.com/2009/07/15/end-of-the-line-film/ http://magicandlies.wordpress.com/2009/07/13/social-media-and-public-relations/ Mon, 13 Jul 2009 17:04:51 +0000 Chris Wright http://magicandlies.wordpress.com/2009/07/13/social-media-and-public-relations/

These are interesting times, as the economy buckles and sways under the onslaught of rising debt and falling sales, the new economy, espoused by Wired magazine back at the turn of the century suddenly seems relevant again. As traditional companies fall by the wayside, a new breed of Digital Media Agency is poised to leapfrog the traditional PR practice and take the art of promotions into the 21st Century.

For traditional PR companies, the art of publicising a brand, be it a drink, a musician or a charity, is well established. Essentially, market research gives a picture of the current awareness of the brand and of the temperature of public opinion. This is compared to the desired state for the brand and a strategy is created that moves public opinion from the current position to the would-be position. At least, that’s the theory.

Most campaigns have a certain amount in common. Traditional media such as Print, Radio and Television are used to host advertising campaigns whilst promotional slots are arranged with ‘influencers’ appropriate to the desired brand. So an interview set up with Jonathan Ross for example on prime time BBC National Television will have a massive influence on the intended audience and will reinforce the effect of a straightforward advertising campaign.

Nowadays however things are changing. It’s hard to get a slot on the Jonathan Ross show and there are only a limited number of slots available in a season. Didn’t somebody say Facebook had over 300 million users? Hang on a minute! Jonathan Ross averages only 3.5 million…. and so logic being what it is, a new industry is born.

Given those figures, a digital media campaign ought to be able to deliver unprecedented conversion rates – shouldn’t it? Well a measure of caution may be appropriate – advocacy is often blinded by a fatal mixture of naivety and hope. There are a number of very significant factors, reducing the potential of digital campaigns to much more realistic figures. For example the degree to which a large audience might identify with the brand. Is it global or niche? Is it possible to correctly identify the location of the target audience? We know that Facebook tends to attract young professionals, creatives, writers and artists, that MySpace attracts a younger audience that is interested in music and movies but within those broad demographics, how easy is it to get to the target audience?

Let’s examine a case.

The movie ‘End of the Line‘ is a documentary which puts forward the idea that if current fishing practices are allowed t ocontinue unchecked, we may as a species succeed in turning our oceans into a primordial sludge supporting only single cell organisms – within our lifetimes. Apart from the compelling nature of the subject matter, a few things make this film especially interesting.

The film has now run for four weeks in the West End of London and has been picked up by cinemas around the country, with bookings until the end of September. The cause has been taken up by mainstream mass media - the Sun, Hello and Heat magazine,  as well as regional and local papers and the entire national press.

It has also engaged with the corporate world in ways no one can remember any other British film doing. The head of a major High Street presence, Pret a Manger, saw an early screening and changed his entire company’s policy on tuna.

Waitrose put backing into the making of the film and even Morrisons is now advertising some of its fish as line-caught.

The fact that the film has struck such a chord with the people and companies who have seen it has put the issues in the film on the political agenda, in ways they were not before.

This is remarkable stuff – and unprecedented for a documentary to cause this much of a ruckus. Here are some more facts.

1. Facebook profile - 4,596 fans
2. YouTube trailer – 41,566 views
3. Twitter page – 2,225 followers
4. Claim your Piece of Ocean Campaign

Notwithstanding the emotive content of the film and I’m quite sure it would have had a substantial impact in it’s own right. it has undoubtedly benefitted to some degree from a well orchestrated PR campaign based primarily on using Social Software to raise the profile of the film. How was this done?

The film was backed by a web site and merchandising, so far, so Web1.0, but where this movie moves away from the mainstream is in it’s espousal of Web2.0 sites such as Facebook, YouTube and Twitter and it’s innovative use of a web site hosted campaign that gives viewers a chance to make their presence felt. What is especially interesting is that Twitter was added almost as an afterthought – a fact which is reflected in the comparitively low number of followers.

It is possible to visualise a campaign, something like the figure here. Web1.0 technology, traditional media, funding etc all have a part to play.

The key to leveraging Web2.0 technology is in fostering a sense of community, and it is on Facebook and YouTube that viewers have the chance to make their opinions known.

It is this sense of involvement that encourages users to return and continue the conversation, and critically, to recommend the site to their friends. In this way, it is possible to encourage almost exponential growth for a message which has a universal meaning. It might be more difficult to stimulate the same degree of growth for a line of clothing or a CD, but the principle remains the same.

Twitter has a particular characteristic that gives it huge potential in this space, the character limit of 140 and the inclusion of a URL make it possible to attach a clickable link to an irresistable tag line. This is a very different notion to the idea of pirating the hash tag to insert a completely inappropriate advertisment into the trending topics. Retweets spread the link virally and the takeup, relying entirely on the suitability of the content to the task in hand could encourage users to self select – I’m reminded of a campaign that ran in the New Musical Express in the mid seventies, to promote the T. Rex album The Slider – the first few weeks a teaser campaign ran consisting of a small photograph printed on multiple pages – a rear view of Marc Bolan, unidentifiable except perhaps for the trademark curls. After a couple of pages, the photograph appeared with a caption, printed large across the photograph “Bolan’s Back”. The campaign scored a bullseye with the intended audience and the album was a substantial hit. In a sense, the same kind of opportunity is available with Twitter, a tag line, sufficiently intriuging to deliver the click through would serve to tickle the appetite of the target audience.  The beauty of Twitter is that the model dictates that anything resembling spam would die a death, Twitter depends on retweets to spread the message.

The key to success in harnessing the power of Web2.0 technology is to engage the audience with a strong message, and interesting content, to choreograph the interconnectivity of multiple forms of social media in a pattern that reinforces the message, keeps content fresh and encourages the audience to revisit and to pass the message on. Blogging, Web Sites with a high degree of interactivity, Facebook, Youtube and Flickr may all have a part to play.

I SEEN THIS INTERVIEW OF A FRIEND OF MINE AND I WOULD LIKE TO SHARE IT WITH YOU ALL….GOOD WORK ADS FOR THE INTERVIEW! MAKE SURE IF YOUR IN GEELONG YOU CHECK SCHMIKEY OUT…..IM SERIOUS DO IT OR ILL COME FIND YOU!

1. your a funny character, you have played many a trick on me and others out there, how does this influence your music? if it does?

i always let the room influence my music, i have a broad taste in genres, so i swing it in whatever direction the room is going. I’ve always seen dj’ing as an unspoken conversation between the dj and the punters. i never know what I’m going to play until a few minutes before i drop it. i let the reaction of the people to the track currently playing determine the next track i play, so if i do something that’s a little tongue and cheeck, its purely because that was the direction the room was heading.

2. You follow a few different styles, which of them are your favorite and why?

it’s so hard to say which is my favourite style, because it varies from day to day. i think of music as being food for the soul, so my soul feels like something different to eat every day. a few months ago i cycled up the Hamilton Highway, the ride went for 5 hours. i almost made it to Cressy before i had to turn back because it was going to get dark. it was a tough ride and i was getting tired towards the end. i had every genre you can think of playing in my ipod, and the times when tech house came on, i found myself perking up quite a bit and peddling much harder. it was then that i realised that i do love a few different genres, but I’d have to say that tech house does something to me that other genres don’t do, and i mean the more intelligent side of tech house, not the obvious clubby side of the spectrum.

3. What is your favorite item? and why?

my favourite item is my laptop, i spend every possible moment on it. i never watch TV, because every time i watch TV i think i could have spent that time writing a new track, but wasted it watching TV. it goes to bed with me, and i sometimes take it out with me. there are so many times that I’m out and all i can think of is writing another track. i love the person that invented laptops. it has become my new girlfriend. i haven’t got a name for her yet, i think that might be taking it a bit too far, but don’t tell her that ;o)

4. If you could be a lollie, what one would you like to be or what would describe you.?

i recon id be a Fantail, because they’ve always got useless information on the wrapper. i seem to be filled with a lot of useless information. i use to watch a lot of documentaries.

The documentary ‘The End of the Line‘ has had a considerable impact over the past couple of weeks. Since the film’s release release, the sandwich chain Pret a Manger has stopped selling tuna, and major retailer Marks and Spencer have committed to only selling sustainably caught tuna. A series of well known chefs have pledged to support sustainable fishing through their menus, and a string of celebrities have stepped up to endorse the campaign. In what is perhaps an endorsement too far, a number of celebrities have posed naked with wet fish, to the delight of newspaper picture editors nationwide.

Fashionable restaurant chain Nobu has also been in the firing line over the film. Their current menu features Bluefin Tuna, which is endangered. When challenged over this in the movie, the restaurant refused to remove it from the menu, but they did add a little footnote saying it was endangered, so that customers could ‘make an informed decision’. This has obviously generated a storm of negative publicity, and campaigners remain optimistic that they will cave into public pressure.

Whether any of this will translate into better fisheries policy from the EU, or better international monitoring remains to be seen. One thing is certain – the issue of sustainable fishing is suddenly on the agenda, and the producers of The End of the Line have done us all a great service and it’s great to see a film make such impact.

If you are a tinned tuna fan, by the way, you may be interested in Greenpeace’s sustainable tuna league table below.

This is not a complete list, just the main retailers. Smaller specialists such as Fish4ever will be better, but as a simple guide, here’s who serves up the best tinned tuna:

I didn’t know much about overfishing myself and so I started ‘digg-ing’ around and found a National Geographic Video describing why the EU is guilty of overfishing to the point of extinction and here’s the hour plus long program about the overfishing problem. This really puts a damper on my joyous trips to the Boqueria. The film is based on the book, The End of the Line, by Charles Clover. He says we will run out of fish by the year 2050 and is profiled in the Telegraph where he is the Environment Editor.

So what is the solution? The World Wildlife Fund is working on a few, one of which is sustainable fishing practices and policy outlined here.

A small part of a recent project I’ve been involved in with What on earth is going on? We’ve been helping develop a partnership between the supermarket Waitrose and the makers of the film The End of the Line.

Here are a couple of new food related documentaries to keep an eye out for.

The first, End of the Line, is officially released tomorrow although it has already been screened in several locations for World Oceans Day and also at the Sundance Film Festival earlier this year. The movie’s tag line asks us to ‘imagine a world without fish’ and suggests that this could be a real possibility if we do reduce fishing to more sustainable levels.

No fish – so what, right? If, like me, you’re not a great fan of those slimy looking tuna sandwiches so popular at lunchtimes, and the last time you ate a fish finger was more years ago than you care to remember, then really what’s the big deal? There are worse things going on in the world; wars, famine, that kind of thing. There are bigger fish to fry, you might say.

According to the UN and the World Health Organisation, fish is an important protein source for around 20% of the world’s population, and plays “an essential role in the livelihoods of millions of people around the world”. Not a famine perhaps, but a world without fish has far reaching consequences for a great many people. We don’t have fish wars either (yet) but fish-based disagreements certainly do exist, and presumably will only escalate as marine stocks decrease.

Movie number 2 is Food, Inc. which also opens tomorrow in San Francisco, LA and New York.

Based on the trailer, I have to agree with Alice Waters that this might just be the film I have been waiting for. The film promises to show how current industrial food processes are killing us and our planet, and why it is that the healthiest foods are often the most expensive, making them all but inaccessible to anyone on a tight budget. Michael Pollan and Eric Schlosser, well known writers on this subject are both involved in the film and I for one am excited to see what they (and others) have to say.

I have some reservations about seeing both of these films if I’m honest. I’m not one who likes to watch any person or animal suffering, and once I’ve seen something unpleasant I find it very hard to forget the image.

But I think I have to see at least some of these things, and I urge you to do the same. As consumers of these products, we have both the right and the responsibility to be fully aware of the processes that produce them, and then decide whether we choose to (literally) buy in to these systems or not.

Please leave comments if you have managed to catch either of these movies, or have any other recommendations to share. Thanks!

Camilla Parke writes:

I must admit that I sat a little uncomfortably through the opening minutes of The End of the Line, the documentary screened on World Oceans Day, in which violent shots of blood drenched waters were interplayed with images of bloated Europeans gorging on sushi. My guilt is not misplaced; as an unquestioning consumer I have contributed to the problem journalist Charles Clover uncovers in this film: the little known damage that overfishing is doing to the world’s oceans. Significant improvements in fishing technology, huge increases in consumer demand and poorly enforced, inadequate quotas have decimated our seas. The impact on biodiversity is alarming: if overfishing continues at its current rate, scientists predict we will be out of most fish by 2048.

The plight of one endangered species in particular – Bluefin tuna – was explored in the film, and the press this week have focused on those retailer and restaurateurs that have (and have not) responded to calls to find more sustainable alternatives. A number of places are getting it right, and have been for some time – Feng Sushi in London’s Borough market has been sustainably sourcing its fish for the last 10 years. But for larger companies, the challenges are more significant.

Japanese restaurant Nobu seem unfazed by petitions from its celebrity diners to remove Bluefin from its menus, content to mention its endangered status on the menu and discretely suggests diners choose an alternative. Others are responding more proactively: Marks and Spencer has committed to only using pole and line caught tuna in its entire range of products; Pret a Manger is making a similar commitment.

Alongside the statistics, one of the most powerful learnings from the film is the fact that it is still possible to reverse the fortune of our oceans – as Clover points out, the answer is ‘not rocket science’. Although one hurdle is the inadequacy of current policy, one of the most important things we can do as consumers is to make more noise. Ask shops and restaurants how fish is sourced, and avoid those that are unsustainable. This really means thinking more and consuming less – a challenge given our love affair with eating fish. But if we don’t want to go hungry in the future, do we really have any other choice?

The photo at the top is borrowed, with thanks, from the End Of The Line website.

awesome collaboration between Probs & Nychos as part of the ‘international meeting of styles’ event in london. Probs did the hokusai wave on the left.  there’s a good interview with Probs here

update: around the corner Nychos did an amazing samurai-style piece – see it here – check out the large view

see Xenz’ contribution to this event here

artists: Probs & Nychos

location: curtain road, shoreditch, london

pc: mermaid99

If you eat fish,  choose sustainable fish for you, your family and gaia.  Click on the map for a link to the Monterey Bay Aquariums Seafood Watch Guide.

“Why don’t you stop talking and start fucking me.”

A young woman boards a subway on her way home from work at a mental hospital The train suddenly stops and all hell breaks loose as a homicidal cult gets there message of Armageddon. The fundies try to save everyone in their path with a painful stabby death.

Maurice Devereaux’s End of the Line is a flawed movie that may live on as a kitchy, cult classic.

I guess I’ll start with the bad. This is an ambitious indie pic and some of the acting plays out as such. Robin Wilcock is effective and slimy as the unbalanced Patrick but other than that it feels like a amateur theatre troupe.

Some of the writing is cringe worthy, wait for Mike and his “Creep-o-meter, which would have been a lame joke if they hadn’t spent 5 minutes explaining it, that made it painful.

A lot of the jolts and scares are cheap combination of loud noises and jump scares. I enjoy the feeling even if it feels like a cop out. One last criticism is the silly weapons the cult members carried, they were the most hilarious Mickey Mouse foam blades, ludicrously over sized.

This movie would have benefited from a few more subtle nods to secularism like the main character reading a Carl Sagan book and less irritating chicks singing atheistish rock songs loudly on the train.

The overall atmosphere and feel of the movie is tense and creepy. The cult members are a little to close to real life and it lends them an unsettling intimidation factor. I love the claustrophobic feel of the train cars and the tight confines of a dark train tunnel.

The movie a great example of budget film making and really enjoyable overall. The flaws I mentioned are forgivable and even improve the campy fun of the movie.

This is a definite rent. If you REALLY like it, buy it. For some reason it was excessively expensive most places it was available ($30+) if you can find it cheap, grab it.

Some of the UK’s hottest graffiti talent – End Of The Line – have teamed up with G-Shock in anticipation of the release of James Cameron’s predicted smash hit movie Avatar and done two amazing pieces on the outside of the signature Carnaby Street store in London. Check out the video:

If you like their work, check out their website -  www.endoftheline.net as they have an exhibition starting next week.

Also if you like the track in the background, its called “Sanity for Sanctuary” and is taken from the limited edition Extended Play EP which Lazy Habits will be releasing in Spring 2010.

And I recommend that you go and see this band live when they support Charli 2na (of Jurassic 5) on Wednesday 2nd December 2009 @ Cargo in London.  For tickets check www.seetickets.com

Many Latino anglers that fish off of L.A. County piers support the creation of Marine Protected Areas.

The opposition to creating Marine Protected Areas (MPA’s) off of Southern California’s coast has taken a sinister turn: terrorizing and attacking Latino families.  I have participated in the MPA hearings for a few months now, and I have to say that the latest turn of events does not surprise me.  When you attend these hearings, you are immediately hit with just how far the opposition is willing to go with their tactics.  They will yell, push, and perpetuate all kinds of lies.  No doubt the last hearing on October 21st (click here to view the video of the meeting), in Long Beach was a particularly contentious one, as reported by Long Beach’s Press Telegram.  Perhaps one of the most memorable comments from the anti-MPA crowd were those of a fisherman that started ranting about how if MPA’s were implemented, there would be a “revolution” that would rise against such “government oppression.” ”Government oppression?” I asked myself … uhm, “the government” in this instance, is us, the public, so was he saying that the actions of us, average working-class Americans, to make sure that he and other fisherment like him did not run out of fish and therefore protect his freedom to keep on fishing would be “oppression”?  Hey, I’m all for democracy and for making sure that everyone’s way of life is respected but when you start throwing out such blatant reactionary and selfish (yes, selfish) lines you’ve crossed over onto another realm.  In fact, when your crowd starts attacking innocent children that have come to learn about civic participation, you’ve crossed a line that cannot be forgiven.  

What am I talking about? Well, before and during the public comment period, some white fishermen that were unequivocally opposed to any kind of MPA being implemented in Southern California started attacking Latinos that came to the hearing in support of the MPA’s.  In one instance, totally unprovoked, a high-strung white guy started yelling at some Latino high school kids from Compton, harassing them with insulting questions like “do you even know what this is about?”,  ”who brainwashed you?”, or ”are they giving you extra credit to be here?”.  Nevermind that these were mostly Advanced Placement Compton students that knew quite a lot about the issue, having studied and prepped for the hearing because they wanted to learn about the “democratic process”.  I guess because they were brown, this crazy white “fisherman” guy assumed that they were just dumb kids because they happened to disagree with his point of view.  Well, to be fair, I have heard that the same harassing questions were being hurled at the students that came from Santa Monica High School (who happen to be mostly white kids). 

Yet again, the stink of racism coming from some of the fishermen that showed up to the hearing to oppose MPA’s could not be erased.  When the hearing was interrupted to report that the hotel bathroom had been vandalized, the Blue Ribbon Task Force (“BRTF” for short, the body that conducts the hearings), urged everyone to calm down.  Yet what the BRTF did NOT report to the audience was what was written on the bathroom: “f*ck MLPA” (Marine Life Protection Act) and “f*ck 3″ (referring to “Map 3″, the designed map of MPA’s that best supported sustainable fishing and the regeneration of marine life):

Tagging in the bathroom of the hotel that hosted the October 21st public hearing on the Marine Life Protection Act (MLPA) & Marine Protected Areas (MPA's).

The tagging of "F*ck 3" on the bathroom walls was an obvious reference to "Map 3" of the MPA's, which was supported by many nonprofits, local residents, and supporters of the environment. Map 3 was in stark opposition to "Map 2" which was being pushed by many fishermen and big-fishing industry.

It was obvious that the tagging had been perpetuated by the anti-MPA crowd … but guess who the fishermen blamed it on? Well, why, they blamed it on the Latinos that had come to support MPA’s, of course!  Not only that, but the white  fishermen were also harassing other Latinos from East L.A.  The white fishermen would ask these Latinos families despicable questions like “do you even speak English?”, “did you come to get a free T-shirt?”, or “did they pay you to be here?”  It was a disgusting  display of just what some in the anti-MPA crowd are about.  What’s even worst: when all of this was reported to the moderators of the meeting, it was dismissed as no biggie.  Shame on them for their lax attitude, tolerating racist fishermen to pull such tactics aimed at terrorizing people! 

Again: I am all for respecting everyone’s way of life.  Not all fishermen that are opposed to MPA’s are racist selfish bastards, in fact some of them are very fine men and women that are compassionate and caring and NOT selfish in the least bit.  I also understand their argument: the drafting of MPA’s must protect their way of life, respect their dignity, and ensure that their livelihoods are not placed into unjust danger.  I believe that the role of government is to protect everyone, making sure that the opportunity to prosperity is open to all, and the anti-MPA crowd should not be the exemption.  However, when the fishing industry (supported by the California Fisheries Coalition) and the fishermen resort to terrorizing tactics, lies, racism, selfishness, and they cover their eyes and ears to the fact that we ARE running out of fish, it makes it very hard for me to accept their point of view.  It defeats their argument, and they defeat themselves.  They might’ve made the Blue Ribbon Task Force blink on this round, but mark my words: we, the general public, will NOT stand for such racist displays. 

To learn more about protecting the ocean for our future and our children’s future, you can visit Heal the Bay’s site on this MPA issue or read the latest OpEd from the L.A. Times.

Update: I’m also getting word that the white anti-MPA’s fishermen were harrassing the pro-MPA’s Latino anglers with questions which they would repeat over and over again such as “how old are you?” and “how long have you lived here?” (insinuating “you’re a foreigner aren’t you?!”).   

It’s time to take action!

So what can you do about it?

1) Email the organizers of the “Map 2″ crowd and tell them that racism is NOT acceptable and will  NOT be tolerated:

angler4prop2@gmail.com

2) Write to the MLPA Initiative to complain and to demand that they do not tolerate the racism coming from the anti-MPA crowd:

MLPA Initiative
c/o California Resources Agency
1416 Ninth Street, Suite 1311
Sacramento, CA 95814

Email: MLPAComments@resources.ca.gov

3) You can also contact the California Fisheries Coalition (which is one of the main groups that is assisting in organizing the effort to water down the implementation of MPA’s) and demand that they denounce such racist behavior from its anti-MPA’s members:

Vern Goehring, Manager
California Fisheries Coalition
1621 13th Street, Sacramento, CA 95814
(916) 444-8194
(916) 444-8195 Fax
Email: vern@cal.net

When you write to these three groups, please be respectful but firm in your demands and as detailed of as possible of what happened.

Given that I’ve eaten more fish fingers this week than at any other point in my relatively eventful life, it was only a matter of time until the Universe decided to lecture me on my heathen ways. I was caught off-guard, not expecting a sudden thoroughly researched piece on the consequences of my frozen pollock diet. I can only conclude that the combination of processed childrens’ food and unemployment (which I presume go hand in hand) has softened my bitter, angry-old-man persona to the extent that I was surprised when I turned the television on (another side-effect of my recent lack of work) to find something negative being said about the world.

Regardless, once the familiar buzz of the ageing TV set’s speakers began to die down, and the initial flash of life dimmed into recognizable shapes and colours, the Universe’s devilishly brilliant plan burst into motion. With half a fish finger still protruding from my mouth, I was confronted with the undeniable plight of the world’s aquatic eco-systems, courtesy of “The End of the Line“. No, not the 1987 Jay Russell film about the valiant but seemingly futile attempts of seasoned rail-road workers to confront the token evil corporate president to prevent mass redundancy whereupon over a hundred minutes of working-class shenanigans ensue, but the 2009 documentary about the fish. Or the lack of them.

“End of the Line” comes with a stark but powerful message that by the year 2048 wild stocks of the world’s favourite seafood dishes will be extinct, should current industry trends continue. Returning to my predicament, that is to say the sudden difficulty I was faced with in chewing and swallowing my mouthful of aquatic delicacy; I’ve never found it so hard to finish my tenth finger. I would say my situation was comparable to one faced by many of westerners who sit down at 6pm, dinner on their lap, to be greeted by images of thousands of starving children on the evening news. But, being British, we soldier on, and masticate the hell out of that second pie.

But no, this wasn’t quite the same, as in order to draw a true comparison between these images I would have to be sitting there, dinner on my lap, with half a Sudanese child hanging from my mouth.

It’s pretty rare for something to provoke any other response out of myself than outrage, except for the all too common instances of finding the hilarity in dire situations, however I was pretty pissed. I was so influenced by the film that I had almost been convinced to renounce my staunchly anti-socialist ways and lead the charge of the cause of conservation, protecting future generations from seas comprised solely of jellyfish (I hate the bloody things anyway, so I suppose it wasn’t too much of a stretch), but then it happened. The program followed the usual tactic of hunting down the upper-classes in posh restaurants to catch them wide-eyes, with their mouths stuffed full of endangered species. Now this may sound familiar to you, as one may say it’s comparable to the situation I was enjoying, with the exception that these poor pillars of society were caught doing it in an international film that premièred at the Sundance film festival.

However, unlike these sorry bastards, I wasn’t caught with the marine equivalent of a ruddy panda on my fork.

In the weeks that followed, I continued having some communication with Jay. I avoided asking him about his new ‘love interest,’ so I just stick to trivial topics.

I was having difficulty getting over him. Some days I would wear the ring and others I wouldn’t. I guess I needed to remind myself that something good has happened in my life.

But I believe the most difficult thing was to tell friends that it was over and that the trip to Canada was not happening. They were all sad and disappointed for how things ended because they knew this was the first guy after my divorce that I genuinely had feelings for, and had given myself the opportunity to open my heart to.

Yep, it took me some time to let go of him. I put the ring away, cried late at night, and got the lessons from this experience that I believe will help me move forward.

The day I knew it was really over was when I called him for the last time. I did because there was some news he had been hoping to hear from me for some time. But I also wanted to hear his voice and reaction of listening me on the other end of the line.

Jay answered the call in his usual upbeat demeanor every time I called, and became more when he heard the news. But after this part was over and I talked about everyday things, the conversation became ‘flat.’ It felt as if he was speaking to anyone else like a friend or co-worker; someone who doesn’t have any special feelings for.

I even had the courage to ask him about his love life, and he responded by saying that he was still seeing her, and taking things very slow.

He then continued to say that he was doing some work on his home and he needed to get back to that. When he said good-bye he was cold as someone who is way over you, or not interested in you at all, even perhaps pretending nothing had happened and needed to ‘exit’ as quickly as possible in order to avoid getting into the present reality.

Meaning, it’s so easy to ‘dump’ somebody when you have someone else lined-up. Of course, you’re not empty-handed, especially if the new person is more convenient for your lifestyle.

He knew that the way he behaved was not the best, so he used the ‘baggage’ situation to let go of me easily and have a good mental excuse for leaving me.

Truth is, if she hadn’t come along, I would have made the trip and maybe still be with Jay.

It’s hard to believe that someone who greeted me with so much love at the airport has now said good-bye the opposite way.

So what am I going to make of it? Nothing. I’m not dwelling on it like I did with the others.

It is what it is and that’s it.