New to Me

October 3rd, 2016

Protests: Animal Rights and Our Generation

Yesterday I was on Facebook going down my timeline and I came across a moving yet disturbing video. People in France are protesting the mistreatment of animals and were demanding an end to the meat industry within their country. These vegan protestors wanted to make a statement—and a bold one at that. Some of these protestors allowed themselves to be branded by red hot irons which required medical attention afterwards to show how animals get branded everyday before they are slaughtered and how inhumane it is. The organization that put these demonstrations on is an animal rights charity “269 Life France” and the demonstrations took place in the Place de la Republique in Paris. The protestors were wearing no clothes and smeared in fake blood. Some of the protestors even lay in plastic bags smeared in fake blood pretending to be dead to represent how the meat that is packaged up in plastic and delivered to stores is murder. The entire theme was animal cruelty and how eating meat is like putting a dead corpse in your mouth. This was a very disturbing protest yet very powerful.

To the people who allowed their bodies to be branded—they are the real activists here. They are making a huge statement about how animals are just like humans. Most humans would not like to be branded and it requires medical attention after branding, yet animals go through this everyday. The pain and screams of the people who are walked into the branding room with a chain around their neck and forced down to be poked and burned with a hot iron is inhumane to a human, so why is it any different with animals?

I was curious to see if there was any animal rights demonstrations like this in the United States and if there are activists as passionate on our home soil. In August during a Hilary Clinton rally, Direct Action Everywhere, and animal liberation network halted and interrupted Hilary claiming that she is not sticking to her own platform strong enough for animal rights. They wanted Hilary Clinton to take a firmer stand against the raising and killing of animals for food. Although this was not as affective as the demonstration in France, there are very passionate activists in the United States that are against killing animals for food.

And of course you know PETA—People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals—has had some intense protests as well lately. On September 30^th they had a public demonstration “Try to Relate to Who’s on Your Plate” in different places like Dallas, Texas and Shreveport, Louisiana. Members of PETA were dressed up on a plate like animals are dressed up before we eat them. Humans can tolerate animals chopped up on a plate, but can they tolerate and stomach a human being on a plate ready to serve and eat? Each human was lathered in BBQ sauce like an animal would be.

This demonstration was to show how animals that are raised to be killed can feel pain, joy, happiness, sadness, fear, etc. just like humans can. Animals value their lives just as much as humans do—so why do we have the right to take away their lives? We don’t. On average around 100 animals are saved do to vegans each year.

So why does this matter? I think it is important to know things like this because in today’s day and age, people often are not passionate about anything. They go with the flow and what society tells them is acceptable and not acceptable because it is the easiest way to live life. First, I think it is important to value the passion that these activists have for animal rights. This passion would even take them as far as branding themselves. This is a passion I think people my age definitely need to find because no one cares about anything important anymore. Second, I think it is important that people are peacefully protesting because it sends a strong, positive message. It is hard to get things changed in the world because we as individuals do not have a seat in the government—but being able to publically influence the people around you and change just one persons view on animal cruelty, these protests and demonstrations helped their cause. I think it is a good way to get the publics attention as well as the government’s attention in a positive way. Third, I think animal cruelty and raising animals for slaughter is a good cause to stand behind. I know there are a lot of people out there who do no eat meat because of these reasons and I found it very interesting to visual humans as animals. It reminded me of the book Animal Farm. These protests definitely make me think about who is on my plate now. I do not think I will be able to give up meat but I think its eye opening, passionate, and moving. I love when people who are passionate about a cause stick to it and will do anything—even get branded—to get their point across. It is activists that make change in the world. These brave people want the rights for animals and are willing to sacrifice their bodies for them. What are you willing to do for something you’re passionate about? I don’t think I could ever get branded for something I was passionate about. I really admire these people—even if it is disturbing. Animal rights activists, near and far, are all around and doing obscure things to get their cause attention and I think it is brave and noble of them to do so—and they are doing it in the right way too. I found this very interesting and it is nice to know that people still cling onto their passions and are willing to do anything for their passions and dreams.

September 25th, 2016

Pumpkin Spice to Oreos 

Well it is that time of the year again—fall; probably the most beautiful time of the year if you ask me. Along with some of my favorite fall activities are hiking, apple picking, corn mazes, and of course pumpkin picking. One of my least favorite things about fall though is the enormous amount of publicity around candy corn, pumpkin spice, and of course the tacky holiday decorations. This ‘New To Me’ is the most crazy, wild train of thought—but it is where my thoughts took me and I hope that you learn something new.

           

Again, I was listening to Q102 Shenandoah’s country radio and I heard them talking about pumpkin spice. Again, I am so over this fad it is not even funny. I continued to listen because I am kind of lazy and they started talking about how in Japan they are making a pumpkin spice drizzle  for McDonald’s French fries. Starting on September 28^th through October 31^st fries will come with a pumpkin and choco sauce that will have a rich pumpkin flavor for the holiday craze. What is mind blowing to me about this is that the U.S. pumpkin spice hype has made it all the way overseas! And I didn’t even know that Japan had an autumn! So I did more research.

            Did you know that starting in mid-September the “koyo front” moves south and it grows colder and the trees change colors like it does in fall here? What is more mind boggling to me is that Japan does not even celebrate Halloween in the Fall seasons though—they celebrate Matsuri or Urabon which is like Halloween but it is in July or August. So why has pumpkin spice made it overseas and to all places why McDonalds? I started to wonder if Japan even has pumpkins because how would they know about pumpkin spice if they do not even know about pumpkins. There is a Japanese pumpkin called Kabocha—which is like a western style squash so I guess that counts for something “pumpkin-like.”

            What really got me interested in this is how an American trend and style of food makes it overseas. Also, how companies like McDonald’s sell products overseas that would sell in America for promotional holidays or seasons. I started doing some more research and the first thing that popped into my head was Oreos. Oreos have promotional flavors for each season, month, holiday, etc. I am a sucker into buying a huge pack of Oreos every time a new flavor comes out. So I wondered if Oreos have special flavors for countries other than the United States and how much money does Oreo make a year selling these products.

           

            In 2014, the world spent 2.5 billion dollars in Oreo purchase. This is an insane jump from the 1.5 million dollars people spent in 2007. To top these figures off, 1 billion of these revenues were generated in developing markets like China. Who knew Oreos were big in China? Oreos can be found in 100 different countries around the world. So the seasonal flavors we get in America—have they made it overseas like pumpkin spice has in Japan?

           

The list of Oreo cookie flavors is endless in the Untied States, but Oreo caters flavors to specific countries and regions. In China, there is a green tea ice cream Oreo cookie. They also have fruity flavors like Orange & Mango and Raspberry & Blueberry.  In Indonesia they have a specialties like Oreo Vanilla, Oreo Strawberry, Oreo Blueberry Ice Cream, and Oreo Orange Ice Cream. In Argentina they have the Oreo X3 or Por Tres, which is three layers of cookie and two layers of crème! Lastly, in Mexico they have Oreo Trio Chocolate, which is three different flavors of chocolate in one, they have Oreo Dark Fudge, and Oreo White Fudge. It is crazy to me how a business can go abroad and make products for specific people. Everyone loves the classic Oreo—but what is impressive is that the different flavored Oreos have become a craze internationally as well and Oreo as a company is catering flavors for specific areas.

            Is this a phase of flavored wonders, an economic plan of excellence, or just dumbfounded luck? I am not sure. But from McDonalds with pumpkin spice fries to different flavored Oreos in China—it seems that U.S. trends are spreading faster than we think they are!  

September 18th, 2016

On Wednesday morning this week I was listening to Q102 Shenandoah Country Radio, home of Chris and Rosie, and they were talking about school buses. Immediately I thought to myself to change the station because I would rather listen to music then people talk but something caught my attention about what they were talking about. In Virginia, school buses will now have high-resolution cameras and video to capture vehicles and their licenses plates for cars that do not stop for a school bus with their flashing red lights on. The buses will have the feed rolling when the school buses’ STOP sign arm is out and the lights are flashing red. The fine in Virginia is $250 and 60% of the money will go towards more safety programs.

After hearing this on the radio, I automatically searched for an article to learn more about it because that is a huge fine and school buses are in and out of my neighborhood all of the time! I came across an article which I will attach the link at the bottom. In the article its claimed that over the past 40 years more than 400 children have been killed by drivers disobeying the law and driving past stopped school buses. This is an insane amount of children to be killed due to a minor inconvenience of stopping. The state of Virginia says that they will have officers go through the footage of the violators and see if they actually broke a law or not and then if found guilty they will send them a ticket in the mail. This way not everyone who is caught on camera is fined, but just the people who broke the law. Lets hope that these new cameras will help enforce traffic laws for stopped school buses and keep children safer when walking home!

http://wtop.com/sprawl-crawl/2016/06/smile-camera-school-bus-cameras-returning-va/

Here is another look at how this is such a big problem in the state of Virginia and in the United States. This is why the Governor of Virginia signed a new law to put cameras on the stop signs of school buses.