Earth Hour 2011, pourquoi ? Why ?

Article bilingue français/anglais. French/English bilingual post.

FRANCAIS

A vous qui pensez que Earth Hour est stupide et inutile. C'est avec des manifestations comme celle-ci que l'on éduque les enfants, que l'on rappelle aux adultes qu'ils sont sur une planète vivante (au cas où ils auraient déjà oublié les tremblements de terre, les tsunamis, le réchauffement climatique, la pollution marine, de l'air, terrestre...).

Earth Hour, c'est bien plus que d'éteindre votre télé et les lumières pendant 1 heure, c'est ce que vous ferez ensuite. Moi, j'ai envie de faire un hug à un arbre, de regarder les étoiles et que mes voisins différencient la poubelle verte de la poubelle jaune...

ENGLISH

To those of you who think Earth Hour is a stupid and useless thing. Here are the words of a mum:

"I have two daughters, 7 and 10, who look forward to this event and learn something every year we participate. THEY are the leaders of the future, learning from this moment and being inspired by global engagement. It may seem "meek and hollow" to us weather-worn advocates - but this is the stuff of dreams for our children.

This is the fuel and inspiration that plants seeds for bigger and bigger and bigger actions. I don't believe most anything done with good intentions is ever wrong. Point your criticism in another direction. It's about progress, not perfection." Janelle Sorensen

Bring On The Veggies!

I have been quite busy with my professional blog/website Vocalize (in French). But I have a new subject to talk about here:

I am going vegetarian, voilà, I said it!

I have never been a big meat eater and my meals were already including soja, soja milk, soja yogurts, tofu, tofu steaks, lots of nuts (almonds, walnuts, pine nuts, macadamia...), brown rice, whole weat pasta, cereals, vegetables and fruits.

But I grew up eating fine French food and that includes delicious stews, sausages... and I liked the taste of it a lot even if it was not on a daily basis.

So it took me a while (until now so quite a while lol) to reach that point when I can say I am going vegetarian. The trigger seems to be the animal killing I cannot bear to be a part of anymore. They don't show those awful videos on TV with the cows or pigs screaming like crazy...

It is like a new life starting now and a whole universe to discover. I will still eat dairy products for the moment, milk and eggs and maybe someday I will go vegan. My concern is to eat healthy and to avoid any lack (iron, proteins, D vitamin, calcium...) because last December my doctor said I was having anemia and prescribed iron tablets. And I would rather not have those tablets but eat healthy.

To celebrate the day, I had:

For lunch

• a fresh carrot and leek soup
• two cereals bread slices
• oatmeal with cinnamon and brown sugar

For dinner

• my first homemade dal with green lentils
• tender dried figs from the market
  

Here is the pic of my Dal With Green Lentils and Coconut Milk

1. Cook the green lentils (3 cups of water per 1 cup of lentils) for 25 min in cold water + add 1 tea spoon of baking soda
2. Diced 1 potato and 1 carrot and cook them (I microwaved them with water for 7 min)
   
3. Heat 2 table spoons olive oil in a skillet over medium heat, add 1 chopped onion, then 1 big tomato chopped bite-sized, 1 minced garlic clove. Add the potato and the carrot. Add spices (ras-el-hanout powder, fresh coriander).
4. Add the drained lentils to the mix, reduce heat and simmer for 10 min to blend flavors.
5. Pour some coconut milk and simmer for 2 min.

Et voilà, my non spicy Dal with Green Lentils, the pic is not as yummy as the taste of it :-)

"We Must Resist"

Today is Peace Day but they don't talk about it in France. Nothing on the news. They talk about some sort of war: terrorism. The country is at high risk...

Because I am stubborn and idealist, I still bother my friends or my colleagues about how important it is to be a self-conscious citizen of the world. So, for today, Peace Day, I have asked my friend Alex Ness to share a poem with us. Alex is a poet, a writer and a great friend.

Here is to you...

WE MUST RESIST

Ares, Deimos and Phobos
Have called us too many times
To enter into a place
Where devastation exists
Where death is embraced
We must linger in our hopes
Instead of acting upon our fears
We must stand and resist
Embracing love and building up
Reaching together
Instead of the wars
And causes of the tears
Our world will last
Far longer than we
If we keep sending troops
Marching endless
Unto eternity
We must resist the tribal urge
To send our children to war
For there can never be unity
If we give in endlessly
To our bestial philosophies
Let us linger in the dreams
That give us reasons to live
Let us be more than we are
Let us decide our own legacies
Or upon fields of battle
Our children will go
And they will fall
Our seed will live in a distant place
Elysium
Where they will sleep
Forever
All in peaceful embrace
In final peace

To read Alex's beautiful poetry, it's here: Alex Ness Poetry
To know more about Alex and his writing, it's here: Alex Ness Poet & Writer

International Day of Peace 2010

La Fille à la Fleur. Marc Riboud

The International Day of Peace 2010 is tomorrow, the 21st of September.

It is a global call for ceasefire and non-violence. This year, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon is calling on young people around the world to take a stand for peace under the theme, Youth and Peace for Development.

Think about it, speak about it, to your colleagues, to your friends, to your family, to your children. Write a poem, say a poem, sing a song, light a candle, go to an event...

Men have always been fighting but I have a dream it can be different. Do you?

An Afghan youth puts up a poster for the International Day of Peace

A Butterfly Effect

When buying a steak in a plastic packaging, I often consider whether I should become a vegetarian or not. When I have it served on the plate, cooked, juicy, spiced and smelling good it is another story though. But seeing the red flesh makes me wonder...


First, it is an animal and it was killed because of me, the cow did not die from a natural death. Me, who cannot bear animal cruelty, how can I just forget and bury my head in the sand?


Then, it makes me think about leather. The shoes I wear like everybody else and I realize it comes from the same dead cow. Should I switch to non-leather shoes made of cotton, linen and often rubber for the soles? Rubber can be recycled but not always. Also, I've heard a vegetarian saying it was OK to wear leather because the animals were already dead and burning the skins would produce a massive amount of carbon dioxide but it is only an excuse, don't you think?


And the carbon dioxide leads to greenhouse gases and all the methane emitted by cows. "Do cows pollute as much as cars? Well, apparently they do!

Do you ask yourself the same questions? I want to do my best but it is so complicated sometimes. What if I started by reducing my meat consumption? Weakness or strength?

Aaaargh, enough questions for today, it is dinner time and I am having radishes.


Organic Shoes on Mahalo.com
How to Recycle rubber? on eHow.com
Do cows pollute as much as cars by Jacob Silverman on HowStuffWorks.com

Paris Bio Grocery Stores Google Map

View Paris Bio in a larger map

I am currently working on a Google Map showing all Bio grocery stores of Paris.

At the moment, only stores names and addresses are available, except the 24 Naturalia stores I still have to mark, but I would like to add more details in French and in English. I hope I can keep on the good work and update it once or twice a year.

One of my colleague, the other day: "Well, they say Bio products are not that good for us, only for the Earth". Yes, that's THE point, dummy!

Like Picking Up Trash In Dresses

The amount of trash we gather in such a short time is enormous. I am lazy and three big trash bags to take down from my 5th floor is annoying. There is one bag for the recyclable containers, paper etc., another one for my cat litter and the last one for the "regular" garbage. So I have decided, within reason, to avoid the more containers I can. Plastic ones come first!

A girlfriend of mine took me to "Lush", a store that sells soap by weight. It is made from fresh organic fruits and vegetables, using little or no preservatives and not tested on animals, only on humans - God bless them.

The store soaps are huge round slabs which you can have cut down to the size and weight you desire or you can chose one of the pre cut slices on top of the slab which are covered in paper with a label stating the weight and price.

I bought a bar of Sultana Of The Soap soap, it smells so good that it fills the bathroom air with a soft fruity scent.

But I also got myself a bar of Aromarant deo, yes deo. I was a bit skeptical when I left home to go to work last Monday but it all went well, pheew! Scents are lemon and sandalwood and with a sodium bicarbonate (baking soda) base to help absorb body odours. Though it is not an antiperspirant, I have adopted it.

No more liquid soap plastic dispensers or plastic refillers, no more plastic containers for the deo either!

And, I've saved the paper wraps for next time I go there. Hey, I realize we have to think about everything.

Going Green is a process. It should be obvious, natural, but it is really a way of life.

Lyrics "Like Picking Up Trash In Dresses" from A Beautiful Mess by Jason Mraz