The selfish philosopher rages
The selfish philosopher rages
Making a change; possible? or maybe not?
Change is difficult and we want things to change to the better, but are often not willing to change our own habits. This can be for many reasons: financial, opinion, standpoints, laziness, lack of ability or any other excuse.
But a good example of how change can work is through the movie, “Pay it forward,” where an unconventional teacher makes his?her? students do one good thing for someone else without expecting anything back for it. One very motivated student comes up with the idea that each person has to help three other people and that they then need to help 3 people, how then also each have to help 3 people and then in the end it adds up to many people. The first person to help someone was a student that took a homeless person into their house, to the disgrace of the his mother. But when she was tole about the project she was more supportive.
Link to trailer; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_pCtXRP1edo
I think this idea is a great way to create a better world and be happy just to help other people and not expect anything back. That is often the problem that people don’t mind helping others, but that they then expect something back, this can be personal gain, a favor back or even a financial reward. Then the pleasure of helping goes away as we always have another intention in our mind.
But how realistic is this idea? It is meant to be a chain and at one point without doubt there will be someone that is selfish and breaks the chain. I think that the only way we can really motivate people to make change is if they have a personal gain or if people start having pleasure in other people’s gain (which eventually could be their own gain).
You could say that change is almost as a circle that we (still) have to find a way to close, change will not happen from one day to another, but will take a long time to acheive.
Animal rights; Battery bears
Battery bears are Asian black bears that are kept in captivity in Vietnam and China and from which, the locals harvest bile from. Bile, a juice produced by the liver and stored in the gall bladder, is extremely valuable for sale as an ingredient in traditional Chinese medicine.
The bears are kept in small cages, where they cannot stand upright or move around, allowing easier access to their abdomens, from where the bile is extracted. This results in mental stress and the bears start banging their heads against the cages, chewing their own paws, losing hair, getting wounds, becoming malnourished, and losing muscle mass . Sometimes, the bears even havetheir teeth and claws extracted/removed to make it safer for the people working with them.
When the bears stop producing bile they are often killed for their fur, paws, meet and gall bladders. Bear paws are also seen as a delicacy and are priced around 250 dollars apiece.
Extraction methods
A bile bear is often ‘milked’ twice a day, producing between 10-20ml of bile each time. The bile is often extracted through an implanted tube and can be a very painful process for the bear. Other methods involve pushing a hollow steel stick through the bear’s abdomen. Some people also use a free drip method, where a permanent hole is made in the bear’s abdomen and then the bile can drip out freely. This method has been seen as more humane by the Chinese government, but the hole/wound is very vulnerable to infection and sometimes the hole is kept open with a Perspex catheter which causes severe pain or even death for the bear.
The Future of the bears
In July 2000, the Animals Asia Foundation (AAF) signed an agreement with the Chinese government to remove 500 bears from the worst bile farms and to work towards abolishing the industry. Some of the rescued bears were not able to stand or walk without extensive therapy and a lot of them had to be put to sleep because their injuries were so severe.
But the Chinese government’s excuse for allowing this industry to continue is that it says it 10.000wild bears would have to be killed each year to produce the same amount as the 7.600 captive bears produce (this is the Chinese government’s estimate of captive bears, other official statistics say there are over 12.000 captive bears used for bile extraction). Inn other words, a captive bile bear produces the same amount each year as 220 wild bears do (though this has not been supported by any independent science). But signing this agreement with the AAS is at least a beginning to understanding that this industry cannot continue.
In January 2006, the Chinese State Council Information office held a press conference in Beijing, where the government stated that it would enforce a ‘technical code of practice for raising black bears’ and this code would require; hygienic, painless practice for gall extraction and making strict regulations on the techniques and conditions for nursing, exercise and propagation.
But already in 2007, a report by the AAF stated that the technical code was not being enforced and that many bears were still spending their whole lives in extraction cages with only the minimum amount of food and water required to stay alive.
Is there anything to do?
Bear bile contains ursodeoxycholic acid (UDCA) which is believed to protect the liver, improve eyesight, reduce fever, cure heat diseases and act as an anti-inflammatory. But a lot/a great deal of medical practioners now often claim that its effectiveness has been overrated.
Bear bile is not always needed to make traditional Chinese medicine or other products. Many herbs, such as coptis or rhubarb, can be used as alternatives for bear bile *according to who?. And in the West, synthetic UDCA is already being produced as an alternative. These substitutes for bear bile should be studied more fully and actively promoted.
Measures should be taken to improve the enforcement of import/export controls in consumer and producer countries. The East Asian police should aggressively capture illegal shipments before they even find their way to consumers. Where legal trade is allowed, governments should make more extensive efforts to make consumers and traders aware of what constitutes legal versus illegal trade. The Chinese also need to put more resources into enforcing the laws and prosecuting those who violate the laws.
Even though bear farms were taught to protect the wild bears from over hunting it has proven to have the opposite effect, as bear farming has stimulated the demand for bear bile and therefore lowered the price, which in the end means worse conditions for the bear. And wild bears are still an illegal source of supplying bear farms, but the Chinese government continues to say that bear farms don’t threaten wild bear populations and that there are plenty of wild bears.
On a regional scale, further research must be carried out to gain a deeper understanding of the bear gall bladder and bile market. Such initiatives should include trade and economic studies of the nature of global demand and market dynamics and sociological surveys to document the demographics and attitudes of users.
A good idea would also be to offer education and awareness to the public about this topic. It can be difficult to make people stop the production of bear bile, as they may not have other alternatives. It is their income and they rely on it to live, maybe the government should help find other alternatives for these people.
Ethics
All these bears are suffering just so that humans can get medicine and that the humans can get better, it cannot be right that human can just treat animals as a means to an end! So many animals suffer on the behalf of humans, not only the bears but animals all over the world and humans should feel appalled for allowing this treatment towards defenceless animals. This should in no way be seen as ethical and should be stopped, there are clear indicators that there are other substities that can heal the same things as bear bile can and therefore humans should focus more on those substities and stop using bear bile!
Live animal key chains!
link to article; http://edition.cnn.com/2011/WORLD/asiapcf/04/14/china.animal.keyring/index.html?iref=allsearch
Look at the link first and i am sure you will feel great compassion towards those small animals that have to live in these small bags with little oxygen and no nutrition. The people that have come up with this idea to sell live animal key chains have o consciences towards the treatment of these animals. But to add on this where are the animal protection laws? Can it really be right that China does not have any laws that protect the rights of animals and make these live animal key chains legal?
Supporting China
But we all continue supporting China by buying all our products from them, if you go looking around in your house there will be several products with MADE IN CHINA on them. And these products are results of these (or lack of) human and animal rights, the only reason China is able to produce products so cheap is their lack of human and animal rights. So should we all boycott made in china products, that would be a bit extreme. But there should be made more focus on human and animal rights.
Who is reponsilbe?
We should not only be looking at the producer and seller of these key chains, but also the buyer. The people that buy these key chains are just as compassionless as the people that produce them. Cause if people would not be buying them, then people would also not be selling them. Maybe it is a lack of knowledge, maybe is it just to make a buck to live for. But one thing is sure and that is that it is a violation of animals rights and I am not only saying that it only happens in China, animal cruelty is a global issue that should be recognized more.
Eating animal meat; or not!
To eat animal meat or not is a question that is often asked. You can say that there are advantages and disadvantages of both, but I think that the people that totally quit eating meat overreacting. Humans have been hunting and eating meat for hundred of years and the animals are still not instinct. But as there has come more focus on animal rights, there has also come more focus on if it is right or wrong the eat meat. But why is it then suddenly wrong and why have the amount of people that quit eating meat increased?
People that are vegetarians or vegans often come with the argument that it is poor for the animals or that eating animal meat creates more Co2 and therefore it is not good. But humans are made to eat meat and need the nutrition that is in meat.
Some people emotionalize animals and don’t want to eat the meat because of a bad feeling towards the animals and some people say that the animals don’t be treated right while they are alive and when they get slaughtered. But you can eat meat in a proper way, eating meat from animals that have lived as close to their natural habitat as possible and get slaughtered in the least stressful way, would it then be ok to eat meat?
But a point of view that some people have not considered is that if everyone would stop eating animal meat, people would stop breeding the animals as the demand for them goes down and then we could end up making the animals instinct. Which I think is the last thing vegetarians and vegans want, as they still want to enjoy the sight of the animals in the landscape.
Eating animal meat is fine, check up on where the meat comes from or order from a local farmer so you know how the animal has lived (and died) and you can enjoy your meat with a good feeling.
Can you prevent prejudice?
What is prejudice?
A prejudice is often a judgment or assumption that people make about someone or something before they actually have enough knowledge to be able to say something accurate. Prejudice is often because of gender, age, race, religion, social economic status, sexual orientation or looks. So what people THINK they can see about the person/thing and what they think is obvious to them, without really knowing if it is the truth or not. This could also be referred to as discrimination or even stereotyping and often brings people apart as the human race tends to socialize with people that are more or less similar to themselves.
Superficial
There is prejudice everywhere and in every country and it is often towards the minorities or humans that have a difference in appearance, so the prejudice is often superficial. Humans often experience things with their eyes and therefore when they see things that are different it catches their attention, some people will be curious and want to know more and some people think it is ‘wrong’ and therefore start with a whole prejudice session in their mind, which then can end out being suppressed or expressed towards the person.
Racism
One very common prejudice people have is towards people from a difference race/religion and here it is often referred to Muslims which are in the spot light at the moment. After the 9/11 there has been even more increased focus on the negative views towards Muslims and just overlooking the individual. People tend to just put all Muslims into a box that says terrorists and not wanting to have anything to do with them.
Research
In 2008 there was a done a very interesting study, where there were over 1200 Dutch adolescences in the age from 13 to 17 years of age that where given a questionnaire and asked about their feeling about Muslims and 54% reported a negative feeling towards the Muslims, just because of their religion and here we are talking about people from 13 to 17 years. http://ics.uda.ub.rug.nl/root/Articles/2008/VelascoGonzalesK-Pre/?pFullItemRecord=ON
Education
We have to get better at educating people and showing them that all people are equal, no matter what race, gender, religion, sexual orientation or age you have. And that we have to get better at getting to know the inside of a person/group before judging them just on what we initially see. This could be done by going to schools and giving a short lecture telling about the differences of people, showing photos and video clips to the children that they can relate to, so that they start seeing these Muslims as fellow humans and not just as people put into a box.
Meeting people
Some people have also just their whole life only lived in places where they were not confronted directly with people of other identity groups than themselves and then when they are, they are the first ones to judge the ‘strange’ people. So a good way to do this is to make people from different groups meet each other and give them the change to interact with each other. A good example could be at volunteer activities where the whole family can participate and therefore children get to see from they are young on, that not all people look the same, but that we all have to accept each other as we are.
Is it justifiable to use doping in sport horses?
Doping in horses have been going on for many years and already in year 1752 there was specific rules for doping;
‘Every person who applied, or allow the application of substances in horses, which are not normal constituents of food, which may change the racing performance of horses during the competition, shall be guilty of a violation of the rules and disqualified or penalized in some other way’ – is one of the first anti-doping rules of English Jockey Club horse .
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/3586900
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/3586900
Unfortunaly today it is allot more common to encounter doping in sport horses or maybe we have just gotten better in detecting it.
Integrity of the sport
For us that compete in a fair way, we want to keep the integrity of the sport and everytime i hear about doping in the news i think that now the image of the sport will be ruined again.
You also have to think about the welfare of the animals and that you have to treat them as living beings and not as a sport requesite. Only healthy animals should be allowed to race and if they have been sick, then they should be allowed a sufficient rest period to be able to recover fully.
And integrity is all about fair play in the sport, not only about the individual horses and the riders, but also the to try and prevent and identify unjustifiable practives.
You also have to think about the welfare of the animals and that you have to treat them as living beings and not as a sport requesite. Only healthy animals should be allowed to race and if they have been sick, then they should be allowed a sufficient rest period to be able to recover fully.
And integrity is all about fair play in the sport, not only about the individual horses and the riders, but also the to try and prevent and identify unjustifiable practives.
FEI
The FEI is the frederal ….. and they have recently lauched a clean sport campaign making it more clear for the athletes to understand what is expected of them;
You have a responsibility to KNOW, understand and follow the EADCM regulations. If you are the rider, driver or vaulter of the horse then you are the person responsible for the horse and YOU will be held accountable for the violations.
The FEI is the frederal ….. and they have recently lauched a clean sport campaign making it more clear for the athletes to understand what is expected of them;
You have a responsibility to KNOW, understand and follow the EADCM regulations. If you are the rider, driver or vaulter of the horse then you are the person responsible for the horse and YOU will be held accountable for the violations.
Recent rules
- Animals must not be trained for or used in sporting event in such a way as to subject them to suffering. This shall also apply to film, video or television productions and shows or other types of exhibition arranged for the public.
- An animal which is trained for or takes part in a sporting event in a sports arana or at a race-track must not be subjected to doping or other improper practices liable to affect the animal’s performance or temperament.
- An animal which is trained for or takes part in a sporting event in a sports arana or at a race-track must not be subjected to doping or other improper practices liable to affect the animal’s performance or temperament.
I think these are the 2 most important rules of the animal welfare act
Overall Goal
“To create a common environment, to best practice standards, such that in whichever of the member countries a horse is faced, the horse and its connections are treated in all key matters of principle, the same way” Quote from the EHSLC (european horserace scientific liaison committee)
And to end it there is a little video from a press conference at the FEI clean sport meeting;
Taking decisions
Taking decisions is a part of life and it will always be and you can always questions if you have taken the right decisions or not and maybe you will never know, if you will have to live with your decisions.
I am standing in front of taking a big (ethical) decision within the next couple of weeks. On of my horses has had a bad leg again since a couple of weeks and she has a year ago also been injured. It is an injury that will never get completely good again and she will never be able to be used for top sport anymore. She will maybe with the right(and exspensive) treatment be able to live a couple extra years grazzing in the field. But it is a horse that is used to being worked everyday and get individual attention, go to equestrican competitions and show of. And now her future will maybe being a horse left in the field.
That is my choice and on top of that i have a very exspensive insurance on her, that will pay her whole value out if i chose to put her down. But is this ethical?
It is not like i cant ask the animal what she wants and if i did ask i dont think i would get any answer. Some people tell me just to put that animal to sleep and give her rest from her pain, where other people say to give her the chance(and use allot of money on treatments) and maybe see if i can give her a couple extra years alive. But the plan anyway was to sell her over the summer and not have to go and pay livery fees for her anymore. But if i do chose to keep her alive i will have to continue paying livery fees for the rest of her life without even having any joy of her(except of being able see her in the field).
Then if it had been a human we would have done anything to keep a person alive for a couple extra years, but why not with animals? why have we got another set of minds when it comes to them, why can we think so logical and want to relief them from their suffering if they are in any pain. But with humans, they live through hard suffering for years. some humans are in pain 24 hours a day and no medication can keep them free of pain and still doctors try to keep them alive by new treatment even though their life quality is almost zero now. Should i also do that with my horse? even though she may have to walk in the pain til the day she dies or should i put her down and let her get away from her suffering?
There will always be these difficult decisions in life and this decision i will have to take on my own and i cant redo it when i have taken it.
A new beginning
A new year, a new term and a new class with a new topic; spring 2011 will be with focus on (media)ethics.
When discussing ethics there are many different definitions, moral is a part of ethics and could be defined as; what is right or wrong? Where ethics is more the study of standards and why we think things are right or wrong. What you think is ethical may not be ethical for me or for your nabour. And ethics can be a never ending discussion and people can have a hard time agreeing, seeing as ethics is based on standards and every individual has different standards that they live to.
A guidline for if something is ethical can be if it can caused any kind of harm! This can be many different kinds of harm, from direct physical harm to emtional and mental harm. And it can be at many different levels, from harming someones whole life(rape etc.), to just hurting them with for a minute(negative remark). And then it is up to the individual to set the line/boundry from ethical to unethical.
The world cant be perfect just as any human being cant be perfect, but it would be ideal if the world could be then it would fullfill the lyrics of this song
In my dream theres a place without war
no more guns, no more pain no more hurt
it’s a world full of joy without sadness
people sing, people dance with all happiness
Chorus
Take me to my dream
love is everything
where there is no war
and the children sing
love is all around
it’s the only thing in a dream that must come true
In my dream theres a place were it’s clean
no more waste in the air and the sea
so there’s place will be pure and all healthy
you can live your life in heaven
Chorus
But I know it’s just a dream
Will it ever change this life
Hope one day it will turn around
Into the place that I dream about
Take me to this dream
love is everything
where there is no war
and the children sing
love is all around
it’s the only thing in a dream that must come true
in a dream that must come true
Then we would not have to worry about ethics as the world would be filled with only good and we would not have to consider this question i will end of with;
Should we aim to help the greater good or should we just save our own ass (sorry for the expression) and be selfish?
Time management
In these days people always have a lot going on, their jobs, their sports, their family lifes and trying to combine all these things are difficult.
For student it is lectures, homework, sports, socialising, out of school activities and for older people it is kids, work, running a home etc. But how do we manage all these things together? How do we make sure that our lives run smoothly without any bumps on the road?
Too many people now a days run into stress problems at some point in their life.
So a couple tips to avoid this
1- realise that there really only is 24 hours in a day and that you can not get every thing done that you want to. So be realistic and dont take on too much
2- find out where you are wasting time, in one class our professor made us write down how much time we spendt on the internet and on watching tv each week and in the end it was a lot of hours. So try and track your daily activities and see were you waste time.
3- prioritize. What is most important that you do today and what can wait. Chose what you think is most important and then stick to that task
4- sitting and waiting 15min by the dentist or somewhere else doesn’t mean that you just have to sit and waste time. Make your phone calls there or write notes. Dont waste this time
5- use a management planner, either a daytimer or a calender etc. So that you can plan your day more efficient.
6- set time limits for each task and stick to it.
You will never be able to completely avoid stress, but try and stay as organized as possible and stick to your plans without letting it stress you out. If you dont get it gone today, then you will probably get it done tomorrow or another day.
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Recent entry
- 2011-07-24
- The selfish philosopher rages
- 2011-05-11
- Making a change; possible? or maybe not?
- 2011-05-11
- Animal rights; Battery bears
- 2011-05-04
- Live animal key chains!
- 2011-04-19
- Eating animal meat; or not!
