hello.

So here it is: the obligatory introductory post. Who I am, and why I’m writing this blog.

I am passionate about many things. Things that make me angry, things that make me sad, things that make me happy, things that make me excited. My flatmates usually have to bear the brunt of my emotions when I come home seething with frustration or bursting with enthusiasm about some thing that has happened that day.

I thought it could be helpful to write a blog. This will help me order my thoughts about the world in a coherent way. And give me an avenue to share them with the world and hopefully promote some constructive discussion.

Some things about myself, so you know what to expect:

I am passionate about veganism, politics, participatory democracy, social justice, environmentalism, animal rights, protesting. I have a very strong desire to “make a difference” but am struggling to figure out exactly how to do so.

Things that make me angry include

• cars. Especially when they drive past me on my bike so close that I have to swerve. Not cool.
• Our justice system. It’s fucked. More on that in later posts
• “animal lovers” who eat meat. What the hell?
• People who complain about things yet refuse to take action themselves
• Omnis who thing vegan food must be disgusting, because its vegan
• Vegans who think all omnis are evil people
• Politicians. Especially our current government. I could write pages and pages on all the terrible things they’ve done. In fact I probably will
• Inequality. In NZ, and in the world. And the fact that its completely avoidable.
• The state of the environment. Its fucked. Wake up people!

Things that make me happy

• vegan lawyers. Yep. They exist.
• Good food. Especially from Aunty Menas
• And the chocolate cake from Midnight
• Awesome old people, especially from Values/Greens
• Awesome young people, that are doing amazing things to challenge intergenerational injustice (like gen 0, they are amazing)
• Chocolate. Especially from trade aid
• Vegan potlucks
• Biking along the waterfront on a sunny day
• Small wins against the status quo
• Sleeping in when its raining outside. So, so good.
• Hot chocolates
• Stories of individuals overcoming extreme adversity to do awesome things

Hmmm. Interesting that ¾ of the happy ones are food related, while the things that annoy me are about generally about huge fundamental problems. I wonder if this says something about the world being inherently unjust/corrupt/falling apart/filled with greed etc etc etc. Or maybe lists like this teach us to value the small things in life in spite of difficult uphill battles. I like to take the latter view. But sometimes it is hard.

Anyway, enough about me. Now that’s out of the way, the next blog post will be on something more substantial, I promise.