Shark finning – The truth will surface.

Ever since I can remember I have been fascinated and drawn to sharks. I have come to realise that the one animal we fear the most is the one animal that we cannot live without and shark numbers are quickly decreasing for a number of reasons but mainly due to shark finning. Shark finning is quite simply, removing the fins from the shark. 

So little is known about sharks and how important they are to life on earth. They have been here for more than 400 million years, 150 million years before the dinosaurs and they have remained unchanged since. They control species that are below them, eliminating easy prey and creating new ones. Even though sharks produce little young and they take up to 25 years to reach sexual maturity, they have managed to survive through 5 major extinctions that wiped most life from the planet, they are the architects of this planet. Shark finning is a huge problem that will effect the health of our ocean ecosystems, sharks have a critical role to play in keeping the marine ecosystems in balance. 

No more than 12 people a year are killed by sharks worldwide. In fact is more dangerous to play golf than to swim in the ocean with sharks. More golfers are struck by lightning and killed each year than the total number of shark fatalities. Many more humans are struck and killed by boats every year than are attacked by sharks. Truth is, sharks do not eat people, no one has ever been eaten by a shark. When a shark attack does occur, they make it back onto the shore. 
Every year humans slaughter 100 million sharks and yet, we depict them as the viscous, blood-thirsty killers and it is estimated that within 10 years, sharks will be extinct. Resulting in drastic changes within the sea, affecting the earth as a whole. 

Shark finning refers to the removal and retention of shark fins and the discard at sea of the carcass. The shark is most often still alive when it is tossed back into the water. Unable to swim, the shark slowly sinks toward the bottom where it is eaten alive by other fish. Over 8,000 tons of shark fins are processed each year. The fins only amount to 4% of a shark’s bodyweight. This means that some 200,000 tons of shark are thrown back into the sea and discarded. Already 18 species of sharks have been listed as endangered by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN).

Why are all these sharks being slaughtered? To feed the greed of the human race. 

The shark fin is used as a main ingredient in a shark fin soup, which is a Chinese delicacy.  The actual shark fin is tasteless, which is why the fin is boiled in a chicken broth to absorb taste.  The shark fin soup used to be only consumed by the rich.  However, now that the Chinese economy is strong and more people come to wealth, the demand for shark fins has increased.  At the same time the shark population has dramatically decreased due to shark finning.

Sharks are finned while they are still alive, they are then thrown overboard where they either drown or are eaten by other sea creatures. 

When future generations look back and discuss what the people of today were like, they will think of us as barbarians. Robbing the world of it’s natural resources and treating its animals inhumanely. 

The Russian government are failing the youth of today.

Until today I have had no knowledge of the laws against homosexuality within Russia. I have researched for roughly 30 minutes and I have come to conclusion that it is utterly absurd.

Last year in June, Russia’s President (Vladimir Putin) banned gay ‘propaganda’. This resulted in members of the LGBT community in Russia going from a stigmatized fringe group to full-blown enemies of the state. Homophobia is now actively encouraged by the Russian government, the Orthodox church and members of society, which has led to rise in homophobic attacks and murders.

You maybe thinking why this law has come about and it is solely to ban any public display of homosexuality as well as preventing minors from getting the impression that being gay is normal. Which means that if you’re a homosexual and you live in Russia, you’re ostracised and cut off from any kind of legal support network. It is illegal for teachers, doctors, parents etc to tell the youth of Russia that being a homosexual is completely fine, it is illegal to offer the youth of Russia any form of support if they are homosexuals.

This lack of support has made way for an increase in homophobic violence e.g. a 23 year old homosexual told his friends, people he thought he could trust that he was gay, they then went ahead and shoved two beer bottles up his anus resulting in a slow and painful death. As well as this, there has been a rise in vigilante groups. One group hunt down homosexuals online and make YouTube videos of how they abuse them, sometimes to death.


These crimes are rarely investigated and the Russian authorities have referred to these attacks as civil movements fighting the sins of society. Lately, these groups have been using what they call the “urine therapy” This is when victims get urine poured all over them as it is considered to have a curing effect, this is filmed and put online for friends and family to obtain.

‘Holy Water’ referring to urine.

This type of attack completely breaks someone. They become reclusive, stressed, then struggle to make new contacts and talk to other people. They are ashamed to be in front of their friends and family and eventually they start to think about taking their own lives. It completely shatters their lives.

The Russian government and society are failing the youth of today. They are outcasting them and allowing for such violence to occur in their life because they believe it is a “choice” and that it can be “cured”. It is human rights for everyone, there is NO difference.

You can have a new beginning at any age, no matter who you are, gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgender, you are a human being and you are an individual. You are who you are. You should not be scared and you should not be shy.

No freedom until we are all equal.

Fur is murder!

Every year more than 45 million animals worldwide are raised in cages and slaughtered each year solely for their fur. Animals including cats, dogs, foxes, rabbits, minks and raccoons.

Transported in wire cages, stacked up in trucks many animals are already dead or dying as they are transported to fur farms. Their bones shatter as the cages are dropped from the top of the trucks onto the concrete ground below. 

No veterinary care on fur farms means that injuries and wounds go untreated, often resulting in a slow and painful death. With a lack of food and water, many animals turn to cannibalism, often eating their companions that are in the cages with them. Workers swing them around by their hind legs, smashing them into their ground, breaking their necks and backs but leaving them fully conscious for the skinning process. Animals are often found to be struggling and panting while they are SKINNED ALIVE. Investigators found the hearts of skinned animals still beating 10 minutes after they had been skinned. No animal deserves to be treated like this, no animal should be skinned alive in the name of fashion. If you buy or wear fur, you must share the blame for the suffering of these cats and dogs etc. 

It is heartbreaking knowing that so many animals have to suffer in such a way just so people can have the latest fashion. Please keep these images and this information in mind the next time you go to buy a firm trim and don’t be deceived by labels as raw fur pelts often move through international auctions before being sewn in other countries, meaning that you really are unaware of where your fur has come from. Fur from China may also end up on another product that says “made in Italy” or “made in France” 

It is okay if you’re gay.

February 12th 2009, 15 year old Larry King was murdered for being gay by a fellow student at his school. Days before he was murdered he asked his killer to be his valentine, somewhere along the line his killer got the message that it is so threatening and so awful that Larry wanted to be his valentine, killing Larry seemed to be the right thing to do. When the message out there is so horrible and that you can be killed for being gay, we need to change the message.

2010, four American teenagers aged between 13 and 18, committed suicide in a space of just a few months due to homophobic bullying. This needs to be a wakeup call to everyone, that teenage bullying and teasing is an epidemic within society and the death rate is climbing. One life lost in this senseless way is tragic, four lives lost is a crisis. And these are just the stories we hear about. How many other children have we lost? How many others are suffering in silence? Being a teenager and figuring out who you are is hard enough without someone attacking you. My heart breaks for their families, for their friends and for our society that continues to let this happen. These kids needed us and we have an obligation to change this, there are messages everywhere that validate this kind of bullying and we have to make it stop. We cannot allow intolerance and ignorance take another childs life.

These children were not 2nd class citizens. I am not a 2nd class citizen. It is ok if you’re gay.

Teach children to love.

When you think about it, the easiest way to remove bullying and discrimination from society is to quite simply, teach children to love one another from an early age. If you remove the negative thoughts and feelings a child has in their mind from an early age then they will continue to live their life with acceptance and compassion, this acceptance and compassion will then be passed onto their children etc.

Children tease each other because they’re short, tall, they’re ginger or because they’re deemed as ugly or because they’re smart or they’re dumb and as adults we have to deal with that and strengthen children to be comfortable with themselves and also to show empathy and acceptance towards others. On the other hand, it is not only children that must be taught this, adults preach to us about being kind to one another and yet you have adults starting war, discriminating against people because of their religion, sexuality or the colour of their skin. It is time that society has a revolution of love and acceptance so that one day, children and adults will not have to worry about being faced with prejudice.  

Imagine world peace.

It’s as simple as that. Break down the walls that separate people from each other and come together as a brotherhood of man to see rise to a society that is so full of love and care, no one is left alone. We live in a culture where people are more offended by “swear” words and middle fingers than they are by famine, warfare and the destruction of our environment and that is what is so wrong with the human race. 

Like John Lennon once said “Imagine all the people sharing all the world” It’s not hard to imagine a world without war, poverty and suffering if you really put your mind to it and this is something that we should all strive to achieve, a world living in peace, living in unison with nature. At the end of the day, we are all visitors to this planet. We have no right to walk around like we own the place. We have no right to start wars and claim it’s for the best, we are puppets to the governments, they start the wars and we are left to pick up the pieces. We are the ones that are sent out to waste our life fighting for a cause that has no meaning. We have no right to treat an individual so badly that they see their only means of escape is by taking their own life. We have no right to rob this world of its resources to full fill our greed and desires.  

We share the same dreams of peace, the same planet, we share the same potential to succeed and my message to you is to breed compassion. Can we put compassion above all things? Can we be brave enough to fight for peace with no fight at all? Communication between neighbours and nations is the vehicle for which everything we feel fights for itself naturally. But most importantly, can we learn to communicate on an equal human level only and find peace through this compassionate communication. Why are we only living at the mercy of our governments definition of peace and not our own? 

Can we find it in ourselves to breed compassion for humanity that bares no boundaries. You can simply give peace a chance if you breed compassion. We all have the potential to communicate with empathy and seek peace entirely on our own or as a civilisation freely, without the permission of anyone.

In such a cynical age, I dare you to be brave and compassionate enough to breed peace

The world is full of suffering.

This is going to sound so weird but I can’t deal with all the suffering in the world. I want everything to be perfect for everyone, I don’t want others to suffer and I genuinely cry for people, I see people suffering and I cry for them. I want to do so much to help people, but I cant and I feel bad because I have pretty much everything I want and there’s children that go without water or an education and they’d want it so bad, to make their life so much better and everyone takes these things for granted.

People are so selfish and it makes me angry that people can have so much but allow others to suffer. They have the ability to help others and yet, they don’t take it. We could do so much to help people and we don’t and that is so wrong.

I just want everyone to live in peace and be happy without having to worry about finding clean water or food to survive. That’s a basic right for everyone and yet, not everyone gets it.

The True Value Of Life?

Nowadays, it seems that no one has a true view on what life is about, everyone thinks it’s all about getting good grades and getting a high paid job. That’s not what life is about, that’s what society has made it about. Life is about being happy, free and just enjoying every moment and yet people are so brainwashed by what the government and media tell them, there is no possibility for people to experience true happiness and freedom. I don’t want to be another chess piece in the governments plan to gain thousands of money, I don’t want to be a victim of commercialism. 

I don’t understand why everyone is made to feel like they should spend their whole life going to work. It’s the same routine everyday, work, eat, sleep. That’s not a life, the meaning of humanity is being divided. People are more like robots living up to the social expectations because they are too scared to branch out and are afraid to be left behind.

 

Silence Gets You Nowhere

Someone once said to me “Sometimes silence is the way” which at times is completely wrong. If people weren’t so silent about things and actually spoke up about matters that were important and relevant, then the world would not be in the mess it’s in today. If people actually stood up to governments, individuals and groups then the world could achieve great things. If people worked together to help solve issues then the world would be free from a wide variety of suffering, we could bring safe drinking water to those that desperately need it, we could provide every single person with a house, giving them a roof over their head and a safe place to sleep and live. We could bring women’s rights to places like Pakistan and India, we could help to eradicate bullying within schools, giving every child the ability to learn in a safe and welcoming environment. 
Society and the world is evolving and in a way, we are not progressing forward, we still allow such a large amount of suffering to continue within society and as a race, we have the opportunity to help stop this if we all work together. If we do not change, sooner or later, the human race will be it’s own demise.