Politics do not rock my boat, and American presidential elections are usually the least of my concerns, bar any direct implication of theirs on to the ROW (Rest of World) through any heavy-handed, gung-ho, military-engineered foreign policy that impacts the rest of us (for better) for worse. However one presidential candidate right now seems to have rocked the boat to the point of the storm spilling out of the proverbial teacup. Wait for it, our man is worth more than The Six Million Dollar Man and has more tricks to boot. He has captured audiences with his decision to run for POTUS (*). His views, quick repartees and tight leash over the biased media hoopla, certainly deserve more than a passing comment.
Donald Trump is the stuff of America. He embodies American values of the ambitious self-made man, a rags-to-riches story of sorts, a man who embodies that anything is/ should still be possible in the world at large, and more specifically in that once-avant-garde New World territory that is the USA. Trump also happens to never be short of a trick as a pretty astute businessman. Last but not least in the arena of American politics, he also happens to be charismatic, short of a showman, which always fares well in a country that roughly stretches between DC and Hollywood.
Yet what stands out of the Donald Trump's one-man show is that he's nailed his focus right: he unequivocally puts his country first to make it shine again: 'Make America Great Again!' He wants it to be strong, revitalised, proud, and once again thriving. A hard-working nation glued together by good old American Christian family values taking once again pride of place on the family mantelpiece and the work station. A working America, once again fuelled by a manufacturing workforce and a sense of worth and belonging, and the hard work rewarded. To have a sense of contributing to the country's wealth rather than be a mere recipient of its welfare system, or play the national pastime of aimless shopping, as a passive consumer of planned obsolescence made-in-China shoddy goods, then back to work on Monday, wearing off the carpet of some Office Space, doing some pointless job, feeling worthless and useless, and relegated to an ungratifying lifetime as a member of the working poor. Put this into perspective and coat it in political correctness all your while, but I believe that Entrepreneur of the Year should once again be a captain of industry and their driving force (which includes workforce), not some loner geek that designed a smartphone app.
Down with the allegories. Trump breaks the mould on many levels. First, he is not bound by blood to some political dynasty. Historically, modern America has been built around core political dynasties (Roosevelt, Kennedy, Bush and Clinton, to name only a few). Yet it seems that the continuity principle imposed by such political dynasty arrangements only serve the private interests of the elite class. Yet frankly what is to be expected from the bitter wife of some former President or a third generation Bush?
Cash and a remarkable success story are a sure way to attract jealousy and animosity your way. Yet Donald Trump has spelt it out loud and clear: he needn't be bought out because he already has all the cash that money can buy. This is his main forte and competitive advantage; his strong financial independence gives him the luxury to afford political independence in his views and principles.
Sadly European countries like France have been engineered by decades of Socialist doctrine, crippling bureaucacy, and a much-skewered interpretation of the values borne out of the French Revolution, to believe that too much cash is crass, and that to be rich is either to have been borne into it without asking for it, or to have sold out one's soul. Furthermore, our spirit of enterprise has long been squashed in the process by constant government interventionism into our daily lives and into the conduct of our business affairs, crushing our manufacturing legacy into the ground and overtaxing and rewiring our remaining flagship companies like Air France, under EU complicity.
In a world where Revolution by the People for the People will not be televised, it remains to find it refreshing - as we are searching for second bests - to be once again probed by the idea of enterprise and entrepreneurship, of national pride, of traditional family values, of the importance to rebuild a fragmented, socialised, pauperised nation that once (half a century ago) stood as a beacon of social progress, innovation and modernism, to the ROW.
If I were American and allowed to vote in US elections, I would certainly be seduced by Donald's programme, his bold energy, his political uncorrectness, and no-nonsense parley. If however this were all to end up into nothing more than a dream, at least it will have hinted a flavour of what the American dream should be standing for.
Life has been busy lately, yet despite the fact that I have made myself scarce around here, you will be able to catch up with me via my Lucca Comics & Games 2015 photographic review on my fiancé's blog. I added a short article that elaborates upon my earlier post on the Lucca extravaganza. The event lived up to its promise and expectation, and was a ball, and we cannot wait to return next year!
Prior to our Tuscan trip, Roby and I enjoyed a short (and romantic!) Paris city break together last October, and I couldn't resist sharing a few photos with you. As the year is wrapping up and the mid-decade is now firmly embracing its second half, La Baguette Magique wishes you a Lovely Christmas and New Year! Make sure to stay tuned for the exciting new developments I will be sharing in due time here, there and elsewhere!
With my fiancé due to arrive in France from the US in less than a week, which better city for us to join than in the world's most romantic, Paris! If a little spot of shop may be on the cards, what will be off our radar is the international chain stores, temples of consumerism, ubiquitous brands, and those déjà-vu and more of the same items. For the sort of Paris we are after is the one that is steeped in classical culture and history, honed by heritage, filigreed in craftsmanship, imbued in poetry, wrapped up in artistry and signeted with tender loving care.
Against the odds of the modern marketplace, off-the-beaten-track Paris still has a few retail gems nicely tucked away from the high streets. And in its cosseted niches, the otherwise overused, overworked adjective 'unique' finally finds its meaningfulness and purpose. One of the boutiques on my list may be open only half a day a week, that makes it even more covetable in my eye.
La Maison du Pastel
Whether you are a fine artist - or not - you need to pay La Maison du Pastel a visit. Admittedly you may not be into crayons and drawings, and thus not have at first hand a need for visiting this artist institution. Yet one thing is for certain: we share commonalities with the pastel maker. We see life in colour, our environment is bathed in colour, this life of ours is all about colour, whether we like our palette light or bright or dark or muted. Each of us has their favourite colours, even wears them, and drapes their windows and walls in them. Colour is a statement and an attractor, and marketers have long harnessed its powers in order to seduce consumers. Colour is therefore a big element! To see it translated into formats that transcend the obvious (objects) is a joy. Oh boy, I am making it my mission to make you look at a stick of pastel in a totally fresh way.
'I found I could say things with colour and shapes that I couldn't say any other way - things I had no words for.' - Georgia O'Keeffe
But let's get back to colours. My favourites for the home are those faded, paled-down, diluted greens like Eau de Nil, Sage Green and Mint Green. I could own a piece of pastel for each of those colours I like. Why? To add on to my nuanciers (colour charts/ cabinets), and well, why not? Plus it's more than about colour and pastel and artistry. It's a little piece of portable made-in-France Paris, the one that makes me proud to be French and the owner of a piece of anthology and anthropology endorsed by a Maison that has been going strong since 1720, with 1021 nuances to boot.
A French family concern, the Roché, and their artisanal way of making things that have stood the test of time and remain a part of French savoir faire establishment, as globalisation elsewhere is dulling our world, one colour shade at a time. To partake in a little French heritage with my American better half makes sense, as it lends our shopping experience the cultural bias it deserves, with a little nod at Margaret Zayer, an American artist besotted with colour, who a few years back contacted Isabelle Roché, interned at La Maison du Pastel, fell under the spell... and never left. We would have done the same.
La Maison du Pastel Isabelle Roché & Margaret Zayer 20, rue Rambuteau 75003 Paris
The boutique is open every Thursday 2:00pm-6:00pm. Meanwhile, I recommend that you read the fabulous article byL'Instant Parisien, whose photography soaks up the poetry of the atelier and the manufacturing processes. A must-read.
There is a flurry of behind-the-blog-scenes activity for me at present - and we have a lot of rejoicing and travel in the pipeline! Amongst the exciting developments is my better half relocating from the USA to France, where we will finally be able to join and share our lives together.
And as everything tends to happen at the same time (doesn't it?), we'll be shortly hopping across to Italy. The reason being that Roby (my fiancé) has been kindly invited by an Italian game publisher to take part in the forthcoming Lucca Comics & Games, the renowned International Festival of Comics, Animation, Illustration and Games, held in the medieval Tuscan town of Lucca, Italy. Now picture the scene. You put in the same sentence (like I've just done) my dashing fiancé, a history-charged locale, Tuscany, culture, creativity, design and artistry, and you get a feature of cool that is bound to grace the likes ofThe Cool Hunter! A combination that gets a resounding WOW of wonder from this lady as she is typing away her bit of text! And the exclamation mark doesn't even give justice to the excitement itself!
I will be reporting back from Lucca, and posting pictures in due time. I am going to get up, close and personal with the world of D&D (Dungeons & Dragons), which may sound like some medieval secret society - but is not, so don't you worry. I will also probably be rubbing shoulders with other exotic-looking creatures, humanoids, and Halloweenesque comeuppances ('tis that time of year!), all escapees from books and celluloid (ok, I meant digital), Special FX and the works of imagination at play (and work is play for those creatives, like play is work), for a little fantasy fest jest. Right now, I am feeling like a kid on her way to the candy store!
Meanwhile I shall leave you with some pictorial prelude and all the anticipation that it includes... For more of the finger-on-the-pulse action, you may want to check out Lucca Comics & Games - and especially the Games section (our little bias) - if you haven't already done so. Happy browsing!
Oh mum, here we go again! You and the camera and the lighting and the writing and those silly poses that don't look very us, or spontaneous! You might disagree with me but you're showing me up! It's one thing showing me off to friends and folks, as long as it's only once in a while - but to show me up like a prized toy you won at the fun fair, and to carry me in your arms like I'm some Chihuahua boy or you're some granny is not fair on either of us! Actually, it is short of insulting.
After all, I've got a reputation to maintain, as a typical Jack Russell Terrier: boisterous, cheeky, fearless, playful, fun-loving, spirited (some call me opinionated!) and downright mischievous! I'm a Terrier after all! Yet instead of that, you're making me feel all coy and pansy-like for your piece of literature... You write, you write, right! But can you just not get a real job instead, for a change? Just a thought, but now come to think of it... Maybe not that great an idea, because if you weren't working from home, I would see less of you, and that is just not cool!
Mum, you forgot the bells and whistles!
Ok for the write stuff but tsss, don't you go writing things about me that just aren't me. Just tell it as it is: you and I are besties, the crème de la crème, and we've been going strong together much longer than the average marriage, and that means something! That also means we're well over the 7-year itch! Now apart from you, what do I love? I love walks! Preferably down the countryside, because towns and noises, I'm not too keen. I love being off the lead, out there down the paths, sniffing about the bushes and rocks, looking for lizards and geckos and anything that is small enough for me to handle (while you're not looking!).
I like to potter around, investigate. I get all excited and then dash back to you at full speed to share my joy and excitement, as you're calling me and laughing! You and I sharing moments, that's Heaven! It's all about simple pleasures, like your lovingly serving me my favourite dishes. And then there's the cuddles and belly rubs like you know how, as I'm stretched out on my back, lying comfortably on your bed (the comfiest place on earth!). And then afterwards down the garden for a game of ball. As I roll and jump like Hong Kong Phooey, and catch that ball in mid-air like I'm in The Matrix, I imagine a football stadium, that of MUFC at Old Trafford... Aren't I a Super League Doggie? Plus I can dream a dream that is rooted in reality because I'm a Manchester born-and-bred boy after all! Just like you're a Manchester girl (well, sort of), for all that time you lived there, which was a very long time in doggie years!
Au naturel...
Mum, you saved me from the shelter in Harpurhey, and this I shall never forget! I am forever grateful and honoured that as soon as you saw me, you knew. And I knew. And we knew that we were made for each other, like we'd been designed to interlock our lives like pieces that fit to the T of Tickle. And every day since, this has been proven to us without fail and spelt in gold letters in our golden book of hours.
Now I know that there's this gentleman on the scene, whom you've known a little while, and you love him and he loves you, and he's coming to join me and you (ok he's joining you - and me by default), and be with us forever. That is great news! Of course, it might take a little time for all of us to adjust (jealous, moi?), but as soon as he plays the game right, gives me my favourite treats, and the attention I deserve (Am I sounding a little spoilt and exclusive here?), and kicks a good game of 'soccer' with me (soccer, whadyamean?!), I'll be forever sold to this guy too! The three of us will be family... and I might even change football club allegiances! Arrgh, don't you get me to say 'soccer' just off the bat, when a good ol' game of English football is a game of choice for an English-born English breed dog like I...
Urban belles are no urban legends. You may call them urban faeries for they are agents of beautification. They are right up my street - and yours - and commonly found, should we take the time to adjust our eyesight and look at the unseen! An act of nature catching the controlled human mind off guard, seeping into the nooks and crannies of brick and mortar, disused land and unloved spaces, spreading a little loveliness and love wherever they are 'allowed' to, which most often occurs in uncouth spaces. Those are places of unloveliness and lovelessness, with limited human interference or temporary respite therefrom: industrial compounds, wastelands, building sites, train tracks, dockyards, disused/ off-the-tourist-trail public areas, and 'neglected' planters and parterres.
"Blessed are they who see beautiful things in humble places where other people see nothing." - Camille Pissarro
Against herbicidal odds and other wildlife-unfriendly signs of human intervention, wild flowers manage to come into their own, aided by the pollinating magic of bees, butterflies and consorts. Their seeds are carried through by a whimsical breeze or a bird or rodent. Seeds ensconce into a crack, with a little soil underfoot to take root, and a little sprinkling of rain and smattering of sunshine for stimulation. Seeds will crack open and a stalk peep out of a crack or other repository. The plant will gather strength and grow, bud, blossom and propagate, offering its all to whoever pays attention to its splashes of natural beauty and sweeps of untamed mane.
How odd then - I might hear you say - that if lovelessness and unloveliness are associated with untidiness and uncaring, love and loveliness are associated with tidiness and care, and everything in its place, according to the reorganisation of nature under the urban model. There nature is harnessed, like it is on a leash. The only accepted representatives of greenery within the urban environment are domesticated and engineered elements of flora, generations away from their gene pool and those distant cousins brought to us by Mother Nature.
Nature on a leash: tamed and clipped and pruned and corsetted and restrained and contained, and aggregated, with colours and shapes tampered with, and temperaments subdued. Let us note in passing the pumped-up begonias, oversized marigolds, bicolor petunias, same-height tulips, redesigned jonquils and unscented carnations. And let's compare their visual appeal to that of the wild flowers, in all of their spontaneity of being: spirited, unstructured, convoluted, unexpected, unpredictable and other lovely inconsistencies. I'll have wild and unleashed every day!
The wildflower photography by Magali Roucaut takes us on a fresh-eyed photographic discovery of Paris, with a luscious journey to boot, where wildflowers take centrestage over buildings and monuments. Her website Paris Fleurs Sauvages is testimony to the surprising biodiversity found within the French capital and its immediate suburbs, and all those wild flowers will surely be the most valuable contributors to the renowned Parisian honey being produced from beehives placed in the most unusual places, like on the rooftops of the Opéra Garnier! The wild flowers were pictured by Magali between 2007 and 2013, and a selection of them are currently displayed as part of the Paris Fleurs Sauvages exhibition, Chai du Parc de Bercy, Paris, until 4th October 2015. (Original source: Paris ZigZag).
Ignorance is bliss but it is no blessing for we live in times of high uncertainty where we should begin to scratch the surface of the big illusion manufactured en-masse by the media and the governing elite, because like in The Truman Show all is not as it seems. Anything stranger than fiction is unsettling but we ought to investigate it.
I first came across the word chemtrail only a few months ago, while watching a video by British astrologer and truth seeker David Cammegh. He was talking about U.N. Agenda 21 and - amongst other topics - population control: how we are getting routinely and purposely poisoned by heavy metals and chemical aerosols sprayed by civilian and military aircrafts over our populated areas. This left me cautiously perplexed, and I chose to shrug it off as 'Here we go, another conspiracy theory!' As much as I am open-minded, there are times where I draw the line at inconvenient truths - merely for my own sanity. I did have a quick look on Wikipedia though, which comforted me in my assumption of chemtrails being little more than some fuzzy conspiracy theory. That reassured me, and I could neatly retreat back into my comfort zone, pull the wool over my eyes and forget about it. Of course we should be ill-advised to consider Wikipedia as the almighty source of information and as strict purveyor of truth and unbiased knowledge.
Want to see chemtrails? Step outside and look up the sky, it's that simple. Just stop being self-absorbed into your smartphone and distracted by other gadgets! Honestly, when was the last time you had a good look at the sky? You'd be surprised at how modified it is looking these days...
I was to make another encounter with geoengineering (the science behind chemtrails) a few days ago, while researching the Europe migrant crisis. This time over, I decided to delve into the subject. There are literally tons of recorded evidence on geoengineering activities, yet by the same token, once you try to find out the reasons behind the scheme, access any official (declassified) documentation released online, and ultimately how to get governments to stop this machination that has been programmed by those who are supposed to protect us, it seems that 'Citizen Lambda' is powerless. This should not deter us from spreading the word, recording the evidence (more of that in a minute!), and contacting the press and our local or national chemtrail watch organisation.
As a starting point, if you want a general grasp and not get distracted by the zillions of blogs out there, you need to watch this compelling account by Rosalind Peterson in her keynote speech at the 60th Annual DPI/NGO Conference on Climate Change (United Nations, New York, September 5-7, 2007.) I promise you that you'll never look at the sky the same way after this!
Geoengineering is a controversial Frankenstein science and a freakish large-scale control programme that has gained prominence since the late 1990s. It tackles weather modification programmes under the premise of fighting climate change, fostering agriculture crops, protecting us from harmful UV effects, and - wait for it - shielding us from the possibility of bacteriological warfare! Geoengineering presents itself as a friend, but - as with Monsanto - don't be fooled by the spin doctors. It sends out unmarked military aircrafts the size of commercial carriers on daily missions across (mostly) the US, Canada, Europe and Australia, to spray our blue skies with a lethal cocktail of nano particulates made up of aluminum, barium, arsenic, spores, fungus, viruses and other deadly pathogens all at odd with anything to do with 'the better good'. In fact, unsuspecting civilian populations have long been their government's testing ground for biological and virological weaponry of all kinds, with chemtrails now being the vehicle of choice.
Geoengineering is also behind those freak weather conditions that curse certain areas of the world, namely California (hot Summers, severe droughts, tree depletion and raging fires), northern US Midwest/ East Coast (Winter snow blizzards), Europe (flash floods), and the latest Chinese Winter snowfalls. Whatever happened to the laws of nature, the US have vowed to control the weather by 2025. Isn't this scary?!
What my back yard looked like on 08 Sept 2015 at 10:51am...
We are talking unprecedented air pollution carried out on a massive scale. The toxic white trails and plumes and haze that evidence the shady airborne activities are said to remain in the sky up to 20 hours. In fact, from my personal findings, they were still visible 24 hours after spraying took place. Unlike contrails (*) a.k.a. condensation trails, chemtrails are not made to dissipate fast, but rather stay in suspension and then slowly disperse for maximum effect and coverage.
You can be sure that pollution this size and concentration brings an array of health problems, from respiratory (asthma) to digestive, via heart problems, headaches, mental fatigue, apathy and stress. Move over Prozac Nation, we are now Chemtrail Nation! The rise in the number of Alzheimer cases and autism has been reported by the medical world this decade. We know about the correlation between Alzheimer's, autism, Parkinson's disease and aluminum exposure, and adding more of the offending substance into the astmosphere will only exacerbate neurological diseases to pandemic proportions. As for autism, already linked to the notorious glyphosate found in Monsanto's Roundup, it is too being exacerbated by the tons of chemicals pumped daily into our skies and elsewhere in our environment. Cancers are linked, amongst other factors, to pollution and that includes chemtrails.
... and my front yard at 10:55am
At this point, with the information I have been able to garner online, I am sceptical as to any geoengineering philanthropy goal. It seems to be merely a cog in the wheel that spins for the Military, Big Pharma and the GMO lords, and for the engineered depopulation of the earth, a.k.a. genocide, not only of human life but also animal life, as evidenced by inexplicable high numbers of them dying off. Not to mention that chemtrails contaminate our water supplies and our food chain. Now at this point, for us to turn a blind eye on chemtrails is sheer folly as this is happening so blatantly in broad daylight before our very eyes, should we at least take the trouble to lift our eyes from our daily vagaries.
My Personal Frontline Diary Account (French island of Corsica, 08 Sept 2015):
Monday 7th Sept had been a blissful day, clear blue skies, not a cloud. I was almost ready to discredit any chemtrail existence from my neck of the woods. Next day, I woke up unusually late, feeling drowsy. I knew something was up straight away as I headed for my window, flung open the shutters and was faced with a show of sinister proportions. I dashed outside with my camera, spotted at least two airplanes, and then a third, spraying the sky until it had turned white. If I had been in denial before, this time I could not, due to the sheer intensity of the spraying and the formation of erratic and persistent trail patterns across the sky in the space of a few minutes.
I have increased contrast to display the layers of haze.
(*) Chemtrails vs. Contrails: Chemtrails are 'unnatural-looking cloud trails occasionally produced by airplanes
that don't dissipate normally, and that end up blanketing the skies with
a hazy muck. They differ entirely from water vapor contrails produced
when water vapor condenses and freezes around small aerosol particles
released from aircraft exhaust.' (source: Natural News).
★ 14-Sept-2015 Update: As much as I have an open mind and - at the same time - refuse to get bogged down in the controversies plaguing our world, I can assure you that chemtrails are not being mistaken for contrails (see above paragraph for definition). Now pay attention, I'm gonna debunk the debunkers. I live on a highly touristic island, in a tourist hotspot, with July and August being high-peak season. Yet over the high-peak season, we had clear blue skies. Understand that bar the odd brief quick-dissolving contrail high up in the sky, I did NOT notice any of the suspiciously persistent cottonwool-like trails and heavy criss-cross mucky haze that I now come across daily. If those are supposed to be nothing more than condensation trails - as opposed to chemtrails - how come are we getting so many of them now that tourist season and air traffic are off peak?
Further Resources:
Geoengineering Watch is the most comprehensive professional website, with a scientific bias, dedicated to chemtrails and HAARP (High Frequency Active Auroral Research Program), another controversial collateral 'delight' in weather modification technology, jointly run by the US Air Force and Navy! It emits a range of frequencies into the ionosphere that produce pulses, and those bombard chemtrails to engineer the weather. Expect all sorts of induced anomalies like freak storms, tornadoes, earthquakes... and tsunamis (cue the Fukushima disaster)! The good people behind HAARP and their emissaries across the world not only care about the weather but also about our welfare, by constantly bombarding us with ELF (Electromagnetic Low Frequencies). Is this in order to keep us lame and subservient consumer-only 'no questions asked' individuals?
The HAARP Report delivers unequivocal visual data on the manipulation of our weather patterns leading to the destruction of our ecosystems. A must-watch!
Five Pieces of Evidence Suggesting that California Drought May Be a HAARP-Manufactured Event by Natural News: As supported by this HAARP Report video, the engineered droughts in California, through manipulation of the Jet Stream, can only serve the darker agenda, like that of UN Agenda 21 and its forced population relocation ideology. Another speculation is directed at the powerful GMO mafia's ultimate ambition of absolute agriculture control (with the planned eradication of The Golden State's independent/ alternative growers and organic producers). And let's not lose sight of the fact that a State as spirited and freedom-loving as the State of California can only attract defiance from federal powers.
60,000 Antelopes Died in 4 Days - And No One Knows Why by Live Science. Further developments on the sudden mass deaths of the Saiga antelopes on the steppes of Kazakhstan (deathtoll now estimated at 150,000+) have been pieced together and relayed by EneNews, and there seems to be an explanation behind this that rules out chemtrails.Heavy nuclear tests were carried out in the region back in 1989, which would have weakened the herd's immune system, from generation to the next. Thirty five years later, the Pasteurella infection they caught proved fatal to them due to their deficient immunity. Meanwhile elsewhere in the world, sudden mass animal deaths have remained unexplained to this day, and will require further investigating, as to whether or not they are linked to chemtrail activity. This is often made difficult by the undercover/ classified nature of chemtrails. It remains that health is at risk, as highlighted in our article.
Mother, wife, actress, model, TV personality, animal lover, vegan, activist, environmental carer and Playboy centerfold. The lady is a sex-symbol but beyond the image of her titillating the glossies and undressing the male psyche is a woman whose heart is in the right place and whose mind is set on doing her bit in society. As much as Pammy is a media focus, she is also a mama focused, and that is what makes her enticing, in my eye.
Pamela Anderson's biggest achievement goes beyond being the hottest poster girl in a red bathing suit since Farrah Fawcett. She put sexy, sassy and spiritedness into veganism, animal and societal causes, and converted a good number of regular girls to the off-center joys of veg(etari)anism, shaking off the old cliché coconut about animal militancy, all too often associated with a bohemian lifestyle of make-dos on the fringes of society, in a tumble of dreadlocks, tie-dyes, hand-me-downs, tambourines, hand-knits, dream-catchers and psychedelia.
Pamela not only made her own dreams come true (an inspiration all to itself to the myriads out there stuck in jobs they abhor), but behind the voluptuous dizzy blonde smokescreen (sunscreen?) stands a woman driven, of many talents, and a maker of her own destiny (she has no agent!).
Anderson's looks are her asset. They have certainly helped her get media exposure in the first place and secured those lucrative contracts that she has capitalised on. She got noticed, but after adversely getting the tabloids limelight in her younger years, has finally channelled the attention into something constructive and productive.
And this is what I find enticing: a strong independent daring woman who is focused, unafraid to steer her career, personal life and belief system off the norm, while remaining humane, and not losing sight of her value system (what really matters in life), thus fiercely proud and protective of her extended brood (family, pets, PETA, and the countless societal campaigns she sponsors). Alongside this, The Pamela Anderson Foundation supports a wide range of committed environmental charities and animal organisations across the world. The lady is a busy activist indeed.
Suburban pastel poster wife on the Fall 2014 cover of NO TOFU
Pammy's legendary provocative pout and scandalous antics of the past only look scandalous to the ill-intentioned, the ones with the bruised egos, intent on feeding off gossip mags to spot the next scandal and delight in the prospect of possible demise, because misery in their lives seeks out the company of misery out there.
I take Pammy's cartoonesque Varga girl poses for what they are: a PR expectation for the public and a dollop of good clean fun for the lads and the cameras. Yet by reading her interview with NO TOFU magazine, it was made clear that she was eager to unstick those archetypes and just be allowed to be taken seriously, be her 40+ year-old self minus the showgirl attributes.
What interests me here is the fact that, as PETA's Honorary Director, and through her involvement with other organisations like The Gentle Barn or MAC's Viva Glam Aids Fund campaign, she has raised awareness and funds and worked consistently to change consumer habits and perceptions. Her celebrity status gives her clout as a high-profile influencer at a diplomatic level. Her unfailing commitment spans two decades, and that puts to shame some of her celebrity peers who – say - did a one-off for PETA's 'We'd Rather Go Naked Than Wear Fur' campaign and then threw caution to the wind as they hit the catwalk.
Pammy teases because she's Pammy. Now get over it. If that troubles you in the name of feminism, then look away, but do remember that she is no victim of 'the macho world', she is in control of her image. She teases and gets things done and helps make the world a better place. So be it if her female detractors fester and flood social media with poison arrows, they secretly wish (for the most part) that they had the killer looks and achieved something with their lives. Jealousy is so lousy!
Not only are we talking dairy malaise but also a general malaise that has 'egg-xacerbated' the whole farming industry worldwide for years. It is just that dairy price wars have featured on the French and British news lately, and pork price wars are doing the headlines right now. Yet to begin with, we do not need to look further than the antagonistic words 'farming' and 'industry' forcefully sitting next to each other as in 'farming industry', in order to understand the roots of the malaise. And there is no word - nor book title - more eloquent than CIWF's Farmageddon, to sum up the disastrous consequences that a drive for cheap brings.
Farming was once a history of small family-run concerns and pastoral endeavours that helped families sustain themselves, look after the countryside, build closely-knit communities, be self-sufficient and economically-independent, albeit modestly. The Industrial Revolution lured millions of rural families to the city lights that engulfed them into the darkness of coal mines and textile mills. From the 1920s onwards, farming increasingly became mechanised, and as such, less labour intensive. After World War II, it shifted to a lean, automated, extensive and intensive (monoculture-based), chemically-pumped, figure-churning, competitive industrial model set to satisfy corporate demands for their ever-increasing profit margins at the expense of farmer and flock. This has been amplified since as farming is currently being forcefully channelled into the global one-size-fits-all model. Except that one size fits not.
"Animal and crop rearing were once a happy partnership. Industrialisation divorced them." - Philip Lymbery, Farmageddon
As faceless as industrial models are, the first thing that happened to farming was a faceless revolution in the 1960s as flocks, herds and cattle were moved en masse from their lush pastures to concrete pens tucked away from sunlight and our sight, into barren sheds and hangars. Away from sight means away from the mind of the modern consumer, who associates their pack of sliced ham to a sandwich rather than to the pig it belonged to. And animals in their millions to be farmed for slaughter yearly (currently 70 billion worldwide) have become just that: an obscene number that defies the human mind capacity to fathom them as a collective of individual animals. The number appears as a desensitised distant emotionless global mass instead. Faceless in the hangars and faceless on the mind. Faceless on paper too as numbers are being tweaked and crunched to squeeze productivity out of farm animals to exhaustion, before they end up on the abattoir's conveyor belt on their way out of a short, brutal, confined, loveless - and ultimately pointless - existence.
Industrial farming means a serving of pain on your plate, and cheap animal produce (dairy, eggs, meat) is an additional serving of hurt. Now you may think I'm serving you the obligatory activist spiel as a vegetarian, but don't forget that I was once an omnivore, and pretty much oblivious to the fact that the whole farm-to-fork line is nothing more than a series of productivity processes that use and abuse animals to death. I am not seeking to discourage anyone from a meat-based diet, I just want to set the record straight so you get the facts in order to make up your mind for yourself.
I was brought up on a meat diet by meat-loving parents born in the 1940s who underwent full-on the changing consumer habits of the post-war Western world with all the false truths that went along, and for whom a meat-based regimen was (is) a sign of healthy living, social success and a status symbol. To be honest, I never was that much of a meat lover, but peer pressure and preconceptions meant I didn't question my own carnivore habits until only a few years ago.
Just to show you how out of touch with the reality of farming I was, I used to believe (well into adulthood) that dairy cows just so happened to naturally produce milk, without any intervention! The stark reality of dairy farming is that cows are perpetually made pregnant (by natural means or artificially inseminated), then separated from their calves at birth (sending their maternal instinct into disarray) or a few days later, and their milk - that should be feeding their young - is pumped away from them in order to feed us, humans. To the strain of repeated pregnancies, you add the trauma of a mother's separation from her baby, plus the painful milking process, and a life behind bars that ends up in the slaughterhouse, to realise that dairy is dreary!
As multinationals are forcing down produce prices and controlling the commodities market, animals (the very commodities at the heart of the farming industry) are forced to produce more, while their living conditions deteriorate further. And if farmers refuse to comply with the demands or refuse to bow to the pressure of turning their middle-size dairy farm into a super-farm, they lose their concerns to the banks, and the multinationals move on to source out cheaper milk from countries like Germany, Serbia or Poland, where cows have a tougher life. Farmers are as much victims as their animals here. They live from hand to mouth, work extremely long hours for a pitiful wage. Pushed to the end of their tethers by those unscrupulous men in suits, they resort to suicide (one suicide every other day in France). Now pause for a minute and consider the irony of it all: those (animals and farmers) who feed us are the ones who starve and suffer!
La Ferme des Mille Vaches (1000 Dairy Cow Farm) is France's first ever US-style mega-dairy farm, est. 2014.
My purpose is not to condone veg(etari)an practice at the expense of another, or sound like the newscaster of doom and gloom at every article I write. La Baguette Magique being about Lifestyle with Attitude, I am not going to follow the herds down the well-trodden middle of the consumerist road to ukulele you a song about Happy Meals! Instead we'll take one step back in order to get a clearer vision and stay ahead. My purpose is to raise awareness and then leave it up to you, dear readers, to think it over, investigate the issue further if it resonates with you, and decide - or not - to review your consumption habits. Let us bear in mind though that only collectively through our changing consumer habits will we be able to impact the faceless powers that are ruling our food shelves and ruining our food chain. Will you take that stance with me?
P.S: Be sure to watch CIWF's Farmaggedon - The True Cost of Cheap Meat. On a happier note, watch Karma the cow being finally reunited with her calf at The Gentle Barn sanctuary, after a life of misery. Who said cows have no feelings? Therefore no matter how well looked after dairy cows may be at David Homer's farm, they will still be missing their babies...
[25-Sept-2017 Update]: For a quick and snappy visual idea of the cruelty of the dairy industry, please watch this French documentary preview, showing a cow and her calf who she had given birth to only a few hours prior. The farmer unceremoniously takes her calf away in his van while the mama runs after the vehicle in desperation for her baby! The calf is taken into a hangar where (if a male) he will be fattened up for the veal industry, or (if a female) fattened up to become a dairy cow. A dairy cow will be expected to produce milk for 5-6 years before being slaughtered for meat.
Serves 4 (as a main dish) Preparation: 10 mins Cooking: 40-45 mins
What do you do when your next-door neighbour brings you a generous bunch of flat-leaf parsley from his vegetable garden? You make Flat-Leaf Parsley Soup!
Hiding from behind the wild fennel bush!
Believe you me, I was well excited at the prospect of making my very first soup from scratch, and parsley was to provide me that opportunity, under my mum's incredulous eye, as she knows how fussy I am usually about soup. But eh, this one I would love! It's a little like with kids: other people's kids do your nut, but when it's your own, you just melt!
Big bunch (200g/ 7oz) flat-leaf parsley
4 tablespoons olive oil
3 garlic cloves
2 small red onions
2 medium potatoes
1l (1.7 pints) cold water
Pinch of nutmeg
Salt and pepper (to taste)
Prepare the parsley: cut off the stalks from the base of the leaves and discard the stalks. Place the leaves in a strainer and run water over to rinse them off. Then chop them finely in the food processor (or by hand if preferred). Peel the garlic, slice it roughly and add to the processor. Do the same with the onions. Peel the potatoes, finely chop them by hand and keep aside.
Heat the oil in a big saucepan on medium heat. Then add the parsley mix, add a pinch of nutmeg, and stir constantly with a wooden spoon for a couple of minutes, to just lightly soften the parsley and develop the flavours. Then pour the water over in one go, and add the potato slices. Bring to the boil gently, stirring occasionally, then cover with a lid and turn down to medium heat. The overall cooking process should take about 40-45 mins. Season just before serving.
You may want to 'pimp up' your soup with garlic croûtons, a pinch of paprika, a tablespoon of double cream or a serving of parmesan, and other soup essentials of your liking. Or you may just savour it as is, with a couple of crunchy slices of bread by the side.
This is a light-hearted, healthy, tasty and incredibly easy-to-make soup that reminds me in taste of watercress soup. It is perfect as a main course for warming up a little Summer evening breeze on the patio, or served in small mugs as an entrée. Enjoy!
Karma avenged Cecil the Lion in more ways than anyone could have bargained for, and Walter Palmer's life will never be the same again. Do we feel sorry for the big game serial killer who also happens to play the dutiful dentist and family man somewhere in Minnesota when he's not out there killing for fun? He overstepped the mark of respect for life and respectability for himself by the distance that separates his locale from Zimbabwe. One of the comments I read sums up how I feel about him: 'This man is a menace to society.'
I shall leave Palmer with a quote by Rachel Carson which - no doubt - will elude his propensity for ponder but reaffirm to the universe our intention for a compassionate world. Meanwhile everything that had to be said has been said in the media frenzy over the last week or so, and truly the man's ethics are as empty as a blank and that makes him a jerk, so I won't waste my words. In fact, no words will bring Cecil back to life, or the thousands of other trophy hunting casualties for that matter. Please sign the petition for Cecil and for trophy hunting and canned hunting to be made illegal and punishable by law, thank you.
"Until we have the courage to recognize cruelty for what it is -- whether its victim is human or animal -- we cannot expect things to be much better in this world. We cannot have peace among men whose hearts delight in killing any living creature. By every act that glorifies or even tolerates such moronic delight in killing, we set back the progress of humanity." - Rachel Carson
Despite its cheerful-sounding name, Enola Gay was never going to be a jolly affair. Little Boy and Fat Man neither. Yet in the same breath, Japan had made it clear that they wanted to surrender. America heard it, then pressed the button that dropped the bomb on the city of Hiroshima on 6th August 1945, wiping out 70,000 civilians in one fell swoop. Then as if this wasn't lethal enough and pointless enough in its nihilism, it went on to drop another bomb, three days later, on Nagasaki. And that is the way WWII ended. In an atomic blast.
To say that there are winners and losers in a war is an aberration, because the concept of war itself is anathema to what humanity stands for. War is a failing, a failure. Man's propensity for creation and destruction combine into what I refer to as The Human Paradox.
The Hiroshima and Nagasaki atomic disasters were yet another crime against humanity, although American propaganda chose to shun this. It was at the same time the latest exemplification of human capability in destruction of others. And by destructing others we destruct self. Those scientists who had worked on the atom, with civilisation advancement in mind, never thought for one second that their discoveries would be turned around and channelled towards life extermination. The acute realisation, echoed by Albert Einstein, is that technological progress both serves and unserves humanity: -
'I fear the day that technology will surpass our human interaction. The world will have a generation of idiots.' - Albert Einstein
By blasting Japan, the US showed how far they were prepared to stand as contenders for world domination. The message was sent out loud and clear to the USSR and other nations that would stand in their way. Atomic was the ultimate all-powerful weapon of mass destruction.
The nuclear blasts signed off the end of WWII and the start of another war, insidious and sinister, the Cold War. It unleashed a new era, of shameless consumerism in the atomic age, the trademark of the (not that) 'Fabulous Fifties'. One step closer to the New World Order as we know it today.
Would you trust a biotech company that once produced the notorious Agent Orange, a dioxin-based chemical warfare used to defoliate the jungles of Vietnam during the eponymous war, and which affected over three million civilians and servicemen in its deadly wake?
Would you believe a company that has managed to control Agribusiness by consistently investing an incredible amount of its profits in legal and financial teams in order to intimidate and bully governments the world over, buy out seed companies in order to kill off any form of competition and exterminate heirloom cultivars and the riches of the natural world?
A company that drives uncooperative farmers out of business, exploits
those who are forced to comply under duress, silences mainstream media, sues corporations... and the U.S. state of Vermont...
A company that is an aggressive world supremacist in seed engineering technology, plays God with biodiversity, eradicates traditional seeds, contravenes traditional cultivation methods and promulgates monoculture. It is part of the quadrangle of death and deceit, alongside DuPont Pioneer, Syngenta and Bayer CropScience, other major purveyors of hybrid and GMO seeds and crop chemicals worldwide. Currently No.2 in the world, Pioneer is vying the top seat and contemplating a strategic alliance with Dow AgroSciences that would counterbalance any Monsanto-Syngenta merger. Syngenta delivers crop protection and GE (genetically-engineered) seeds as per its 'More Food from Less Land' formula. Increase in yield and decrease in wildlife are guaranteed. The sharp decline in bees, a direct result of the use of Neonics and glyphosate in the pesticide/ herbicide industry, is incumbent upon the GMO biotechs! Bayer is behind 'Science for a Better Life', and science for death, as manufacturers of poisonous trenches gas during WWI, and later the deadly Zyklon B for the gas chambers (via their subsidiary).
A company that produces the notorious Roundup, a powerful, highly-toxic carcinogenic glyphosate-based broad-spectrum herbicide that kills off every living organism (vertebrates, invertebrates and vegetal), bar its trademark ('Roundup Ready') crops - how convenient!
A company that is responsible for the vast decline in monarch populations in the U.S. as a result of the above, as wild milkweed (which the butterflies feed on) has been wiped off the face of the countryside!
A company that wants us to believe in the greater good of GMOs, and gets the likes of Nestlé ('Good Food, Good Life') to purport the message, while we are told that Monsanto employees will NOT eat GMO food at the staff canteen...
A company that tampers with genetic codes à gogo, creates Frankenstein plants that cross-pollinate with nature and contaminate it, in effect compromising and irrevocably threatening organic produce...
A company that dispenses with and bypasses the necessary trials, careful research and ethical conclusions that would just put a stop to this diabolical experiment...
A company whose scope of activity spans the 4Fs of food, feed, fiber and fuel. Understand, not only cattle feed and the sinister cattle growth hormone, but also cereals, fruit and vegetables for human consumption... plus the cotton that clothes us (88% of the US production in 2009 was GMO!), and let's not forget biofuels!
A company that has infiltrated the FDA to the top, bought out the U.S. government, and is working hand in hand with food multinationals to force-feed us its crap aimed at getting us sick in the long term, for the benefit of Big Pharma... This one's for you, Bayer!
A company whose business activity is nothing but ONE BIG CRIME AGAINST HUMANITY, legalised by the governments it bought out, and wreaking havoc with the natural codes of nature and life...
A company that is a huge player in the sinister U.N. Agenda 21 programme that has been designed for us - the populace.
A company that tampers with the natural order is evil incarnate, and the
devil's industry of choice. Nothing positive can or will come out of
it.
Monsanto has a lot to answer for regarding the shape of things to come, and consumers are in for a bumpy ride! Keep your friends close and your enemies closer.
Soy Story by CIWF investigates the devastating effects of Big Soy in Argentina. The extensive industrial soy farming monocultures yield cheap animal feed for the worldwide market. They come at the cost of land ownership (land grabs), ruthless deforestation, Monsanto GMOs, destroyed livelihoods and factory farming. More about the 'Green Gold Rush' from the Soy Story Trailer and Soy Story Podcast.
