#add value to home UK

[evergladewindows]

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[born-to-lose]

Hot guitarist who flirted with me and put single as his Facebook status despite being in a relationship for 8 years sent me an invitation to a gig in the middle of Lower Bavarian nowhere 💀

[cathkaesque]

The local population in countries that export bananas typically eat different varieties grown primarily by small farmers. The ones for the Americans and the Europeans, Cavendish variety bananas, are grown in huge, monoculture plantations that are susceptible to disease. The banana industry consumes more agrichemicals than any other in the world, asides from cotton. Most plantations will spend more on pesticides than on wages. Pesticides are sprayed by plane, 85% of which does not land on the bananas and instead lands on the homes of workers in the surrounding area and seeps into the groundwater. The results are cancers, stillbirths, and dead rivers.

The supermarkets dominate the banana trade and force the price of bananas down. Plantations resolve this issue by intensifying and degrading working conditions. Banana workers will work for up to 14 hours a day in tropical heat, without overtime pay, for 6 days a week. Their wages will not cover their cost of housing, food, and education for their children. On most plantations independent trade unions are, of course, suppressed. Contracts are insecure, or workers are hired through intermediaries, and troublemakers are not invited back.

Who benefits most from this arrangement? The export value of bananas is worth $8bn - the retail value of these bananas is worth $25bn. Here's a breakdown of who gets what from the sale of banana in the EU.

On average, the banana workers get between 5 and 9% of the total value, while the retailers capture between 36 to 43% of the value. So if you got a bunch of bananas at Tesco (the majority of UK bananas come from Costa Rica) for 95p, 6.65p would go to the banana workers, and 38p would go to Tesco.

Furthermore, when it comes to calculating a country's GDP (the total sum of the value of economic activity going on in a country, which is used to measure how rich or poor a country is, how fast its economy is 'growing' and therefore how valuable their currency is on the world market, how valuable its government bonds, its claim on resources internationally…etc), the worker wages, production, export numbers count towards the country producing the banana, while retail, ripening, tariffs, and shipping & import will count towards the importing country. A country like Costa Rica will participate has to participate in this arrangement as it needs ‘hard’ (i.e. Western) currencies in order to import essential commodities on the world market.

So for the example above of a bunch of Costa Rican bananas sold in a UK supermarket, 20.7p will be added to Costa Rica’s GDP while 74.3p will be added to the UK’s GDP. Therefore, the consumption of a banana in the UK will add more to the UK’s wealth than growing it will to Costa Rica’s. The same holds for Bangladeshi t-shirts, iPhones assembled in China, chocolate made with cocoa from Ghana…it’s the heart of how the capitalism of the ‘developed’ economy functions. Never ending consumption to fuel the appearance of wealth, fuelled by the exploitation of both land and people in the global south.

[adviceformefromme]

GLOW-UP LIKE NEVER BEFORE SERIES

Ladies, we are here. This is the beginning of your glow-up like never before by 2025. We are not sleeping on ourselves in the remaining four months of this year. There is no more putting yourself second, wishing and wanting to be a better version of yourself, because this is your opportunity to show up for you. I will be providing the steps and guidance so stay tuned, its going to be a journey. One that kicks off today. 

Week 1: CREATING THE VISION

This week is for getting into the energy of how you want to feel come January 2025. The vision should excite you, you want to feel like your wildest dreams are possible and this where you lean into faith, trust and imagination. 

Step 1: On the first page of your new journal script 3 pages in present tense of what your life looks and feels like on January 1st 2025. You want to get into the small details, using all your senses, what you can hear, see, smell, feel, go all in. Write as much as you can to embody the version of you in your highest expression. It might seem crazy to write this, especially in such a short amount of time, but once you start moving correctly timelines can easily be collapsed. I am a walking testimony of this, as I went from sharing a room in the UK to moving into a spacious 2-bed open view apartment overseas, within four weeks. Did I believe? Yes. Had I been doing all the steps I am sharing with you? Yes.  By scripting your life, as crazy and whacky as it may seem you are moving your dreams from thought to reality. A dose of faith is also required for step 1. 

Step 2: Vision board, this is where you get to have fun. Find those images on Pinterest that make you feel ‘omg is this my actual fucking life *screams internally* ‘. Again, no playing small. If you want the G-wagon and you’re driving the Honda, add it to your board, if you’re wanting to write a book, add a New York Times bestseller sticker to your vision board, bring your dreams to life. Save to desktop, screensaver, phone Home Screen. You want to see your vision board at the very least a few times per week. 

Step 3: Write supporting affirmations for your new vision life. I am, I feel, it feels so good to….Lean into the feelings, be creative. As you write your affirmations a minimum of five, you want to record these on your phone and loop them before bed. You can extend these affirmations, and turn it into a rampage - this is where you really speak life into yourself, going into more details. Your recording can be 1 min  - 5 mins. It doesn’t have to be crazy long, the main point is to keep it simple and inspiring. You want to feel inspired when you listen, your own voice, speaking life into your dreams, declaring them. Once you’ve got the recording - LOOP IT. You want this on loop when you’re out on walks this week, when you’re overthinking, but most importantly before you go to bed. Leave it on loop overnight. The goal is to do this every single night for one week. 

Step 4: In the back of your journal in short hand write your 1-3 top goals. It might be earn £10k per month, move into your dream apartment, work for x company. Whatever it is, in very simple words write them, 1-3. And do this EVERY SINGLE DAY. If you skip write it in your phone notes or on the nearest piece of paper. Set a reminder on your phone, because this is such a simple step to manifesting that actually WORKS. 

I know it might seem like some effort to do steps 1-4, but do you want to live the life of your dreams and invest in your expansion and be so proud of who you are come 1st Jan 2025, or do you want to scroll like a cabbage, and watch everyone else live their dream life, and feel like another year, another of unfulfillment ? Your task, put 30mins - 1 hour aside today to do the above. Homework for the rest of the week, read your affirmations, listen to your recording daily before bed and write those goals down! 

Coming next: Week 2: Living by your values + creating space for your dream life… 

[elodieunderglass]

I'm curious about where in County Meath Killie is from. Because it very much changes depending on which side he's from (I have a friend whose family has a farm, said kindly, in the middle of nowhere, and they're closer to Drogheda than other stuff. Though still not quite near. And they expressed to me their belief that people from, say, Trim, were Quite Different. Whether that is accurate I will leave to them.)! As an Irish resident, I am also interested in the question to be able to go to this fictional horse farm for perfectly legitimate reasons.

(The horseboys)

Firstly, thank you so much for this: here is a picture of a swan that’s been run over by a car.

I have to admit that while Killie and the horse dynasty are vividly real to me, a lot of what they’re based on is outside of my own lived experience. I am not intimately familiar with Ireland, as you’ve probably already kindly guessed. I haven’t ridden horses in years, have no insider knowledge of the horse racing industry, and I am even on good terms with my (one) sibling. I’m not going to pretend to false authority or knowledge of the intricacies of the Irish countryside, because I just don’t have them! I’d be showing my ass, and I’d rather learn what I should know instead.

Instead, I can answer the question of why Killie’s from County Meath.

1. Of all the counties with connections to horse racing, I simply liked it better than the other options. Like: they’re not going to be from Cork. They’re just not.

2. Fairyhouse and the Irish Grand National are a sufficient connection to casually ground any OC, but County Meath also has four other racecourses and is in striking distance of Leopardstown.

3. Being in the countryside and relatively close to Dublin and ferry linkages/air connections/public transport is extremely useful because there are a few plot reasons why “unreasonably quick crossings to the UK” are necessary. One is, of course, Charlie’s initial bolt for his British grandparents.

4. The general dublin-side-of-the-country accent is not… impossible for non-natives to put across. While I expect and deserve some irishpicking, I am not completely paralysed by my inability to write dialogue, if that makes sense?

5. The fact that the family own a lot of land, and are constantly cash-broke, and genuinely freaking out about succession, becomes higher-pressure and funnier because they own hundreds of acres of land simultaneously rural but also within reasonable commuter distance of a national capital. Irish property nowhere near as bonkers as UK property, but a training yard + stud + worker cottages + smaller horse properties still adds up a few million euro of assets, so it’s funnier (to me) if it’s in an area with higher property values. Imagine the temptation for any random heir to Inherit And Then Sell the Fuck Up And Skedaddle, lmao. lol. Imagine the family patriarchs stressing about this.

6. Tara and Newgrange are neat. It’s neat to have a Fixture of the place where you’re from.

7. I used “Kildare” as an in-joke reference name for an OC in a fanfiction and didn’t want to beat a dead horse. Home of the jockey school, ofc.

So that’s WHY.

And to fill in cracks, Killie and Charlie have an English mother and they live in the UK as adults. Killie because Ireland tends to breed and export horses and jockeys to the UK, where the big industry is, and Charlie because it’s where he ran to, and then established himself going to uni and so on. This gives them two passports for tricky spousal difficulties, and hopefully allows for a little flex over things I don’t get quite right.

I admit that I’ve “driven” around on Google Maps street view a bit and picked some places where the two main family properties would look good, the views and so on, but I don’t have your knowledge of their Local Implications.

I’d love to write this as a Real Book and pay an Irish sensitivity reader out of pocket. You’re in danger of being hired. Imagine this incredibly unrealistic fantasy: the book makes enough money to pay me back and ALSO go on a small holiday in County Meath together and we can drive around and pick where the training yard should be. What a lovely dream! Thank you for sharing it with me.

[grits-galraisedinthesouth]

Rachel rips off The Middleton Family & UK's Luminary Bakery 🙄

Carole Middleton: ‘I hope my story inspires other mums out there who have a good idea to take the plunge and give it a try!

Isn't it ironic that MM, the mouthpiece that generated such disdain for the Middleton family and their Children's Party business is As If-ing her way into the hospitality industry. She truly is PATHETIC. Although I've noticed some around here dump on Pippa's hospitality book, I actually own it and I think it's a good book. Unlike MM, Pippa didn't attempt to be someone other than herself. She didn't try to reinvent the wheel of party planning or entertaining. She merely gave the world an instructions manual for piecing together a party. If you want to see mouth watering photos of food and elaborate catering designs, peruse a Martha Stewart or Ina Garten book. If you want everyday inspiration to celebrate your kids, family and/or neighbors then add Pippa's book to your library. BTW James Middleton is also known for his cakes.

Party Pieces Celebrating 30 Years:

"It’s been a hard-working 30 years but I’ve loved every minute of it and would like to thank all the wonderful people I’ve met along the way, and all the dedicated staff who have helped me achieve this.’

After a stint as a British Airways air hostess, during which she met husband Michael, in 1987 Carole set up the party business that made her family multi-millionaires.

Carole, 61, peppers her own booklet, sent out to subscribers, with ‘top tips’ such as: ‘Babies love the tactile feeling of balloons, so tie one to each of your little guest’s chairs for them to take home.’ 

‘Over the years all my children have played a huge part in it, from modelling for the catalogue to developing new categories for the brand,’ she writes glowingly. 

They grew up with me working and appreciate the demands of a busy business and a working mum, and although now they are not involved day to day in the business, I still value their ideas and opinions.’

‘James established our personalised cakes, Catherine started the 1st birthday side of the business and Pippa developed the Party Pieces blog."

Pippa's Children's Parties & Entertaining Tips

Preparing to Megxit: Photos & Stolen Tips from Luminary Bakery

Q: Is Meghan EVER going to have an original idea? Answer: NO.

[joannechocolat]

Burn the library, or walk inside. Either way, it's your choice.

Unless you've been living under a rock, you can't have missed the escalating riots all around the country - riots which the media keep referring to as "protests", in spite of the fact that no-one involved seems to agree on just what they are protesting against.

Dragging strangers out of cars, burning down public buildings, throwing stones at ambulancemen, setting fire to hotels in a deliberate attempt to burn the people inside alive - and maybe scoring a new phone or pair of trainers on the way home - has nothing to do with "protest."

It certainly has nothing to do with the brutal murder of three little girls, although that was used as a springboard by online agitators, claiming that the murderer was an immigrant (he wasn't, and even if he were, attacking other immigrants because of what he did makes about as much sense as torching a Wetherspoons in Manchester in protest against Myra Hindley.) Nor does it have anything to do with Asian grooming gangs in Rotherham, although that's the most recent excuse I've heard: those grooming gangs were dreadful, but these criminals do not represent the Asian community any more than do the white leaders of grooming gangs (which by far outnumber them).

So, what the fuck is this about?

Well, it's the illegal immigrants, they say. Coming into our country, taking our jobs, raping our girls, yadda, yadda, yadda. Except that it isn't. Brexit has made it increasingly difficult for foreigners to work here, which is why so many European doctors and nurses have already left the country, putting still yet more pressure onto our dying NHS. And refugees - let's call them that, given they're neither immigrants, nor here illegally - aren't allowed to work while their application is being processed. As for "immigrant crime", a phrase that these people have borrowed from Trump - it represents a tiny proportion of crime in the UK, which by the way has risen sharply as the riots have escalated, because the police just don't have the manpower to fight on two fronts at the same time.

And add to this the fact that the principal agitators - people like Yaxley-Lennon and Farage - don't even live in this country, I think it's pretty clear that whatever motivation these burners of libraries, looters of shops, and goose-stepping Nazi cosplayers claim, it has nothing to do with "British values" or "taking back the country", and everything to do with doing whatever the fuck they want and blaming it on someone else.

Why do I care? Because I was born in one of these communities. I still have family in Rotherham, in Barnsley. I live less than fifteen miles away from the heart of these riots. I've done events in the libraries and universities that have been attacked. And by the way, isn't it weird how thugs always target libraries and places of learning on their way to robbing their local Lush, or Greggs, or Shoezone?

It's almost as if the agitators know that education is the key. That reading brings us together; teaches us to question what we read on the internet; crosses cultural boundaries; reminds us we're all human. And in disaffected communities like Rotherham, with a high degree of poverty, access to these ideas is very dangerous in the eyes of a far-right movement that wants to take power.

Already, 14 years of austerity, cuts and corruption has brought the country to its knees. By cutting education and the arts, Tories have reduced the access of these underprivileged communities to critical thinking and new ideas. Brexit has done further damage, as well as cutting us off from our allies. After the event, it is now clear how much Russian misinformation played its part in that process, just as it's playing a part right now in spreading its racist rhetoric via supporters like Farage and the fake accounts that amplify him. Now they're no longer in power, the far-right is doing its best to do as much further damage as possible to our society, urging people to "take control" by destroying anything else that can help them out of poverty.

Why? Because poor people are easier for the far-right to control. Poverty and crime are linked; just as illiteracy and crime are linked. And both of those things are linked to hate; to racism and mistrust of anyone who seems different.

But here's the thing. There's always a choice. Not everyone who grows up poor becomes a criminal. Not everyone who missed out on a good education becomes a racist. I grew up in a poor neighbourhood. There were some racists there, and some thugs, but most people were decent and honest. Most people were happy to co-exist with people of different cultures. I was one of those people; my family was different. Sometimes people even told us to go back home where we belonged. Most didn't. But of course, were were white. We looked like them. There's an obvious reason why brown and Black people in particular are being dehumanized and blamed for what's wrong with the country now.

And it's ironic, how people react when someone calls them racist? "But we're just ordinary people, with ordinary concerns."

"I'm not racist, I'm just (insert your bullshit reason here)."

And yet, here we are. Racism is ordinary. And if you do racist things, if you blame all brown people for what one brown person did, if you judge people by the way they look, if you make assumptions about whole groups of people, then you're a racist. And if you spout Nazi slogans, do Nazi salutes, walk with Nazis, repeat Nazi propaganda, then you're a fucking Nazi, mate. Live with it, or change. Your choice.

Because the choices we make today affect what comes tomorrow. And although poverty isn't a choice, being a decent person is. Your choices can help your children break the cycle of despair. Or they can keep your kids stuck in the same rut. To put it another way, you can take your kids to the library and let them learn to think for themselves. Or you can burn the libraries down and take them to watch you and your mates trying to set fire to some terrified refugees in a hotel instead.

Either way, your kids get to live with the choices you make today.

Right now, you're deciding their future.

Your choice.

[sussex-newswire]

"The harsh criticism the Suits actor has faced ever since her foray into the royal family has long been understood as a by-product of racial discrimination that many Black women face simply by existing in spaces traditionally reserved for white people. And yet, with every new venture since the UK media began to heap their critiques on her, [Meghan] has been subjected to the same bitter onslaught of criticism, even before her work is fully realized. It happened again with the launch of "American Riviera Orchard," which was subject to immediate backlash online when she created an enigmatic Instagram page for the home and lifestyle brand.

"Dating and eventually marrying Prince Harry had a marked impact on [Meghan]'s career, as the family even began to intervene in her work as an actress. Her popular self-published lifestyle blog "The Tig" ran for three years before it was shuttered as she pursued life with the royal family in the UK. The site was a curated window into [Meghan]'s Southern California lifestyle and her travel adventures abroad. But it wasn't just travel, recipes, and beauty tips on the site, as it also featured brief "Tig Talk" questionnaires answered by a variety of successful individuals throughout the years, including Emmy Rossum, Serena Williams, and Priyanka Chopra, as well as other in-depth interviews. With Markle's projects, there is always significant substance behind the curated joy.

"[Meghan]'s new series shares a showrunner with Selena Gomez's reality TV venture Selena + Chef, where the singer/actress invites celebrity chefs to teach her how to prepare some of their favorite dishes. The Max series has remarkable production value, considering it is filmed in Gomez's home, and there is coziness lent to the series by this "filmed at home" aspect. It is already clear from the trailer that [Meghan]'s series will have a similar production value and flow that is found in Gomez's successful series.

"The trailer for With love, Meghan also has excellent production value, as should be expected, since Michael Steed, producer and director of the beloved Anthony Bourdain: Parts Unknown docu-series, was behind the camera for all eight episodes. There are also several celebrity guest visitors and professional experts booked, each of whom add value to the program in their own right. By all appearances, the show has everything one would expect from an elevated lifestyle series, spearheaded by someone who has a professional background curating lifestyle advice.

"...[T]he criticism [Meghan] is already facing online seems colored by racial discrimination, since it frequently boils down to outrage at the Duchess having the audacity to assert her right to claim space in the lifestyle field dominated by white women like Martha Stewart, Gwyneth Paltrow and Kourtney Kardashian. Considering the lifestyle space is inherently pretentious, the attacks seem to be more personal than professional in nature."

[sourcreammachine]

LOONY PARTY MANICFESTO 2024 SUMMARY

[not a pejorative, party founder Screaming Lord Sutch was himself bipolar]

tdlr: “we are fighting this election on the basis of CHANGE… LOOSE CHANGE as this is all we’ll have left under a labour/conservative government”

💷ECONOMY

reduce taxes to 5%

get rid of value-added tax as it adds no value

ban the tipping of flies

convert number 10 and number 11 into a hairdressers called Government Cuts

abolish stamp duty because stamps are too expensive

fit airbags to the stock exchange, ready for the next crash

halve dole queues by making jobseekers stand two-by-two

improve quitters’ self-esteem by encouraging them not to start in the first place

🏥PUBLIC SERVICES

employ 80.00 teachers, police officers and nhs staff

reduce pregnancy from nine to seven months

reduce hospital waiting lists by using a smaller font

reduce class sizes by shrinking desks and making students sit closer together

glue unruly pupils together because if you can’t beat them, join them

give pensioners an ice lolly allowance when temperatures exceed 70°

🏠HOUSING

build five million new homes

aid “levelling up” by providing free spirit levels

🚄TRANSPORT

fill five million potholes

introduce an ROT to make sure all roads are carworthy

fit vehicles with a bungy rope to save fuel on the return journey

save money on paint by painting double-yellow lines where you CAN park rather than where you can’t

create the world’s biggest carwash by punching holes in the channel tunnel

👮FORCE

send all MPs who misbehave to rwanda

reduce net migration by making sure all nets are secured firmly to the ground

make terrorists wear little bells so we know where they are

replace border guards with GP receptionists to stop anyone getting in

introduce a court of human lefts

reduce prison overcrowding by releasing innocent prisoners

oppose capital punishment as it is not fair to londoners

🌱CLIMATE

wind farms to be constructed across the country where all will be encouraged to break wind

get more green cars on the road, with politicians having fluorescent green so everyone can see them coming

paint the grey squirrels red

greyhound racing will be banned to stop the country going to the dogs

puddles deeper than 7cm will be marked with a plastic duck

🗳️DEMOCRACY

MPs will have to sit in stocks during surgeries while constituents throw custard pies at them. companies to be encouraged to design new stocks, to be sold at the stock exchange

introduce a “cooling-off period” to allow voters to change their mind

replace the foreign secretary with a UK one

[destinyc1020]

Honestly, I have to give Tom and Z big credit for maintaining such a strong relationship despite being in LDR. It helps that they have similar careers, but its not easy to have so much distance from the person you love. It helps enormously that they have the resources/finances to travel to meet each other considering they are the most famous actors of their young peers.

I follow this fashion influencer whos in her mid 20s living in the UK, who also in an LDR with her boyfriend who resides in Australia, and they go back and forth, staying months at each others countries and also going on vacations together. And she makes it work and is very much my man, my man sorta girl lol.

Tom and Z are very lucky they both value love and exclusivity cause it's so rare, especially nowadays. Dating ain't it in this generation lol, but that's for another day.

Sometimes, I feel the love of my life is probably a country away, lol. I think it's romantic. I do wonder how ppl without phones and Internet did it in the past...

Yea girl....I always say that you REALLY REALLY have to love someone to pieces to be able to do a long distance rlshp with someone for YEARS like TZ have. 😅😏

Also add on top of that they're actors, so they're constantly traveling, and working away from home for months on end?

Whew! You have to be secure asl, and also have the utmost love for somebody in order to carry on a rlshp with them long distance.

That's why each of their respective rebound rlshps with other ppl didn't even last a year, and those ppl were living in their same city (Nadia was living in Tom's same freaking HOUSE! LOL 😆 😆).

It's the PERSON, not the proximity. 🤷🏾‍♀️

TZ are very much in love with each other, and it SHOWS. 🥰 I actually think the distance only deepened their love for each other imo.

[coochiequeens]

"The question is, “why are animal/environmental/conservation charities concerned with issues that are so unrelated to animals?” Time and again, we see the responses mentioning “equality, inclusion, safety, and authenticity”. One has to wonder whether such values are only upheld if there is a literal or metaphorical Pride flag flying. Is the Cats Protection an unsafe place for gay people to work if it doesn’t have drag queen seminars?"

By Kirsty Miller

I care about animals, and therefore I support a number of wildlife, conservation and animal welfare charities. These organisations seem to have been preoccupied with other concerns recently, though: we have seen Drag Queen live streams from Cats Protection League, WWF and the Battersea Cat and Dogs’ Home selling Pride merchandise, and the Bumblebee Conservation Trust lecturing us about “inclusion, privilege and allyship”. The RSPB had published a similar admonition a few months previously, informing us about our “heterosexual privilege”. I’m no marketing expert, but I’m not sure how conducive this approach is to garnering support for a cause. Personally, I don’t really want a charity I support to reprimand me about anything.

To add insult to injury, all of these charities already have their own causes to worry about. Due to the cost of living crisis, animal shelters are seeing an increase in animals being abandoned and surrendered, and animal abuse is at an all-time high. The state of the environment (which is the remit of the RSPB and the Bumblebee Conservation Trust) in the UK is just as depressing. This year’s “State of Nature Report” highlighted that GB’s wildlife is continuing to decline. The UK is now one of the most nature-depleted countries on Earth, with nearly one in six species threatened with extinction.

Nonetheless, all of these charities are dedicating time, resources, personnel and potentially even money to championing LGB etc. rights, whilst their own respective rooms are (in some cases) quite literally burning. The question is, “why are animal/environmental/conservation charities concerned with issues that are so unrelated to animals?” Time and again, we see the responses mentioning “equality, inclusion, safety, and authenticity”. One has to wonder whether such values are only upheld if there is a literal or metaphorical Pride flag flying. Is the Cats Protection an unsafe place for gay people to work if it doesn’t have drag queen seminars? Will gay people not feel included in the organisation if Battersea is not selling Pride products?

Overall, I find these arguments very sad. They start from the baseline assumption that these charities are hotbeds of bigotry, discrimination and harassment against those in the LGB etc. community. There is also the implication that in order for someone to feel “safe” and “included”, it is not enough for the organisation be non-discriminatory. It has to actively “celebrate” this community.

However, since equality is embedded in the law in the UK, it would be illegal for any organisation to discriminate against an individual on the basis of sexuality (suggesting that actually all organisations start off from a place of not only acceptance and belief in equality, but an enactment of it).

Most of us recognise that there is a difference between acceptance and celebration. Most decent people accept the right of individuals to be with the partner of their choice, but they don’t necessarily see why unrelated causes have to promote and celebrate this decision.

"Foreign rescuers demonstrate it is possible to focus on a cause rather than the self"

In our performative world, acceptance is not enough, it seems; we need to be “seen to be accepting”. It is possible that this is due in part to the LGB etc. activists, who demand that everyone expresses solidarity for the struggles faced decades ago by waving rainbows today. Alternatively, the demands for our promotion of LGB etc. causes could be due in part to the encroachment of Critical Theory into all of our public institutions — specifically the covenant that “if you are not for us, you are against us”. It might also be that charities just feel they have to jump on the latest fashionable bandwagon, in order to keep supporters engaged.

When faced with this kind of climate, we can see why and how charities feel that in order to gain support (even for nature concerns), they have to champion the cause de jour. A belief we see parroted again and again in current society (again, thanks in large part to the activists) is that you need to see someone “like you” before you can engage in or commit to anything. Apparently, we need to feel “represented”. We are constantly told that we can’t pursue a career, we can’t be interested in, we can’t purchase something, we can’t even care about something, without seeing other people “like us” caring about it. Are we really all that shallow and unimaginative? What a depressing thought.

I have more faith in people than this — I don’t think that most people truly need charities to be “about them” in order to support the cause. I see comments from supporters of animal rescuers, and the genuine care and love for the cause expressed by them. It is especially clear when we see non-western animal rescues: the founder of ROLDA searching the front line between Ukraine and Russia for injured animals, despite rescuers being shot in the same place just weeks previously; the volunteers at Ernesto’s Sanctuary in Syria providing for their animals, despite bombs raining down around them; the rescuers in the UAE fighting against authorities to gain justice for dumped stray animals.

This makes me think that the most likely cause is the activists who have pushed the notion that groups both need to be “seen” and promoted (especially given that the same rhetoric arises time and again regarding the promotion of Pride and LGB etc. rights). The attitudes of the foreign rescuers and charities demonstrate very clearly that it is possible to focus on a cause rather than the self (and how the cause treats “the self”).

Worst of all, every time a charity strays from its cause, it loses support. My own example is a case in point. When the Cats Protection League stated on its Facebook page that its “ambition was to become Stonewall accredited in the future”, I cancelled my 20+ years monthly donation. I don’t understand why people “need to be themselves at work” or what this has to do with cat welfare, but I could just about turn a blind eye to this. I refuse to have any of my donation for cats syphoned off to Stonewall, though.

Despite the claims of the activists, the problem for charity supporters with the desire to promote the LGB etc. cause is not anything to do with LGB etc. people — it’s that the charities are prioritising this over their true purpose and their true supporters. The funds, personnel and time committed to championing LGB etc. issues should be focussed on the charity’s true aims — especially when the causes are apparently so desperately in need. It is a stab in the back for genuine supporters (who give and care without any expectation of any mention in return) when their contributions are discarded at the expense of people who apparently need to be celebrated in order to do their jobs properly — or even to care about a cause outside themselves. As with everything that is touched by DEI activists, the true purpose (be it education, health, charitable causes) is twisted and damaged by those who insist that celebration and promotion of group characterises are necessary for individuals and organisations to function.

Whilst the charities would no doubt argue that what they’ve lost in terms of money and support from “bigots” like me, would be replaced by support from those in the LGB etc. community, I would be interested to see the numbers on this. Would the LGB etc. community surpass — or even equal — the financial contribution of the sector of society that believes that not everything has to be about one’s identity characteristics? It may, but even if the LGB etc. community “made up” for the losses, surely the charities would rather have everyone on board? Why alienate anyone — are the charities so well off that they can afford to lose support?

The most heart-breaking thing is that those suffering most from the promotion of LGB etc. rights are those the charities aim to help. As a result of pursuing these causes, the RSPB’s focus has moved from birds and conservation, the CPL from cats, Battersea from rehoming. I urge readers to investigate their own charities to check whether they too are pledging commitment (or finances) to other causes. I really hope that my charities realise that they should “stay in their lane”, but in the meantime, I’ll be sending my donations to those who appreciate that their causes are too essential to be diluted with virtue-signalling.

[radicalbotanicals]

Guerilla Gardening and Me – My Journey through this Beautiful Movement

I want to conclude my entries into this blog by talking about something that is quickly becoming near and dear to my heart. There are many different types of activists in the world, and I think all of them serve a purpose. There are those who are willing to put themselves in the crossfire, to tear down statues, to stand up to the “man” as it were and have a visceral impact with what they do. That was never my style, as someone who is violence-adverse and perhaps a little too cowardly to engage in such lion-hearted activities, I always preferred the pacifist route. What can I add to the world that will be positive? And my peace has always come from gardening. I think it was after the loss of someone close to me that I found solace in working the land, just as she did, the soil with its earthy richness grounding me somehow. I loved seeing how my labour would create beautiful life and even help feed my family and neighbours. So, imagine my surprise when I learned I could combine these two worlds through guerilla gardening, a practice that has become more and more commonplace here in the UK, but not something I had come across back home.

So what is it, what are it’s origins?

In fact we know that in the 1970s, communities in New York’s Lower East Side attempted to resist the ‘cleansing’ of plots of land by “clipping barbed wire fences or throwing ‘seed grenades’ over them. It was after these efforts that city authority “ultimately succumbed to the protest and legitimised many of the Green Guerillas’ plots into one of the country’s first community gardens, staking a claim for public green space before the onset of gentrification raised the value of the abandoned land and thus transformed the space into a landscape of power and profit.”(Adams & Hardman, 2013). I adore this idea of a community coming together to reclaim their space in a way that actually is useful to said community. Not only are you halting the efforts of greedy developers trying to buy up all the land and sell it back for exorbitant prices, but you are actually providing, feeding the people who live there. It’s such a beautiful idea that really creates change.

As noted in my project, spatial justice is a very intriguing concept to me. How without even realising it, our rights can be encroached on via methods of gentrification or letting spaces deliberately fall into disrepair so they can be sold off since ‘they serve no purpose to anyone.’ With our increasingly individualised society, it is becoming easier to weaken communities as no one feels supported enough to do anything that will enact real change. This needs to end if we ever hope to see improvements in our impoverished urban spaces.

Which is why I respect the efforts of one Ellen Miles, whose Tiktok account has exploded, so much so that I came across her through a Guardian article earlier this year. She is re-igniting the efforts by her predecessors such as Richard Reynolds and informing others on how they could also pick up a shovel and transform the space they live in. “So-called public spaces have been really privatised, and communities actually don’t get a chance to interact with them often. So I think we do have a right to do that in the places we put down our roots, where we live.” Miles stated this in that very article, and it set me down this path that I am currently on.

Should I continue to develop my project of Radical Botanicals, I would love to see it work to support this growing community. I was given much to think about after I presented my work, and I will definitely need to consider a few things as I work on tweaking its conception and design. For example, considering diverse voices in the space, consulting communities directly to see what they want, and finding the balance between guiding others through this legal grey area and ensuring people do not put themselves in danger as they carry out their activities. I want peace, as stated earlier, I am a pacifist at heart, and I would hate to see others get hurt because of something I created. I am a long way away from having this vision realised, but I thank this class for allowing me the opportunity to explore this idea and really put me in a position I have never been in before, and that is that of an activist. This journey will continue, even if it is just me throwing a seed bomb into a golf course under the cover of night.

Bibliography

Adams, D. and Hardman, M. (2013) ‘Observing guerrillas in the wild: Reinterpreting practices of Urban Guerrilla Gardening’, Urban Studies, 51(6), pp. 1103–1119. doi:10.1177/0042098013497410.

Gayle, D. (2023) ‘I call it botanarchy’: The Hackney Guerrilla Gardener bringing power to the people, The Guardian. Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/sep/28/i-call-it-botanarchy-the-hackney-guerrilla-gardener-bringing-power-to-the-people (Accessed: 12 December 2023).

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[cathkaesque]

There’s a lot of research on banana production out there, especially from this great organisation called Bananalink which supports banana workers’ unions in the UK supply chain. Most the facts here are from these two pages on their website. I just wanted to ground some of the discussion around bananas in the production process, labour and environmental conditions, and who benefits from this process.  The above diagram might not be very clear so I've reproduced the text below:

1. Banana production takes approximately nine months. It starts with the preparation of the soil including the clearing of land, drainage, installation and fertiliser application. Then planting and field work, such as weeding, pest and disease control, and irrigation, take place. Bananas are harvested while still green [you can watch a video of this process here]

2. The harvested bunches are transported to a packing shed where they are divided into smaller market-friendly bunches, inspected, sorted, washed, treated, labelled, and boxed for export. Bananas that do not meet the quality standard are usually sold locally at a much lower price or used for livestock feed.

3. Some bananas are pre-packed into bags according to the specifications of individual retailers. Pre-packing is used to differentiate bananas such as Fairtrade organics or small bananas from the bulk supply of loose bananas. It can be an opportunity for the grower to add value, but it also offers advantages in controlling quality and reducing wastage.

4. Bannas are then transported by truck to ports, placed in sheds, and packed in refrigerated ships or refridgerated containers. Bananas take between six to 12 days to get to the UK/Europe. They are shipped at a controlled temperature of 13.3 centigrade in order to increase their shelf life. Humidity and ventilation are carefully monitored to maintain quality.

5. When the bananas arrive at their destinaation port they are first trucked to warehouses where they can be kept in cool conditions and then ripened - using ethylene - when they are needed for delivery to retailers. Bananas may also be bagged at this stage. They are then delivered to retailers' regional distribution centres before final delivery to individual stores.

The local population eat different varieties of bananas grown primarily by small farmers. The ones for the Americans and the Europeans, Cavendish variety bananas, are grown in huge, monoculture plantations that are susceptible to disease. The banana industry consumes more agrichemicals than any other in the world, asides from cotton. Most plantations will spend more on pesticides than on wages. Pesticides are sprayed by plane, 85% of which does not land on the bananas and instead lands on the homes of workers in the surrounding area and seeps into the groundwater. The results are cancers, stillbirths, and dead rivers.

The supermarkets dominate the banana trade and force the price of bananas down. Plantations resolve this issue by intensifying and degrading working conditions. Banana workers will work for up to 14 hours a day in tropical heat, without overtime pay, for 6 days a week. Their wages will not cover their cost of housing, food, and education for their children. On most plantations independent trade unions are, of course, suppressed. Contracts are insecure, or workers are hired through intermediaries, and troublemakers are not invited back.

Who benefits most from this arrangement? The export value of bananas is worth $8bn - the retail value of these bananas is worth $25bn. Here's a breakdown of who gets what from the sale of banana in the EU.

On average, the banana workers get between 5 and 9% of the total value, while the retailers capture between 36 to 43% of the value. So if you got a bunch of bananas at Tesco (the majority of UK bananas come from Costa Rica) for 95p, 6.65p would go to the banana workers, and 38p would go to Tesco.

Furthermore, when it comes to calculating a country's GDP (the total sum of the value of economic activity going on in a country, which is used to measure how rich or poor a country is, how fast its economy is 'growing' and therefore how valuable their currency is on the world market, how valuable its government bonds, its claim on resources internationally…etc), the worker wages, production, export numbers count towards the country producing the banana, while retail, ripening, tariffs, and shipping & import will count towards the importing country. A country like Costa Rica will participate has to participate in this arrangement as it needs ‘hard’ (i.e. Western) currencies in order to import essential commodities on the world market.

So for the example above of a bunch of Costa Rican bananas sold in a UK supermarket, 20.7p will be added to Costa Rica’s GDP while 74.3p will be added to the UK’s GDP. Therefore, the consumption of a banana in the UK will add more to the UK’s wealth than growing it will to Costa Rica’s. The same holds for Bangladeshi t-shirts, iPhones assembled in China, chocolate made with cocoa from Ghana…it’s the heart of how the capitalism of the ‘developed’ economy functions. Never ending consumption to fuel the appearance of wealth, fuelled by the exploitation of both land and people in the global south.