Daily writing promptWhat are your feelings about eating meat?View all responses I knew this day would come. Activist Beginnings My feelings about eating meat? Not a fan, aye. I told my mum I wanted to stop eating meat when I was eight years old. Understandably, she didn't take me seriously initially, but after many meals… Continue reading A Vegetable Vigilante: My Childhood Protest
Bladder of Steel I'm picking right back up from where I left off - our arrival! Something I neglected to mention about the flight, is that during our longest leg, we sat next to an older man who had the aisle seat. He was lovely enough, but as the flight wore on, and I continued… Continue reading Bladders, Castles and Peasant Sticks
It has been more than a little bit heartbreaking seeing the fear and frustration from students post-NZ election. Many of my students are fierce climate activists, proud tangata whenua, queer, trans and/or advocates against social injustice. One came up to me after class recently and said in a panic, will National really get rid of… Continue reading Painful Politics, Indigenous Rights and Climate
Western paradigms, systems and ideologies (*cough* capitalism, neoliberalism) are unequivocally to blame for the predicament unfolding before us every single day. So far, Jason Hickel's Less is More: How Degrowth Will Save the World has laid out emergence of capitalism, and it's pretty dang ugly. In short, there was a gradual shift humanity's relationship to… Continue reading Climate Change: Adapting, Accepting and Actually Having a Life (Part Two)
Genuinely - I never thought I could be this happy. Weird way to start a climate change post, but how goes it? I'm currently reading Less is More: How Degrowth Will Save the World by Jason Hickel, and I'm simultaneously enthralled, numbed and compelled. Compelled to talk about this shit once more, to build upon… Continue reading Climate Change: Adapting, Accepting and Actually Having a Life (Part One)
During our second teacher strike recently, I met with other kaiako and wrote letters to politicians about our desperation, frustration, and why we are advocating for change. Initially, I wondered whether I was overstating things. Upon second glance, I realised the opposite is true - we are absolutely always understating our workload, day to day… Continue reading Open Letter to the Ministry of Education
Having body hair - anywhere except on the scalp - is seen by most women as a drag, a pet peeve, or even disgusting. It's something to be ashamed of, something to get rid of, something to cover up. I understand that; I've grown up with that societal expectation around me. From friends, from family,… Continue reading Fearing the Hair
We're throwing it back hardcore, to my first ever blog post on this site, God is Good?. I was still living Bahrain when I wrote this. God is _______. Fill in the blank for me. Seriously, do it. I'm interested in this as an exercise. As a part-time boat-rocker and full-time philosophiser, I would like… Continue reading Ex-Christianity Revisited: God is ___
Bridging clumsily into an extended climate change brain dump, I continue my quest. For what? ...to normalise discussions about our mortal souls, of course. In On Aging, Climate Change and Escaping Nihilism, I briefly summarise my climate anxiety: "Nature is Changing" "Staring me down in my older adulthood is the vortex of climate change, which… Continue reading Musings on Mortality (Part Two)
You might think Iโm a little young to be preoccupied with the passage of time, but I have acquired both an appreciative fascination for it and a vague uneasiness about it. Mostly, I'm trying to just enjoy what is - because eventually, it won't be. I'm now that cousin/aunt who says things like "I remember… Continue reading On Aging, Climate Change and Escaping Nihilism
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