Naked Truth

Long time no see!

I've been busy with studying and sewing and stuff, and I guess you could say I'm not that efficient now that I'm not working. I used to be able to do million things at once -- I worked eight hours a day, wrote two cookbooks, baked for events and parties, ran my own business (PINKKIS), took care of the kids, dogs, bunnies, house, rode horses, took cardio-boxing lessons, Japanese lessons, scrapbooked... now I barely have time for the basic stuff and some studying. I do have to admit that I've never studied so seriously than I do now. I mainly study biology and chemistry and for a pink-haired airhead like me, it's not that easy. But I try hard, even though it's just to get into the school at which I really want to study. My main goal (my only goal) is to get into Helsinki University to study nutrition. So I'm motivated. Otherwise, I couldn't do it.

Ok, onto "the naked truth." It's kind of funny, and then again, not funny at all.

I've been thinking about how it would affect everything if ads and commercials, product packages -- everything related to the things we buy -- would have to show not only the good sides of the products and services, but also the not-so-nice ones. What if the next time you bought a t-shirt there weren't pictures of super perfect people wearing the clothes, but underpaid Indians, Pakistanis and Moroccoans spraying the cotton with poisonous chemicals, young women working in sweatshops and big fat white men grinning with pockets full of money?

What if the meat section didn't have pictures of ready-cooked foods, but very graphic images of slaughterhouses, factory farms and underpaid immigrants taking their frustrations on animals? What if commercials for candy bars didn't show the velvety texture of the soft chocolate, but little children climbing on cocoa trees with machetes, with cuts on their hands and legs, working for hours under the hot African sun, or being beaten by their employers?

What if pet stores showed you images of all the casualties -- all the dead animals in the trash cans, the ones that didn't make it due to lack of water, heat, food, etc.? What if the milk carton didn't have a drawing of a cow in a pasture, but pictures of cows with serious udder infections (cows are milked just twice a day, which is insane! It hurts like hell when boobs get too full of milk!), or even better pictures of veal crates?

What would you buy?

http://thefrogblog.org.uk/tag/child-labour/

We CAN make a difference! Buy Fair Trade, go vegan, buy local, spread the word, contact the big companies, tell them why you don't want to buy their products anymore, tell your friends to do that as well. I know it might sound naive, and it probably is, but I really believe that what I put in my shopping cart will make a difference, for better or for worse.

More horror stories next time! (We're having a Halloween Party Saturday ;)

xoxo,

Raisa