Australia

Here in Australia people seem blasé about animals, in as much as they aren’t yet conscious of them as sentient beings like themselves. They eat them, race them, wear them and vivisect them (not unlike people do from any other country in the world. But here there’s a sneaking respect for equality (albeit amongst humans) and that’s why I think here in Oz we are in a prime position to be leaders in a coming age.
A central value, very twenty-first century, which is traditionally associated with Australians, is the egalitarian fair-go. If, by our nature, we have that strongly in our culture then it puts us in an ideal position to understand speciesism, and to take a leading role in developing the world’s consciousness of animals. Once the initial hurdle of food change has been dealt with and one is safely travelling on a vegan road, it’s likely we’ll find unexpectedly wonderful things. Australians are explorers too and curious to try new things. A peaceful philosophy and lifestyle seems right up their street. Be that as it may, all I want to say in this last blog of the year is:
... That it appears that things are changing. We can see the changes in some ways, we can see how fast some things are moving. Celebrate that we do not. Because there are so many things NOT changing all around us. These ‘not-happenings’ are the very things we might desperately want to see happening.
That we want to see change but see not anywhere near enough any progress depresses us; amongst Animal Rights people we might hear say that certain friends have become vegan this year, “but millions haven’t”. We almost insist on seeing things gloomily. And that isn’t helpful for encouraging others to change, etc.
To avoid being gloomy - a tall order - probably means being somewhat happy at home, plus other factors. But to deliberately NOT be gloomy but positive instead, that needs some indefinable urge to initiate things. (It’s what we do when cooking a meal and dream up things by manipulating ingredients from scratch). That feeling of building and creating, when it starts to pulsate through us, it’s satisfying. But as soon as it’s there, then whoosh, it’s gone again.