“You’re either an activist or inactive” – The Cove

I recently re-watched the film The Cove and with each viewing the film has a fresh impact on my life. I first watched The Cove when I was in high school and while watching it there wasn’t a single dry eye in the room. The film inspired a few of us to join the Save Japans Dolphins protest that was held outside the Japanese Consulate in Cape Town. There, we saw people gathered together for one cause, we weren’t protesting for ourselves or for better housing in Cape Town instead we were protesting for dolphins that were continents away but the location difference didn’t matter. Instead, we came together in the street that day screaming “Save The Dolphins, Stop The Slaughter” as we had all realized that there was no justification for the inhumane killing of those dolphins.

Recently I re-watched the film, but this time with a different crowd and at the end of film the comments were shocking and truly upsetting. Someone tried to justify the acts of the Taiji fisherman explaining that they are simply trying to make money and a livelihood. *insert my shocked face*. The fact that, after someone has just watched The Cove, wants to justify the act of killing the dolphins, means that they have completely missed the point of the film. And yes I do agree that we all need to survive and in our world we need money to do so, but there is no excuse for taking a life and getting paid for it. I then spend the next 20 minutes trying to explain this to the person, but to avail. I left and promised to create not only awareness but understanding of what was happening in Taiji as it seems that people are aware of what’s happening but they don’t understand it.

The Cove simplified:

The Cove follows Ric O’Barry and a team of experts who try to expose a small town that holds a big secret. The small fishing town of Taiji Japan, seems to love dolphins and whales as they have dolphin shows and boats shaped as whales everywhere. During the months of September to March the fisherman of Taiji have an annual dolphin hunt. When migrating dolphins pass by they are corned off and forced into a little bay. Once they are captured dolphin trainers come to select a dolphin they feel would be best for their next dolphin show and off they go. So what’s so bad about this you might ask? Hundreds of dolphins are captured and only a hand full are selected, so what happens to the rest? Freed you might say? No! They are then taken to a secluded cove and killed. Mmm, maybe they are given an injection? Nope, they are slaughtered; stabbed, over and over again until they finally sink underwater. This process then goes on and on and on for 6 months and day after day dolphins are slaughtered and at the end of the dolphin hunt thousands are left dead. The dolphin meat is then falsely labeled as healthy whale meat. Why cover up that dolphin meat is whale meat? Because if locals knew that the “whale meat” was actually dolphin meat they wouldn’t buy it because dolphin meat contains toxic levels of mercury. 

Some of you might say that dolphin shows are entertaining and make for good outings for kids, but lets take away your freedom, lock you up in a restricted space and make you do jumps and flips. Not so entertaining anymore right?

And I feel that as South Africans we should be more inspired to help make a difference as we are able to relate to the situation in more ways than one. Firstly, we spent years fighting for our freedom, for the nations release from oppression. And secondly, we recently had a horse meat scandal in which horse meat was falsely labeled. The country went crazy when we found out and we were demanding reasons and naming and shaming those involved. Why no hype now? Just because we’re not directly affecting by the dolphin meat threat doesn’t mean we are in isolation. In a few years time when our kids ask us “what did dolphins look like” would our response be a simple description and a picture in a story book or a detailed description of how you did everything in your power to stop the dolphin slaughter? Because if Taiji continues with their dolphin hunt, this is exactly what will happen.

Are you going to sit back and hope that someone else decides to take action or will you be part of the change?

Save a life, save a dolphin.

Want to be part of the change?

Like the facebook page and stay up to date with news from Taiji

 https://www.facebook.com/SaveJapanDolphinsSA

Or visit this site and see how you can be part of the change

http://www.savejapandolphins.org

Hope to see your name on the petition and you at the next protest!

Easy Shortbread Cookie Recipe? Nope

As I love baking I couldn’t wait to try out the “Easy Shortbread Recipe” that I had found online. I plan on baking my mom a collection of her favourite treats for her mother’s day gift, but after my little episode in the kitchen yesterday, I’m beginning to think that maybe I should rethink that plan.

 

When a recipe reads “Easy” and rates as “for beginners” you think to yourself, well how hard can this be? Or at least that’s what I thought when I first saw the recipe. Turns out my expectations were but a fantasy and I ended up standing in the kitchen with flour everywhere. 

So there I was in my kitchen on an early Sunday morning ready to try out this “easy” recipe and here’s what happened. 

Step 1: Mix all wet ingredients in a mixing bowl.

Rate: Easy enough.

Step 2: Mix dry ingredients together.

Rate: Easy enough

Step 3: Combine the ingredients into one bowl.

Rate: Mmmmmm, neither bowls where big enough for both ingredients, so I hunted for a bowl that was large enough. Has anyone ever tried to transfer flour from one bowl into another? Not the easiest task ay. In trying not to get flour everywhere I ended up with the biggest mess ever. 

Step 4: Add more butter if dough is crumbly.

Rate: As fate would have it, I had crumbly dough and after adding more butter it only made the dough worse. So? I headed to Google and searched “how to fix crumbly dough” and zap, fast results such as “while rolling out the dough add flour”. 

Step 5: Roll out your dough.

Rate: Stop while you’re ahead here or call over that pro baker you have on sped dial. What was supposed to be the easiest task, left me standing there clueless. Getting the dough from the bowl onto the floured surface for me to roll it was battle #1. Battle #2 was rolling out the dough. The gods were against me again as this time the dough was stuck to the rolling pin. Yes you read right. Stuck. Wax on, wax off wasn’t happening here. I rolled and rolled and instead of the dough rolling out flat, it simply wrapped and wrapped around the rolling pin. 

Eventually after about 20 minutes the dough began to co-operate.

Step 6: Cut dough into shapes with cookie cutter.

Rate: How hard can this be? Cookie cutter? Check! I very professionally began cutting the dough into different shapes, and yes you guessed it! It was impossible to lift the cubes off the counter without the dough falling into a million pieces.

So I stood there, flour everywhere, oven light flickering indicating that it was ready to bake something, and then dough, just a huge pile of dough. 

Ste 7: When life gives you lemons, make lemonade.

Rate: I once again rolled out the dough, and with the help of a knife and an egg lifter managed to get the dough onto the baking sheets and into the oven on shapes that looked like a combination of both a circle and square. 

Recipe rate: The title should change from “Easy Shortbread Cookie Recipe” to “For Pro Bakers Only”.

Mother’s Day Gift’s Made Easy

May has arrived and with that the Mother’s Day bells are ringing. Note it, diarize it, but don’t forget it, Sunday, May 12^th. As much as I love shopping, there’s something stressful about shopping for a gift. And, this is not any gift; this is for your mother or for the person who assumes that role in your life. There’s the pressure for the gift to be perfect and meaningful and it seems as if whatever I look at there’s that constant question at the back of my mind “will she like it?” “will she use it?” “is it thoughtful enough?”. If your mother is anything like mine, superficial gifts just won’t do, there’s nothing meaningful in buying a last minute bottle of bubble bath. Instead, as it’s still early days put some thought into it, and maybe if your mother is a bubble bath lover, make her a homemade card along with it. The most important thing is not the gift, but rather the overwhelming show of affection and love. 

 

Before buying a gift you might want to take a few minutes to think about the person’s likes, favourite colour or patterns and then keep these in mind when looking for a gift.

 

My Top 3 Gift Ideas:

 

-Nothing beats a homemade card and you could personalize it by adding a poem. Not the rhyming type? Google will help you out. A photo could also be added.

 

-A photo frame with a picture of you and the person.  The “love” “laugh” “live” photo frames would be winner and they would hold a precious moment.

 

-And then my personal favourite, bake something! Here the list is endless, you could bake someone’s favourite cake and top it with “Happy Mother’s Day” or you could bake a collection of small treats which they like. Once again, Google will help you out with an easy recipe.

 

These gift ideas are meaningful and best of all these ideas are student budget friendly.

 

Still stuck? Email me or leave a comment!

 

 

 

Happy Gift Selecting!