Monday 18 November 2013

The Ugly Truth

I originally set out for this to be a blog based on book reviews, but since then I have been showed the many horrors this world has to offer. I recently read an article on the ugly truth of UGG the boots that are not just made out of sheep's wool but also the skin. Yes that is right their skin.  This basically means that the sheep are mutilated unnecessarily. Peta launched a campaign last year to reform the way Australian sheep farmers work. here is a video to show you exactly what goes on. Unfortunately this video is extremely shocking and may not be suitable for some readers.
As you can see these sheep are treated horrifically but this doesn't stop at just sheep. The horrible truth is that most animal products are produced in this way. The only way this is going to stop if farmers are better regulated and they get a better price for their produce. There isn't much we can do when it comes to acts like this apart from protest in form of boycotts. If enough people boycott UGG products maybe we will make a difference. But it isn't just up to us. UGG has make enough profit that they could help reform this all by themselves, by helping farmers rear more appropriate breeds of sheep for the climate. So I ask you this what will you do about this?
Love Hayley Beth xxx

Monday 4 November 2013

Human rights in relation to homosexuals

In citizenship I was set the task of writing an essay on how our understating of human rights has changed since 1945 in relation to gay people.
Pre 1945 being gay was highly criminalised around the world mainly due to the colonial influence of the British empire. The world health organisation also classed it as being a mental illness. Like every human rights issue the UDHR was what got the ball rolling in world reform.
Despite being the ones to cause it to be criminalised worldwide the UK were one of the first to legalise same sex relations. The era of disco and free love was a time of mass change, many of those in the world of celebrity 'came out'. It was in 2001 that same sex relationships were held in some regards as equal to those as a 'normal' relationship as the age of consent was lowered from 21 to that of the same as 'straight' couples. In 2005 gay people were given even more equality with the introduction of civil partnerships and now the legislation is being written up to legalise gay marriage.
What really amazed me was the perception of gay people around the world. Steven Fry's documentary 'out there' really opened my mind. Politician are so incredibly short sited when it comes to this take the Ugandan politician who said that gay rape is wrong and punishable but when a man rapes a woman it is not because it is done the right way. What the hell!!!! And then you have doctors in America providing repairative therapy to 'cure gayness' yes because you can cure someone of who they love. Oh and then there is Brazil who has a statistic of a gay person is murdered every 36 hours. But once again there is a stupid politician blocking an anti homophobia law because according to him most of those murders are done by ex partners. And then we come to Russia. Do i really need to go into how stupid their human rights reversal is. I have said it before and will say it again, how the hell can one of the world leaders take such a step backwards and re-criminalise homosexuality.
In this world gay people are not the issue it is the horrible homophobes who pollute this world with their discrimination. Attitudes have to change and what Steven Fry's documentary showed me was that politicians have to rethink their attitudes to this issue and then the people may also do the same.
But as always
Love Hayley Beth xxx