This headline could easily be used in a wide array of industries and sectors, but the one I want to pay close attention to is the Food Industry, in the notorious ‘Global Food Scandal’.
Every day of our lives, somehow we are wasting vast amounts of food, be it the rotting apple we don’t want to eat, to the end slices of a loaf of bread, which simply do not seem appealing enough to eat. But how and, more importantly, why have we become so fussy, and more to the point, so ignorant to the amount of food we have been wasting? This is in issue which has urked so many people for so many years, and it just so happens that the start of this year sparked an innate interest in myself to want to know more about food waste.
Tristam Stuart’s ‘WASTE: Uncovering the Global Food Scandal’
Not even half way into the book, Tristam touches base with such interesting and thought-provoking ideas, regarding supermarkets and food product manufacturers, all of which are contributing to the global food waste scandal in gargantuan amounts. In fact, one business strategy shared by some supermarkets and restaurants in order to tap into the customer psyche, which I think is barbarically stupid, is that customers want to be seeing full shelves – empty shelves will mean that they will ultimately be buying products that other customers do not want (in other words, are not good enough for consumption). Customers want to feel that the products they want are forever available and will never run out. Well, I’m sorry to warn you, but the more food being produced, the less there will be to source. It’s simply not viable, and it’s certainly not sustainable. What’s worse, supermarket stock managers will often predict how much food will need to be ordered for a particular day, often getting this drastically WRONG and OVER-predicting, and so all the energy having gone into producing the food in manufacturing factories, let alone the FOOD itself, will inevitably and painfully be wasted. This is purely about profits over people.
“Profits over People”
My qualm lies with government laws and policies against allowing supermarkets and restaurants from being allowed to donate and redistribute all of their unsold food, something which Tristam has spent years researching and investigating in order to publish his findings all into this very fine book.
I would seriously invite you to pick up this book and read it if you want to understand and make even the smallest difference in order to reduce your waste. And in the mean time, to get an insight into some of Tristam’s work and what led him to uncovering the ‘Global Good Scandal’, watch this Ted Talk first, which led me to him:
This is a quote from one of the volunteers from Syria Civil Defence, a volunteer organisation which operates in rebel-controlled Turkey and Syria. Unofficially, they call themselves ‘The White Helmets’, and a short documentary film of the same name was produced about them last year.
The White Helmets film poster: Website
‘I’d much rather save a life than take a life…’
Imagine, even just for a minute, that one day you feel safe – inside your home with your nearest and dearest – and the next, that feeling of warmth and security has been snatched so barbarically from you. What do you do? How do you feel? How is anyone meant to cope in such unwelcome, UNEXPECTED, situations? This is where The White Helmets enter.
In aid of Refugee Week 2017 Books for Amnesty in Hammersmith joined forces with Hammersmith and Fulham Refugees Welcome to organise the film screening of ‘The White Helmets’, which creates a visual representation of the true reality facing civilians within Syria and Turkey.
Books for Amnesty, Hammersmith – the film screening venue
A White Helmet is no superhuman, although one could easily argue otherwise. They have backgrounds in various avenues of life: some previously working as pharmacists, bakers, tailors, some even students (like myself). All 3,200 of these like-minded individuals unite under one shared motto: ‘to save one life, is to save all of humanity’. Despite the many risks they may face in the aftermaths of bombed areas and airstrikes, these volunteers seek to save lives, having already saved close to 100,000 en-counting.
‘to save one life, is to save all of humanity’.
With reference to the screening, and as their website states:
“When the bombs rain down, the Syrian Civil Defence rushes in. In a place where public services no longer function these unarmed volunteers risk their lives to help anyone in need – regardless of their religion or politics. Known as the White Helmets these volunteer rescue workers operate in the most dangerous place on earth.”
As is probably evident, my thoughts are still processing themselves. Sitting in the centre of a bookshop, which fundraises and advocates for the rights and freedoms of every single human being, it’s almost difficult to believe that these brutal conditions are what many people are still facing as a result of a civil war.
Inside the bookshop
It’s touching. It’s human. And it’s happening right now.
The film, which runs for approximately 40 minutes, can be found on Netflix. While I was aware of this, I still wanted to attend the screening to be in the presence of those who also feel strongly about advocating for the rights of vulnerable people who have to leave their home countries to seek refuge. And any Amnesty International location has such an inspiring atmosphere. Attending the Refugee Week Conference earlier this year made me even more determined to fight for what I believe in and pursue my interests. And the bookshop also seeps a similar feeling.
I would highly recommend watching ‘The White Helmets’ to get a visual understanding of those who are in danger, and those who risk their lives to save others.
It’s touching. It’s human. And it’s happening right now.
Firstly, Happy Easter to you all! I hope you have all enjoyed a deserving extended weekend, and have eaten chocolate to your hearts’ content. But remember: all in moderation!
And hand in hand with Easter comes Spring. I know that officially it became Spring a good couple of weeks ago, but it just didn’t feel like it should. However, more and more, having seen more brightly coloured tulips and daffodils in communal gardens, and floral prints on tops (and jeans, and skirts, and bags…), the ambience of Spring is now present among us all. That, and high hopes and aspirations. So, in tune with my lifted mood, which is naturally in season, I want to share with you my experience at a workshop I recently attended, which has invigorated my future career plans and aspirations.
Can Mezzine Building Reception| Photo: Chloe Howcroft
A few weeks ago (before Spring officially sprung into our lives), I attended a workshop on International Reporting, held by One World Media. Funnily enough, I heard about OWM, their workshops and their Production Fund through Twitter, and by following them up, found them to be an interesting resource. OWM funds international documentaries, films and even gives young budding development journalists the opportunity to create a piece of media of their own, covering a particular story in a developing country, by applying for their ‘Production Fund’. However, in order to apply, one must have attended a workshop, such as the one I attended, which makes you eligible for the fund.
The International Reporting Workshop, delivered by Jenny Kleeman, British journalist, who presents for ‘Unreported World’ by Channel 4, as well as working with Vice, and writing and producing documentaries for The Guardian, covered an array of skills and considerations required to report international news. This ranged from safety, to interview skills, to how to pitch and produce a piece of media which audiences will want to watch.
List of companies sharing the Can Mezzine space | Photo: Chloe Howcroft
Before I bore you with too many details of the day, I have instead included a link to the ‘Reflective Statement’ I had to write for my university’s career’s service who, generously, funded my place on the workshop through their ‘Employability Development Fund’. Click on the link below to read the statement:
Find out more about the workshops and Production Fund which OWM offer by clicking here.
And if there is anything that you should take away from this, if you do make the courageous – and what some may say, crazy – decision to report on international news is: please do remember to wear a seat-belt. Your safety, and the safety of others, might just depend on it!
This week marks the end of two courses I have recently taken part in: the first being ‘An Introduction into Buddhism’, the other ‘Film-making for Development’.
An Introduction to Buddhism
The Buddhism course lasted for a period of six weeks, every Monday evening, at the Norwich Buddhist Centre. I went in with the general aim of finding out how to be more mindful – as I often find my mind being busy with fleeting thoughts about things I need to do, be that uni work or personal projects – and came out with the feeling of wanting to know more, having had a lovely, gradual ease into the teachings and values of Buddhism.
Buddhism has, for many years, fascinated me. It is a religion which I find to be the least judgemental (I say this very loosely, and not at all with any such intent of offending any other religion or following), and overall, more in tune between your body and mind, and the world around you. This is the type of lifestyle which I am interested in practising, but given that this needs a lot of commitment and nurturing, naturally, for now, I am content with learning more about it as and when I can.
The Monday last gone (April 3rd) happened to be our last session, and perhaps the most engrossing. As a small, intimate group of about 7-8, we were given the open opportunity to ask our most burning questions. I asked about the different types of Buddhist schools and teachings from around the world, which is an area of interest that I have been reading around, which comes up briefly in Sangharakshita’s ‘The Taste of Freedom’, particularly since it has absolutely blown up within the Western World, having derived from the East, and the South. As a student of International Development, I have been very much interested in learning more about the Far East and South, including China, as well as Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam, as I hope to one day go out and work in these areas of the world. Hence why having an understanding of their religious practices, by which Buddhism is still predominantly practised in most of these nations, would be highly beneficial when working with these societies, and finding out how they function.
I would love to speak more about the course, and my journey within the teachings of Buddhism, but I have decided to save this for another post. For now, we shall move onto another course I took part in.
Film-making for Development
Monday also marked the beginning of another course I participated in, ‘Film-making for Development’, delivered by Postcode Films and in association with UEA’s International Development department. The Postcode Films company consists of filmmakers who all have a background in Anthropology and Ethnographic Film, which is an increasing interest of mine – the ability to tell stories of people and places.
I did mention this course in a previous post, and between then and now, my views of it have increased enormously. It ended up being even more worthwhile than I thought it would be, for a number of reasons. For example, despite my initial doubts in that the course didn’t actually have a directly ‘development’-based focus, it still proved to be extremely valuable through the way in which you can construct a meaningful, powerful, and above all, appropriate story for both the audience and especially the contributor.
I worked in the smallest team, consisting of only two other girls, with one having connections to the contributor of our film. I don’t want to give too much away about the actual film, but it is about defying the label of homelessness, and the perceptions and connotations of the certain stereotype of ‘homeless’ people. Needless to say, this is a very sensitive topic, yet our contributor delivered beyond any standard, making our film hard-hitting and with a human face.
The best thing about our film, in my opinion, is that our contributor tells her story through her own words, and she carries the film throughout, which I believe to be the important thing I took from this course, that is, making films which enable the subject to have a voice, which many existing development, NGO films lack, and therefore is detrimental to their films. For example, at the start of the week, we looked at some examples of development films and documentary films, one of which included a Comic Relief video, starring Lenny Henry, who tells the story of a mother and her son reuniting. However, it is abundantly obvious who is telling the story, as the subjects of the film barely have a ‘voice’, and if they do, they are tastelessly dubbed over by a translator. The music also helps to manipulate the story further, which Comic Relief is traditionally known to do. This is the style of film I wanted to deconstruct and improve within my own film.
Working within such an efficient, like-minded group made the entire process far less stressful than I thought it would be, too. We all played to our strengths, be that camera work, editing or directing, also having the opportunity to rotate throughout, meaning that we could gain experience and learn from each other. And, believe it or not:
I MADE A FILM IN 4 DAYS!
Film-making for Development certificate
The only two niggling things were that
a) It would have been great to have had slightly better equipment, or a larger budget in which to work – shooting a film on an 8GB SD Card is just not cool. That being said, it was an interesting challenge to work with only one camera, and within a budget.
b) An extra day would have been even better, again if they had a larger budget. 4 days to plan, shoot and edit a film was certainly testing, and an extra day of decision making would have been ideal.
The film is still yet to be colour corrected and the audio edited, but once all of the films have been polished, they will be run by the UEA Ethics team for further checks, and should they approve, our films can be published, which I am more than excited to share!
So do keep on the lookout for this film, and well, keep watching and reading.
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