All posts filed under: thoughts

And then this happens … Bacon!

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And then this happens … Something is posted on social media about veganism, a poster, meme, or a vegan campaign, or about the living conditions of animals in agricultural industry, or maybe you just posted a comment about your experiences while dining out, and comments like ‘mmmmm, steak!‘, ‘I’ll be putting some more on the BBQ tonight‘ or – like in the meme – ‘Bacon!‘ appear. Or someone posts a photo of a hamburger, hotdog or sizzling animal flesh. I always wonder why they post this. Is it simply because they have nothing meaningful to say? Do those posting such comments really think it adds anything to the conversation (or do they simply not think at all šŸ˜› )?Ā  That they can somehow ‘win’ the meateaters on their hand? Or do they think it’s funny and a way to provoke vegans? (who then even write a blog about it, tsk šŸ˜‰) I think it may point to some form of anxiety to think these issues through. Not daring or not willing to think about the …

The House of Meat. What would you do?

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On a night out with friends, Eric tries a new restaurant. The waiter welcomes them and says ‘we take the dining experience full circle‘. ‘Set in a not-so-distant, dark future, three friends must slaughter the animals they order for dinner at a high-end restaurant’

Impressions from Vegan Summerfest 2018, Ghent

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Vegan Summerfest 2018 is already a couple of months behind us, but I still wanted to add some photos of the event to my blog. I have documented all the previous editions (2015-2016-2017), so also did not want to have this edition missing. So here are some impressions! The edition in 2018 was the first time Vegan Summerfest was held in the EXPO in Ghent, a more spacious and accessible location. That also comes with a price, and this year was also the first time the festival was no longer free, but with an admission fee. But that also came with a spacious parking, and Expo has great connections with public transport of Ghent. We were there early, as we wanted to avoid the bigger masses that usually come in the afternoon. There was however a huge queue leading up to the entrance though. Although it was pretty dark that morning, luckily it stayed dry! Once inside there were the usual suspects: lots of stalls with food, some with clothes, and body and care products. …

Interview with The Vegan Rainbow Project

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The Vegan Rainbow Project is a project from Daniela and India, andĀ wants to draw attention to and explore interconnections of oppression and enhance visibility for vegan living minorities, whilst at the same time joining forces to work towards liberation for all beings. I did an interview a couple of weeks ago, In December 2018. You can find it here. Why we need to talk about ableism, ageism and speciesism. Interview with Geertrui Cazaux.

Delicious food and inspirational talks at VegfestUK, London 2018

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A couple of weeks ago at the end of October, we went to VegfestUK, a vegan festival which is held annually in London at the Olympia.Ā We had already visited VegfestUK in 2016, and were really impressed by its scale and the intersectionality conference which was held then. The festival not only houses nearly 300 stalls (food, body and care products, organisations, etc) but there are also dozens of presentations, on a wide range of topics: from health to veganic gardening, from radical veganism to bodybuilding, or environmental aspects to animal rights. Really interesting! We ate a lot, we bought some products that were new for us, and we listened to a lot of inspiring talks! And meeting up with friends and getting to know new people! Here is an overview with a selection of pics from the weekend: I also gave a presentation, in the Justice room: Ableism, bodyshaming and health shaming. On intersections and inclusiveness. (Geertrui Cazaux). I Previously posted an introduction to that talk hereĀ . It took me a while to get the …

Vegan eating out in Ostend

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Food’ Oostende, the culinairy department of the tourist office of Ostend (visitOostende), asked me to list some restaurants in Ostend, where vegans are welcome. So here is a shortlist with places with vegan options (or offering vegan on request), on their website. If you want to read reviews of places I have visited in Ostend (restaurants, shops, …) see this #tag on my blog vegan OostendeĀ . For a more extensive list of places in Ostend (and other places in Belgium and beyond, see the list on my blog: restaurants outside Bruges

New Platform: Crip HumAnimal: about ableism and speciesism

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I have created a new space Crip HumAnimal, to specifically address the interconnections between ableism and speciesism.Ā A place to highlight stories of disabled vegans, a place to address the ableism in the vegan and animal rights movement. Some of the topics that I want to address on Crip HumAnimal are mentionned here. Where you can also find an explanation on why I choose the name Crip HumAnimal. Any help with spreading the word is really appreciated. Also, if you have any recommendations, input, suggestions, I’d love to hear! website:Ā https://criphumanimal.org/ facebookpage:Ā https://www.facebook.com/criphumanimal/

VIDEO Ableism, ageism and speciesism, presentation IARC 2018, Geertrui Cazaux

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I attended the 8th International Animal Rights Conference in Luxembourg at the beginning of September. A very inspirational weekend, being together with activists from many different countries and attending many presentations on a broad variety of topics (program here). I gave a presentation about ableism, ageism and speciesism. The presentation is now up on Youtube on VeganKanal. The slides from the presentation are inlcuded. I added English subtitles to the video. Interested in hearing your feedback! The video does not include the introduction. In which I gave (among other things) an overview of the presentation: Intro: definitions and examples 1) intersections and interconnections between ableism, ageism and speciesism 2) how to reach disabled, older people 3) points to take into account to be an inclusive movement   View this post on Instagram A post shared by Geertrui (@trudi_bruges)        

VIDEO – Ableism in the vegan movement. Intro to my talk at VegfestUK – Geertrui Cazaux

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Why do we need to address ableism in the vegan and animal rights movement? This is an introduction to my talk at VegfestUK, in London, Oct 27 – 28: Ableism, bodyshaming and healthshaming, Geertrui Cazaux Transcript below. Transcript. Hello, I am Geertrui. Or, that’s Trudi in English. And I will be presenting a talk at the upcoming VegfestUK festival in London. And my talk will be about ableism in the movement. Now ableism is discrimination or prejudice against people with physical or mental disabilities. So against disabled people. Now, I can immediately hear some of you think: oh, ableism what does that have to do with veganism? Why should we be discussing this at a vegan festival? It should be about tackling speciesism. About fighting for animal rights. We shouldn’t be talking about ableism or other forms of discrimination like racism and sexism, but only focus on the animals, because it’s about the animals, right? yes, of course veganism is about tackling speciesism and about the animals, but how we deal with each other as …

Let’s talk animal rights

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I have seen a lot of discussions lately about the use of the labels vegan, veganish and the way they are used. And other terms like semi-vegan, or flexi-vegan or even flexanist. These discussions often focus on a certain person calling themself vegan, and whether this is rightfully so, or on vegan internet celebrities calling themselves veganish, because they mainly eat plantbased, but occasionally eat pancakes with dairy or egg, or ice-cream, or fishes, or because they wear leather jackets or fur coats or go to the zoo for an afternoon of entertainment. Stop spending so much energy on discussing whether some yuppie hipster internet celebrity is vegan or not. Let’s talk animal rights. To be clear: I do believe in safeguarding the meaning of the word vegan, and subscribe to the definition of veganism: Veganism is ā€˜A philosophy and way of living which seeks to excludeā€”as far as is possible and practicableā€”all forms of exploitation of, and cruelty to, animals for food, clothing or any other purposeā€ That immediately makes clear that veganism is …