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I believe that in good
societies we learn from our
parents, who have learned from
their parents, and from the
resources they had. Part of
what’s meant by a good society
is such unbroken family links.
This does not imply that people
need not think for themselves,
but that awareness of and
respect for who and what have
come before, are part of the joy
of life. And some of the most
profound links are those that
are most simple – like the
production (and catching) and
preparation, cooking and
enjoyment of good food.
There is a delicious traditional
dish in Brazil called bobó de
camarão. There are several
variations of the recipe
throughout the country. In my
opinion the most delicious one
is the simplest. It is a mixture
of moqueca de camarões (shrimp
moqueca) with mashed manioc. You
just need tomatoes, onions,
shrimps, lime, coconut milk,
manioc, and plenty of herbs
(coriander and chives) to
prepare this feast (1). See me
in the picture above, minutes
before diving into this
delicious and beautiful bobó de
camarão made by my mother.
My father told me that in
Manaus, the capital of Amazonas,
when a party was organised to
celebrate someone’s birthday,
there was no cake or soft drinks
on the table. Birthday parties
were celebrated around an
earthenware pot full of bobó de
camarão accompanied with
regional fresh fruit juices,
such as those of cupuaçu. When
you visit Brazil you must savour
and taste cupuaçu, shown in the
picture above. Lanchonetes
(snack bars) serve it as drinks
and ice-creams.
References
- Caloca F. Viagem
gastronômica através do
Brasil. Sao Paulo: Senac
Sao Paulo/Estúdio Sonia
Robatto, 2005.
Human rights
Water™. What's next, air?
Obvious and fundamental
things are often not naturally
or easily recognised as
essential. Societies need laws
to say that people have the
right to live and, as a result,
the right of access to public
goods. Safe water is a clear
example of something essential
for life that we still need to
defend as a human right. We have
to keep fighting day by day for
the obvious.
In a world still dominated by
political and economic brute
force, something essential is
often not seen by the most
powerful as a public good, but
as something we depend upon and
therefore a source of great
profit and indeed more power –
economic and also political and
even military (1). The most
powerful even have the power to
decide who have the right to
rights.
Here is an
example, and you can see and
hear for yourself. Here is
Nestlé’s CEO the Austrian
national Peter Brabeck-Letmathe,
speaking in the documentary We
Feed The World, by Erwin Wagenhofer (2,3). He was asked
his opinion on water
privatisation. He said: ‘There’s
that lovely old Austrian folk
song: “the dear cattle need
water, hollera, holleri”, if you
remember. Water is of course the
most important raw material we
have today in the world. It’s a
question whether we should
privatise the normal water
supply for the population. And
there are two different opinions
on the matter. The one opinion,
which I think is extreme, is
represented by the
non-government organisations who
bang on about declaring water a
public right. That means that as
a human being you should have a
right to water. That’s an
extreme solution. And the other
view says that water is a
foodstuff like any other, and
like any other foodstuff it
should have a market value.
Personally I believe it’s better
to give a foodstuff a value, so
that we’re all aware that it has
its price, and then that one
should take specific measures
for the part of the population
that has no access to this
water, and there are many
different possibilities there’.
Be warned.
According to United Nations
statistics the volume of
freshwater resources is only 2.5
per cent of the total volume of
water on Earth. See the diagrams
below from the UN Environment
Programme. And the total usable
freshwater supply for ecosystems
and humans is less than 1 per
cent of all freshwater resources
(lakes, rivers, ground water,
ice and permanent snow covers)
(4).
The waters that have flowed into
our rivers and groundwater
basins are now being diverted
into pipes and stuck into
bottles, for profit A human
right, a source of life, is
being privatised. This means
that the most rich and powerful
people are gaining the power to
decide who will enjoy the right
to something that belongs to
all, a patrimony of humanity. So
our right now has been
transformed into a duty as well.
The duty to protect our rights!
Watch ‘The Story of Bottled
Water’. This shows very clearly
the views and strategies of Big
Drink, including a quote from
PepsiCo’s Vice-Chairman: ‘The
biggest enemy is tap water!’
Laugh and cry (5).
References
- Hardt M, Negri, A.
Empire. Cambridge: Harvard
University Press, 2000.
-
http://www.we-feed-the-world.at/en
-
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qyAzxmN2s0w
-
http://www.unwater.org/statistics_res.html
-
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Se12y9hSOM0
Joke of the month
Science and news for whom?
From now on, this column
will include an unbelievable
story. You know, those stories
that make you pause and say:
‘What!? Are you kidding me!?’
Dear readers, I introduce you to
the ‘Joke of the month’.
The
story this month stars Helio
Gurovitz, the Chief Editor of
Época, one of Brazil’s leading
weekly news and feature
magazines. The splendid recent
cover shown above, advertised a
feature about an experimental
study concluding that high fat
foods can be addictive; as
addictive as cocaine and heroin
(1). The issue also included
advice from Michael Pollan,
billed as you may see on the
cover as ‘the guru of healthy
food and the champion of the
cooking of our ancestors’.
Sr Gurowitz evidently disliked
the implications of this
coverage in his own journal, and
devoted an editorial to his own
thoughts. He attacked advocates
of food regulation and said they
were perverse. ‘They (the
militants of food regulation)
apparently judge us (the
population in general) as
victims of a malevolent
industry’.
Well, that’s a fairly standard
line of the ‘ultra-right’, who
are against any form of
regulation, presumably including
of guns, cars or drugs.
Colleagues in Europe tell me
that public relations firms
hired by food manufacturers have
stuck labels on them such as
‘Food Leninists’ and ‘Food
terrorists’, dedicated to
tearing down the fabric of
society, biscuits, burgers and
all, in favour of revolutionary
socialism.
Sr Gurovitz went on to say that
in these times, it’s fashionable
to invent imaginary victims.
Real victims, he said, are those
of atrocious crimes, and such
criminals are rightly punished.
However, he said, if you eat a
lot of high fat food that’s your
fault. Then he went further and
said that if you have no land or
house to live in that’s your
fault too, and you should pull
yourself together and sort
yourself out.
So why has the Brazilian tobacco
control strategy worked? Nothing
to do with regulations, he said,
that has been all about
individual will-power.
Presumably he would say that
anybody in any way addicted had
only themselves to blame for
letting themselves get addicted
in the first place. Good news
for the pushers of crack cocaine
outside school gates! Then, back
to food. What about the
producers of high fat food and
alcoholic drinks, which he
agrees are harmful? They are the
real victims, he said. Say no
more! Time for a laugh!
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