Party For The Animals...

Recently, my old friend Zalan passed through.. (he stopped by again yesterday, on his way home).. Among the new things I learnt from him, he made mention of a revolutionary new political party that has recently gained a foothold in the Netherlands (Holland)..

They're called:

Party for the animals

And their uniqueness lies in that they are ethically opposed to the usage and abusage of animals - In pretty much all possible spheres - Cosmetics, entertainment, scientific research, food or clothing..

They follow principle vegan guidelines in their belief that animals are not ours to eat, wear or experiment upon, and have become an effective political voice for the otherwise politically voiceless.

- Never before has a political party devoted to animal welfare been elected to a national parliament anywhere else in the world, and I'm pretty impressed with the headway they have made so far..

I'm guessing the Dutch are probably a little further advanced than most countries when it comes to vegan issues and animal rights, but let's hope the trend will spread and more governments will begin to adopt animal friendly attitudes..

Anyone wishing to find out more can do so by visiting their website.

Party for the animals

Peace to one and all,
Mango.

British are Not stupid..

As promised, here's the follow up video from the Americans are not stupid video I posted earlier.

I don't take these things too seriously, but in my opinion humans in general are pretty dumb though..

enjoy,
mango.

Living on a Shoe String

Living the life I've chosen, I've often been asked how can I afford to travel and live as I do?

The truth is, I haven't had a steady 9-5 paying job in well over 18 years now.. - Between the age of about 16 to 29ish, I had a pretty normal steady well paying career in the computer industry, often being privy to working with the very latest in cutting edge main frame technology available during that era.. (those so called super computers , chunky old dinosaurs, that were slower than most bog standard laptops in treacle available these days!)


At work.. Crawling through the undergrowth
(click to enlarge)

Of course that was long before the internet appeared on the scene, - although it did sort of exist as a collection of smaller independant networks loosely and frequently flakely connected with one another...

But i'm digressing..

Yes, since quitting my day job, with the inital dubious quest to bike around the world, I've been the forever opportunist with eyes and ears alert for ethically acceptable paying work that happens to cross my path, and although I have some times gone for months with no income at all, I've never had to go hungry.

I should hasten to add, that when I let go, I had virtually no savings due to an extremely badly timed property purchase (immediatly preceding a collapse in the property market), that left me about as penniless as I'd ever been..

Anyhow, that all seems like a lifetime ago now, and since jumping into the unknown, there has been an endless stream of conveniently spaced temporary or seasonal job opportunities..

Not in any particular order - Most definitely not chronological, I've worked as a cleaner, shelf stacker, fruit picker (various flavours!), gardner, sawer of wood, mover of rocks, pathway builder, wall builder, webpage designer, tree planter, guesthouse receptionist, farmer, vegan chef, masseur, table builder, translator, tv/movie extra, interpreter, pond cleaner, math teacher, swedish teacher, english teacher, firework display assistant, nude model, juice maker, postoffice sorter (christmas rush), deliverer of junk mail (briefly, - until I came to my senses!!), scrap metal collector, and more...

Currently I'm helping an elderly woman with her cottage garden on Mondays (see image below), and collect little lost wayward golf balls from the bushes on our local golf course (see first picture).. So, by no means have I a proven way to get financially rich, but certainly know how to make enough to cover daily food expenses (which besides the car, telephone and electricity is pretty much our only real expense).


The cottage garden I've helped create
(click to enlarge)

I am reminded of that biblical passage that basically states that just as the birds of the field, and other animals are provided for, so too will we be if we have the faith to take that leap.. So I am in no doubt that anyone else stepping out onto the fruitarian path, desiring to let go of more traditionally accepted lifestyle choices, would have every success in finding their basic necessities and more along their path, and should one truly wish to travel vast distances, a means to do so will inevitably manifest itself..

Peace,
Mango.

Harley in Penang..

I've no idea what this says, but apparently Harley has been spreading the raw vegan message in Malaysia and has gotten some of his message across through this malaysian chinese newspaper:


Harley in Penang, Malaysia

Like I said, I've no idea really what the article says, but knowing Harley he's probably telling people to get off their butts, exercise more, cut out the flesh and eat 30 bananas a day..

- Any Chinese reading readers out there care to enlighten us? You can click the image to enlarge it..

Peace,
Mango.

Get paid to use a search engine..

As bizarre as it may seem, recently i've discovered 2 different Search Engine websites that actually pay for us to use their search engines..

Of course there are strict conditions as to how we should be using them (ie, only for legitimate search uses, not automated or random terms that are inconsequential to us - and naturally there are sophisticated mechanisms behind both websites just waiting to ban anyone who misuses their services!!), but that said and done, if we just use them for our daily searches, we will be paid, albeit small sums (which'll add up over time! - as the saying goes, look after the pennies and the pounds'll look after themselves)

OK, so here are the websites:

1. The Supporting Friends website

As far as I can tell, this website not only pays you for each search, but will also be donating to the charity of your choice.. To be honest, as I've only just signed up, and started using it, I've yet to fully figure out just how the payment thing works, other than that I have set my Paypal to receive payment..

I've set up my charity to supporting carbon friends, and I think 50% of what I earn gets funneled that way..

2. Tixuma

This one is similar but without the charity option.. And the the other major difference that this website is in German!!

If you can't understand German, don't worry, once you've signed up it's pretty simple to use and requires little to no knowledge of the language..

To ease the registration process though, you can use the following link which should give a rough translation of the website:

English Translation of the website

(just press the "login button" - top right, and then the "registration" button to the left)..

The cool thing about this website, if I've understood correctly, is that they will pay on referals 9 levels deap!


View of one of our local beaches - Click to enlarge

So go ahead, if you use a search engine regularly, start getting paid for doing so..

Peace,
Mango the raw vegan fruitarian.

Vegaculture

A week ago, we had a visit from a friend of mine from Victoria (Australia).. A guy named Zalan.. (we first met some 16 or more years ago at an international vegan festival in Spain).

Well, he was only around for a couple of days, but we got to share some durian in the sunshine, and will be seeing him again in a month or so as he's flown up to Cairns for a while, but will return before heading back down to central victoria..


Kveta, Myself and Zalan, sharing a durian

Zalan's not fully fruitarian, but he is a long term raw vegan who eats a high percentage of fruit, in fact, the last few times I've met up with him, I can't really recall him eating much other than fruit.. He's currently working on a book on the topic of vegaculture..

I believe he may possibly have coined the term himself (thogh don't quote me on that!).. - Vegaculture is basically a method of sustainable compassionate gardening techniques loosely based on the whole Permaculture (permanent agriculture) concept. With the clear exception that vegaculture, unlike it's permaculture predecessor, is completely unreliant on any form of (mis)usage of animals, other, that is, than those occurring 100% naturally through the attraction of the biodiversity which it's principles encourage..

You're probably aware already that most organic, and especially biodynamic, food production is pretty heavily reliant on the animal abuse industry, using it's blood and bone meal byproducts in misguided attempts to enrich the soil..


Durian!

Vegaculture recognises that the usage of such slaughterhouse products is an unnecessary evil best avoided through composts and soils made using purely broken down vegetable matter and decomposing mulch, - especially fruit peal and leftovers (our little garden we have, gets 3 big buckets of compost added to it each week, and is both rich in colour, and alive with an abundance of worms!).

Also vegaculture, with it's roots in vegan ethics (hence the "Vegan Culture") and compassion, sees beyond keeping any animal species captive, and thus hens, goats and other animals would not be a feature of such a garden built on it's principles.. Unless of course they were natural wildlife visiting the jungle garden..


Myself and Zalan on little bay beach

Well. his book is half way through, and once done I will be sure to write a review of it, and post a link to it in a new blog post.. (which I'll add a link to here too, on this page, if i remember, when done).

Peace,
Mango the raw vegan fruitarian