Tag: rant

Local Councils

Hamar WilliamsLeave a comment

This was going to be a piece having a little rant at the local council. Let’s be honest it probably will anyway but I’ve lost some of the conviction having thought a little more about it. It is probably worth mentioning that I dislike councils immensely. They seem to be just small time self-serving bureaucrats. There is nothing worse than a local councillor attempting to justify why they gave their mate a deal or attempting to elevate their own importance despite not being able to look beyond their own narrow little view of the world. I was looking at the road outside my parents today and it is dangerous to drive down, the potholes are everywhere, it could be described as off-roading and that would not be an exaggeration. My parents pay one thousand eight hundred pound per year in council tax, which works out as about thirty-six pound per week. They get their recycling collecting every second week and the rubbish collected every alternate second week. The local farmers cut all the hedges locally and if a tree came down in the road they would have moved it before the council even contemplated having to do anything about it. The local power and phone cables are maintained by the power companies too. The council clearly never fix the roads so that means we’re paying thirty six pounds per week to have a bin emptied. They wonder why nobody believes in the credibility of their existence.

However, nothing is ever as straightforward as it seems and this is why intellectually I start having to question my short sighted emotive rant. They also apparently do certain care in the community things around my area. Now while that is one thing, it also mean there will probably be others I’m unaware of. Also, while there are payment bands and people in town will pay more, it does make you realise that perhaps some of the money raised goes towards funding things in the local town which we do use sometimes.

It is frustrating because you want to rant at their expensive incompetence and when you see yourself getting so little back it is justified but that approach is one that merely highlights an endemic problem within society as a whole. We have been conditioned to think so much from an individualistic perspective, it is about what society can do for me. Why should I pay that much when I am only getting those small few things back. We never look to how we can contribute to society or the community as a whole despite the reality that stronger community around us makes our own lives better, safer, stronger and potentially more fulfilling. I still have no time for the small minded council but it is important to have the time for those around us. Sometimes it is important to pay a little more than we may immediately get back because we never know whether we will get it back in other ways at a later date. It is a shame to realise that because clearly I just wanted to shout and I’m not happy that I’ve rationalised this fairly.

Fuck it…total bunch arseholes!! That feels better. Maybe it’s time to dig out that spray can.

Meat-Free Alternative Meat

Hamar WilliamsLeave a comment

I have just read an article about ‘alternative meat’ products and my plan when I read the title was to have a little rant about them because I take issue with vegan sausages and vegan burgers, or anything that originally was a meat dish but has had the meat substituted for something else. It may be important to stress I have in the past spent eighteen months as a vegetarian and four as a vegan, both of which ended because of foreign delicacies, so this isn’t a rampant meat loving piece. I must also stress though that despite that and certain moral understandings, there is some hypocrisy within me as I do enjoy and eat meat despite a desire to eat less over all. My issues are two pronged, firstly the vegans and vegetarian diets when done properly should be healthier than one involving meat. That does feel like a slightly general and ambiguous statement but I don’t have space to go into detail, it’s a take my word for it moment. Things such as vegan sausages are not the healthy option, they are often high in salt and artificial flavourings, and arguably akin to the filler used to bulk out a cheap meat sausage. It is just junk food but at least junk food admits it’s junk food. Secondly vegan food, especially as there is no cheese or eggs involved, can be so creative and there are so many tasty dishes out there. We eat vegan sausage, burger, lasagne, cheese and when it is shit, partly because it just is and partly because our minds compare it to the real thing, we wonder why people who don’t know vegan food complain about not being able to eat anything, or about how shit vegan food is, or about not being able to get protein from anything. Why copy the meat versions because they will never be the meat versions and struggle to be anything in their own right, when there are so many incredible and easy dishes out there. If people just knew this more may actually become vegan or at least cut down on the consumption of animal products. Persisting with vegan sausages just misses the point.

However, I did say my plan was to rant as if I then wasn’t going to, and judging by the size of that paragraph I failed, but the article made me think I was being slightly absolutist in my beliefs. This food company Impossible Foods did appear to actually create dishes, albeit burgers, meat balls et al, which were tasty. The woman writing it did suggest the strong sauce made it unclear the exact taste of the plant based version but it did seem to be a step. Which makes me think that if someone can do it well, and actually make really decent, healthy, cheap, meat-free alternatives to dishes meat eaters love they may actually cut down the consumption of meat produced and animals killed which can only be a good thing. Of course I’m sure there are some environmental arguments for the dangers of creating huge mono crops of whatever the meat alternative is made from were these things to really become popular, but it can’t surely be anything near the production of soy or consumption of fresh water used to raise cattle, pigs or other such creatures. It is the right direction then, or a small part of the collective right direction perhaps would be better.

End of Year Hypocrisy

Hamar WilliamsLeave a comment

Tomorrow is another year and like many people I will also be rather self-indulgently posting my New Years resolutions somewhere online hoping that they’ll somehow be so interesting and important that people will read them and take notice. It surely is a symptom of modern day society, social media and upbringings that tell us we’re somehow great and worthy in every way that creates phenomena like this. Why the hell would people be interested in what I have planned for next year, how much cake and pies I’ll be cutting out and how definitely I’ll be going straight to the gym in the morning and not leaving until this time next year. Throw in all the positive affirmations and you’ve got the recipe for self-indulged vomit. Naturally then as I said I will be doing these very things too.

Why is it then that when we know something is not good for us we still continue to do it anyway. That of course includes the pies and cakes, or the sitting on the sofa when we know we should be outside listening to power music and running, but it also includes forcing others to endure our attempts to revolve the earth and all it has created around ourselves. People don’t have to go on social media and read or watch what we have to say that is granted but we do, our lives now are so intertwined it is hard to escape it, so unconsciously we endure it.

Saying that I did fleetingly discuss New Years resolutions with one of my cousins over Christmas and they raised the important point that they are ways to focus the mind on our intentions for the year ahead. I probably paraphrase her badly but that is roughly what she had to say. I suspect also that she doesn’t feel the need to tell the world about her intentions for next year which in a way makes it a far more personal and in my eyes acceptable approach. I can’t wait to be a hypocrite tomorrow, I almost feel like apologising in advance. I won’t though.

I don’t know whats up with me today. My plan had been to dissect how I thought this writing experiment had gone so far, and highlight the intimidating fact that I’ve got over three hundred pieces still to write. Instead a hypocritical rant about New Years resolutions ensued. Perhaps it’s because I’ve never bothered with them before and my first time is going to be in such a public setting that I felt uncomfortable enough about it to preemptively express my disdain for my own future actions. But then maybe it’s important for some people to see others resolutions as it strengthens their own resolve that they’re too on the right track. God damn it why can’t the world ever be black and white just this once. Why must life be that beautiful shade of empathetic grey we have to compassionately endure on a daily basis. And yes you spell it with an e.