Thursday 14 March 2013

The Cursed Soya Revolution - do we care?




I really love watching Al Jazeera English  particularly certain programmes like "Earth Rise" and "People and Power", and just saw the episode titled "Argentina: the Bad Seed" which I have linked in above. Well worth a watch. It couldn't help spark a whole series of thoughts in my head. Here are just a few:

The programme talks about the change in Argentina's economics through the large scale production of soya, a crop in worldwide demand. 95% of Argentina's soya is exported. It is not a food crop helping the rural populations of Argentina but an export crop growing the economy, providing jobs and expanding wealth (we will come back to this). The GMO soya boom has not only helped Argentina out of a pit of economic despair which seemed unimaginable a decade ago, but also ensured it has weathered the recession storm with continued growth, unlike most of the world. It is now a leading economy in Latin America, and it can all be put down to this one crop. Argentina produces more soya than any other country in the world.

As mentioned by the CEO of Los Grobo in this documentary, we are undergoing a new industrial revolution, a soya revolution. Soya today is used not only as food but more so as animal feed and fuel. In fact, more than 50% of the grain traded in the world is used for animal feed and biofuel. This same grain could be better used to feed the over 1 billion people in the world who go hungry everyday. We could take this grain from the mouths of cattle and our engines and instead feed the mouths of hungry children.

Such monocultures are gaining ground worldwide, whether it is soya or palm oil that is the product in demand. However, thought the landscape may appear to be green, these crops can never replace the forest. They are not forests, there is no biodiversity here. In the last 20 yrs Argentina has lost almost half of its remaining forest cover to agriculture. Every year we lose over 13 million acres of forest worldwide, species are dying out 1000 times faster than natural. Nature is giving way to short term economic gain.

Over farming and large scale agriculture does not benefit us in the long term, whether because of the loss of biodiversity or because of continued soil degradation. It is estimated that around the world 40% of Arable land has suffered long term damage. And so, we clear more land, and damage more. As well as this, as one of the scientists in the documentary mentions, in Argentina alone 300 million litres of pesticide are used to sustain such crops, further diminishing biodiversity and killing the land.

However, in Argentina side effects have also been witnessed by the human population, with growing rates of cancer, birth defects and malformation. As these effects are mostly seen in the rural population exposed to the large scale farming and crop dusting, urban populations remain unaware, celebrating the benefits brought by the soya economy. Unaffected, they also remain unaware or uncaring in relation to the land grabs and bullying experienced by the small scale farmers and rural population in the face of multinational corporations.

This is much like us in the Western or "First" world: we do not see the direct effects of such natural destruction, we do not experience the immediate effects of loss of biodiversity or climate change. Our lifestyle is fuelled through such land grabs, such mass agriculture, such deforestation and more. Yet, when it improves our lifestyle at the disadvantage of others, as long as we are not witness to it, it seems we couldn't really care less. It would simply be too difficult on our part to make a small change in our lifestyle, wouldn't it? Who cares that there are people dying because of the way we live?!

Let me at least start with myself.


Friday 8 March 2013

International Women’s Day






I am a self declared Muslim Feminist. The state of women's rights in our communities is one of the many reasons why. The position given to me by my religion and my God are others. For me International Women’s Day is a day to highlight the achievements of women in all the fields and across the world but really to use the day to promote change, to highlight how much is yet to be achieved, to highlight the sad fact that we NEED this day simply because across the world, including in the ‘first world’, women have yet to be seen as REAL EQUALS to their male counterparts: in business, in family life, in marriage, in the job market, in education. This is the sad truth, and if women in the ‘first world’ are still fighting prejudices, stereotypes, objectification, preconceived ideas and even hatred, then there is an even greater challenge for those living in the less ‘developed’ parts of the world.

There any many, both men and women who cringe when they hear the words women's rights or Feminist, particularly within my own, Muslim, community. To them I say remember this: Women's rights are the rights of your sister, your mother, your daughter, you niece, your cousin, your aunt, your grandmother, your friend, your partner, your ally, your wife. It is your duty as a Muslim, as a human, to ensure I have my rights, just as it is a duty on me that I uphold yours. Treat me as you would wish to be treated, not as an object or as a burden, but as a person, a fellow human being, a companion. The Prophet (SAW) gave us many examples in his treatment of women as equals, as companions, as teachers, as scholars, as warriors. He brought an end to female infanticide, taught us to respect women and not to treat them as objects or see them as burdens.

When news is brought to one of them of (the birth of) a female (child) his face darkens and he is filled with inward grief!  With shame does he hide himself from his people because of the bad news he has had! Shall he retain it on (sufferance and) contempt or bury it in the dust? Ah! what an evil (choice) they decide on!      
                                                                                                Al Qur’an (16:58,59)

And yet, as Muslim communities, we can see within so many problems that go against the very teachings of the Prophet (SAW) and of the Qur’an itself. Yes, it is not only Muslim communities that face these challenges but let us not deny that they are there, let us not shy away from facing them, challenging them and conquering them. Whether it is Female Genital Mutilation, forced hijab, forced marriages, ‘honour’ killing, withholding access to education, not letting women work, perverting the role of women within the family and the household, withholding women’s earnings and inheritance, domestic violence and so many others, there are examples within Islam that deal with them all and teach us to act against these wrongs. We should not only hate them in our hearts, we should speak against them and act against them.

The Messenger of Allah (SAW) once said: "Acquiring knowledge is compulsory for every Muslim. (At-Tabarani) And the scholars have agreed that this narration applies equally to men and women. ‘"Knowledge" in this context refers primarily to knowledge of the Holy Qur’an and Sunnah, as no Muslim should be ignorant of his or her Faith, but it also covers other areas of general education, which can contribute to the welfare of civilization. It is precisely the ignorance about their religion among Muslims that has led to men oppressing women because they believe it is permitted, women not demanding their God-given rights because they are ignorant of them, and children growing up to perpetuate their parents' follies. Throughout Islamic history, men and women both earned respect as scholars and teachers of the Faith. The books of Rijal (Reporters of Hadith) contain the names of many prominent women, beginning with Ayesha and Hafsah.’ (ref: http://www.islamicfinder.org/articles/article.php?id=411)

A woman also has the right to keep her property or wealth, whether earned or inherited, and spend it as she may please.

"And wish not for the things in which Allah has made some of you excel the others. For men there is reward for what they have earned, (and likewise) for women there is reward for what they have earned, and ask Allah of His Bounty. Surely, Allah is Ever All-Knower of everything."
Al Qur’an (4:32)

A woman has the right not only to an education but to her views and to express her opinion freely whether to an Imam or the ruler of her country as demonstrated by a famous incident involving Omar the second Rightly- Guided Caliph. Omar was once standing on the pulpit, severely reprimanding the people and ordering them not to set excessive amounts of dower at the time of marriage. A woman got up and shouted, "Omar, you have no right to intervene in a matter which Allah the All-Mighty has already decreed in Quran: "But if you intend to replace a wife by another and you have given one of them a Qintar (of gold, i.e., a great amount as Mahr bridal money), take not the least bit of it back; would you take it wrongfully without a right and (with) a manifest sin?" (4:20) And after being reminded of this Verse, Omar withdrew his order, saying, "I am in the wrong and she is correct."

In Islam there is no such thing as forced marriage either. Although the guardian of the girl whether her father, brother or uncle may play an important role in mediating her marriage, under no circumstance is he allowed to force HIS choice on her against her wishes. The woman is always free to accept or reject his choice, or to make her own choice. A woman named Khansa Bint Khidam once came to the Prophet (SAW) and complained:
"My father has forced me to marry my cousin in order to raise his own status (in the eyes of the people)." The Prophet (SAW) told her that she was free to dissolve this marriage and choose whomever she wished to marry. She replied, "I accept my father's choice, but my aim was to let the women know that fathers have no right to interfere in the marriage." (Ahmad, Nasa'i and Ibn Majah)

The men in our communities should also remember that it is NOT their role to police other people’s deeds, not to comment on a women’s appearance or her state of hijab. This may be the position of her father, but not yours, and even her father cannot force her to do as he wills. Remember, force only drives a person to hate that which you would have him/her love. Islam is peaceful, compassionate and beautiful, the truth of which is tarnished by roughness of being and force. Also, let us all look to ourselves first: the men in our community also have many issues of hijab, so why always look at the women? Are skinny jeans really halal for men? What about tight trousers? Or drowning yourself in aftershave? Or maybe walking with your trousers halfway down your backside? Modesty is a duty on both sexes, let us not forget this. Men must also learn to lower their gaze, for that is also a duty on them. Let us look to ourselves first for Allah will judge us on OUR deeds.

These are but a few of the many examples we can find within our own faith to tackle these issues. Let us live by these examples: let us live by the Prophetic example. We should not forget that some of the most important figures within our faith are women, whether it is Ayesha (RA) the wife of the Prophet (SAW) and one of the greatest scholars of Islam, being the source of hadiths for much of our faith, or Sumayyah, the first martyr for her faith within Islamic history, or Fatima, the daughter of the Prophet (SAW) who is held as an example to us all. Following these early figures are of course the many female scholars and teachers to whom we owe so much and who have been so well documented in the research of Sheikh Akram Nadwi: definitely something we should all study and make ourselves aware of.

Today too, we have so many amazing women out there, making a difference in our families, in our communities and to the world at large. Any active volunteer within community groups and non-profit work will tell you that the most active and committed volunteers are most often the women, the girls, the sisters. They are also usually the majority in this kind of social work. Yet, do we give them the respect they deserve, and do we teach our sons, the males in our community to look at them in that light and treat them as such? Do we help promote and encourage these women? To do the same with their wives and daughters? If not, why not? Were not the women we admire in early Islam activists in their own right?

And I say this to the women in our community too. Sisters, let us be a support to one another, let us not judge, let us not point fingers, let us not jump on the bandwagon, let us not help arm the very people who would withhold our own rights given the chance. Let us acknowledge each other, learn our rights and help uphold them. Let us cheer when one of us succeeds, and help pick back up, inspire and enourage those that are struggling amongst us. This is a reminder to me as much as to you.

This year, let us all commit to improving the world together, to upholding the rights of half the world's population for just think how much further we might have gotten as a planet if only we had invested in that plentiful resource, our women. Think what hidden talents exist, what solutions to the world's many problems might be found. Just a thought.

Happy International Women's Day everyone.



I shall end with this, one of my favourite Spoken Word pieces and one I think is a MUST WATCH particularly on this day:


Sunday 10 February 2013

Enough Food for Everyone


If there is enough food for everyone, why does everyone not have enough food?



(MADE in Europe stunt for #IF launch)


I have just returned from a great day at the MADE in Europe Enough Food for Everyone #IF campaign training day. If you haven't heard of this organisation or the campaign yet, here's a brief summary of both:

MADE in Europe:
The planet is being destroyed by irresponsible and selfish living and it's the world's poorest who are first to feel the effects of the changing climate. This challenge will take more than just our money. MADE in Europe is a Muslim-led movement of young people who want to see our community leading the fight against global poverty and injustice. Our response is rooted in the Islamic traditions of social action, justice and environmental stewardship. It's about being smart, ethical and green in the way we live. Our mission is to inspire and enable a grassroots European Muslim youth movement of faith in action for tackling global poverty and injustice through volunteering, campaigning and education.

IF:
Hunger is the great scandal of our age. Nearly one billion people go to bed hungry every night and two million children die from malnutrition every year. Islam calls on us to stand up for justice and feed the hungry – yet despite the millions of pounds we give every year to tackle extreme hunger, more people die around the world from hunger than from tuberculosis, malaria and AIDS combined. The time has come to move beyond charity and start tackling the root causes of global hunger.
MADE in Europe have joined with over 100 organisations to launch the Enough Food for Everyone IF campaign – a historic campaign which seeks to bring global hunger to the top of the agenda in 2013. It consists of a series of campaign asks to combat global hunger based around the issues of Transparency, Aid/Investment, Tax and Land.



Having been involved with MADE for a few years now, I am very excited at the lead role that the organisation has been able to take, and particularly its role as a Muslim organisation within the coalition. This is a unique opportunity for the Muslim community to work with organisations across the board on a subject which we are all in agreement about- Global Hunger today is a scandal.

The main work us campaigners are hoping to achieve in the coming month leading up to the 20th March UK Budget moment is to lobby our MPs and George Osborne to ensure that they know we want them on board with this campaign. That we want them to stick the 0.7% commitment to Aid within our budget, that we want them to include financial disclosure of tax avoidance schemes within the Finance Bill in 2013.

With the UK leading the G8 this year, our Prime Minister and our government can set an example and take the lead on this issue and make sure we see the beginning of the end of World Hunger this year. The Muslim community are at the centre of this. Our Faith stands for Justice,we should be taking a stand on these issues.

"He who sleeps on a full stomach whilst his neighbour goes hungry is not one of us" Prophet Muhammad (pbuh)


In the next month, I hope we see Muslim communities being mobilised, talking to each other, talking to their MPs, writing to George Osborne, mosques taking action and exposing the scandal of World Hunger. The MADE campaign training in London is just the frst of many that will take place around the UK, alongside campaign stunts and events. Make sure you take part in your area: be the one to lead the change.

"Allah does not change the condition of a people unless they change themselves” Qur’an 13:11


It may take time but this is the beginning of a very important movement for change and it is our duty to be part of it.

Thursday 7 February 2013

Carnivore or Herbivore?





As part of Qatar’s public programme at COP18, they held a variety of talks ranging from the technical, dealing with Carbon Capture technology and more, to the social, how lifestyle changes can impact Climate Change. I had the pleasure of attending one of the latter which was entitled “Our Eating Choice is our Most Powerful Voice”. I particularly empathised with this subject considering I have been a vegetarian now for over two years but for many, particularly Muslims, I know this is a choice that is hard to understand or consider for oneself. So let me put across some of the arguments shared in this talk and maybe we can all get a better understanding of how our eating habits are impacting our planet.

There are several sides to the argument including how being vegan can actually reduce long term disease and improve your health. However, I will concentrate on highlighting solely the impact on poverty and climate change.
 
Did you know that 26% of the Earth’s land surface is used for livestock grazing? That 33% of global arable land grows feed grains for livestock not to feed us humans? Or that you need 16kg of grain to produce 1kg of meat? Meanwhile, around 1 billion people starve around the world. Does this not seem wasteful at all?  In fact, if we were to compare diets we would see that if the whole world ate meat daily we could feed only about 3 billion humans, yet if we were all vegetarians, we could feed 22 billion. In a world where the human population is ever on the increase having tripled since 1950, and food shortages are common across the developing world, this is a problem that we need to come to terms with as we look into our future. Surely the question of how our lifestyle could influence change is one we should take seriously? The more a country develops, the more meat consumption increases. This is unsustainable and will inevitably lead to concentration camp style meat production: unethical too. Yet, feeding everyone is easily achievable.


What does this have to do with climate change? According to the UNFAO, “Livestock are one of the most significant contributors to today’s most serious environmental problems. Urgent action is required to remedy the situation.” The UNFAO’s Livestock’s Long Shadow report states that, “Livestock are the main driver for deforestation... (and) the largest single source of water pollution.” At the current rate of deforestation, in the next 10 years Borneo’s famous forests will be gone. Such large scale deforestation is due to a single decision, to clear forest and plant palm trees for the production of palm oil instead, the most widely used oil in the world present in food, lipsticks, biofuels and more.

Monocultures are growing, but they are not forests and cannot provide the biodiversity or habitats that forests do (Trees provide a habitat for three quarters of the world’s biodiversity). This same pattern of loss is true of areas of the Philippines, Indonesia, the Amazon and elsewhere where Soya is also planted mostly for use in agriculture. Today, more than 50% of grain traded is used for animal feed or biofuel. We are clearing forest, a natural carbon capture device to feed livestock and power factories. Does this make sense?

 (Amazon rainforest cleared for cattle farming)


The Livestock’s Long Shadow report states that, “... livestock are responsible for 18 percent of greenhouse gas emission, a bigger share than that of transport,” although some have put the estimate as high as 51%, taking into account the loss of respiration and carbon sequestration provided by forests. Livestock is a large producer of methane, a gas much more dangerous to our climate than carbon dioxide. According to Dr. Kirk Smith, Professor of Global Environmental Health at Berkeley, “A ton of methane emitted today will exert more warming in one year than a ton of carbon Dioxide emitted today would exert until 2075”:  a worrying statistic to be sure.

So why be vegan? For all the reasons stated above. It would mean less suffering for you and the planet, it leaves food for the needy, it cuts global warming by up to 51%, it allows forests to re-grow, and it leaves more grains available to create biofuels if needed. Allah has asked us to be the caretakers of this Earth, it is a responsibility on us and though lobbying, green transport and green policy are important, this is a simple way we could make great change. It means the power is in our hands: There is no need to wait for governments or corporations to institute change. You can make change yourself by a simple change in your lifestyle. If being vegan is too large a step, cut down your meat intake, inform yourself on how your meat has been produced, become a vegetarian.





And for those sceptics amongst you who believe the old wives tale that I long thought was true i.e. a vegan diet is unhealthy and lacks protein and nutrients, the American Dietetic Association, the world’s largest association of professional nutritionists, states that “...appropriately planned vegan diets ... are healthful, nutritionally adequate... are appropriate for individuals during all stages of the life cycle.”

“Be the change you want to see in the world”

COP18: The Mangroves



As part of the COP18 programme of activities the Qatar Foundation has organised a series of excursions to environmentally interesting areas around Qatar. Today, I was able to go on an eco-tour of the El-Khor coastal Mangroves. The organisation may not have been A+ and we may have left almost an hour late but it was well worth it. The natural beauty was incredible:  what a way to inspire future generations as to the need for conserving our environment.



The area I visited boasted both cultivated and wild mangroves. It is run by the Friends of the Environment Centre and a Flower Each Spring initiative, and is sponsored by Sheikha Moza bint Nasser, the wife of the Emir of Qatar, who is at the head of many progressive initiatives. They organise regular visits here by local school groups to try and educate them on the importance of the environment, conservation and recycling.

Our official guide was Ahmed, from the Qatar Foundation, and he educated us on the unique nature of the mangrove trees in Qatar, how they are the only plant that can survive in that saline environment in their country and the effect this has on greening the coast and providing a habitat for a variety of sealife, birds and insects: giving us a brief overview of the reasons behind the project.

We were then introduced to a project run by Qatar Foundation International called “mapping mangroves”. They work with local student ambassadors to raise awareness of the mangroves and the need to conserve them amongst local youth. They have created an App that can be used on iphones, ipads and android phones which allows anyone to visit the mangroves, take photos and enter details about them, thus creating an interesting way to learn but also to map the extent of the mangroves themselves.


My guide whilst mapping was Imad, a fifteen year old student from Al Waqra who was apparently chosen for his relatively good English, he told me. The mangroves are right on the beach, their roots protruding out of the soft wet sand so we all removed our shoes and got ready to get dirty and wet. Sinking my toes into the sand, I probably enjoyed this more than I should have, but my childish side rejoiced. Who doesn’t enjoy mucking about in wet sand and in such beautiful surroundings too?

The mangrove trees are great natural carbon capture devices and provide a habitat for some beautiful creatures. As we went round taking photos and mapping what we saw, we included descriptions of much wildlife too. We saw different kinds of birds, some huge colourful dragonflies, and all sorts of different kinds of tiny crabs, as well as tiny fish. As someone who has lived in cities all her life, I was embarrassingly excited by all this much to the amusement of my guide, although he shared my enthusiasm.

I had the most wonderful day and I think it is safe to say, if more young people were able to experience the mangroves as I did and learn more about environmental issues at the same time, then we would surely inspire the next generation to live better, in greater balance with the environment, then we have in the past.