Mountains and Moon

I have been to writers' group and often don't find time to blog on a Monday evening, but I do have some beautiful pictures from my walk home from work and there is something that I've been thinking about.

I can't remember when exactly it became alright to start buying fruit from South Africa, was it in 1990 when Nelson Mandela was released from his imprisonment or was it when the first democratic elections were held in 1994?

But what I do and very clearly remember, was that throughout the preceding decades, no-one that I knew would buy it. Someone must have done, the supermarkets never stopped selling it.

Sometimes people would argue that we should buy it because it hurt the economy of the country not just of the ruling whites, but also of the poorer blacks.
But the message that kept coming out from the ANC was for the world to boycott their goods.
And so those of us who found Apartheid repugnant, did so.

But afterwards, when Mandela was free and Apartheid was dismantled, what had become second nature, a habit, was damned difficult to break. Finally, it was ok to buy South African wine and fruit, but to bring ourselves to actually do that was an almost physical barrier to overcome.

In Sunday's Observer, an article was urging us to eat British veal. And just as with boycotting South African goods, not eating veal is a deeply entrenched habit.

The argument is that British consumers' pressure groups were so successful in the 1980's, that so-called 'traditional' methods of rearing veal were outlawed in 1991. Therefore, British veal is ethically raised and so should be the only one anyone eats.

In fact, last year, the whole of the EU were scheduled to fall into line with Britain, and so we must assume they have done.

I certainly accept that Britain has not, for a long time, reared veal calves in restrictive crates in the dark, with insufficient room to either turn or kneel down and being kept thirsty, salt even painted on the struts of the crate, so that they eat more of the rich artificial food.

But to actually be able to eat it...?

Of course it's not a problem for me while I am in Canada, since there are no laws governing the rearing of veal calves. There are 'guidelines'.
Guidelines.
How precious.