Between 1999 and 2014, Bel was Style Editor for Metro. The fall of Rana Plaza in 2013 forced a re-assessment; today, she is a writer, speaker and activist with a focus on animal rights, the climate emergency and the toxic fashion system. Bel has taken part in and moderated numerous panels for brands and organisations and has been interviewed about her work in activism, alternative systems in fashion and culture change.
In Sentientist Conversations we talk about the two most important questions: “what’s real?” & “who matters?”
Sentientism is "evidence, reason & compassion for all sentient beings." The video of our conversation is here on YouTube.
We discuss:
00:00 Welcome
01:48 Bel's Intro
- Journalism, fashion editor, social & animal justice activism
- "The world of fashion sucks you in"
- Co-founding The Islington Climate Centre & running The Empathy Project
04:19 What's Real?
- (I mis-spoke & asked "what matters?" - sorry!)
- Growing up in #hongkong ... rich, vibrant, urban
- "Really loving animals" first companion animal at 3 "they were these beautiful things"
- Stray animals & wet markets "but no one talked about it"
- Food "a very big deal in that culture"... valuing the exotic e.g. suckling pig / turtle soup
- "At least they were honest... there was no pretense at compassion"
- "I tucked in because everyone else tucked in"
- "I held this love of animals whilst eating them for a very long time"
- Growing up "broadly agnostic" with a Jewish father & a mother who moved through various religions
- Saying the Lord's Prayer every morning at school
- "I just couldn't correlate why there were so many sad things happening & god didn't seem to be very active in sorting it out"
- Coming to #spirituality through "the extent of the suffering... abuse... cruelty"... "I could not rationalise it"
- "I'm going to drive my love to them through thought & visualisation & #meditation "
- "My god is the natural world"
- "Animals are the sentient representations of nature"
- "I do like to get my hands in the soil"
19:34 What Matters?
- "Religions are man made constructions... constructed in times long gone... by powerful men... You cannot not question them."
- Suffering as central to understanding good & bad
23:46 Who Matters?
- "Even as we talk most people will think we're talking just about humans"
- Moral philosophy's focus on humans
- The rationalisations that support animal exploitation "I had an innocent idea of what authority does"
- "I would volunteer in animal shelters then go home and have a meat dinner"
- A journalist trip where they helped a sheep get free from barbed wire then "had lamb for dinner"
- "My awakening... was my encounter with the #Yulin dog meat festival... I started to question the nature of humanity"
...and much more. Full show notes at Sentientism.info.
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