Celebrities and Social Movements

by Kim W. Stallwood Posted on August 25, 2007

Here’s one of the more cogent (and brief) arguments I’ve read recently in support of celebrities and social movements. But it does gloss over the problems caused by “ornamental mouthpieces.”

Organised charity has long had its champions. In the 50s Marilyn Monroe visited US orphanages, in the 60s the Beatles donated to Oxfam, in the 70s Julie Christie campaigned on Cambodia, the 80s gave us Live Aid, and in the 90s, Princess Diana helped bring about new international laws on landmines and dispelled many myths around HIV/Aids.

It’s not new, this idea of celebrities supporting charities. What is new is the level of media attention they can bring. They can secure mass media, which can put pressure on politicians to take notice and even to change policy.

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Angela Smith MP

by Kim W. Stallwood Posted on August 24, 2007

The Grumpy Vegan recalls going to Labour Party conferences with Angela.
If there’s ever more evidence needed to bolster the Grumpy Vegan’s case for making animal protection a mainstream political issue, well, I have it. In the 1970s and 1980s I was with the British Union for the Abolition of Vivisection and helped lead its efforts in Parliament, which included the General Election campaigns to make animal protection a mainstream political issue. My colleague at the League Against Cruel Sports was Angela Smith, who later went onto become a Labour county councillor (Americans: Read state representative) and Member of Parliament. In June she was appointed Parliamentary Private Secretary to the Prime Minister. As 10 Downing Street Web site notes

Angela Evans Smith became a Parliamentary Private Secretary to Gordon Brown, with special provision to attend Cabinet meetings, in June 2007. Prior to this, she was Fire Service Minister in the Department for Communities and Local Government. Previously, she was a Northern Ireland minister. She also sponsored the Waste Minimisation Act and played an important role in forcing the National Minimum Wage Act 1998 through Parliament. Ms Smith has been a councillor, a member of the fire authority of the county of Essex, and worked for the League Against Cruel Sports. She was born in London in 1959 and was first elected to Parliament in 1997.

You can’t beat having friends in high places! So, join a political party. Stand for public office. And do something for animals from within the political universe.

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TB and Foot and Mouth and More

by Kim W. Stallwood Posted on August 24, 2007

A 16-year-old bullock who had been tested positive for bovine TB was given yesterday a lethal injection at the Skanda Vale Hindu community in Carmarthenshire, Wales. Welsh Assembly Government officials also removed a nine-month-old water buffalo for slaughter.

But still no final word on the source of the foot and mouth outbreak in Surrey. Although the Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs admitted that the

very likely source of infection is the Pirbright site where Merial Animal Health Ltd and the Institute for Animal Health are located.

Prime suspects, then, are government and commercial research laboratories which each have the foot and mouth virus. The Grumpy Vegan looks forward to reading reports on who is to be held responsible at either or both of these laboratories. Meanwhile, one positive development. DEFRA also announced a willingness to include vaccination in its plans to manage the disease.

Vaccination is used as a disease control measure if it is demonstrated that steps additional to slaughter policy may be required to eradicate the disease.

Foot and mouth and TB pale into comparison when the UN laments the global increase in new diseases caused in part by factory farming, as reported earlier today.

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Skinny Bitch Good Fortune

by Kim W. Stallwood Posted on August 24, 2007

Rory Freedman and Herbivore magazine's Josh Hooten will host the “Vegan Chic” Showcase at the International Compassionate Living in Raleigh, NC on October 5-7.
The Grumpy Vegan is not sure whether to laugh or cry. It’s all about Rory Freedman, co-author of Skinny Bitch: A no-nonsense, tough-love guide for savvy girls who want to stop eating crap and start looking fabulous, who will be at this year’s International Compassionate Living Festival in Raleigh, NC on October 5-7.

I want to laugh because Rory and her co-author, Kim Barnouin, struck gold when

L.A.’s hottest skinny celebrity, Victoria “Posh Spice” Beckham, playfully held up a copy at the trendy Kitson’s boutique in Hollywood while paparazzi clicked away.

But, wait, there’s more

“She never bought the book — she just picked it up,” Fraser Ross, the store’s owner, told The Associated Press.

But no matter, “Skinny Bitch,” shot up top sellers lists in Beckham’s native England and broke through to the No. 3 spot on The New York Times paperback advice list of best sellers.

I’m now simultaneously laughing and crying. Happy for Freedman and Barnouin on their gold-standard good luck, which their book duly deserves. But crying because how ironic that all the publicity came from press photos of Victoria Beckham holding a copy that she didn’t even buy!

Oh well.

I’m back to laughing now because this good fortune is rubbing off onto the International Compassionate Living Festival, which, by the way, you had better attend.

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