Partly in response to another thread on here, and partly in response to a few magazine articles I read recently, I got to wondering what activities we can get involved in to promote animal rights and other environmental and social issues? Obviously we acheive a fair amount by being vegan, and a few people on here seem to be quite directly involved in promotional and protest activities.
What other things are there?
I’ve collected a few ideas: eat organic, save energy, run the car a bit less (or not at all!), have an ethical bank account or a credit card that gives rewards to a charity, join Greenpeace / World Wildlife Fund / similar, petition your government or write to your local MP on specific issues you feel strongly about, promote AR through a talent (art, writing, music) or a professional institution?
My writer’s magazine (Mslexia) had an article on Public Advocacy this quarter - writing for organisations that promote social change (kind of what we’re doing here). They recommend some free websites with advice / training, that I thought a few people might find interesting: fahamu.org/WFCEng/index.html aidsmap.com (a HIV and AIDS pressure group, but with a free advocacy toolkit) advocacy.org
As I’ve said before, Vegan lifestyle is quite expensive and hard to follow. There are many countries where people don’t even know the difference between Vegetarian and Vegan.
We have to come up with some ways to promote certain products that are not expensive. That’ll be a good start.