The first is a rather sweet salad, with an acid twist. You will need 2 carrots, 1 fennel, 1 red cabbage, raisins or sultanas, and 1 celeriac (celery-root). Grate the carrots, then the same amount of red cabbage and celeriac, and chop up finely some fennel. Put everything into a big bowl; throw in a handful of sultanas. Now for the dressing: 1 teaspoon Dijon mustard, 1 teaspoon olive oil, 2 teaspoons red wine vinegar, salt and pepper to taste. In a bowl, slowly add the olive oil to the Dijon mustard, stirring vigorously. Mix well, and then add the red wine vinegar, salt and pepper and stir. Sprinkle the salad with the dressing and stir. Serve. I just looove this salad.

Now for something a bit more conventional: you’ll need some lettuce (a few leaves), 2 or 3 mushrooms, a handful black olives, spinach (a few leaves). Chop up the mushrooms, and put them in a big bowl with the lettuce, spinach and olives. For the dressing, sprinkle with a spoonful of olive oil, a spoonful of lemon juice, a spoonful of soy sauce, salt and pepper to taste. Mix well and serve. This is the very basic recipe. You can add for flavour and variety any of the following: pointed cabbage, sunflower seeds, pine nuts, salami. The more, the merrier! I’ve never tried to add smoked salmon, but I have a feeling it could be a killer!

Just a quick one for the road, now: an avocado or 2, 1 clove garlic, different nuts and seeds (preferably previously soaked for a few hours), lime juice, salt, pepper and ground chilli peppers to taste. Mash the avocado(s), add the garlic cut finely, mix well, add some lime juice to taste, salt, pepper and chillies and mix well. Add the nuts and seeds and mix well. Yummy!

Reminds me I forgot to take some pictures. Maybe next time… I hope you’re well, happy and conscious, and that you’ll give any of theses recipes a go. All organic, of course! Speaking of which, I found through a friend a wonderful, and unfortunately well-hidden and little-known, small organic market. It’s an organic farmer from Wicklow himself who comes to town every Thursday, from 11:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m., and puts up his stalls. You’ll find him on Brighton Square, South end, off Harold’s Cross/Terenure Road. He’s got really fresh and delicious stuff, and a lot of variety as well. I haven’t gone to a supermarket since I’ve discovered him. Support the little man. Who says organic is expensive? I usually get all my fresh products for the week from him; it usually amounts to less than € 40… For the whole week! Add to this a few euros down the local health store or small local shops for stuff like olive oil, nuts and seeds, olives, salami and the odd bar of chocolate from Green & Black’s (I know… it’s not live… But it’s soooo good I can’t seem to do without), and that’s my shopping done!

Anyway. Gotta go now. Prepare a salad. Don’t be shy, leave a comment some time. I’d like to hear what you think.

Spread the love and increase the peace.

Hubert.

Whenever you visit welikeitraw.com, don’t miss the article entitled “Raw Vs Dunkin”.

I have a feeling that, on a lot of subjects, I’m mainly preaching to converted here. One of the other reasons why I started this blog is also that I wanted to take some space. I always moan that the mainstream media only offer us a very corporate-friendly voice, with advertisement everywhere, political conservatism as the norm, and where capitalism, or neo-liberalism as it is now called, has become another word for “democracy”. So I decided to take some space. My space. Because that little space that I’m occupying here is a space that cannot be occupied by something I don’t like. This is my way of changing the world, too. By making my voice be heard. Isn’t that what democracy is about? Or is democracy just about electing (or not electing…) people that I will never meet in my life, and who will be free to make any decision they wish for four, five, six years? In my name. In your name. So I’m taking this space. Thank you very much.

Spread the love and increase the peace.

Hubert.

P.S. I like my quotes. Here’s one of my favourites these days: “If one day the world blows up, the last audible voice will be that of an expert, saying that the thing is impossible.” – Peter Ustinov.

Now two weeks on, I wouldn’t go back for the world. The change is amazing. For a start, my energy levels have increased quite significantly. And I think my consciousness has changed quite a bit. It’s hard to explain; I think my body tells me that this is right. It feels right, anyway. Cooked food I see now as “dead”. And it’s not a mental judgment. It’s what my body, my intuition, tells me. I don’t look at food the same way. And I’m much more grateful for what I have in my plate. It’s as if I had reconnected to the source of food, to the Earth, and also to the consciousness that food is a source, a source of energy, and of Life. I cannot recommend it highly enough.

It takes a bit of an effort, initially. I had to get creative. It was such a change for me, who invariably used carbs as a staple in any meal I cooked. Out the window pasta, rice, noodles, bread. They’re all cooked. Processed. That’s another thing: so much of our food is now processed that we have lost touch with where it’s coming from. Furthermore, we have let ourselves become dependent on major multinationals for one of our most basic needs (as well as for all our activities…): nutrition. So as much as I can, I try shop exclusively at my local organic market in Ranelagh on Sunday mornings. And I get creative. I usually start the day with a home-made fruit salad, and I can’t tell you the buzz I get out of it. My meals usually consist of a big veg salad (I put any of the following: carrots, mushrooms, salami, Parma ham, lettuce, broccoli, nuts, seeds, cabbage, etc, with a vinaigrette sauce made of olive oil, French mustard and red vinegar) and a fruit. I also experimented with carpaccio: raw tuna cut in thin slices, marinated in olive oil, salt and lemon juice. Delicious! I’m now looking for an organic butcher who could provide me with quality beef: you can make beef carpaccio as well.

I don’t get cravings anymore. Before, I used to get mad sugar cravings two hours after a meal that contained carbs. I don’t anymore. And if I feel like a snack during the day or late at night, dried fruits and nuts are pure heaven! Another benefit is of course that it is very environmentally friendly: I don’t use any electricity to cook anymore. Last but not least, I’ve also reduced my amount and time of washing-up, since I don’t use pans and pots anymore!

I must be honest: it is more expensive. You can make four meals out of a €3 bag of pasta. Fresh food is more expensive. But with what I’m saving up on electricity, I trust it shouldn’t make much of a difference at the end of the day. And the energy and pleasure I get out of it are priceless.

Spread the love and increase the peace. And don’t knock it ’till you’ve tried it!

Hubert.

I had noticed her more than I had anyone else that day because she was sitting outside a charity shop on this cold February afternoon. I had noticed her more than I had anyone else because she was wearing pyjama bottoms. Not jeans, a trendy skirt or a flowery dress. No: pyjama bottoms. On the 2nd of February 2008. It was cold, today. Freezing, almost. I was wearing a vest, a T-shirt, a jumper, a hoodie and a winter coat, and I was happy to have all that attire on me! The reason why she took the initiative to approach me was that she was asking for a bit of change. Very gently, very humbly. She also said, in a low voice, with almost no anger, that she was fed up with people’s ignorance.

Louise is homeless, you must have guessed that by now. I gave her a couple of euros, and we got talking. She shared that little story: a few hours earlier that day, sick of freezing out in the cold in her pyjama bottoms, she had walked into the charity shop, Enable Ireland, hoping to get proper trousers. She had gone out of hospital the day before, walks with crutches, and she told me she had blood dripping down one leg due a cut. In she walks, explains her situation to the charity shop assistant, and asks if they would give her a pair of trousers, even the cheapest ones. “I can’t do that, sorry. I’d get into trouble if I did.”, says the shop assistant. Louise tries a few more words to try to convince her, without success. So she walks out, sits outside the shop, and starts begging, hoping to get a few euros so that she can afford the precious and badly needed trousers.

What sort of a world do we live in where the shop assistant of a charity (sic) shop refuses to give a homeless girl on crutches a pair of trousers in February, fearing “getting into trouble” to justify her behaviour? What sort of a charity refuses to give away for free an item of clothing that was given, donated to them? What are Enable Ireland after? Are they really here, as they claim, to “support people with disabilities”? Or have they become, as I suspect most charities have, just another commercial organisation looking to grow bigger and bigger, and pat themselves on the back for all the good work, just like any other business?

This story has a bittersweet ending: after a while, having begged for long enough to get a few euros, Louise walked back into the shop, where the shop assistant gave her a free top for her purchase of a pair of trousers. Louise told me that what hurt her the most in her life, beyond even the homelessness itself, was people’s ignorance. At this stage, she’d even prefer to be told to “f..k off” (her own words) than to be ignored. I am grateful to Louise. Today, she told me more about the society we live in than a year of T.V. programmes would have. Louise, I pray for you. And I ask for your forgiveness for not having had the courage to ask you if you needed something more from me than those few euros and minutes I gave you.

Spread the love and increase the peace.

And let’s never forget the people who are not given a voice by anyone else. They, too, have their story. They, too, have a lesson for us.

Hubert.

Never mind. I refer you now to Georges Bernanos’ quote in the post just below. He talks about personal responsibility. If I want my supermarket to stop importing garlic from China, I have to stop buying it. And bananas. God, grant me the courage to give up my addiction to Chinese garlic and Ecuadorian bananas! And let me refuse to shop in supermarkets and believe in consumerism. The whole world, the environment, and ultimately my little person, have everything to gain from it. “They are tall because we bow down.” Étienne de La Boétie.

Spread the love and increase the peace.

Hubert.

I think this sums up one of the other reasons I started this blog: to remind myself what sort of change I am seeking, to try visualise what sort of world I’d like to live in. “What’s the connection?”, I hear you ask. Well, I strongly believe that my individual actions and behaviours contribute to create the world I live in, so I’d rather be as aware as I can of my actions and behaviours, because they have an impact on the world. And as I’m writing, I also confront my writing with my views and beliefs; it really helps me make sense of it all… And check with myself whether my ideas are really out there, or if they make, at least a little bit of, sense.

Not in the mood for a big post today; instead I’ll re-direct you to a wonderful little video which I think should be shown in every school of every town of every country. It explains, very simply, what the real cost of “progress”, which is now associated with “stuff”, is. It’s a little bit cheesy, and probably aimed at a youger audience; nevertheless, what is worth saying once is worth saying twice as you know, and I think this video makes a few terrific points. It’s called… “The Story of Stuff”… You can watch it there:

http://www.storyofstuff.com/

Spread the love and increase the peace.

Hubert.

One of the most common misconceptions most of us are accepting as a fact concerns Life’s appearance on this planet. Because we are such self-centered animals – often even resisting the idea of being animals! – we like to equate Life with consciousness. And so scientists have been tracking down any form of even the smallest form of consciousness for as far as they could, thus accepting that the tiniest form of bacterial life, some 2.5 to 4.5 billions of years back, was the oldest form of Life.
I beg to differ.
Since Life is energy, my conception of It is that It has always been there. Well, It has been there for as long as there has been matter. Maybe even previously to that… It is not because the mineral realm has the lowest form of consciousness we know that it is not alive. Can anyone deny that the Earth is alive? I can even give you a piece of information that the Nasa would love to know, and has spent billions upon billions of dollars trying to find out: there is Life on Mars! Mars is Life. And Mars is Life. I mean, since It is matter itself, the Universe is alive! The Universe is Life! Life is the Universe.

There is Life in a piece of plastic. In a fragment of glass. In a drop of water. Granted, some forms are more stable and will transform through time at a slower pace than others. They are alive too, nonetheless.

We humans have been given an extraordinary faculty: we allegedly have the highest form of consciousness we can comprehend. Although… Isn’t Life itself the highest form of consciousness?

Spread the love and increase the peace.

And let us expand our consciousness. This is what Life wants from us. And let us never forget that with consciousness comes responsibility. That highest consciousness we have been graced with implies that we have a moral responsibility towards lesser consciousnesses. I fear we do not always honour that responsibility as best as we can/should.

Hubert.

Haven’t smoked since Sunday night. It’s been quite easy since I was only back smoking two weeks anyway. You know how we all like to indulge in “bad” things during Christmas. Well for me, it was the food, the chocolate, the sweets, (not so much the alcohol though), AND cigarettes. Not anymore. Well, we’ll see. God only knows.

Hope this finds you well, happy and conscious.

Spread the love and increase the peace.

Hubert.

( ↓ That’s me, showing off, in Venice, in August 2005… )

OFF.

Not on silent, OFF. From now on, I’m using my mobile phone as a landline. I’m just sick of it. Sick of this so-called “freedom” sold to us by all the marketing departments and advertising vampires, “freedom” which in no time has turned into a new servitude and made us that little bit more enslaved. I remember a time, and it is not so long ago, when you couldn’t take your phone everywhere with you. Blessed were thoses times, and we didn’t know it!

Now that time seems long gone, and we are lost if we are to be deprived of our mobile phone for an hour. Litterally lost. Any sense of commitment has disappeared because we all know that we can delay, postpone or even cancel any arrangement, at any moment, with a single text message. Unilaterally. Even two minutes before the pre-arranged meeting time. Shamelessly. “They’ll understand. They have a mobile phone, too.” Let’s not even mention privacy… Out the window. And like all those gadgets (iPods…) which we adopt so rapidly and so carelessly, their initial promise of making us freer and more communicative rapidly vanishes, and before we know it we are addicted to the stuff to a desperate point, and would rather spend an hour texting friends at the other end of the world than take five minutes to talk to the old lady sitting next to us on the bus. Or talk to our phone on the street rather than acknowledge and greet one another. I’m not even going to mention the radiations that we know nothing about, or the fact that our every movement can now be followed and traced: who needs health and civil liberties when we are being given a new freedom? It’s called servitude, by the way.

I’m not promising I’m going to talk to the old lady on the bus every day. But at least I’ve given up one excuse not to. I’ve just switched OFF my mobile phone.

Spread the love and increase the peace.

And turn OFF your mobile phones.

Hubert.