The Oxford Natural History Museum

If you are in Oxford to study, for a conference or just for a holyday, take some hours off and go to “The Oxford Natural History Museum”, you can’t miss such unbelievable experience. This place has an interesting story to tell. You will walk around dinosaurs and other extinct animals, you will able to touch the stone and the minerals that come from the dinosaurs’ age. You will go through all the ages and all the five animal kingdoms in a really witty way.

The museum is located in Parks Road close to city centre. There is a garden in front of the main gate that usually houses outdoor displays. Take some minutes to enjoy this space and especially to relish the sight of the neo-gothic palace. It was built in 1861 by the Irish architects Thomas Newenham Deane and Benjamin Woodward. When you are inside you will be hit by the glass roof which allows the sun to light everything. There are three aisles in the main room, full of sculptures of scientists, and cloistered arcades run around for the ground and the first floor. I was astonished to see that each column was made from a different stone.

On the ground under the arcades you will see a smart way to place the finds. They don’t follow a subject order but a chronological sequence, so you will see the T-rex with the plants and stones of its age. People and especially children enjoy this place take pictures of their heads between the huge dinosaur jaws.

You will get the way of the dodo. This extinct flightless bird is the mascot of the museum. The dodo story is fascinating, it came from Mauritius but after the colonization it got extinction really quickly because of hunting and pigs, since they were in competition for the same source of food. In Oxford there was the last dodo still alive, it was fat because of a wrong diet. This fat bird was featured as a character in Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. With the book’s popularity, the Dodo become a well-known icon of extinction.

What has really shocked me is the beehive. On the first floor near a window there is a glass beehive, it is link to the window by a tunnel and you can see the bees go out and come in. Watching the bees talk each other is amazing; they are able to talk thanks to a special dance, “the waggle dance”. If you have a watchful eye, you will see the queen; she is marked with a red spot.



In this museum something that is really important for our way to see the world happened.  Among its walls there has been the famous debate about “the evolutionary theory”. The two important lecturers were the bishop Samuel Wilberforce and the scientist Thomas Huxley. It is funny see that the museum was built to show the wonders of God’s creation and at the end it shows the proofs of Darwin’s evolution.

I’m sorry if I’ve spoiled the surprise to discover everything by your own, but trust me this place is very big, and there are a lot of things that I couldn’t say.

The Activists Handbook (a step to step guide to participatory democracy)

Io sono dell’idea che non siamo noi a scegliere i libri ma sono i libri che scelgono noi, l’altro giorno girando per le immense librerie di Oxford mi è successo proprio questo. Il fato ha voluto che in un periodo dove mi stavo interrogando sulle forme di partecipazione democratica mi fossi trovato davanti al “Manuale degli attivisti, una guida passo a passo per la democrazia partecipativa” di Aidan Riketts.

L`autore, come si può leggere nella biografia del suo sito, era un attivista che si occupava di tematiche ambientali. Nel 2003 ha iniziato a dedicare il suo tempo alla formazione degli attivisti, istituendo un corso alla Southern Cross University, Australia.  Oltre che rimanere impegnato come attivista ha quindi iniziato un lavoro di istruzione e formazione tramite seminari, workshop e consulenze per gruppi di attivisti in giro per il mondo.

La sua opera prima, pubblicata a Londra nel 2012, è stata distribuita in tutti i paesi anglofoni. Rappresenta il culmine di una vita spesa con passione a capire, vivere ed applicare la democrazia. Il libro è strutturato come un libro di testo. Ad una breve introduzione teorica seguono parti pratiche come strategia, comunicazione, ricerca, legislazione, sostenibilità ed attivismo digitale. Sicuramente per noi Italiani la parte legislativa può essere meno utile ma la grande forza di questo testo è che da una nuova visione della partecipazione democratica. Come guardare una Ferrari dopo aver studiato meccanica o il corpo umano dopo aver fatto medicina.

Per invogliarvi alla lettura voglio tradurvi un paragrafo:

La pratica della democrazia:

Abbiamo considerato il modo in cui l’interesse pubblico invoca direttamente gli ideali di democrazia. E` un buon momento per dare uno sguardo un poco più profondo al concetto di democrazia. Democrazia è un termine contestato; quasi tutti i reggimi sul pianeta, non importa quanto siano oppressivi, dichiarano di essere in qualche modo democratici. La sfida in molti paesi è determinare quanto è o quanto aspiri ad essere robusta la democrazia.  Il giudice J.Kirby dell’Australian High Court ha osservato che democrazia vuole dire molto più della semplice “ rito triennale di visita alla cabina elettorale”.

La pratica della democrazia richiede cittadini che prendono un ruolo attivo negli affari della comunità e della nazione e che siano pronti a fare sentire ed ascoltare le preoccupazioni della gente.

Un importante questione per un paese sviluppato è se esso miri ad avere una democrazia massimalista o minimalista. Nel peggiore dei casi una democrazia rappresentativa può semplicemente ridursi ad un sistema nel quale le persone scelgono i loro oppressori ogni tre o quattro anni; il miglior caso può essere un sistema il quale include una fiorente cultura della partecipazione democratica.

La visione partecipativa della democrazia considera il ruolo della partecipazione dei cittadini come un passare continuamente attraverso proteste, assemblee, referendum, azioni legali, lobbying, scioperi e azioni dirette o indipendenti dal ciclo elettorale. Nonostante molte di queste cose siano parzialmente tollerate nella cultura politica delle nazioni sviluppate, esse continuano a occupare una posizione ambigua e precaria.

Particolarmente nei paesi con un ordinamento giuridico anglosassone (common law) altre che negli USA, era tradizionalmente insolito avere una carta dei diritti radicata. Questo ha iniziato a cambiare dopo l’adozione della carta dei diritti da parte di Canada, Regno Unito e nuovo Zelanda. La Costituzione Canadese è molto più potente nel fare questo perché è costituzionalmente tutelato, rispetto a quello che tutela la costituzione americana. In assenza dell’adozione della carta dei diritti l’ordinamento anglosassone (common law) riconosce davvero poco in termini di diritto alla partecipazione.  In Australia dove non c’è una carta dei diritti nazionale, il diritto di protesta non è riconosciuto e le persone sono frequentemente arrestate per essere coinvolte in varie attività di protesta. Nello stato del Queensland nel 1980, per esempio, non c’era il diritto di assemblea pacifica, tutti gli attivisti politici erano soggetti a sorveglianza, e gli scioperi erano considerati come offese criminali in alcune industrie. In molti ordinamenti giuridici c’erano leggi per prevenire scioperi in supporto di altre associazioni, o per supporto a tematiche esterne al luogo di lavoro.  In questo modo il ruolo dei sindacati in un più ampio dibattito sulla giustizia sociale veniva ristretto, così veniva eroso un caposaldo del diritto alla partecipazione.

DG

Mopane’s Worms History

Prologue:

One fine day I joined in my Professor’s office. He was watching a video on Youtube about insect candy and I too began to watch it. At the end he asked to me: Can you be able to eat an insect?

Mamelodi Market

It was afternoon in Mamelodi, we were going to an informal market in the suburban areas around Pretoria because of my research. With me there were Ali, who was working for the ministry of agriculture, and two students, Pretty and Lebo. While I was walking among the market my attention was captured by a woman that was selling strange stuff… They seemed dry insects.

After the interviews with the vendors, who were selling raw offal. That was my research. We went back to the car, but the temptation was too strong for me, so I began to talk to the woman. Yes, they were dry caterpillars. The girls said: come on! Buy them! They are Mopane worms’! It is our culture. Obviously even the woman began to talk. In South Africa the people are like in Naples, they start to talk and you cannot say no, specially the vendors, so I bought them. Just two Rands and I left that place with my bag full of dry caterpillar.

Inside the car I ate quickly my first worm and, proud of my opened mind, I tried to give them to my South African friends. Lebo said: yes, I’ll eat it later! Pretty saved the worm for her cousin, and Ali said: No, thanks, it is not my culture. Me: Is it true? ..and which is your culture?  Ali: I am a black Jew. I have never understood what he was meaning.

Technical comment:

What is a Mopane worms? Imbrasia Bellina the scientific name, but it is just a big caterpillar that lives on Mopane tree. The butterfly has a wingspan of 12cm with two big orange spots that look like cat eyes and in its 4 day of life it has to find a mate. The larva has 5 stages, the last stage it is perfect to harvest but the problem is that human being is not its only predator. South African food chain is practically built on these poor worms. It’s difficult the life for them.

Women and children in South Africa pick caterpillars up in the wild or around the farms, because they are not considered to belong to the landowner. Afterwards the worms are raised in bushes near their homes. When they are ready the women pinch them at the tail end break the innards then they squeezes them like tubes of toothpaste or lengthwise like concertina, and whip them to expel the slimy, green contents of the gut.

The traditional method of preserving mopane worms is to dry them in the sun or smoke them, giving additional flavour. The industrial method is to can the caterpillars.

Conclutions:

A friend of mine, he was an Afrikaans man, said that even him was eating a lot of mopane worms during the war. When I went back to Italy I gave my mopane worms to my friends and with a sip of beer and a chat the bag ran out very quickly.

In my opinion these dry and woody insect are a funny and cheap source of protein suitable with a good glass of Peroni.

Beef labeling

INTRODUCTION:

Between the ‘80s and ‘90s  the livestock sector was in crunch because consumers  lost  trust due to the“Mad cow” alarm. The EU,  born as EEC, had been involved to fill that legislative gap and for the benefit of the  consumers. Today beef meat is the kind of meat with more information available to consumer. A legislative process that lasted two decades and that is still being improved.

What and How these information must be reported  is written in Reg. (CE) n. 1760/00, which establishes  a system for the identification and registration of bovine animals and  detailed rules for the application of Reg. (CE) n. 1825/00.

Today there are other livestock sectors, such as pig farming, that complain about this legislative gap which sprang up with the alarm of the  “dioxin pig”.

A distinction must be made among needs of consumers, producers and industry. What is happening in Italy can well explain the different points of view.

With Rule n.4 of 3 February 2011 Italy has tried to impose new rules about food labels, regulation required  by  the  consumers  and consortia of producers. One of the various issues addressed was the obligation to write product origins, included pork . This legislation touched interests of many factories, it complicated their work in our country and it made trade relations with foreign country more difficult. European commissioner for health and consumer policy, Jhon Dalli and for Agriculture, Dacian Ciolos have rejected Italian low about food labelling, they considered inappropriate the low and they asked to wait for adoption of a communitarian regulation. Although this law has good intentions, Italy will face fines.  However Italy is not the only country that has tried to set rules about this topic, Ireland too. Which was object of a UE decision about poultry, swine and sheep meat labelling.

REGULATIONS

Today in EU it is compulsory the Community beef labelling system

The compulsory labelling system will ensure a link between, on the one hand  the identification of the carcass, quarter or pieces of meat and, on the other hand the individual animal or the group of animals concerned.

The label will contain the following indications:

a) a reference number or reference code ensuring the link between the meat and the animal or animals. This number may be the identification number of the individual animal from which the beef was derived or the identification number relating to a group of animals;

b) the approval number of the slaughterhouse where the animal or group of animals was slaughtered and the Member State or third where the slaughterhouse is established. The indication will read: "Slaughtered in (name of the Member State or third country) (approval number)";

c) the approval number of the cutting hall which performed the cutting operation on the carcass or group of carcases and the Member State or third country where the hall is established. The indication will  read: "Cutting in: (name of the Member State or third country) (approval number)".

Operators and organisations shall also indicate on the labels:

(i) Member State or third country of birth;

(ii) all Member States or third countries where fattening took place;

(iii) Member State or third country where slaughter took place;

 However, whereas the beef is derived from animals born, raised and slaughtered:

(i) in the same Member State, the indication may be given as "Origin: (name of Member State)";

(ii) in the same third country, the indication may be given as "Origin: (name of third country)".

 Derogations from the compulsory labelling system

Operator or organisation preparing minced beef shall indicate on the label the words "prepared (name of the Member State or third country)", depending on where the meat was prepared, and "origin" where the State or States involved are not the State of preparation.

Beef imported into the Community for which not all the information provided is available, shall be labelled with the indication: "Origin: non-EC" and "Slaughtered in: (name of third country)".

Voluntary labelling system

For labels containing indications other than those provided for in Section I of this title, each operator or organisation shall send a specification for approval to the competent authority of the Member State in which production or sale of the beef in question takes place. The competent authority may also establish specifications to be used in the Member State concerned, provided that use thereof is not compulsory.

Voluntary labelling specifications shall indicate:

- the information to be included on the label,

- the measures to be taken to ensure the accuracy of the information,

- the control system which will be applied to  all stages of production and sale, including the controls to be carried out by an independent body recognised by the competent authority and designated by the operator or the organisation. These bodies shall comply with the criteria set out in European Standard EN/45011.

The most recent EU regulation of 15 March 2007 n. 275 has brought important changes at Reg. 1760/00 and 1825/00 about traceability and beef labelling of cut meat and trimmings. Which will be labelled in the same way as 2000 for minced beef.

The application of regulation 1760/00 has pointed out many practical problems encountered by operators, especially from retailers of beef, who  should continuously update the label each time to supply the counter sale, operation which happens continuously by the day.

Other problem is that usually retailers contact a small numbers of big suppliers because they do not want meet difficulties in meat labelling. This is a clear threat to small slaughterhouses and cutting plants business.

Il black pudding

Il Sanguinaccio nell’UK (the black pudding)

Pietanza prelibata, legata a una tradizione che si perde nel tempo, prima che il mondo imponesse consumi forzati, quando si macellava un animale per tutto il paese e di quell’animale non si buttava niente.

Oggi meno consumato, forse perché il suo ingrediente principale, cioè il sangue è associato all’idea di malattia o forse perché se si pensa quali animali in natura si nutrono di sangue vengono in mente zanzare, vampiri e sanguisughe.

Di fatto il Sanguinaccio non è popolare tra le nuove generazioni, poiché queste non hanno conosciuto la fame e la guerra anzi si fanno convincere a mangiare una formaggio spalmabile dalla giovane Kelli Hu (Kaory), che di sicuro si sa solo che è salubre e spalmabile.

Per chi oggi ha un po’ di spirito di avventura enogastronomico o perché è ancora legato alla tradizione il sanguinaccio rimane un evergreen dei piatti.

In Italia ne abbiamo tante varianti, come ogni nostro piatto tutte le sue varianti sono legate alla tradizione delle regioni e dei paesi. Dal Sangelli siciliano sino al Boudin valdostano prende i nomi e le forme più diverse, in Lombardia lo chiamano Marzapane(come il dolce di mandorla del sud Italia) e lo insaccano con pane e spezie.

Nel resto del mondo non sono da meno, c’è una variabilità incredibile, usano dal sangue di bovino a quello d’oca, viene insaccato o preparato con spezie e ingredienti sempre diversi. In Sud America, Africa per non parlare dell’ Asia, è sempre presente e legato a culture povere dove si fa di necessità virtù.

In UK il Black pudding è amatissimo, può addirittura essere mangiato nella tradizionale colazione all’inglese. Anche qui è un insaccato di sangue di maiale, ma viene riempito con farina d’avena e insaporito con cipolle o menta. Può essere mangiato crudo, alla brace, fritto, o bollito.

The “Sanguinaccio” in UK (the black pudding)

It is a choice dish which is linked  to tradition that has been  lost in the past, before the world has imposed extreme consumerism, when they used to slaughter an animal for the benefit of the whole village and nothing was thrown out of it.

Today its consume has diminished, due either to its  main ingredient, blood, which is associated with idea of disease,  or to the idea  of such animals feeding themselves  on blood, like  mosquitoes, vampires and leeches.

It is a fact that black pudding  is not popular into new-generations as they have  not suffered  starvation or  war and are used to be persuaded by the young Kelli Hu to try the soft  spread cheese on a slice of bread.

To those with  gourmet adventure spirit or who  are linked to  traditions, the “sanguinaccio” is an evergreen temptation.

In Italy we have different kinds of black pudding and they all are linked to local traditions and regional dishes.  From Sicilian “Sangelli” to Valdostano “Boudin” it takes  different forms and names. In Lombardia it is called “Marzapane” (like the Sicilian cakes with almonds) and it is bagged with bread and spices.

In the rest of the world there is  an incredible variety of puddings which  use from  bovine blood to that of duck. It is always  bagged with different spices and ingredients. In Africa, South America, and not least in Asia, it is  always linked to poor cultures where  necessity becomes virtue.

In UK the black pudding is really appreciated, it can even be eaten at traditional English breakfast too. It is a pork blood bagged but it is worked  with oatmeal and  flavoured with onion and pennyroyal (a kind of mint). It can be eaten raw, grilled, fried or boiled.

Full of  expectations  I was going to buy it! First  a quick research on internet to check where I could go, I decided for  Waitrose. There were more attractive alternatives because in London there are more than one  butcher and delicatessen which  brag about their black pudding quality. Anyhow,  after considering  my  schedule  I was going to Waitrose which among all the British food stores  has surely the highest quality but, believe me,  there you will pay all of its quality .