Storybook for my Daughter; Veganism for Kids, etc.
03 October 2016 [link youtube]
How can you talk about veganism with young children? This video answers a question from a viewer on this issue, and, also, reads out the script for my children's book on the topic (a picture book that is not yet illustrated, as of Oct. 2016).
Youtube Automatic Transcription
do you think that earthworms ever want
to see the sky sometimes sometimes they do sometimes they climb up on the grass sometimes they wiggle up to the top of a mud puddle do you think they want to see the Sun the moon and the clouds as we do I don't know do you think the birds looking down ever want to see the world underground as earthworms do they see the same sky every day perhaps sometimes they imagined there was another world below where the earthworms fly - sitting on the streetlights looking down they imagine the earthworm sitting on their own little landfill looking up from a world turned upside down when birds fly over the lake do you think they want to see the world below the water as fishes do do they imagine there's another Sun and another moon down there under the water for all the fishes to see in the sky they see the Sun the moon and the clouds so they imagine the fish of their own world with their own Sun at the bottom of the lake I suppose when the fish come up to the surface what would they expect to see some seaweed or an octopus floating by another ocean upside down above them in the sky yes I suppose so earthworms want to see the sky the birds want to see underground and the fish want to see another ocean in the clouds what about the pigs and the cows what do you mean I think cows want to see the sky but they live their whole lives inside millions of cows live in factories and never see the sky I think pigs want to see the sky but millions of them in the factories live their whole lives inside waiting to die when they look up they see only a metal roof and when they look down they see only a concrete floor perhaps they imagined that the world outside has only a metal sky and the forests and fields are made of cement and steel even earthworms want to see the sky above us yen this video is gonna serve two purposes I'm gonna read you out the script of the children's book that I wrote I wrote it in Chinese and I translated the Chinese into English it's a book that introduces the fundamental concept of veganism to children and because it's in both Chinese in English in theory it could reach a fairly large audience in theory and if you watch this channel you know I've been talking to illustrators about making this a real Illustrated children's book hopefully in the next few months that really happens and hopefully I can do some fundraising through my patreon channel to support it maybe just you know selling copies of the book in advance or something when we get to that stage I'm not sure I'd also like to have someone come here on YouTube and read out the Chinese text in a better accent that I have in Chinese but before I read out the script of the book I'm just gonna answer a question from a viewer a viewer named Emmy Rodian asking hi I have a question I'm an early childhood educator so I presume she either works in a primary school or daycare centers about that how can you talk about veganism with young children she asks how would you do it I think would be a good video topic I've been vegan for ten years but I'm still unsure about this much love from a French girl from Montreal Quebec okay thanks for the question Emmie now one part of the answer is already implicit in the fact that I've just written this children's book and I'm not talking to illustrators about making an illustrated children's book I do think that the arts can bridge these issues in a very broad fundamental basic way and many people have pointed out that even some Disney movies some mainstream movies like a Bambi they do communicate the point that animals are alive and don't want to die etc etc I mean you know on that very simple level some of those ideas can be communicated to children but you know there's another sense in which I think we need to recognize that veganism is not an issue for children whenever you're talking about a child that is too young to watch video from a slaughterhouse which you know believe me I don't think you should be showing young children those those images then obviously there's a sense in which they can never see or deal with the reality of what the meat and dairy industry is it's too disturbing now in some ways that's a very difficult admission for vegan to make but you know there are some questions whether it's about sex or violence or war or politics where we just have to acknowledge this is an issue for grownups this is something tremendously important but this is something grown-ups talk about and grownups decide about and grown-ups do I was once in an airport in Thailand and there was a woman there a white woman I assumed she was American with her son and she was so exhausted she wasn't saying anything your whole face you could just see she'd had it and her son who was quite well rested I assumed he slept in the airplane and she did something her son was very loudly lecturing everyone in the airport about how the United States should start more Wars and spend more money on its military and bomb more countries oddly he actually believed us for economic reasons he wanted to massively expand the role of US military I don't know the kid was I he could have been eight years old I don't know but he was a kid I mean wasn't the teenager or something and the mother I remember she looked at me a couple of times to sort of check whether or not I was being so offended that she had to shut her kid up or something because it was it was offensive well the kid was saying you know I I was just sitting there for heating the newspaper but I was somewhat amused to hear this kids view of American politics I didn't say a word I didn't say a word the mother I didn't say a word the kid you know just a funny thing that happened the airport I mean the truth is ideally what someone should have said to the kid isn't that he's wrong isn't that he's being offensive really what this kid needs to know is that he's talking about an issue that's for grown-ups is that he's talking about something that is so was serious that only adults should address it or deal with it this is not something children should be voicing their opinions on doesn't mean it's something your kids should never know about I mean you know I don't think your kids should grow up ignorant about the fact that the United States is dropping bombs in other countries I think on a broad level they need to grow up with that political awareness same thing with human sexuality kids need to grow up with an awareness of what sexuality is and how the whole world around them is organized by it in some ways however you want to put it and yet there's a sense in which it's just not something for kids to talk about not something for them to have opinions about themselves and where you need to be really careful and respect the fact that they are gonna grow up with some level of you know ignorance of blissful ignorance and in their childhood about the reality of what goes on in a slaughterhouse about the reality of what human sexuality is and how it you know shapes the whole world around us and about the reality of warfare and what warfare is so I you know I do think it's not too much to try to explain to a child look if you're talking about the deaths of millions of human beings the violent deaths of large numbers of people that is a topic for grown-ups and you know at your age now you've got to leave that aside you can't come out and say this you can't when you're older because for one thing I can't show you that videotape or that photograph of showing you what battlefield carnage really looks like I can't show you people who've been killed by predator drones what that really is what that really means whatever go back in history you're not going to show a child real images of what happened in World War 1 or in the Holocaust in World War 2 or of our current complex mean today we have you know high-tech digital video of most of these wars and the carnage related to them and so on and you know there can be little details also that people find moving that aren't necessarily gory many people relate that you know with the Holocaust it's something like seeing a pile of shoe the shoes of the people that were killed or you know children's shoes that are not there's no blood in the more anything it's just reflects indirectly those deaths you know I remember with World War one there was an artifact in a museum which was a really nasty dagger and just indirectly that dagger reflected the brutal reality of trench warfare you know we may think of warfare in terms of bombs being dropped in terms of lions on a map in terms of strategic decision-making in terms of the sort of high level of politics and long term outcomes but there's another reality there's another reality that's harder for us to think about that's more uncomfortable for all of us which is the reality of people literally stabbing each other a face-to-face struggles in the mud to some extent that's true of every war but it's also different from one more war to the next and it was very true of World War one that a lot of those you know political struggles ultimately played out on that level so no it's it's not appropriate for an adult to impose on a child any of those expectations of them knowing or making decisions about matters of such violence matters that are so disturbing whether it's violence towards animals or balance towards people and you know it does not mean that ignorant is bliss for children but it means that we can only deal with these things in a very broad and abstract sense and we basically have to inform children all the time this is an issue so serious that really it's only for grown-ups it's not an issue for you to make up your mind about you just need to be aware that in the world of adults this is something in the case of warfare this is something where large numbers of people get killed and in the case of something like veganism where large numbers of animals get killed and it's something you can't really understand yet now keeping it a hundred percent real I think there's a sense in which children also cannot understand ecology we for ten they do because that's much less disturbing we take children to museums and show them picture books and talk about nature and forests and we talk about principles of recycling I think actually adults for the most part we are kidding ourselves the reality of what ecology means and what it entails and you know ecology in relation to fegan ism I think actually that is something that again you have to be an adult you have to be at least 11 years old to really understand what ecology means and what entails so we can get to similar problems there although it's not for the reason of it being a dark and disturbing of it involving gory images that children can't look at can't consider can't behold and you know I'm aware there are vegans who disagree with me there are vegans who think that children should face up these terrible truths at an early age and know them and feel them and carry carry these truths with them I don't know if you've got your own YouTube channel and you're a vegan parent or a vegan with a lot of experience with kids it'd be interesting to hear some other perspectives know that there's so much nonsense on vegan YouTube sure it would be wonderful to hear someone speak from you know someone who really disagrees about this talk about their own experience in teaching veganism to children maybe there are some of you out there who really strongly believe that it is appropriate to show them images of how a slaughterhouse works or what have you but I don't so here is the manuscript of the book I wrote for children that definitely does not have any gory images in it you'll see it just presents the fundamental concept and I'd note again this was translated from Chinese into English so the English is maybe a little bit awkward I might make a few changes to make the English flow make the English sound a little bit more natural before this goes to final press do you think that earthworms ever want to see the sky sometimes sometimes they do sometimes they climb up on the grass sometimes they wiggle up to the top of a mud puddle do you think they want to see the Sun the moon and the clouds as do I don't know do you think the birds looking down ever want to see the world underground as earthworms do they see the same sky every day perhaps sometimes they imagined there was another world below where the earthworms fly to sitting on the streetlights looking down they imagine the earthworm sitting on their own little lamp pole looking up from a world turned upside down when birds fly over the lake do you think they want to see the world below the water as fishes do do they imagine there's another Sun another moon down there under the water for all the fishes to see in the sky they see the Sun the moon and the clouds so they imagine the fish of their own world with their own Sun at the bottom of the lake I suppose when the fish come up to the surface what would they expect to see some seaweed or an octopus floating by another ocean upside down above them in the sky yes I suppose so earthworms want to see the sky the birds want to see underground and the fish want to see another ocean in the clouds what about the pigs and the cows what do you mean I think cows want to see the sky but they live their whole lives inside millions of cows live in factories and never see the sky I think pigs want to see the sky but millions of them in the factories live their whole lives inside waiting to die when they look up they see only a metal roof and when they look down they see only a concrete floor perhaps they imagined that the world outside has only a middle sky and the forests and fields are made of cement and steel even earthworms want to see the sky and that is the title of the book even earthworms want to see the sky ah ba Lu Ciel
to see the sky sometimes sometimes they do sometimes they climb up on the grass sometimes they wiggle up to the top of a mud puddle do you think they want to see the Sun the moon and the clouds as we do I don't know do you think the birds looking down ever want to see the world underground as earthworms do they see the same sky every day perhaps sometimes they imagined there was another world below where the earthworms fly - sitting on the streetlights looking down they imagine the earthworm sitting on their own little landfill looking up from a world turned upside down when birds fly over the lake do you think they want to see the world below the water as fishes do do they imagine there's another Sun and another moon down there under the water for all the fishes to see in the sky they see the Sun the moon and the clouds so they imagine the fish of their own world with their own Sun at the bottom of the lake I suppose when the fish come up to the surface what would they expect to see some seaweed or an octopus floating by another ocean upside down above them in the sky yes I suppose so earthworms want to see the sky the birds want to see underground and the fish want to see another ocean in the clouds what about the pigs and the cows what do you mean I think cows want to see the sky but they live their whole lives inside millions of cows live in factories and never see the sky I think pigs want to see the sky but millions of them in the factories live their whole lives inside waiting to die when they look up they see only a metal roof and when they look down they see only a concrete floor perhaps they imagined that the world outside has only a metal sky and the forests and fields are made of cement and steel even earthworms want to see the sky above us yen this video is gonna serve two purposes I'm gonna read you out the script of the children's book that I wrote I wrote it in Chinese and I translated the Chinese into English it's a book that introduces the fundamental concept of veganism to children and because it's in both Chinese in English in theory it could reach a fairly large audience in theory and if you watch this channel you know I've been talking to illustrators about making this a real Illustrated children's book hopefully in the next few months that really happens and hopefully I can do some fundraising through my patreon channel to support it maybe just you know selling copies of the book in advance or something when we get to that stage I'm not sure I'd also like to have someone come here on YouTube and read out the Chinese text in a better accent that I have in Chinese but before I read out the script of the book I'm just gonna answer a question from a viewer a viewer named Emmy Rodian asking hi I have a question I'm an early childhood educator so I presume she either works in a primary school or daycare centers about that how can you talk about veganism with young children she asks how would you do it I think would be a good video topic I've been vegan for ten years but I'm still unsure about this much love from a French girl from Montreal Quebec okay thanks for the question Emmie now one part of the answer is already implicit in the fact that I've just written this children's book and I'm not talking to illustrators about making an illustrated children's book I do think that the arts can bridge these issues in a very broad fundamental basic way and many people have pointed out that even some Disney movies some mainstream movies like a Bambi they do communicate the point that animals are alive and don't want to die etc etc I mean you know on that very simple level some of those ideas can be communicated to children but you know there's another sense in which I think we need to recognize that veganism is not an issue for children whenever you're talking about a child that is too young to watch video from a slaughterhouse which you know believe me I don't think you should be showing young children those those images then obviously there's a sense in which they can never see or deal with the reality of what the meat and dairy industry is it's too disturbing now in some ways that's a very difficult admission for vegan to make but you know there are some questions whether it's about sex or violence or war or politics where we just have to acknowledge this is an issue for grownups this is something tremendously important but this is something grown-ups talk about and grownups decide about and grown-ups do I was once in an airport in Thailand and there was a woman there a white woman I assumed she was American with her son and she was so exhausted she wasn't saying anything your whole face you could just see she'd had it and her son who was quite well rested I assumed he slept in the airplane and she did something her son was very loudly lecturing everyone in the airport about how the United States should start more Wars and spend more money on its military and bomb more countries oddly he actually believed us for economic reasons he wanted to massively expand the role of US military I don't know the kid was I he could have been eight years old I don't know but he was a kid I mean wasn't the teenager or something and the mother I remember she looked at me a couple of times to sort of check whether or not I was being so offended that she had to shut her kid up or something because it was it was offensive well the kid was saying you know I I was just sitting there for heating the newspaper but I was somewhat amused to hear this kids view of American politics I didn't say a word I didn't say a word the mother I didn't say a word the kid you know just a funny thing that happened the airport I mean the truth is ideally what someone should have said to the kid isn't that he's wrong isn't that he's being offensive really what this kid needs to know is that he's talking about an issue that's for grown-ups is that he's talking about something that is so was serious that only adults should address it or deal with it this is not something children should be voicing their opinions on doesn't mean it's something your kids should never know about I mean you know I don't think your kids should grow up ignorant about the fact that the United States is dropping bombs in other countries I think on a broad level they need to grow up with that political awareness same thing with human sexuality kids need to grow up with an awareness of what sexuality is and how the whole world around them is organized by it in some ways however you want to put it and yet there's a sense in which it's just not something for kids to talk about not something for them to have opinions about themselves and where you need to be really careful and respect the fact that they are gonna grow up with some level of you know ignorance of blissful ignorance and in their childhood about the reality of what goes on in a slaughterhouse about the reality of what human sexuality is and how it you know shapes the whole world around us and about the reality of warfare and what warfare is so I you know I do think it's not too much to try to explain to a child look if you're talking about the deaths of millions of human beings the violent deaths of large numbers of people that is a topic for grown-ups and you know at your age now you've got to leave that aside you can't come out and say this you can't when you're older because for one thing I can't show you that videotape or that photograph of showing you what battlefield carnage really looks like I can't show you people who've been killed by predator drones what that really is what that really means whatever go back in history you're not going to show a child real images of what happened in World War 1 or in the Holocaust in World War 2 or of our current complex mean today we have you know high-tech digital video of most of these wars and the carnage related to them and so on and you know there can be little details also that people find moving that aren't necessarily gory many people relate that you know with the Holocaust it's something like seeing a pile of shoe the shoes of the people that were killed or you know children's shoes that are not there's no blood in the more anything it's just reflects indirectly those deaths you know I remember with World War one there was an artifact in a museum which was a really nasty dagger and just indirectly that dagger reflected the brutal reality of trench warfare you know we may think of warfare in terms of bombs being dropped in terms of lions on a map in terms of strategic decision-making in terms of the sort of high level of politics and long term outcomes but there's another reality there's another reality that's harder for us to think about that's more uncomfortable for all of us which is the reality of people literally stabbing each other a face-to-face struggles in the mud to some extent that's true of every war but it's also different from one more war to the next and it was very true of World War one that a lot of those you know political struggles ultimately played out on that level so no it's it's not appropriate for an adult to impose on a child any of those expectations of them knowing or making decisions about matters of such violence matters that are so disturbing whether it's violence towards animals or balance towards people and you know it does not mean that ignorant is bliss for children but it means that we can only deal with these things in a very broad and abstract sense and we basically have to inform children all the time this is an issue so serious that really it's only for grown-ups it's not an issue for you to make up your mind about you just need to be aware that in the world of adults this is something in the case of warfare this is something where large numbers of people get killed and in the case of something like veganism where large numbers of animals get killed and it's something you can't really understand yet now keeping it a hundred percent real I think there's a sense in which children also cannot understand ecology we for ten they do because that's much less disturbing we take children to museums and show them picture books and talk about nature and forests and we talk about principles of recycling I think actually adults for the most part we are kidding ourselves the reality of what ecology means and what it entails and you know ecology in relation to fegan ism I think actually that is something that again you have to be an adult you have to be at least 11 years old to really understand what ecology means and what entails so we can get to similar problems there although it's not for the reason of it being a dark and disturbing of it involving gory images that children can't look at can't consider can't behold and you know I'm aware there are vegans who disagree with me there are vegans who think that children should face up these terrible truths at an early age and know them and feel them and carry carry these truths with them I don't know if you've got your own YouTube channel and you're a vegan parent or a vegan with a lot of experience with kids it'd be interesting to hear some other perspectives know that there's so much nonsense on vegan YouTube sure it would be wonderful to hear someone speak from you know someone who really disagrees about this talk about their own experience in teaching veganism to children maybe there are some of you out there who really strongly believe that it is appropriate to show them images of how a slaughterhouse works or what have you but I don't so here is the manuscript of the book I wrote for children that definitely does not have any gory images in it you'll see it just presents the fundamental concept and I'd note again this was translated from Chinese into English so the English is maybe a little bit awkward I might make a few changes to make the English flow make the English sound a little bit more natural before this goes to final press do you think that earthworms ever want to see the sky sometimes sometimes they do sometimes they climb up on the grass sometimes they wiggle up to the top of a mud puddle do you think they want to see the Sun the moon and the clouds as do I don't know do you think the birds looking down ever want to see the world underground as earthworms do they see the same sky every day perhaps sometimes they imagined there was another world below where the earthworms fly to sitting on the streetlights looking down they imagine the earthworm sitting on their own little lamp pole looking up from a world turned upside down when birds fly over the lake do you think they want to see the world below the water as fishes do do they imagine there's another Sun another moon down there under the water for all the fishes to see in the sky they see the Sun the moon and the clouds so they imagine the fish of their own world with their own Sun at the bottom of the lake I suppose when the fish come up to the surface what would they expect to see some seaweed or an octopus floating by another ocean upside down above them in the sky yes I suppose so earthworms want to see the sky the birds want to see underground and the fish want to see another ocean in the clouds what about the pigs and the cows what do you mean I think cows want to see the sky but they live their whole lives inside millions of cows live in factories and never see the sky I think pigs want to see the sky but millions of them in the factories live their whole lives inside waiting to die when they look up they see only a metal roof and when they look down they see only a concrete floor perhaps they imagined that the world outside has only a middle sky and the forests and fields are made of cement and steel even earthworms want to see the sky and that is the title of the book even earthworms want to see the sky ah ba Lu Ciel