9 minute read
Sybil Otterstrom
Remarkable Women: Sybil, tell us a little bit about yourself: Well, I am 50+ now. I started my career in a bank, but quickly got into sales in one of the big newspapers. This is where my expertise in publishing comes from. Has it always been your dream to do ‘Hola MaHigh-School’? Yes. It is something about giving back to the community and especially to encourage young people. It is hard work, though August is Women’s Month. Is it still relevant? Oh yes. It is not just about seeing women in leadership roles or as the president (although that is about time). It is about creating an en vironment where men and women can work together and fulfil their dreams. Promoting incompetence just because … is not helping any body. It makes a mockery out of it instead. What about ambition? It is correct that we might not have seen the same amount of ambition in women in the past as we see now. However, South Africa is changing, and if we look at young people today, we see more focus on ‘dreams’ than on ‘cannot do’. What has been the most dramatic change in recent history? The death of Floyd in USA. It made sure that prejudice and in that instance, racism, got on the front page. However, it pulled in a lot more than just racism in USA. It high-lighted prejudice across the board. Now we see chauvinism, role models, traditions, culture, history and every other aspect of human endeavour being questioned. Will it be easier? It will take many more years, I think. But unless we start debating things and being conscious about our present, we will have the same debate next year and 100 years from now. Parting comments? Whenever I see headlines like ‘First woman crane driver or astronaut on Mars’, or whatever, I still cringe. It is as though it is an exception instead of the norm. OK, I know it is still an exception, but it should not be like that. I realise that unless we point it out we do not get role models, and those are important, but even so.. That said, I still like it when a man is opening the door for me. I am, after all, a woman.
Well, I am 50+ now. I started my career in a bank, but quickly got into sales in one of the big newspapers. This is where my expertise in
Advertisement
Has it always been your dream to do ‘Hola MaHigh-School’?
Yes. It is something about giving back to the community and especially to encourage young people. It is hard work, though
Oh yes. It is not just about seeing women in leadership roles or as the president (although that is about time). It is about creating an environment where men and women can work together and fulfil their dreams. Promoting incompetence just because … is not helping any
It is correct that we might not have seen the same amount of ambition in women in the past as we see now. However, South Africa is changing, and if we look at young people today, we see more focus on ‘dreams’ than on ‘cannot do’.
What has been the most dramatic change in recent history?
The death of Floyd in USA. It made sure that prejudice and in that instance, racism, got on the front page. However, it pulled in a lot more than just racism in USA. It high-lighted prejudice across the board. Now we see chauvinism, role models, traditions, culture, history and
It will take many more years, I think. But unless we start debating things and being conscious about our present, we will have the same
Whenever I see headlines like ‘First woman crane driver or astronaut on Mars’, or whatever, I still cringe. It is as though it is an exception instead of the norm. OK, I know it is still an exception, but it should not be like that. I realise that unless we point it out we do not get role
Science is great: Meat-free meat
Science is wonderful. This month we look at ‘meat’. Should we re-define what ‘meat’ is? Why have animals around if we can grow ‘meat’ via science? Or avoid ‘meat’ in meat altogether? Cultured meat: We can also call it ‘non-slaughter meat’. Let us recap a few things: not all people are in favour of killing animals for eating purposes. However, not all would like to be vegetarians. Imagine we take a collection of cells from a cow (the fillet is a good example) and grow the cells via the usual means we now have available. This is also called ‘Tissue Engineering’. The living cells are kept in an environment where the right amount of cell nutrients, Ph, temperature and other factors are controlled. Techniques such as self-replicating are used to create an exact copy of the cells. That is the new ‘fillet in a bottle’.
Are such things done? Yes. It is possible to ‘grow’ a new heart valve, new veins, skin grafts and a lot of other things. That is not really a problem. By and large, the engineering aspect for medical purposes is solved. We can do all of these things, but not at an industrial scale.
Can we grow say two pounds of fillet for the Sunday joint? That is where the problem comes in.
Science is great: Meat-free meat
The current stage is that what can be grown is more like mince. It is not anything like any of the cuts of meat we expect. Reason? It is not just the strands of ‘meat’ that form a T-Bone steak. It is the amount of oxygen in it, the blood vessels, the fats, the … and all of that must be grown and ‘shaped’?. We can’t do it today.
So, we have some mince thing. A ‘burger patty’ was grown in 2013 (after two years of development). The cost was $300,000. It is expected that the cost might come down to $9. A far cry from average price of $1 as it is now.
Taste? It does not taste lekker at all (according to some who tried it). And it is like eating a rubber hose.
Safety is another aspect. Religion comes next (Kosher or Halaal). Consumer acceptance of something called ‘lab-meat’ is also dicey.
Conclusion: if we have to produce 70% more food by 2050 to cater for the population, something like this might be the only solution. Maybe plant-based meat is the alternative.
Science is great: Meat-free meat
Plant-based meat
This becomes even more ‘fun’. If there is no meat in meat, is it still meat?
The name is also ‘Meat Analogue’. That sounds rather horrible. But what is it?
Soy protein is typically used together with gluten. In goes a bit of canola oil to make it possible to ‘form’ it. Flavouring, salts, stabilisers and other things from the chemistry set is added.
The easiest way of ‘forming’ the mix into what we can recognise is to go through industrial extruders.
In essence: we have a meat-free meat product we can recognise: meatfree bacon, sausages, chicken breast, fungi steak, fish, meat-free burgers and much more.
Who is selling such things:
Wiki says “In April 2013, Beyond Meat began selling Beyond Chicken in Whole Foods Market stores in the US. A mixture of soy and pea proteins, fiber, and other
Science is great: Meat-free meat
ingredients, the well-received product was marketed as an alternative to chicken meat.
In 2016, Impossible Foods introduced a beef substitute, which it claimed offered appearance, taste and cooking properties similar to meat.
In April 2019, Burger King introduced a new product, the Impossible Whopper, becoming one of the most successful product launches in Burger King’s history.
These vegan meats are consumed in restaurants, grocery stores, bakeries, vegan school meals, and in homes. The sector for plant-based meats grew by 37% in North America over 2017–18. In 2018–19, sales of plant-based meats in the United States were $895 million, with the global market for meat analogues forecast to be $140 billion by 2029.
The changing importance of the meat analogues in the American diet was visible in the dramatic increase in purchases during the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States.
The book “The End of Animal Farming” by Jacy Reese Anthis argues that plant-based food and cultured meat will completely replace animal-based food by 2100.”
At a local level: Checkers offers a range of plantbased meat – go try for some meat-free meat experience.
August: Still winter
Secret Society of Happy People (SOHP) is an organization that celebrates the expression of happiness. The society encourages thousands of members from all around the globe to recognize their happy moments and think about happiness in their daily life.
The Society was founded in August 1998 in Irving, Texas, by Pamela Gail Johnson. In December 1998, it gained international reception, when it challenged advice columnist Ann Landers for discouraging people from writing happy holiday newsletters enclosed with their holiday cards.
The Society’s campaign persuaded Landers to change her advice on holiday letters. Within the next few years the Society grew bigger being supported by thousands of fans from more than 34 countries. In 1999 the Society declared 8 August as the “Admit You’re Happy Day”,
Every year, the Society organizes an online social media event known as HappyThon. The aim is to send inspirational messages via social networks, emails or texts, share happy moments, philosophy, quotes, etc. HappyThon is the first online social media event that promotes happiness around the world.
August: Still winter
International Cat Day
International Cat Day is a celebration which takes place on 8 August, every year. It was created in 2002 by the International Fund for Animal Welfare.
International Cat Day has been growing worldwide. Most countries now observe this unofficial holiday on August 8th.
International Cat Day is a day to raise awareness for cats and learn about ways to help and protect them. Cat Day originated in Japan and has become a social media sensation and is growing worldwide as people across the globe share their cat pictures and videos.
In 2020 custodianship of International Cat Day passed to International Cat Care, a not-for-profit (charitable) organisation that has been striving to improve the health and welfare of domestic cats worldwide since 1958.
For International Cat Day 2020 a coalition of NGOs, volunteers and cat professionals will be working together to spread knowledge and build understanding of the individual needs of cats. A dedicated website will host content accessible to cat lovers all over the world where they will be able to learn, get involved and celebrate cats.
