Happy pandiversary!
The one that in which no matter the efforts we don't seem to be able to kill the invisible beast.
The one in which we all have an opinion but nobody has a clue. The one that, yet again, has shown what humans are made of.
I've entered this year without Sílvia, I can't believe she is gone forever. Like in other occasions, she has inspired me to write again. When she knew she was going to die she made clear she wanted to have it over with quickly and painlessly. She was surprisingly ready.
In our sittings in the sun, close to her last breaths, she muttered:
- you live, you die and what have you done? Have a daughter, to leave her alone in the world. See? Another reason not to be a mother. This time she didn't burst out laughing and lit a cigarette instead.
She knew I am antinatalist, she was a regretful mum. I do consider giving birth a selfish act, as many others, but also an unethical one. I often hear women say: "I feel like it" or "we are looking for a baby", with no remorse, because it is socially accepted. But I don't understand why.
Yet humans are only entitled to be human to animals.
We fix them to avoid overpopulation and disease in females that have given birth multiple times.
We have evolved to see the commercialisation of animals as unethical. "Adopt, don't shop"
Shopping for animals is specicist, it supports an industry of unnecessary lucrative suffering when, despite the efforts to control their population there are enough puppies and kittens being born.
I am surprised that no more people apply that to our species. We still associate the idea of giving birth with joy, instead of suffering. Somebody once told me that birth is more traumatic than death, but we forget. We are born to die (So Lana del Rey, this), someone else decides on your life and some people celebrate it. And so, a new human is created where there is no need for it, while there are millions of them without a family or in dire need.
We consider this more when it comes to pets, and we take more responsibility, it seems.
I have always wondered, as a woman: why is it I can spread my legs and bring a being to the world if I want to, with no regulation, but it is so arduous, hard and expensive to adopt?. I was ready to adopt at age 28. On a genetical point of view I was aware that with the choices I had I couldn't really give birth to a person to contribute to society in the way I saw appropriate. I did have a job, my own house and I was in a solid relationship. There was a sense of security, but I didn't see a positive contribution in reproducing.
I did have the capacity to love and nurture and give the opportunity to another human with no opportunities. I didn't need to create a child as an accessory to my life. I thought it was my responsibility to be part of the change I envisioned to turn my contribution into a fairer and more diverse distribution in the world.
The adoption associacions basically said that as a single, fertile woman I could create my own. I don't find ethical to put an extra burden on Earth and my rationale seems bigger than my reproductive desires. To my knowledge I don't think I even qualify as a foster mum, because my apartment has only got a room.
Jonathan Franzen said in his novel Freedom, that we should be more ashamed of giving birth. I think we should be carbon taxed after the 2nd child and given the opportunity of a tax rebate in the case of adoption (fostering already comes with rebates, tricky subject).
We are suffering our first pandemic in the 21st century because of our irresponsible handling with animal meat. Before that we have had a few animal-related epidemics. Yet, we still consume meat into our doom. That meat, by the way, was once a sentient being. I am not ging to get into detail on how that milk you make your kid drink for breakfast is the result of insemination, forced birth and baby murder. We have had enough on subject: "cognitive dissonance"
But the elefant in the room is that we are too many, too greedy and often too willing to fill a void by creating more humans, that just contribute to this vicious circle to throw us deeper in the capitalistic and judeochristian construct.
People are popping pandemials. But we still sterilise our pets to spare them suffering.
