LIVE: Sustainable Lifestyle Campaign with Sofonie Dala. The case study of Angola - Day1

Our everyday motto is: "Let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food"

Hello, good morning world!

My name is Sofonie Dala, we are launching our new campaign:

´´What happens when you try to raise issues around consumerism and over-consumption and the sustainability of lifestyles´´?

A sustainable lifestyle that we all must live. For this reason we are here at Doctor Xavier's herbalist who will explain to us how he uses edible and medicinal plants for our treatment. The therapist's motto is: Let your food be your medicine and let your medicine be your food.

Interview with Therapist Xavier!

Hello, good morning Sofonie!

My name is Xavier and I am a traditional medicine therapist.

Could you tell us a little about yourself and the sustainable lifestyle you have been leading?

In fact, I have been living a natural sustainable life since 1995, I only eat vegetables, tubercles and cereals.

I have here the moringa plant I use it since 1995, since then I no longer face health probçems.Here I have shaya plant and cassava leaves I also consume them since 1995 till now. As well as other vegetables such as peanuts, I mix with moringa or shaya and eat them with fish.

What is the disease that these plantations fight?

Well, morinha fights several pathologies, it serves as food and medicine. I eat it in the same way I use potato branch, sweet potatoes and vegetables.

Could you give an example of diseases that moringa plant fights?

Well, I don't use the seed, I use its leaves because this food serves as medicine. This plant combats such pathologies as: hepatitis, typhoid fever, lack of appetite, lack of vitamins in the organism and several other illnesses that moringa cures.

Next I have this plant that is popularly called scoparia dulcis, this is very good for headaches, lowers fever and for taking a seat bath or even drinking green juice or tea from this plant.

This little plant here is called a bulb. I've also been using it because it's very good for stomach pain, bowel problem, lack of appetite, it removes laziness, really cool.

You can also make normal tea. All these plants are very good for solving stomach problems, lack of appetite, headache and high blood pressure.

This plant here some call it leaves for diabetics, but I recommend it for those with a lack of appetite, people with low defenses, at this time of the covid19 pandemic, this is very good, we can also make it a green juice or tea. The plant is used to combat headaches, reduce fever and make hot baths.

A visit to the therapist Xavier´s Herbalist

Can you tell us a little about this place? What do you have here?

Here I do my normal consultations for several patients. Normally I make the diagnosis with the energetic method and I also use the aurameter to guide me.

This book is made up of copies of all international bacteria, parasites and viruses. So I have this wand called an aurimeter. The aura is determined by man's energy. So any pathology that the patient has, we made the diagnosis from this book, that is, the patient puts his finger on these blades then the wand rotates in the oral direction indicating where the virus is located, whether in the liver, stomach, intestine etc.

For those who have typhoid fever or plasmodium, we have here for example 3 species of plasmodium, the falciparum, ovary or malariae wherever the parasite is located.

Do you also treat pregnant women?

Yes ma'am. We can see how many months the pregnant woman is, from the first to the ninth month. After we've checked out what she's got, then let's go through the list and see what her treatment will be. For example, if a lady has uterus problems, she will need to do a vaginal and anal enema or a bath with the proper medications in order to fight the disease.

Another example if she has a pneumonia bacterium, then instead of drinking cold water she should drink warm water, and we will define what is the amount of warm water she will drink, a cup, two cups or a liter, before or after eating?

Therapist Xavier is presenting the samples of plants that are used for medicine and food, He also sells them to ensure the sustainability of the herbalist.

Well, I have these plants exposed here, I have clays, I sell honey and this has served for my sustenance. I actually live on the basis of this, I do not do other types of services, I have been in the area of ​​traditional medicine since 1995 and since then I have stopped using other types of income.

Therefore, I investigate a particular plant to see what it cures. For example I have this bag here, I didn't put the name of the plant just the code. Because when we write the name, people may confuse it with another similar plant and they will use the wrong medicine.

For example this plant is for high cholesterol, increases appetite, treats insomnia, back pain and urinary tract infection.

In five tablespoons, place in 3 liters of water, bring to a boil, drink in two to two hours for 15 days. If you are feeling better, you can repeat the dose.

Could you tell us about the lifestyle you live and about your diet?

I've actually been in this life since 1995, before I was facing very serious health problems.

But since 1995 until now, when people say that food serves as their medicine and medicine serves as their food! I started taking care of myself, I stopped eating bread, meat, chicken and other more artificial foods, so I have a regal life and I read a lot of natural medicine books and I also stopped having health consequences. In fact, I use more moringa, the shaya plant, tubers and fruits, under the sun I normally walk without any problems and I don't get a headache.

How do you consume morninga?

From morninga I make a tea, I use this aurameter device that will determine what I can take, will it be a leaf tea? Which leaf will it be? So this will determine what kind of leaves I should make the tea, the amount of sugar or honey and that's it.

The aurameter tells me what I can have for breakfast, whether I'm going to add a tubercle, whether I'll spend the day hungry or whether I will only have lunch.

The therapist Xavier is demonstrating how the treatment is done using clay

Well Sofonie, here I have clay, it is used to make poultices. Poultice is applied to the inflamed part of the body. The role of clay is to make these inflammations disappear. For example, in the case of women who have uterine problems and menstrual periods.

Then, the clay is prepared with water, after it's done, we put it in this fabric and then we put it on the lower part of the body and the fabric holds the lower part of the belly. This should only be used in the evenings for at least one hour.

For those who have kidney problems, we put this other type of fabric, we put the clay and palm it, then we tie it on the belly or adrenals and we also use it for an hour and take it off.

In the case of women

In the case of men

Below we have other samples here, for example this one with code 00555, serves to treat gonorrhea, anti-inflammatory, emmorroid, lack of appetite and athletic performance, impotence masculinity, energy impulsivity and general fatigue.

Method of preparation: place in two liters of water, boil within five minutes, strain and drink a glass within 12 minutes after eating, consume 3 times per 15 days.

We also have here the corn beard also called corn hair, it is very good for people with impertenence, kidney pain, urinary infection and also lowers fever.

Then we have this flower called Bongavilha flower: lack of appetite, anemic problems, his tea is very good to fight these illnesses.

Great, thank you!

Thank you Sofonie!

This campaign inspires and guides youth action for both individual and systems change that enables sustainable lifestyles.

Here is a little inspiration for you:

Did you know that if the whole world would follow a plant-based diet, we could reduce the land used for agriculture by 76% and the GHG emissions related to food by 49%? Eat more plants, it is delicious, nutritious, cheaper and will boost your immune system!

Did you know that 17% of all the food produced is wasted at the consumer level; including 11% in households alone? Check your fridge and cupboard before shopping and use all your leftovers!

Campaign promotion:

http://sofoniedala.blogspot.com/2021/09/coming-soon-we-are-delighted-to.html

Campaign introduction:

https://sofoniedala.blogspot.com/2021/08/happy-international-youth-day.html

Don't miss out, stay with us, you'll only win!

#AnatomyOfAction

#ActNow

#GlobalGoals

#ProteinSwaps

German election: Seven things we learned

We know the banner headline from the German election – the centre-left Social Democrats (SPD) will be the biggest party, closely followed by the centre-right Christian Democrats (CDU/CSU). The Greens and the libertarian FDP both increased their share, while the far right and far left fell back.

But beyond that, there are a number of smaller stories. Here are some of the side angles we’ve noticed.

1. The generational split

The traditional parties of the centre left and centre right came out ahead overall, but if you look at the age data, an interesting trend emerges.

Voters under 30 preferred the Greens on the left (22%) and the libertarian FDP (20%) on the right by a wide margin, according to this exit poll from Forschungsgruppe Wahlen.

In contrast, the over-60s voted for the centre left (35%) and centre right (34%). Only 9% went for the Greens and 8% for the FDP.

But because most of the electorate is older, the big-tent parties of the left and right came out ahead.

The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.View original tweet on Twitter

2. Tinker Tailor Soldier… cry?

A former intelligence chief turned right-wing controversialist has failed in his bid to get into parliament. Hans-Georg Maassen stood as a candidate for the Christian Democrats, but on the extreme right of the party.

Until 2018 he ran the domestic intelligence agency, but was forced to resign when he cast doubt over the existence of far-right violence in the city of Chemnitz.

In this election he was a candidate in Thuringia, one of the states in eastern Germany where the far-right Alternativ für Deutschland (AfD) is particularly strong.

Mr Maassen was arguing for the Christian Democrats to move further right, away from the centrist policies of outgoing Chancellor Angela Merkel – especially on migration.

But voters were unconvinced, putting him third in his constituency behind the Social Democrats and the AfD.

3. The Schleswig-Holstein question

Students of 19th Century history may recall – dimly – the Schleswig-Holstein question*. It became a byword for a fiendishly complicated diplomatic dilemma.

Now Schleswig, at least, is back in play in the German election. The party representing the Danish and Friesian minority in Germany has made it into parliament for the first time in about 70 years.

The SSW (its German name means the Voters’ Union of South Schleswig) will hold a single seat. It gained 0.1% of the overall vote, but is exempt from the normal 5% threshold for representation in the Bundestag because it represents a national minority.

* Lord Palmerston famously said, “Only three people understood it: the prince consort, who is dead; a German professor, who has gone mad; and I, who have forgotten all about it.”

Which is how you may feel after reading about the number of possible coalitions that could govern Germany.

• German elections usher in change with a small ‘c’

5. Plagiarism and politics

Accusations of plagiarism tarnished the chances of the Greens’ candidate for chancellor, Annalena Baerbock. But another female politician who also faced plagiarism charges pulled off a surprise victory.

Franziska Giffey, of the centre-left Social Democrats, actually had her PhD withdrawn because she was found to have plagiarised part of her doctoral thesis.

Nonetheless, she’s now the newly elected mayor of Berlin – the first woman to govern the German capital. Her party defeated the Greens, led by Bettina Jarasch, by 21.4% to 18.9%.

4. Expropriation conundrum

As well as the federal election, there was also a referendum in Berlin on expropriations to create more social housing.

About 56% voted in favour of taking the properties of major landlords (more than 3,000 housing units) into public ownership, while 39% were opposed.

Rising rents have been a flashpoint in Berlin: one online property portal calculated that rents had gone up by 42% in the five years to 2020.

Mayor-elect Franziska Giffey has said she’s opposed to expropriations but the referendum result should be respected.

6. Will there be enough seats – literally – in the Bundestag?

At 735 seats, this German parliament looks set to be the biggest ever. But because of the German electoral system, no one – not even the election authorities – knew just how big it would be.

The top candidate in each constituency gets a seat: there are 299 of them. A further 299 seats are reserved for the party lists in the 16 federal states, or Bundesländer. Voters rank the candidates in order of preference.

But that’s only 598, so where do the extra 137 seats come from?

This is where second-preference votes come into play, based on the population in each states and how many votes go to the second-placed party in each.

Confused yet? You should be.

Parties need to clear the 5% minimum vote share, or win three constituency seats, in order to enter parliament.

This is how the far-left party, Die Linke, only narrowly scraped in. Its share of the vote fell by almost half from the last elections, in 2017, from 9.2% to 4.9%.

However, the three constituencies it won, in Berlin and Leipzig, saved it from political oblivion at federal level.

7. Red tide in the east and Laschet loses at home

As a sign of just how well the Social Democrats have done, they’ve even taken Angela Merkel’s old constituency. She held the seat in Mecklenburg-West Pomerania from 1990, the first federal election after German reunification.

And there was a symbolic defeat for her successor as the centre-right candidate for chancellor, Armin Laschet. After a gaffe-strewn election campaign, he failed to win a seat in his home state of North Rhine Westphalia.

That doesn’t mean he’s out of parliament – he’ll enter the Bundestag on a list seat – but it does show the depths of voters’ doubts about him.

• Angela Merkel: Germany’s shrewd political survivor

8. Why was the election held on the same day as the Berlin Marathon?

The same thing happened in 2017.

Sorry, we can’t answer that one. Answers on a Postkarte, bitte.

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Labour conference: Reeves promises £28bn a year to make economy greener

Labour has promised to spend an extra £28bn a year on making the UK economy more “green” if it wins power.

Shadow chancellor Rachel Reeves said the money would go on offshore wind farms, planting trees and developing batteries.

In her speech to Labour’s annual conference in Brighton, she also pledged to phase out business rates to help the Covid-damaged High Street.

And she said giant tech firms would pay more tax in future.

An aide to Ms Reeves told the BBC the £28bn would come from government borrowing and the investment should “have a positive impact” on the wider economy.

• Labour backs Starmer over party rules reforms
• Labour needs policies now, says Burnham
• Rayner stands by calling Johnson ‘scum’

In her speech, Ms Reeves said: “I will be a responsible chancellor. I will be Britain’s first green chancellor.”

She added: “I will invest in good jobs in the green industries of the future, giga-factories to build batteries for electric vehicles, a thriving hydrogen industry, offshore wind with turbines made in Britain, planting trees and building flood defences, keeping homes warm and getting energy bills down, good new jobs in communities throughout Britain.”

Ms Reeves said the annual £28bn investment – which would continue until 2030 – would help “protect our planet for future generations”.

Greenpeace UK welcomed the pledge, with its head of politics, Rebecca Newsom, saying: “Tackling the climate crisis has to be at the heart of what the Treasury does.”

Business tax

During her half-hour speech, Ms Reeves said a Labour government would freeze business rates in England until 2023 and make rates relief for smaller firms more generous.

It would eventually scrap rates completely, she said, replacing them with a new “modern” business tax, which the party is yet to define.

Labour is also proposing a new tax on commercial property.

And it is proposing to increase the digital services tax – paid by search engines and social media firms – from 2% to 12%, when it is replaced by a higher global corporation tax rate agreed as part of an international scheme.

Ms Reeves told the conference the party would bring in the “biggest overhaul of business taxation in a generation”, allowing businesses to “lead the pack, not watch opportunities go elsewhere.”

She announced plans to scrap “hundreds” of tax breaks and set up an Office of Value for Money, which aides describe as a “hit squad” to scrutinise government spending and ensure tax is used wisely.

Covid contracts

Ms Reeves said a Labour government would tell firms which have received contracts to deal with the Covid pandemic but under-delivered to repay the money given to them by the government.

“We will set up a team to go through every line of every failed contract where value was not delivered, and claw back every penny of taxpayers’ money we possibly can,” she added, “because that money belongs in our police, it belongs in our schools and it belongs in our NHS.”

The policies announced by Ms Reeves were welcomed by the Federation for Small Businesses, whose national chair Mike Cherry said: “The shadow chancellor is right to propose concrete reform of a business rates tax which disproportionately burdens the small businesses and sole traders at the heart of local communities.”

But Conservative Party co-chairman Oliver Dowden said: “Successive Labour leaders have threatened businesses with tax hikes, higher bills, and more red tape.

“Only the Conservatives can be trusted to support our businesses and help our economy thrive as we build back better.”

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