Looking for (vegetarian) friends...

Toxica

Hello

This probably seems like a strange post but I am looking for new friends.

I'm English, 27 and lived in Ireland half my life yet still haven't really made any real friends. I live just outside Cork city and have been a vegetarian all my life. I figured if I posted this in here then I might meet some like-minded people at least!

Anyway, I'm basically just looking for friends that I can go to the cinema/gigs with, stuff like that really.

If anyone is interested please PM me!

I hope this is allowed in this forum...

jape

Hi there,

how's it going,

I'm in Dublin myself so mightn't be much use but I love chattin to and meetin other vegetarians and vegans, if you have msn send me a PM with your address if ya wanna chat.

Tar.Aldarion

Good luck finding people, are there are vegetarian groups around there? Maybe try the nation vegetarian meet ups for the vegetarian society, which I imagine are held in dublin.

sweet-rasmus

Welcome Toxica!

I live in Dun Laoghaire myself, miles from you I guess we should really try some meet-ups in this forum one of these days. There aren't many posters around here lately, but it's somthing I'd love to try. I, for one, love to bake and would gladly bring vegan cakes to anything we organise!

I know there are meet up groups advertised in the Vegetarian Society magazine, one in Glaway and one mainly Dublin, but does meet around the country a bit.

There must be other veggies from Cork in this forum, right?!

Thoushaltnot

Only yesterday, I was on one of the Irish veggie sites and there was a poster from (the Peoples Republic of) Cork, boasting that they had the best veggie restaurant!! D'ya think I can find that link now? Not a bit of it!

The Vegetarian Society, www.vegetarian.ie - well the site itself is not up to much (but they're looking to improve it - any web design whizz kids willing to volunteer services?). However, there's a link to their FaceBook and that's much "busier". Theres also a link for BeBo and MySpace but I'm not on them, so cannot vouch.

Don't quote me on this but I think if you join the Veg Soc, they *can* help link up peoples. They are precious about their membership list, tho.
I think they have about 300 members too, so they are bound to know who's near you. I'm not a member but sher, pop them an email.
vegsoc@ireland.com

I haven't seen the yahoo chat group but joined the MeetUp group (different nic) and have been to several meetups/events already this year;

http://vegetarian.meetup.com/485/

(they're organizing a walking trip to the Mourne mountains, up north in Co. Down)

I'm in Dublin, so I am spoiled - for company/shops and restaurants.

But that would be where I'd start, if I were you - MeetUp.com.
and if there isn't a Cork MeetUp.com group, well I've defo seen it discussed.

And if you're in Cork City Centre, mebbe try the cafe Paradiso

http://www.cafeparadiso.ie/

...and mebbe the English market - not veggie but foodie. Seems to be great for cheeses but possibly also dead animals..

Do post back and let us know what the "scene" is like down there!

sweet-rasmus

Oh yeah, when you join the veggie society they send you a list of names, addresses and numbers so that you may contact other veggies in your area. You can choose whether or not to be on the list when you sign up. I'm sure I have my list somewhere...

maameeo

its really tough to make new friends, especially like minded ones! im in dublin too so im not much help, but im always up for a chat!! love meeting new people! and im veggie too! lol
hope you find some groups in ur area hun!

Mentalmiss

There is a large number of people registered for the veg group at meetup.com for Cork but nobody to organise the meetings.

Thoushaltnot

Mentalmiss wrote: »

There is a large number of people registered for the veg group at meetup.com for Cork but nobody to organise the meetings.

Hint Hint

You could always set up yer own Cork Vegetarians MeetUp.com group, and at the first MeetUp event, see who's interested in becoming an assistant organizer.

Looks good on a C.V. too, no doubt.

Marianne 20

Hi,
I am a 20 year old grad student who is from Cork and who is contemplating vegetarianism after watching a video on meat.org. It was horrendous! I only really eat fish and poultry and I rationalise it in the sense that I did alot of research on fish and apparently they cannot feel pain. They do not have the central nervous system or complexity to do so. This is why child birth and things is so painful for adult women as we have such intelligence and such a complex physiological structure which makes it painful..I might be interested in joining this if you can make up the numbers..

Tar.Aldarion

Marianne 20 wrote: »

Hi,
I am a 20 year old grad student who is from Cork and who is contemplating vegetarianism after watching a video on meat.org. It was horrendous! I only really eat fish and poultry and I rationalise it in the sense that I did alot of research on fish and apparently they cannot feel pain. They do not have the central nervous system or complexity to do so. This is why child birth and things is so painful for adult women as we have such intelligence and such a complex physiological structure which makes it painful..I might be interested in joining this if you can make up the numbers..

Hello, I'm not sure anybody believes that fish don't feel pain anymore, maybe some fishermen.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/2983045.stm
http://www.firstscience.com/site/editor/024_ramblings_05092003.asp
http://adventure.howstuffworks.com/outdoor-activities/fishing/fish-conservation/responsible-fishing/fish-pain1.htm
http://news.mongabay.com/2009/0506-hance_fishpain.html

I find it highly unlikely a species would evolve to not feel pain, or that you would find many people in this line of work that think they did, as it is an important feature for survival. It is not a matter of whether things feel pain, but their ranging abilities to do so. Certainly fish wouldn' have all the features of the brain that we do, yet they are more similar than you think, nervous system wise.There is no doubt a continuum between species of how much pain a particular species can feel, this continuum will even continue within the same species, but obvioulsy with very small differences in capability. So you and I may be able to possibly experience different capability to feel pain, but the difference is minute, this difference will be bigger among other species, but they will still feel pain, suffering etc

Marianne 20

They are reactive to stimulus but this is about as far as their awareness goes. They have the same response were you to put your hand in the water and "swoosh" it a little as if you were to put the hook through them (at least as far as I have read on the matter)..I do acknowledge your links but it seems these days one can find whatever article from the latest scientific journal to buttress one's argument on any matter and it leaves the truth of any issue rather nebulous and uncertain (there are studies upon studies which contradict each other in findings). I have never been a fish (obv) but I do understand that the longstanding consensus on this matter has been that fish possess what is called "nociception" which is basically stimulus-response but this does not indicate they feel pain..Nonetheless, I feel more and more morally indignant at myself for eating meat.

Tar.Aldarion

I think this is interesting

Marianne 20 wrote: »

They are reactive to stimulus but this is about as far as their awareness goes.
They have the same response were you to put your hand in the water and "swoosh" it a little as if you were to put the hook through them (at least as far as I have read on the matter)..I do acknowledge your links but it seems these days one can find whatever article from the latest scientific journal to buttress one's argument on any matter and it leaves the truth of any issue rather nebulous and uncertain (there are studies upon studies which contradict each other in findings). I have never been a fish (obv) but I do understand that the longstanding consensus on this matter has been that fish possess what is called "nociception" which is basically stimulus-response but this does not indicate they feel pain..Nonetheless, I feel more and more morally indignant at myself for eating meat.

I do admit one has to be wary of studies, as they often contradict each other. Yet something is not more or less true based on teh length of time it has been believed, such as the sun being a god or a brainstem based, as oppossed to cerebral based nervous system not feeling pain.
In this case, it is hard to tell whether or not anything you can't talk to can feel pain whatsoever, not just fish. What is pain if not reacting to stimulus due to our nerves? Of course it is pyschological reactions too. When you are saying pain you are referring to one type of pain, psychological pain. The question is not do fish simply feel pain through their nociceptions(pain receptors) because they do(in fact I think they are more sensitive than us in this regard and they have very similar pain receptors to us. This is because we are less easily damaged so we don't need as low a voltage/ high a pain response), but do they pyschologically feel it like us. Many species have very different nerve systems and cognitive capabilities. To conclusively test whether a fish feels pain pyschologically, tests like the following are done, this just being a simple example. You take two animals, in this case fish, and drug one with a pain reductor. You do something like hit them, soemthing that should cause that species pain. Then, they both react the same as any of us would, swimming away or whatever. A natural instinct. The difference is, the one that was not drugged and therefore could possibly feel pain pyschologically is wary in the future, exhibits fear etc, it is maintaining knowledge of what happened to it and that it hurt, the same thing we do. You can't tell from reactions alone if something feels but behavioural and physiological changes are a good basis. This is why people now think fish definitely feel pain. Of course there are a lot of other tests and things to consider, neural monitoring and so on, which are also done. And the more we learn about animals the more there will be to think about grey areas such as this. I've even seen some study regarding fish eavesdropping on other shoals to gather information. :S


Oh this is getting off topic, I'd better give myself a warning! Maybe it's best not to disscuss it but if you want to tell me why I am wrong I can move these posts into a new thread.
Hope you get the numbers for your meetup, and maybe somebody here can help organise it?

jape

Marianne 20 wrote: »

It was horrendous! I only really eat fish and poultry

The chicken industry is the cruellest and most shockingly disgusting area of the meat industry in my opinion. I won't explain why because obviously I'm biased (being vegetarian and all :pac:), but I would recommend looking into it yourself

Sapsorrow

Hiya Toxica I PM'd u bout hooking up in Cork for a coffee sometime am also living outside the city!

Tar.Aldarion

Another Cork person, that is 5 including Toxica that I know of round here now.

Sapsorrow

Whereabouts are you then Tar? Freaky quick response outta you and sweet-rasmus it's freaky!

Sapsorrow

Actually who are the others? Rasmus mentioned someone called Raah I think, is there some way to gather the southern troups for our own meet-up sometime?

Tar.Aldarion

khrystyna100 wrote: »

Whereabouts are you then Tar? Freaky quick response outta you and sweet-rasmus it's freaky!

I live in Sligo so I'm travelling a huge mount too!

khrystyna100 wrote: »

Actually who are the others? Rasmus mentioned someone called Raah I think, is there some way to gather the southern troups for our own meet-up sometime?

The ones I know of are Raah, Censorsh!t, electro~bitch, you, Toxica. Most have posted in teh know your veggie thread and seem quite lovely anyway. So if you guys head up to one it would be cool for ye to head on the same bus or whatever. Or if any of us go down to you sometime there are 4 or 5 people there too.