I have been back from my first holidays of the year for three weeks and I went driving doing deliveries the last day of the last week. Now, I could say quite a few things about driving in London, but first I have to say that I do not like it anymore since the first lockdown when many restrictions have been added to the road system in the capital.
One thing that I find very strange is that people are happy to queue, and do it very well here, but they are driving as far as they can go first in a small road before they allow the intruding car in front of them to either reverse to let them pass or to squeeze somewhere in the side. What I find strange is that most of the time the driver could have easily stopped before to allow for a smooth traffic, thus facilitating his own way forward, rather than to force his way forward and slow down everybody unnecessarily.
To complement the above, I should say that any other time I ride my bicycle to work and that this attitude is widespread throughout the year. Furthermore, when I am talking about a small road, I mean a road where cars are parked on both sides and there is room for a car and a third left for traffic. Now, another question if you do not mind, why do drivers do not like cyclists? They tend to think on these roads that they can do whatever they feel like, they do not give respect to the poor guy on his bicycle, they would rather push him out of their way. Does that shock you? Well, I suffered this so many times that I can testify this to be true! There is plenty of room for the car to go forward and me to move the other way but so many drivers would block the whole road, and even some of them veered towards me to make sure that I have to stop.
So, why do people can quietly queue respectfully but when driving they do not give respect to their fellow drivers?
After all, when driving it is quite easy, the guy in front of you (going the same way) has right of way and you should give respect to him. Or maybe this is too to ask.
Milk vats, normally used for maturation
A question of trust
I have read a very good article in The Times (the weekend essay of Saurday 16/09 by Gerard Baker) pertaining to trust in American institutions and politicians, and of course of the rest of the Western World by a trickle effect.
For me, trust have been widely eroded since the 2008 banking crash, it is easy to see why: the banks are guilty, their profit had a little dip and they recovered quickly (with the help of the taxpayers), however the big businesses are not guilty, they do what they do best even if they err on the wrong side by growing the Chinese economy and transferring technology to an ideologic foe. After all, they have been incentivised to do exactly that by their politicians.
What we have seen since 2008 is the predominance of disruptive thinking, including use of technology to this effect, and this has been used to very good effect for Brexit propaganda and before in America. The blame has been put on something/ somebody else, you have to find a sacrificial lamb to prove your faith, this is not the fault of the politician who told you to demolish everything. To me, this sounds like the 1930’s all over again (and no I am not that old!!!), except that with the advent of modern communication systems, the disruption has been clever and invaded all aspects of an open modern society. Trust in everything has been eroded because of that, in the article they printed a poll demonstrating the erosion of trust in institutions and religions, from the military to organised labour and television news, in America and it makes for bleak reading. Yes, they are at a very low point, but they are not the only ones.
During my holidays I was invited to an evening with educated adults of good standing, many of whom worked in health professions, and I was astonished to hear what they were saying. It was almost like they were distrusting the regulatory bodies only to prove that they could think for themselves, only to prove that they were independent. They were following this and that person on social media arguing that oh! what right they were. Well, one of their main arguments was that the vaccine was dangerous, that it was done by big business, etc…, of course, nowadays health research laboratories are very big business (and good for us), health officials are mostly cautious and follow advice. And since when is a vaccine not dangerous, or a medication for that effect do not have any secondary effect? It is the one of the bases of medicine, they should know better, I think!
Many times, watching political shows on BBC, you can see one of these people, they think they can be better and independent whereas they only demonstrate that they have been disrupted in their thinking, and that their argumentation is flawed, their trust is lacking.
Interconnected world
When two people want to communicate, they have to respect one another for it to work. So, to have respect, first you need to give respect! There is no two points about it. Like I said before, when you talk, you have to be able to listen as well, otherwise you are a dictator and there is no communication.
It is good to have a very modern world where communication is ultra-fast, after all this is one reason why COVID 19 did not kill an many people as the Spanish Flu (which started in America by the way). However, one major problem is that people stop thinking about what they read, they just gobble it up as fast as they can, and they follow all the links about the article in question and are even less able to think, they are in fact completely disrupted.
Raw milk brings typicity.
Well, to go back to the main interest of my blog, one of the last articles that I red was about raw milk.
It is widely accepted that raw milk brings typicity, or terroir, to the finished cheese. However, from the last 30 years at least I have heard that milk is becoming poorer, and from the last 15 years that some raw milk is dangerous, or do not bring so many advantages, or that the regulations require a very clean milk, raw or not.
Well, the last point is because of the impetus, the pressure, applied by big businesses who prefer pasteurised milk to create a product that they can sell all year round with the same characteristics, and the fact that they are able, and willing, to exerce influence on regulatory, quality, or health and safety bodies. There are for and against points there. One, it is not fair, but who said that life is fair? Second, the health and safety of consumers should be paramount, and there is no mitigation there, but driving high quality raw milk to the same standard as pasteurised mixed milk, regulatory bodies should have woken up way early.
It is a well proven fact that cheeses produced nowadays are less typical of their terroirs than when I was young. So, what changed?
Well, first, sanitary rules obliged farmers to clean, clean, and then clean again all of their equipment until everything is sanitized. This means that the milk is so poor that the first pathogen which can infiltrate the product will result in immediate recall of the whole batch, without saying that the farm will be visited many times for drastic controls. Otherwise, you need more use of commercial starters, lab cultures, that result in different cheeses with similar characteristics. You will tell me that this creates a level field, however, if we were to ask the same to different wine producers, the answer would be really different, why farmers should be treated differently?
So, what is the solution?
Well, it is to clean but not sanitize, to make sure that we respect the environment, the working environment where cheese is made, the environment when cows are milked, the natural environment where cows live and the farmer produces. Each part has to work for the benefit of the whole and bring typicity back. The end customer wants to be able to know and feel a well-crafted farm-produced cheese that is clean to eat, but foremost enjoyable and pleasurable to eat. A product that will sell well and represent a culture that is alive and well with long antecedent of quality and history, hopefully.
Work is being done for this to happen, and it will take time to happen even though many quality bodies are involved, there is still big business lurking around the corner.
So, what can I say? Respect the environment, and respect the cyclist who is part of it…
And, thank you in advance!
And remember, give life to your taste buds, and above all, enjoy real cheese.
And an extra point in this September ’23, aller les Bleus, even if I was more impressed by the number 1 team in the World and the actual World Champions.
Comments