Photo Diary: Scenes from Amman, Jordan

Whereve you are in the world, hope you've all enjoyed your summer!

Anoud x



IMAGES BELONG TO GREEN EVE/ANOUD AL-FAWWAZ.

Snap of the Day: Curiosity of the Cat

Not to sound biased but my cat, Sassy, has the most beautiful blue dreamy eyes. I especially love it when her pupils are narrowed when provoked or focussed. Yesterday, she sat next to me on the couch and curiously and carefully watched birds out the window. As the sun hit her face and shined on her eyes, I couldn't help but snap away the beauty that I was witnessing.

I have taken so many pictures of Sassy in the past 11 years that I've had her, but this one has got to be my favourite. Hope you like it as much as I do!

Anoud x


IMAGE BELONGS TO GREEN EVE/ANOUD AL-FAWWAZ.

Great Ways To Do Good | Guest Contributor Post

I was recently contacted by fashion enthusiast Morgan Gray who wanted to share a few of her thoughts with Green Eve's readers. Morgan recently started her own blog: "Gray & Gabbana" to make her voice heard in the fashion community; she is big on philanthropy and believes that there is more to fashion than meets the eye! Here's what she has to say about the philanthropic aspects of fashion:

Sometimes we do good directly, by performing random acts of kindness or donating to a worthy cause. However, that isn’t the only way to contribute. We can easily and effortlessly support companies who do good with purchases that you can be sure help to carry on the good works in the world.

Philanthropy and Fashion

Who doesn’t enjoy fashion! Most of my favorite companies to support seem to have a pretty cool social mission. Whenever I want a fresh look or a trendy pair of sunglasses, I shop at Warby Parker. This benefits my pocketbook and me because they offer affordable designer eyeglasses that stack up to the competition. No need to spend over $300 for a new look. Also, the company gives back by partnering with non-profits that train low-income entrepreneur women to sell affordable eye wear to those in need in their respective countries. So for every pair of glasses the company sells, they donate a pair!

I adore cute, quirky hats, and I’ve found a couple of my favorites at WORN. This organization, a part of Catholic Charities Fort Worth, helps immigrant women supplement their income with hand-knit items they can sell. Each woman in this program has relocated to the Fort Worth area from a war-torn, poverty stricken part of the world, and WORN provides them and their families a hand up.

Philanthropy

Each month, I try to make sure that a portion of my earnings goes to a worthy cause. Naturally, I have a few favorite organizations to support. Vital Voices, an international organization that focuses on investing in women is one of my all-time favorite philanthropies. To date, their international staff of over 1,000 pro bono experts has trained and mentored more than 14,000 women from more than 144 countries. After their experience within the program, these women return home to mentor other women and girls in their own communities. The result is a powerful movement of women helping women to impact their world for change.

Every person has the power to impact the world for good. There are many ways in which we can do good—there really is something good in this world for everyone. I hope these ideas have inspired you look into your own favorite ways to give. 

Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs): Environmental Impacts & More...

I’m sure most of you have heard about Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs), but as I was myself up until recently, not many know what exactly are GMOs and how harmful they really are. My dearest friend from way back in the day, Salma, who recently started her own blog: Coconuts and Cocoa (all about eating healthy, clean and keeping fit), asked me if I was familiar with GMOs and I only knew the very basics. She was doing research for her next blog series dedicated to GMOs, and I was interested in learning more about them so we decided to collaborate together through posts on each of our blogs. Salma’s first post of the series will introduce GMOs in detail while I will cover their impacts on the environment and the different initiatives from around the world to get GMOs banned/labelled. So here goes!

First of all, what exactly are GMOs? For a simple answer, according to the World Health Organization (WHO), GMOs are “Organisms in which the genetic material (DNA) has been altered in a way that does not occur naturally”. But for more details and a thorough (and beautifully-written) explanation, I suggest you read Salma’s informative post here.  

Now onto the negative impacts of GMOs... How bad are they? And what exactly are their environmental impacts?

Here’s a rather short but informative video that summarises the ugly truth about GMOs...

The ecological impacts of GMOs still remain vague and the least understood, even though ironically their impacts on the environment are the most consequential to our plants, crops and generally our health and well-being.   

However, what is certain and confirmed is that the overuse of herbicide-tolerant GMO crops has led to an increase in herbicide use (use of toxic herbicides like RoundUp has increased 15 times since the introduction of GMOs) and resulted in an outbreak of herbicide resistant “superweeds” and “superbugs”. Superweeds and superbugs basically are those that adapt to resist herbicides, and can only be killed with even more toxic poisons like 2,4-D (a major ingredient in Agent Orange). This results in an overall more aggressive and increased use of herbicides.

Greenpeace explain the impacts of GMOs brilliantly in this short and sweet video below.

Another serious environmental impact of GMOs is cross-contamination. This is a problem especially noted in the United States, where engineered crops covering around half of all harvested cropland. With seed or pollen from those GMO cropland drifting onto neighbouring plots, organic farmers are struggling to prevent cross-contamination. Unfortunately, current industry standards for separating GMO fields from organic cropland have proven to be inadequate as insects, wind, floods and machinery spread seed and pollen over extensive distances. This is especially problematic for farmers who aim to sell their crops to countries that strictly regulate or ban GMO foods, as it harms their exports and profits.  

Efforts to Get GMOs Labelled and Banned

The topic of GMOs has been a controversial one worldwide, especially in the United States. The reason for that is that all industrial countries besides Canada and the US legally require that a food item is labelled if it contains genetically modified ingredients. The European Union, for example, has very stringent GMO regulations. In fact, France, Germany, Austria, Hungary, Greece, Luxembourg and Bulgaria have placed bans on the cultivation and sale of GMOs. In contrast, in the US, the food industry claims that GMO foods are not harmful and insists they are perfectly safe. However, 92% of Americans think GMO should be labelled and about 1.4m Americans have signed petitions to get GMOs labelled or banned.

The most notable effort to get GMOs labelled is “Just Label It”. Watch the campaign video below, which features celebrities like Michael J Fox, Ziggy Marley and many others voicing their support for GMO labelling.

If you're a US resident, make sure you check out Just Label It for more information on how you can donate to the cause and take action.

More general petitions and worldwide initiatives:

Avaaz Petition

Causes Petition

Walk Your Talk Petition

Make sure you all are more aware of the food you consume; find out exactly where it comes from, how it was cultivated and what toxins it may contain. Remember, all that glitters is not gold! If it looks too good to be true, too unnaturally appealing then don’t go near it. Your health is most precious, guard it well and maintain it with naturally nutritious food. And that right there is your stairway to the fountain of youth; natural all the way!

P.S. keep checking Coconuts and Cocoa for more of Salma’s GMO-related posts!

Anoud x