TED Community » Tanya Sritanyalucksana

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I'm passionate about

animals, nature, creativity, languages, adventure, children, social work, vegetarianism, life!

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  A comment on Conversation: What kind of power can a film have?

  May 22 2011: Well, my first and most important inspiration to become a vegetarian came from watching the movie, Babe :) It was when I realized the true connection of the pork on my plate and a pig that might have been running around all cute not long ago. It was quite shocking for my naive 8-year-old self :) I couldn't stop thinking of how unfair it was to animals that humans got to decide everything for their own good.
  
  I don't know if it makes any sense, but it's not that I didn't know that pork was 'pig as food', I just didn't actually realize the cruelty behind it. I think a lot of people can relate. As long as something is labelled as 'food', 'clothes', etc. and you see it all around as the norm, you don't think much about it. It doesn't occur to you to question it.
  
  I guess that's where movies help play a part. They open up your world and visually bring up issues that you might not have thought about before or were reluctant to confront. The form of presentation is usually entertaining, therefore creating a more comfortable platform for discussion and self-exploration.
  
  So just to share, I didn't become a vegetarian right after I watched the movie because my parents were afraid I wouldn't get all the necessary nutrients, which is of course understandable. As a kid who still had to rely on my parents' cooking, I didn't have much negotiating power ;) But the thought and belief that it was unfair to animals stayed with me. After going through life a bit and eating everything along the way, one day in my third year of university, I felt it was time. I researched on the web and found out that it was possible to live healthily without meat. The fact that thousands of others were already on the path also helped a lot because I knew I wasn't alone and had nothing to be afraid of. And I have to say, it was the best decision I ever made. I felt myself became 'whole' because my actions and my beliefs were finally in line with one another.
  
  So that's how a movie changed my life :)