Common Sense Eating

Delhi, 6th May

I opened my emails to some news today that made me feel tainted, disgusted. It was the news that this Swine Flu Epidemic malarkey has been found, not unsurprisingly, to hail from the usual sorts of corruption and oppression. A huge pig factory farm in Veracruz Mexico, owned by the Smithfield Corporation (the largest corporation in their field) looks to be the epicentre of the growing disease. Not only are the pigs sprayed with a multitude of drugs, but the outrageous conditions in which they live are increasing the likelihood of these diseases and viruses emerging. So to look a at things logically, these factories are harmful to animals and humans. This, in my opinion, is a classic example of a corporation living above and beyond the practice of international law and morality. Not only has the Smithfield Corporation spawned a disease that is reaching across the breadth of the world (vegetarian Tibetans in Kathmandu are be issued with free precautionary medicines) but it has also frozen imports and exports in and out of Mexico. And thanks to these sorts of corporations, there are more and more of these factories cropping up all over the world, and if you're supporting the meat industry, you're supporting these factories. Big claim perhaps? One could argue that by supporting free range meat that one was actually helping bring about the end of factory born meat. This is to a certain extent is true, but it's also contentious, and here is when we get down to a acute differences in moral lines. Instead of just arguing my case, and since I'm here, I thought I'd tell you about vegetarianism in India.
First of all, animals are everywhere in India, and quite a few of them are dead. In the bazaars of Old Delhi goats heads are lined up and sold. I have seen chickens carried by their legs as if they were a plastic bag. There is a meat industry here, but not as we know it. A lot of fish is eaten on the coast. But scenes like this are minimal in proportion to the size of a country in Hinduism is widespread, and furthermore, to say that vegetarianism in India is simply a practice of religious doctrines is just not the truth. Many of the Indians I've befriended have told me that if there is one thing that India is not lacking in, it is food. Along with many of the strictly vegetarian holy towns such as Rishikesh, meat just isn't really needed. India has some of the best recipes in the world, made out of relatively cheap ingredients. Why double the cost of the dish just to put some meat in?
The amount of animals and fertile land in which they could graze is abundant. Instead, animals really coexist. Ask any cow in the middle of a Delhi street where she gets the better end of her food from, she'll point to the same restaurant you've just eaten in. And for an encore, she'll lie down in the middle of a traffic jam and kindly ask if there's any more roti about. Children here know how to treat and respect animals because they've been living next to them for the entirety of their lives. I won't pretend I haven't seen an overzealous Hindu boy run after a dog with a stick and attempt to hit it, but I can tell you for sure that the last thing he'll do is draw blood. Vegetarianism works in India, that's it. I'm afraid I reckon that the UK is to far gone to ever achieve this, but there is always hope. For a start, let's bankrupt the Smithfield Corporation. There's supposed to be an economic crisis, isn't there, and there's nothing like kicking a bastard company while it's down.

Anyway. Delhi votes tomorrow. The Times of India boasts the headline, and reads:

COME 7th MAY...
There's a threat to Delhi polls - Delhi's Pappu has many reasons not to vote this time. If you're making excuses, or if friends or family are, tell 'em that it's vote-on-sight in Delhi tomorrow!

I Will Vote Because...
-The new Government might not give you any holidays - tax or otherwise - if the wrong one gets into power!
- We'll never have the kind of placements (and even the Bollywood family drama-style weddings that we have) if the wrong Government gets in!
. . .

It continues in this vein for a while longer.
I feel incensed already!
I'm moving onto Kolkata tomorrow, I want to play some cricket.