A walk round the fish market in Tai Po is always distressing for me, to see the 'fresh' fish, prawns and clams all cramped up in different small tanks of water. Hong Kong people like their seafood 'fresh', hence the fishmongers would keep them that way, alive and 'swimming' in their tanks! A close look will tell that many of the fishes are in fact gasping for their breath, some overturned and barely alive; some have turned color (like the salmons when they are about to die following their arduous journey upstream to lay their eggs.) I always wonder if the fishes are suffering being cramped up with hardly any space to move/swim, let alone have oxygen to breathe! I once saw an eel being chopped into two and placed in a stainless steel pan, the two halves still slithering in its own blood, the head not sure if it still had a body!
Is there a better way to offer fresh fish to customers? In Singapore, the wet markets sell the day's catch, spread out and displayed on a bed of ice, albeit dead; fresh nonetheless and to me, more agreeable in presentation as I don't have to feel guilty seeing a live flapping fish brought up, descaled and its entrails taken out in front of me!
Food, glorious food...
On a similar note, what about our domestic animals of chicken, pig, goat, sheep and cow which provide us with our daily protein sustenance - if only we can have a better and more humane way to slaughter them in the abattoir Have you seen the film, Food Inc? I can't bring myself to see it...but was told of battery chickens, conveyor belt cows being milked (and later slaughtered for meat). As for pigs, goats and sheep, I cannot provide any information here because that VCD is still lying on my shelf! I know of many friends who have chosen to be vegan or vegetarian because they strongly advocate non-violence to all living things. I have a lot of respect for them.
A family friend who is a Theravada monk once told me this: whenever we eat, the taste of the food in our mouth last only a few seconds; because once swallowed, it is food, just like any other food for the body. Why then do people go to all lengths to pay for expensive gastronomic meals cooked by Michelin Star chefs? Hmm...food for thought...still, it vex me to have to search my mind each day as to what to cook for dinner for James?...which is what brings me to the Tai Po market...
Our bodies are our gardens;
our wills are our gardeners.
-William Shakespeare-
This is a newspaper clip showing the Philippine government crushing five tons of their stockpile of elephant tusks early this year. Two weeks later, the Hong Kong customs seized 1120 elephant tusks, 13 rhino horns, 5 pieces of leopard skins. Of the 1120 tusks, it was estimated that at least 500 of them were from adolescent elephants!
Three days ago, the Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA) released a photo of a dead elephant being poisoned by cyanide. Poachers are now using cyanide to poison the salt licks of watering holes and about 90 elephants have been poisoned in the Hwange National Park in Zimbabwe.
Today's news said that the Hong Kong customs found 198 ivory tusks in a ship container covered by sacks of soy beans. That's another 100 elephants killed! The container was from the Ivory Coast, bound for China.
Will this ever stop? I'm sure many people are like me when I was working. Yes, we are too busy with our lives, working to bring up the children, to pay our mortgages, that the last thing we would think about is an elephant in far away Africa, being killed for its tusk and leaving behind a baby elephant to fend for itself; or whether it even has a chance to survive?!
But when the National Geographic mentioned that one elephant is killed every 15 minutes, that should bother us and get us thinking. Will our children and our children's children be able to see what an elephant looks like? or a rhino for that matter? There are many endangered species which will not last another generation at the rate that illegal poaching is allowed to go on and government agencies condoning the ivory trade, as in the case of elephants. The EIA said that ivory trade has gone commercial; and if we do not do our part to put in a concerted effort to urge all governments to ban the ivory trade; the magnificent elephant species, the largest land mammal will be gone...and the impact on our ecological balance will ultimately affect all humanity.
Today is World Animal Day and in many cities all around the world, concerned people together with celebrities are joining together to march and show their support for elephants. The aim is to bring a clear message to all governments to burn their stockpile of confiscated ivory and more importantly to ban the ivory trade! The Hong Kong Elephant Walk was led by our own home-grown celebrity, Sharon Kwok who is also a Conservationist. Yes, I was there today, in solidarity with the many supporters, including school children, in Canton Road, urging young people, especially the mainland Chinese tourist to help us in our cause and to bring the plight of the elephants to all their friends in China.
The awful wrongs and sufferings forced upon the
innocent, faithful animal race form the the blackest
chapter in the whole world's history.
-Edward Augustus Freeman-
