More on Tofu and Tempe

Disturbing news in The Jakarta Post this morning. Here it is:

Consuming tempeh can reduce the risk of developing dementia in the elderly, but eating tofu can increase it, said a joint study between universities here and in Britain on Wednesday.

The study between University of Indonesia (UI), Indonesia Respati University, University of Loughborough and University of Oxford said people over 68 years of age who consumed tofu more than twice a day had a worse memory than those who rarely ate it.

The tofu news is surprising but the article goes on to explain that this could well be caused by the common practice in Indonesia of adding formaldehyde to tofu in order to extend its shelf life. There have been intermittent crackdowns on the practice but it still remains widespread. You just don't know whether the tofu you're eating is contaminated or not. This is a worry considering that I usually eat tofu once a day. Being a vegetarian is never easy but I guess I should look around for a testing kit. I remember reading about one not all that long ago.

The Lighting of the Lamps

There have been several power blackouts in Jakarta over the past couple of weeks caused apparently by a lack of coal. The ships that carry the coal (that heats the water that drives the turbines and so forth) have not been able to dock due to inclement weather. If they can't dock next week then things could get very black indeed, especially at night. You could well ask why coal hasn't been stockpiled as a buffer against temporary disruptions like this but that would imply some sort of forward planning and there simply isn't too much of that in PLN, the government-run organisation that's responsible for supplying electricity to the country.

Widely regarded as one of the most corrupt institutions in Indonesia, PLN has overseen a steady decay of the country's electricity-generating infrastructure, aggravated by a dearth of foreign investment and its own mismanagement, of which the current coal shortfall is the most recent example. While PLN continues to enjoy its lucrative monopoly, things will only get worse. The organisation has a strategic plan however, that will fix everything: build nuclear power plants across Java, one of the most densely populated and seismically active islands on Earth. It's insane of course but there is a lot of money to be made in the awarding of contracts and very little money to be made in researching renewable energy resources. Bring on Chernobyl.

A New Approach to Valentine's Day

You may or may not know that 2008 is Indonesia's Tourism Year. That's why the Deputy Mayor's comments in the article below are even more interesting. Here is part of what he said and you can imagine that the local business people were overjoyed to hear this. If you click on the map above you'll get a larger image and you can see where Bukittinggi is located.

"As a tourist city, many people visit Bukittinggi to celebrate New Year's at Jam Gadang, the city's tourist icon. New Year is the same as Valentine's Day... its celebrations are closely linked to immoral acts," Ismet said. "So let Bukittinggi be deserted by tourists, rather than be allowed to serve as a place for immoral acts."

Here is the full article as it appeared in today's The Jakarta Post:

Valentine's celebrations banned in Bukittinggi

Nation News - Thursday, February 14, 2008

Syofiardi Bachyul Jb, The Jakarta Post, Padang

The Bukittinggi municipal administration has banned residents from celebrating Valentine's Day, on Thursday, on the grounds the occasion is not in line with Minangkabau traditions or Islam.

"The Valentine's Day celebration is not our culture as it usually relates closely to immoral acts where, during the celebration, young couples tend to hug and even kiss each other. This is an immoral act, right?" Bukittinggi Deputy Mayor Ismet Amzis told The Jakarta Post on Wednesday.

A similar prohibition was implemented by the administration on cafes, restaurants, hotels and other tourist sites planning to hold Valentine's Day celebrations.

The administration said it would enforce existing regional regulations on "immoral act eradication" and take companies that celebrated the day to court.

A number of permits already issued for Valentine's Day activities have also been revoked.

Bukittinggi Mayor Djufri told a press conference earlier that his administration would shut down a number of tourist sites known to attract visitor's on Valentine's Day, including Jam Gadang, and some cafes.

Djufri urged parents in Bukittinggi not to let their sons and daughters go out Thursday night.

In order to replace Valentine Day's parties, the Bukittinggi administration urged schools to drive their students to mosques or prayer rooms Thursday night to hear religious sermons "for the sake of improving their morality."

The suggestion was made in response to the circulation of pornographic photos depicting a young couple from a senior high school in the city.

The photos, taken on a mobile phone camera, have been widely circulated in Bukittinggi over the last three weeks.

The couple captured by the photos has been expelled from school.

Ismet said the municipality had assigned 100 public order officers to keep an eye on cafes, restaurants, hotels and other public places on Thursday.

The officers have been given authority to detain young couples found on the streets or at tourist sites.

Besides Valentine Day's, Ismet said, the Bukittinggi administration would also ban New Year's Eve celebrations at Jam Gadang next year.

"As a tourist city, many people visit Bukittinggi to celebrate New Year's at Jam Gadang, the city's tourist icon. New Year is the same as Valentine's Day... its celebrations are closely linked to immoral acts," Ismet said. "So let Bukittinggi be deserted by tourists, rather than be allowed to serve as a place for immoral acts."

Roni Valian, head of the Bukittinggi chapter of the Indonesian Hotel and Restaurant Association, said he was still evaluating the mayor's ban and declined to comment further.

Prime Week

Tomorrow, Tuesday the 12th February, is a prime day for me. It's number 21499. As it turns out, Friday is also a prime day, number 21503, and so it's sort of a prime week for me. After this, it's two weeks exactly before I encounter prime day 21517 which is followed closely by a whole bunch of prime days (the twin primes 21521 - 21523 and then 21529). After that it's nearly a month until I enjoy twin prime days again with 21557 - 21559. Sometimes, like today, the prime days just sneak up on me and catch me by surprise. I need to do a little more forward planning by marking them in a special calendar that I guess I should reserve for just that purpose.

I quite understand that most people will not share my fascination with prime numbers and I've been labeled insane by one person when I shared a particular theory of mine about prime numbers and God-realization. However, I remain unperturbed and will refine my theory further before launching it on Scribd. If you haven't been to this site, you must visit. There is a cornucopia of information on it and a great many e-books by well-known and little-known authors. My most recent download was Nikola Tesla's autobiography which is simply fascinating. The more I visit, the more I download and I simply don't have time to read them.

Even as I write this, I was tempted to visit the site and type "prime numbers" into the search box. One of the search results was "the curious incident of the dog in the night-time" which is a novel I read last year. The reason this novel came up is that the central character "Christopher John Francis Boone knows all the countries of the world and their capitals and every prime number up to 7,057. He relates well to animals but has no understanding of human emotions. He cannot stand to be touched. Although gifted with a superbly logical brain, Christopher is autistic." It was an interesting read and Christopher certainly shares my passion for prime numbers.

Well, it's already prime day 21499 and I have school tomorrow, so time for bed.

Keating's Eulogy

Well, Keating has written a glowing tribute to Suharto in The Age, which I've linked to here. He regards him as Indonesia's saviour in the dark days when Communist forces were gathering on Australia's doorstep. As well as battling the Red Menace, he says that Suharto held back the tide of Islamic fundamentalism that otherwise would have seen boatloads of suicide bombers alighting on Australia's northern shores and trekking southwards to the big cities. It is a fulsome, silly article.

For a more balanced view of Suharto's legacy, I've linked to an interesting article in The Sydney Morning Herald by Hamish McDonald who wrote a book about Suharto in 1980. My opinion of the guy is determined largely by my feeling that he orchestrated the events of 1965 that led directly to the deaths of perhaps a million Indonesians. Now that he's gone, I think more evidence will come to light about that watershed event in Indonesian history.

I remember reading Time Magazine's account of the killings when I was in Year 12 and the stories left an indelible impression on me. From that time on, I vowed that I'd never set foot on Indonesian soil. Well, my resolve obviously waned over the years and I've ended living in the very place that I never wanted to visit. More than forty years on however, I still want to get to the bottom of what really happened.

Tough Time for Tigers

Part of the reason for the rapidly declining tiger population in Indonesia can be grasped by two stories that appeared in the local paper today. One article, describing the flooding in East Java, reported that floodwaters have reached 1.5 metres high inundating shops and houses and forcing students at one Islamic boarding school to abandon their mascot, an endangered Sumatran tiger in a cage (see photo). The tiger is showing paw deep in rising water that hopefully didn't rise too much higher. Of course, it's illegal to keep tigers but so what? Students need a mascot and what could be better than a Sumatran tiger.

The next article is equally disturbing and needs to be quoted in full. I doubt that the villagers are as innocent as they make out. I'd say they were involved as well but decided to shift all the blame to the soldier once the news got out. Anyway, if there were 400 tigers left in the wild yesterday, there are only 399 today. I'd say their extinction in the wild is assured.

Soldier kills endangered tiger, skins it, distributes meat

JAKARTA (AP): A soldier shot dead an endangered Sumatran tiger that was caught in a trap in Riau province, then skinned it and distributed its meat to villagers, a conservationist said.

The incident happened in Tenggayun village after residents asked the soldier to help release the animal from a pig snare, Bastoni, an official with the Sumatran Tiger Conservation Program, said Thursday.

"Instead, the soldier fired nine bullets to its body and head, and then asked villagers to skin the wild beast," he said, adding that the man proceeded to dole out the meat and take home the tiger's pelt.

"It was sadistic," said Bastoni. He said he intends to file a complaint with the army.

Environmentalists say the Sumatran tiger, or Panthera tigris sumatrae, is the most critically endangered tiger subspecies in the world, with fewer than 400 believed to be left in the wild.

Ring of Fire

The screenshot shows a newly added feature to Google Earth whereby the location of major earthquakes around the world over the past 40 years can be visualised. I've zoomed in on my neck of the woods to show the western end of Java and the southern tip of Sumatra. The reddish circles represent earthquakes and the orange triangle are active volcanoes. If you click on a circle, a pop-up window displays details of the quake including magnitude, location, date, depth and severity. As you can see, I'm living in a virtual mine field and where the next temblor will be is anyone's guess. It could be right under my feet.

The new feature can be accessed by going to Layers in the Sidebar and selecting Places of Interest >>> Geographic Features >>> Earthquakes.

Suharto

Well, Suharto is gone and this quote caught my fancy (source):

Weep not for Indonesia's former president Suharto who died today at the age of 86. Suharto's iron-fisted rule bought economic growth but also ushered in nepotism and corruption. And Suharto's legacy of corruption and shady business dealings go back a long way. In the 1950s, he was allegedly involved in sugar smuggling which some said cost him command of an army division during a 1959 anticorruption drive. Suharto claims that he bartered sugar for rice to ease a local food shortage and did not benefit personally. Still, he was transferred to a less influential position at the army staff college. It is said Suharto through his rule cultivated a network of wealthy allies, many in the ethnic Chinese business community. He did this through a system of rewards and punishments administered by the state. Suharto's nepotism and corruption was well known. reached epic proportions, culminating in a national car project awarded to Suharto's youngest and most beloved son, Tommy. According to anti-corruption watchdog Transparency International, Suharto and his family may have amassed as much as $35 billion during his reign and the independent organization today still ranks Indonesia as one of Asia's most corrupt countries.

However, it's good to know that the brotherhood of old bastards is still strong because Dr Mahathir Mohamad defended the legacy of one-time Indonesian strongman Suharto and described him as a "great leader and an international statesman" (source). Never mind that Suharto and the CIA played the leading role in the death of hundreds of thousands of Indonesians back in 1965. Maybe he's already met some of them on the other side. I'm sure they'll be pleased to see him.

For the Love of Microsoft

On the front page of today's The Jakarta Post, there is the headline Ministry's Microsoft love slows down open-source which connects with the mention of IGOS (Indonesia Go Open Source) in my previous post. As part of the IGOS initiative in 2004, five Government ministries signed a declaration to use open-source software. However, only the State Ministry of Research and Technology, has acted on the declaration, with 92 percent of its computers running open-source programs. Other ministries ... remain reluctant to use the software.

There is a clear lack of political will on the part of these other four ministries. One can only speculate as to why the Government is not serious about promoting free software, prefering instead to spend its very limited resources on paying licensing fees to Microsoft. A search on Google failed to find the IGOS's Internet Address on the first few pages and instead I tracked it down using Wikipedia. The site itself at http://www.igos.web.id is a sparce and clearly neglected site. On the opening page, the menu link item program is misspelled as pogram.

Of course, most home users are using pirated versions of Microsoft Windows XP and Microsoft Office, Adobe Photoshop, Corel Draw and so on, which is understandable as they are readily available and cost practically nothing. If you buy a new computer here, the vendor will happily offer to install as much pirated software as you'd like but you will not be asked first whether you'd like open-source software installed. It's may be an image thing as well. Microsoft, and especially Apple, are seen as "cool" but open-source products such as Linux and Open Office are are not. Technology in Indonesia is associated with status first and utility second.

A good summary of what's available by way of open-source software can be found at Open Source Living.

Soy Joy

Why didn't I think of that title for my last post, instead of the very pedestrian "tempe and tofu return". This clever little rhyme was the caption to a photo contained in another article in The Jakarta Post reporting on the hardships caused to tempeh and tofu business owners by high soy bean prices. The article concludes with this quote from one owner: we cannot use locally produced soybeans to produce tofu and tempe. It damages too easily.

Interesting. The plot thickens when we consider the content of the following article, also in today's newspaper, which I'll quote in its entirety.

Simple soybean solution form scientists

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Tempeh and tofu would not have disappeared from the family dining room, as it did this week, if the country's government had listened to Indonesia's scientists.

The archipelago would have been able to stop importing soybeans from the U.S. and would probably even be exporting a high-yield protein-rich bean to other countries.

"Perhaps we didn't have the time to pay attention to soybeans then," said Endang Sukara, deputy chairman of the natural sciences department of the Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI).

But in 2004 and after successfully breeding "newly improved" soybeans, LIPI scientists invited then-President Megawati and her agriculture officials to see their high-yield harvest in South Sumatra. Endang wasn't joking when he said the soybeans had added value. Kedelai Plus, the new improved variety, was able to produce up to three times the yield compared to regular soybeans and required less than half the amount of fertilizer.

"We told the government all about it, and they were there during the harvesting at Musi Rawas in South Sumatra," Endang said at LIPI's Center for Biotechnology Research in Cibinong, West Java. "But they never followed it up."

To create Kedelai Plus, a team of scientists, led by Harmastini Sukiman, isolated hundreds of Rhizobiums, a microbe that binds Nitrogen from the ground for soybean roots to absorb. They then discovered one special string called Rhizobium B64.

"The strain worked really well for soybeans by boosting productivity and improving the plants' resistance to diseases," Harmastini said. "Soybean plants produce more beans using B64."

The scientists grew Kedelai Plus in many areas across Indonesia, including South Sumatra, North Sumatra, West Java and East Java, with outstanding results. Farmers in Indonesia can produce on average up to 1.2 tons of soybeans per hectare, but in every harvest Kedelai Plus was yielding 2.4 to 4.5 tons per hectare. The team discovered a way to inject the microbe into the soybean, which meant farmers no longer had to glue the microbe onto the bean skin, or sprinkle it across the soil.

"Rhizobiums grow abundantly in the soil, so for Rhizobium B64 to survive the competition, we must make sure there are enough B64 cells for the soybean roots to absorb," Harmastini said.

With the help of a special vacuuming machine, LIPI was able to turn any type of soybean variety into Kedelai Plus with similar results. Endang said he was confident the new technology would see Indonesia end its dependency on expensive, imported American soybeans.

"All the government needs to do now is up-scale the machine and produce Kedelai Plus in various seed centers so that farmers can purchase them at affordable prices," he said.

Endang said he has been dreaming of a day when he could drink soybean milk, snack on soybean yogurt and have a tempeh burger for lunch, all made from domestic soybeans. But for the time being, farmers wishing to plant "newly improved" soybeans can bring their own seeds to LIPI in Cibinong to be injected with Rhizobium B64 at a cost of Rp 50,000 (US$ 5.30) for 20 kilograms of soybean seed.

It wouldn't be surprising if the cartel controlling imports of soy beans had something to do with this lack of enthusiasm of the part of the Government. Even though such a product would be great for Indonesians, it wouldn't be well-received by the importers of soy beans and so a strange inertia settles over the politicians. It's like the Government's IGOS (Indonesia Go Open Source) initiative. Open source software is great for the country but not well-received by Microsoft and Apple. Once again, a strange inertia settles over the politicians.

Tempeh and Tofu Return

Massive protests in Jakarta have seen the Government belatedly remove the tariff on imported soybeans but there is continued demand to abolish the existing system whereby there are only four designated importers of the 1.3 million tonnes of soybeans imported. These four companies effectively form a highly lucrative cartel that is profiting at the expense of the local producers of tofu and tempeh. If the market were more open, the suspicion is that prices would decline as the competition increased. That may not happen.

The good news is that tofu and tempeh are now back on the supermarket shelves. There was an interesting article in The Jakarta Post today about tempeh, written by Jonathan Agranoff, a U.K. doctor and nutritionist, currently working for the United Nations in Indonesia. He has written a book called A Concise Handbook of Indonesian Tempe that I'll try to get a hold of it. In his newspaper article, he mentions that tempeh is the only non-animal source of vitamin B12, which I wasn't aware of. There is a very informative website at www.tempeh.info that I've been reading through.

I just hadn't realised just how healthy tempeh is for me but my recent avoidance of eggs and cheese (I never used milk directly anyway) has made me more interested in my sources of protein. Meanwhile, I'll start collecting more of Dilbert's comics about Mike the Vegan, in case I start to take myself too seriously.

Shocking Soybean Story

Here's a change from my recent religious posts. This news is important to me because as a near-vegan*, I rely largely on tofu and tempe for my protein requirements. My wife, Desy, went to the supermarket today and sure enough there was no tofu or tempe on the shelves. I didn't realise that Indonesia imports 70% of its soybeans from overseas (mainly the USA).

Have a read of this post from http://indosnesos.blogspot.com dated Jan 13, 2008

Tofu, tempe producers stage rally outside presidential palace

Some 3,000 tofu and tempe (fermented soybean cake) producers staged a rally outside the presidential palace here on Monday, urging the government to stabilize the soybean price which jumped almost 100 percent in the past year.

To get their demand fulfilled, the demonstrators agreed to cease production for three days starting on Monday, tofu producer Kliwono Sutoro said.

The soybean price spiral dealt a major blow to tofu and tempe producers as the selling prices of the products remained, he said.

Then I have a quote from http://www.antara.co.id/en

Indonesia mulls cut in soybean import duties - trade official

Jakarta (ANTARA News) - Indonesia is considering cutting import duties for soybean to offset soaring soybean prices which have hurt the local food industry, a senior government official said on Monday. Soybean imports are subject to a 10 percent duty.

"One option is to lower import duties for soybean but we don't know yet how much it will be," Ardiansyah Parman, director general for domestic trade at the Trade Ministry, was quoted by Reuters as saying.

U.S. soybean futures on the Chicago Board of Trade rose by the 50-cent a bushel trading limit on Friday, notching an all-time high amid spillover buying from corn after the USDA reported a smaller-than-expected corn inventory, traders said.

Old-crop January soybeans ended 42 cents higher at $12.86 a bushel.

But Parman said the policy on import duties would be temporary and in the long-term there should be a policy to improve domestic soybean output.

Indonesia still imports nearly 70 percent of its soybean demand, mainly for the food industry which uses soybean for tofu and soy sauce production. The industry is dominated by small and medium-sized companies.

Indonesia's soybean output is expected to reach 750,000-800,000 tonnes this year, rising from 608,260 tonnes in 2007.

The country imported an estimated 1.4 million tonnes of soybeans in 2007, up from 1.2 million tonnes in 2006, according to data from the Indonesian office of the American Soybean Association.

The association said Indonesia imports between 80-90 percent of its soybeans from the United States, with the rest coming from Argentina.

* my personal definition of a near-vegan: someone who doesn't eat eggs, cheese or milk directly but who still consumes them indirectly via bread, pastries, biscuits etc.

The Aquarian Gospel

Well I seemed to be hooked on this Jesus thing for a while longer. I've read nearly all of "Jesus in India" as mentioned in my previous post and the arguments that Ahmad puts forward are logically and clearly expressed. The Gospels describe Jesus walking around and talking to his disciples after his alleged death, in much the same way as he did before his crucifixion but I won't try to summarise it all here. The hyperlink is there for those who wish to read his account.

What's interesting is that I discovered from a post on another blog by Randeep Ramesh that:

Hollywood is to fill in the Bible's "missing years" with a story about Jesus as a wandering mystic who travelled across India, living in Buddhist monasteries and speaking out against the iniquities of the country's caste system. Film producers have delved deep into revisionist scholarship to piece together what they say was Jesus's life between the ages of 13 and 30, a period untouched by the recognised gospels. The result is the Aquarian Gospel, a $20m movie, which portrays Jesus as a holy man and teacher inspired by a myriad of eastern religions in India. The Aquarian Gospel takes its name from a century-old book that examined Christianity's eastern roots and is in its 53rd reprint.

Now in the book "Jesus in India", Ahmad brings up the idea of the Buddhist connection in the early life of Jesus but dismisses it fairly quickly. However, he also says that Jesus was referred to as the "traveling prophet". A quick search of the Internet reveals a location for the Aquarian Gospel with the comment that:

The Aquarian Gospel was rediscovered during the spiritual ferment of the 1960s; a beat-up paperback copy of this book was de rigeur in every hippie pad, and it no doubt played an unsung role in naming the 'Age of Aquarius'.

Well, I have to confess that I didn't read it but I guess my (at that time) still recent escape from the madness of Catholicism didn't incline me to investigate JC any further. So it seems that 40 years later, I will be reading this book in electronic format rather than as a "beat-up paperback".

The Movement

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New By-Law

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Chairman Rudd

Given the current landslides and flooding in Indonesia and the other ills that seem to regularly befall the country, the logo above might be used as part of the 2008 tourism campaign. It couldn't be any worse than the existing campaign that began with the slogan "Indonesia: 100 years of nation's awakening". Oops. How did that one get through? Of course it had be changed even though Garuda planes already had it stuck on their tails and clearly a lot of money was going to be lost on already printed material that would need to be tossed away. The slogan is now "Indonesia: 100 years of national awakening". How this slogan is going to entice tourists to the country is a mystery.

No matter. Leave it alone. This year I'm going to be positive, or at least negative about another country. What about Australia? I notice Chairman Rudd is pushing ahead with the Great Internet Porn Filter and may well be on his way to emulating the Great Firewall of China. This YouTube video that I found is quite funny as it parodies his Chinese connections.

Karen Armstrong

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Behind the Scenes

The Islamic Day of Sacrifice only occurs once a year but it should remind us of what takes place in abattoirs every day in every country of the world. The animals are similarly mistreated. Islam is perhaps the only religion that lays down some guidelines for the ethical treatment of animals, even though the guidelines are almost completely ignored. Sites like www.islamicconcerns.com however, give hope that this may be slowly changing. On this site, Moslems discuss the ethical treatment of animals from an Islamic viewpoint and quote from the Qu'ran and Ahadiths (collected sayings of the prophet) to support their statements.

It is only from within Islam that change will come because criticism from non-Moslems is not well received at all. That won't stop me passing comment on Islam nor reading what other non-Moslems have to say about the religion and its founder. I'm currently reading Karen Armstrong's biography of Muhammed and the more I read, the more I realise how far certain professed Moslem groups like the Taliban have strayed from the original message of the Prophet. They have in fact regressed to the pre-Islamic period described as the Jahiliyah (the time of ignorance). Consider the following quotation from her book:

Muhammed was a man who loved and needed women. In this he differed from many of his contemporaries. Later, some of his closest companions, who clearly believed that women should be kept in their place, noted that in the pre-Islamic period most Meccans thought little of the female sex. We have seen that women had no status during the Jahiliyah and even some of the most prominent Muslims treated their wives and daughters harshly. But Muhammed seems genuinely to have enjoyed women's company and to have needed affection and intimacy. In later years, his gentleness and apparent leniency with the women in his life perplexed some of his closest companions.

It should be remembered that Muhammed was utterly faithful to his first wife, Khadija, until she died. In the early days following his terrifying revelation, she was a crucial support. The book goes on to say:

Trembling, he waited for the terror to abate, and Khadija held him in her arms, soothing him and trying to take his fear away. All the sources emphasise Muhammed's profound dependence upon Khadija in this crisis. Later he would have other visions on the mountainside and each time he would go straight to Khadija and beg her to cradle him and wrap him in his cloak. But Khadija was not just a consoling mother figure; she was also Muhammed's spiritual advisor. It was she who was able to provide the support that other seers and prophets have found in an established religion.

The Taliban have simply returned to their pre-Islamic roots and are a recidivistic insult to the changes that Muhammed tried to bring about. The fact that so many followers of Islam fail to live up to the ideals espoused in the Qu'ran is not Muhammed's fault. He did his best but the baser aspects of human nature and ingrained cultural norms have later distorted his message.

Have a Nice Day

The site http://www.animalsaustralia.org has some graphic photos of the suffering that animals undergo on their journey from Australia and on their arrival in Egypt and the Middle East. The photo above and video below were both taken from that site.

More videos from Animals Australia

Bouncing Back

My last post was on November 18th following my Bouncy Town misadventure. Since then I got sick, like two-week sick, and it was all I could do to drag my tired old body off to work. The second week I had a really bad chest infection and all the while there were exams to write and mark, followed by reports to write. I've bounced back however, and am looking forward to beginning holidays on Wednesday.

Of course Thursday is the dreaded Islamic Day of Sacrifice, so I'll stay indoors that day. The graphic that I've uploaded expresses my feelings in the matter. Here's a recent quote from a site that monitors the spread of avian flu:

The high point of the hajj, when pilgrims converge on Mount Arafat, will take place on Tuesday, and Eid al-Adha, the Muslim Feast of the Sacrifice marking the end of the pilgrimage, will be celebrated the next day. All Muslims are required to make the hajj to Mecca, in western Saudi Arabia, at least once in their lifetime if they have the means to do so. Pilgrims sacrifice an animal, usually a sheep, for Eid al-Adha as part of the rituals. "Usually we get around 2 million sheep, goats and cows for the hajj season. The work is ongoing," Mohammad Jameel, an official in the storage terminal department at the Jedda Islamic Port, told AFP. "The livestock is shipped from Somalia, Djibouti, Australia and New Zealand," he said, adding that the ships each carry around 120,000 sheep or goats.

"The work is ongoing" indeed, two million animals slaughtered in Mecca alone on just one day. The total number throughout the Muslim world would presumably be in the tens of millions. Getting murdered is one thing but the suffering of the animals on these ships is appalling and well documented. The prophet Muhammed was scathing in his condemnation of those who mistreated animals and would have been appalled at these death ships and their connection with Islam. The Islamic Day of Sacrifice is not really about killing animals at all. It is about inner sacrifice which is much more difficult to accomplish of course . Today however, most Moslems are fixated on external rituals and miss the deeper meaning behind them. No matter what I say however, the bloodbath is coming.

Here is a link to an article written in mid-2007 by an Australian, Jenny Hume, about the live animals exports. It's titled "Live animal exports: defending the indefensible". Things are particularly bad in Egypt where sacrificial animals are horribly mistreated, in defiance of what is prescribed in the Qu'ran. I'm been down this path before however, and it doesn't lead anywhere. Nobody in listening.