Humankind has an enormous appetite. Imagine the number of cattle that get eaten all over the world. A lot of poor chickens, ducks and turkeys besides other birds are being daily sacrificed on the altar of the Goddess of Hunger. Many cows, goats, camels and sheep bleat helplessly as they are mowed down by the relentless scythe of remorseless humankind, all for their delicious flesh.
But if this huge appetite continues, we will finish off eating all the animals on Earth, elephants, whales, snakes and hippos included. Humans trawl the high seas with ‘high techno gizmos’ pulling in great white sharks, swordfish, tuna, dolphins and manta. Many relish them raw. Poor octopi hide in the forests of coral to escape the greedy eyes of humans. We can understand the poor Jorawa tribals on the Andaman spearing fish for dinner. But what about this extended, organized massacre of our sea life? Whaling ships pull in huge carcasses which end up as sushi. Others go about scraping up the sea floor for fish to feed the guts of hungry folk all the way from Florida to Fukushima. The excuse to eating fish is to escape from the plaque that clogs up our veins and cholesterol piled up from eating too many chickens and goats! Humans need proteins, you know! Remember how the American bison was almost wiped out by a hungry horde of Europeans ?
The World appears obsessed with food and drink and more food and drink. Humans are slaves to their stomachs. Warning: Masterchef shows are injurious to your eating habits. And calculate the piles of shit that humankind flushes out in to rivers that all end up in the Seven Seas, polluting it for millennia. Of course we add plastics bags and toxic chemicals to add flavor to the sea water. And we happily consume the fish that consumes our shit.
Unlike our ape ancestors who chewed on branches and grass and seasonal fruits, we are gorging ourselves on everything under the sun. We domesticated grass seeds calling it rice, wheat, barley and oats. The ancient civilizations of Southern America were good farmers for they domesticated the potato, tomato, cassava, capsicum and what not along with corn and the Soya bean. Humans now slash down prime forests to plant bananas, sugar cane, oil palm and rubber.
Ultimately, tropical and temperate forests will disappear and all the soil will be washed down the Amazon or the Mississippi or the Ganges or the Nile. Deserts will sneak in and cover every corner with sand and dust. Or the ice in glaciers and the Antarctic will melt; seas will rise and drown the coastlands and islands. So goes the warnings from Climate change and global warming. Polar bears and Grizzlies will wander in front of the White House seeking Presidential intervention to save them from extreme poverty. And we will find Gorilla meat on the menus of New York restaurants! That is till we eat them all up and go onto our chimpanzee cousins. Giraffes and zebras and wildebeests and kookaburras, cats and dogs and capybaras, will go onto the limited menus from Paris to Beijing. You can hear the gnawing and crunching of bones as humankind gnaws steadily through the population of fellow beings on this beautiful planet.
Luckily the Dodo and the dinosaurs died out long back. Wonder whether the great lizards were all eaten up by some early unknown humanoid ancestors. All this talk of meteoroids from outer space causing species extinction appears a cover up by smart scientists to save the dignity of their voracious ancestors. At least Noah had the good sense to build a boat to save a selected population of wild life when global warming upset things. Humankind will cruelly crucify any Messiah of Climate change who advocates vegetarianism and restraint on energy usage. However, World carbon emission levels will drastically go down, if our over smart politicians and administrators shut up their mouths and eat less food during their world conferences in Doha and Rio. Like Nero they are fiddling while the fires of hunger burn up the stomachs of hungry folk in Africa, Asia, America and Oceania.
Food is the basic need for a hungry world. All our efforts, production of energy and agriculture all go towards filling the cooking pot. In the Mahabharata, there is a character called ‘Began’ who had an enormous craving for animal and human flesh. He was ultimately eliminated by the legendary Bhim, who himself is known as ‘Vrigodhara’ or ‘One who has an insatiable Wolf like craving for food! Kumbakarna, brother of Ravana, is also depicted as having an enormous hunger whenever he wakes up after a six month sleep. Don’t we see the significance of these depictions of hungry demons?
The warning is to stop gobbling up limited global resources!
Ultimately, when we run out of grass seeds, trees, pumpkins, elephants and potatoes we will turn to eating each other. Bon appetite, Mon Amis. But the disturbing thought is what will we eat up after nations consume other nations, tribes chew up other tribes and a handful of hungry animals like hyenas will hunt each other in Central Park, New York and under the Eiffel Tower, Paris?
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