Nepal in the News

There is a lot happening in Nepal. In a fragile society in a constant turbulance one thing that happens easily affects a dozen other things and thus it is vital to keep up with the flow of information, know what different media is writing, at least try and contemplate, analyse, grasp the developments. Screening the local news I have not much time to concentrate on international stuff.

Out of curiosity, however, I went on to read news on global services after having received emails and text messages from several people back home, stating Nepal is in the news.

The news was that an estimated 250 000 animals - buffalos, goats, chickens and birds, even rats - were slaughtered during the Gadhimai Jatra, a major Hindu festival taking place once every five years. Hindus believe that sacrificing to the goddess of power Gadhimai brings them prosperity and takes away the evil. Eating the meat comforts them to believe it brings them luck. In the ritual the animals are killed by cutting the head and other parts off and the veins open, with traditional khukuri knives. Local animal activists have raised their (fairly weak) voices against the ritual which is already outlawed in some parts of neighbouring India, and thus attracting a flow of pilgrims also from accross the border to be able to follow their religion.

The loudest voices have come from the West though. Dramatic stories about how "Behind high brick walls, thousands of buffalo move silently through the winter fog" in anticipation of the "painful, inhumane mass sacrifice of animals". Explanations of blood and guts and cries follow, many videos are available, with a warning of disturbing scenes.

I am not in favour but I cannot help feeling disturbed not just over the event, but also and even more so over the sad and at the same time ridiculous hypocracy.

In Finland, a country of five million people, two million pigs are slaughtered annually.
In the States 45 million Turkeys are slaughtered for Thanks Giving alone.
Why do we still call Christmas Christmas and Thanks Giving Thanks Giving, and not a mass slaughter?

I would so much like to know how can we point a finger on people slaughtering a quarter of a million animals, once every five years, in a country of 30 million people, -  animals they have kept and fed themselves for their own food security, and where they do not eat meat twice a day but more likely twice a year.

Yes, it is cruel, but does seeing a slaughter of an animal out in the public and in front our eyes make it somehow more cruel than it happening behind closed doors? Is it somehow more acceptable if we encounter the issue as an end product, nicely sealed in plastic in a supermarket and can easily choose not to think about the regular shocking news of the ill-treatment of animals in our very own slaughter-houses of Europe?

The articles of course also remembered to point out that three children died, of the extreme cold, during the festival.

Absolutely, extremely shocking.

Some other three children in Nepal also died during the time it took one journalist to write one of their horrow stories (estimated it took about 45 minutes). Out of hunger. Three out of over those 50 000 children that die in this country every year, out of hunger and and out of easily curable diseases.
But nah, that's hardly worth spending precious time writing on. No screaming, no guts nor blood involved. A silent massacre, who cares?