Despite the length of Shiva's commentary, I think it worth reading by all who are interested in animal life and farming. I've broken it into to parts.
-Tom >Mailing-List: contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]; run by ezmlm >Reply-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] >Delivered-To: mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] >Delivered-To: moderator for [EMAIL PROTECTED] >Date: Wed, 23 Jan 2002 20:03:08 -0400 >X-Sender: [EMAIL PROTECTED] >To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] >From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] (Jan Slakov) >Subject: rn:Vandana Shiva-Terrorism as cannibalism/Human Liberation Imperative >Status: > >From: "Janet M Eaton" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> >Date: Wed, 23 Jan 2002 14:31:30 -0400 >Subject: Vandana Shiva / Terrorism As Cannibalism / Jan 23 ZNet > >As to be expected another profound reflection on the roots of >global crisis by Dr. Vandana Shiva who concludes: >"Peace will not be created through weapons and wars, bombs and >barbarism. Violence will not be contained by spreading it. Violence >has become a luxury the human species cannot afford if we are to >survive. Non-violence has become a survival imperative." > >fyi- janet >======================================= > >Today's commentary: >http://www.zmag.org/sustainers/content/2002-01/23shiva.cfm >================================== >ZNet Commentary >Terrorism As Cannibalism January 23, 2002 >By Vandana Shiva > >Year 2001 will be etched in our memory as a year in which the vicious cycle >of violence was unleashed worldwide. Of the Taliban bombing the two thousand >year old images of peace, the Buddhas of Bamiyan. > >Of terrorists blowing up the W.T.C. on September 11, and attempting to blow >up the Assembly of Jammu and Kashmir on October 1, and the Indian Parliament >on December 13. Of a global alliance bombing out what remained of >Afghanistan after two decades of super power rivalry, and civil war. Of >Pakistan and India threatening to go to war as 2001 gave way to 2002. > >Why is violence engulfing us so rapidly, so totally? Why has violence become >the dominant feature of the human species across cultures. Could the >violence characterising human societies in the new millenium be linked with >violent structures and institutions we have created to reduce society to >markets and humans to consumers? > >Animals of any species tend to become violent when they are treated with >violent methods. > >Pigs love to root in the fields, wallow in the mud, grunt to each other. >However when denied this freedom in factory farms where they are confined in >over crowded, steel barred crates or multiple stacked cages known as battery >cages, pigs become bored, stressed and anxious. They start knawing cages, >picking on each other, biting each other's tails and ears and resorting to >what agribusiness industry has called "cannibalism". (Ref. Michael Fox, Old >MacDonalds Factory Farm) > >Pigs are not cannibals. When they start to display cannibalism, the normal >question industry should be asking is why are pigs behaving abnormally. The >organic movement and animal liberation movement has raised the question and >found the answer in the violent methods of factory farming. In humane >farming pigs have been liberated and allowed to roam and roll in the mud. >Stopping violence against animals is the best way to stop their violent >behavior. > >Industry has a different solution to "cannibalism" induced by the >concentration camp conditions of factory farms. Operators of pig factories >chop off the tails of week old piglets without any anaesthics to prevent >other pigs from chewing them off. They also remove eight teeth with wire >cutters. Male piglets have their testicles cut off to reduce their >aggression in crowded areas. > >While removing tails and teeth is the solution offered to violent behavior >in pigs, chicken in factory farms are debeaked, and cattle are dehorned. > >Beaks are the most important feature of chicken. When roaming in the open, a >chicken needs its beak for eating, pecking, preening, cleaning, grooming. >When confined in battery cages, chicken start to attack each other with >their beaks. According to industry, chicken are debeaked to protect them >from one another. A day old chick's beak is pressed against a red hot metal >blade at 800oC. Often it injures the tongue. > >Chicken injured during debeaking die of starvation. What industry is blind >to is that it is not chickens beak that is the cause of violent, abnormal >and cannibalistic behavior among chicken, but the overcrowded, unnatural >conditions of their living in cages. Free-range chicken do not kill each >other with their beaks. They find worms and food for their own nourishment. > >The horns of the cow are its most distinctive feature. We adorn them with >bells and decorations. At Muttu Pongal, the horns of cattle are decorated >with flowers and balloons. In organic agriculture cow horns are used to >increase the potency of compost. But in factory farming, cattle are dehorned >because they attack each other under conditions of confinement. > >The problem, clearly, is the factory cage -- not the teeth and tails of >pigs, the beaks of chicken, the horns of cattle. It is the cage that needs >removing, not the tail, or beak or horn. When animals are denied their basic >freedoms to function as a species, when they are held captive and confined, >they turn to "cannibalism". > >Humans are animals. As a species we too have basic needs -- for meaning and >identity, for community and security, for food and water, for freedom. > >Could terrorism be the human equivalent of the abnormal behavior of >"cannibalism" in animals exhibit under factory conditions? > >Humans are of course, not being confined to iron cages (though in the U.S, >in Australia, a large percentage of blacks and aborigines are behind bars). >Human society is being caged and controlled through complex laws and >policies, through violent economic and political structures which are >enclosing of their spaces -- spiritual, ecological, political and economic. > >Humans are experiencing their religious spaces enclosed when militaries >occupy sacred lands as in the Mid East. Humans are experiencing enclosure >through occupation as in Palestine. The children in affluent America are >also experiencing a closing of their lives, and are turning to mindless >violence as in the case of shooting at St. Columbines. And across the world, >ecological, economic and political spaces are being enclosed through >privatisation, liberalisation and globalisation.
