Apr 302009
According to CNN, the government of Egypt began slaughtering pigs; according to RFE, Tajikistan banned the import of pork and poultry from certain countries.
Are these politicians really this bone dead stupid, or are they playing politics? Have they not heard that just because it’s swine flu, you a) cannot get it from eating pork, and b) it’s an imminent pandemic not because it’s carried by pigs (it isn’t, never mind the origin of the virus), but transmitted from human to human?
When an entire country acts in such a boneheaded way, I begin to wonder how long before a politician somewhere manages to make a really bad decision and wipes us all out. It might happen yet!
Most of Egypt is Moslem, and Moslems aren’t supposed to eat pork. The entire Egyptian pig-rearing industry is therefore operated by Copts (who are Christians), basically for the benefit of their own community. The decision, therefore, to slaughter the entire Egyptian pig population looks to have more than a little political element to it…
Richard