BEING VEGETARIAN

I am not a vegetarian. I grew up eating all kinds of meat regularly so it is not easy to change my food habits now. But as I grow older I am trying to reduce my intake of meat and increase my consumption of vegetables. Vegetables are easier to digest than meat.

Many vegetarians say it is cruel to kill animals and eat them. I have to agree. Most people who eat meat do not kill the animal. They do not know what the animal goes through while being killed. They buy fresh meat or frozen meat. When I was living in Africa I used to go to the city to buy frozen chicken on the weekends. In my town, fresh mutton and beef was available but chicken was only sold live. I had to buy it and then kill it. I usually had no problem killing it since it was a small animal but one day when I took a knife to slit the throat of a chicken it started fluttering and cackling. I felt it had realised that it was going to be killed. It was disturbing.

While in Africa, I once saw a man killing a goat. He tied the four legs of the goat together so that it would not start kicking. He held the goat by the throat and the goat was totally unaware of what was happening. It seemed happy or maybe tickled. The man had a very sharp knife and he quickly slit the throat of the goat. He must have had a lot of experience killing goats.

It is not easy for everyone to avoid meat. I have lived on a small island in the Maldives surrounded by the sea for many years. The land was not fertile and agriculture was difficult. Most of the fruits and vegetables were imported and they were expensive. The islanders had to rely mainly on fish for food. Being surrounded by the sea, fish was available abundantly. Many islanders were fishermen. It is almost impossible for such people to become vegetarians. Some vegetarians come to the island but they find it difficult to cope. Fresh vegetables are expensive and not regularly available.