2:30 am - Lahore

I just hopped on after the most recent (late night) load shedding here in Pakistan to write a small blog.

Dubai was pretty awesome. Although I’m not really into the typical Dubai experience (tons of shopping), I did go to one mall and walked around some neat places, even though it was pretty hot. One thing I *had* to do was buy a new Hanayen abaya, to join (replace?) my 3-year-old abaya from them. The store clerks there are so nice and helpful and the abayas are perfect. (black on black!)

It’s extraordinarily hot here in Lahore during the day, (over 100 F / 38 C) and quite bearable but muggy at night. The city seems exactly the same as last time. Lively, interesting, a bit sad.

Today I (with some family) went to a local movie theatre here to see “Shutter” (English movie! with popcorn!) which was neat. My 6-year-old niece went with us and sat on my lap while I covered her eyes during the scary parts and tried to stop her from throwing popcorn on people . She whispered to me during the movie “Some people will think you’re my mom” hehe… She doesn’t know how funny that is. She also “tests” my Urdu… She’s softening my heart a bit toward children but still reinforcing my decision NOT to have any.

We also had ice cream at a very neat shop (pics coming soon). Nice to see all the Westernized youngsters hanging out, being cool in their jeans

This place is really … different bordering on strange. Last time I only caught glimpses of stuff and I reminded myself to pay closer attention this time, which may have been a bad idea. Within my first hour being here, I saw some pretty sad and heartbreaking things (I won’t go into details). The state of animal and human welfare here (and on this planet in general) is so poor and inexcusable. Seeing things like that out in the open just shocks me. I don’t understand it.

Visit the Flickr album for this trip, where I’ll add all my shots as time goes by when I can grab some internet time in between electricity outages.

Saara recently asked how I manage to stay vegetarian while in Pakistan. I find it’s quite easy! Thankfully, my husband’s family is very understanding and always makes sure there is some vegetarian dish available for us. I don’t budge on it and they don’t push. Maybe they are unusually accommodating for a Pakistani family (I have no other experience to draw from)? They just know I am vegetarian and there is no problem. Thank God for that… (It seems there is usually chanay or daal around, I hope all you veggie ladies married to Pakistanis don’t have too hard of a time :/)

More later…

I forgot to post anything for Earth Day, lots of people across the blogosphere have contributed great stuff.

My contribution will be a suggestion (plea?) for you to go vegetarian! It’s really tasty, environmentally-friendly and generally just a good thing to do.

See also:
Meat and the Environment
GoVeg.com
Environmental Effects of Meat Production
TreeHugger

I feel like a bit of a hypocrite, talking about Earth Day while planning a big international flight. My consistent reducing, reusing and recycling kind of falls away then.

EDIT: My dear commenters mentioned reducing meat consumption and buying locally-grown food, both of which are excellent things to do. I made up a little scale/list:

Less Meat = Good
Vegetarian = Great
Local Vegetarian = Better
Local Organic Vegetarian = Best
Your own organic, sustainable vegan garden = Glorious!

Doing your best is always best.

Grizzly bear kills trainer. This is such a terrible story, but not a totally uncommon one. I don’t know when (or if) humans are going to realize that using animals like this is WRONG.

It was good; could have been better; hopefully will be better next time. It’s good to meet other “Quranies” in the world and know what’s going on. Humans are always let-downs, though, which is sad. And I’m horribly anti-social. But anyway…

I had a little tiff about the food. For the Saturday dinner, there was no vegetarian food available (well, rice, but… come on, we paid for this stuff.) For a group of concerned and justice-minded folks to not serve at least a vegetarian option was upsetting to me. I made my disapproval known, of course.

Trips are always interesting for people-watchers like myself.

For instance, the mini-experiment at the “full trashcan” at the airport — 99.9% of the people who approached it and found it full simply placed their trash on top of it, instead of turning around where there was another can. Or any of the likely dozens in the area. Human nature annoys me…

Also, I saw a dude on the train carrying his little daughter on his shoulders as he exited. He looked like a total goofball and I knew what was going to happen. As soon as he came to the lower ceiling near the exit — bap — his daughter’s head smacks into the metal. It was only a scrape, she didn’t cry or anything but thankfully ducked down in time to miss the next ceiling, because the dumbass didn’t stop. Like the evil person I am, I laughed. I can’t believe what kind of doofuses have children. Ugh, what a shame.

Atlanta was quite nice (what little I saw from the train and the people.) It was nice to be in a place where my slight Southern accent is almost Northern.

I finally had a chance to catch up on Speaking of Faith today. The ones I heard today:

Reflections of a British Muslim Extremist
A New Voice for Islam
Whale Songs and Elephant Loves

They’re all EXCELLENT. Ingrid Mattson (from New Voice…) is admirable and gentle and lovely.

Katy Payne (from Whale Songs…) is an inspiration to me. She helped identify elephant infrasound communication because, according to her, “I never really grew up” … how beautiful! I don’t want to grow up either. This one reminded me of the SOF episode “Brother Thây: A Radio Pilgrimage with Thich Nhat Hanh“, where he speaks of mindfulness. Usually “growing up” means losing a lot of your wonder and awareness, we gradually work it out of ourselves to concentrate on other, more “important” things. Being mindful and aware can be very powerful.

She also talks about conservation and our responsibilities in the developed world for what’s happening in the developing world. It’s an absolutely magical podcast. I’m hoping to get her book from the library next week.

I AM AN ANIMAL.

I believe that cutesy puppy and kitten (and other fuzzball) picture sites are contributing to animal cruelty. Sounds like an offensive and far-fetched claim, huh? I love to look at kitty, puppy, rabbit and hamster pictures just like everyone else, but I think that some viewers are not aware of the conditions which make and keep such sites so successful.

We can’t assume (and it simply isn’t true) that all the babies shown on these sites are the results of a do-gooder who adopted them from a shelter. I feel confident that, in fact, a large number of the babies we see on these sites are from breeders (”mills”), pet stores or other disreputable places. A smaller percentage comes from the irresponsible and/or ignorant who don’t spay and neuter their pets and allow them to continually breed, sometimes simply for the entertainment and “magazine/web popularity” of the owner.

Likely the smallest number of images seen on these sites (~2% or less?) are true rescues and shelter pets. There are several reasons a person might pass on adopting an older animal from a shelter and one of them is the “cute factor,” which is helpful on sites like these.

Unseen, behind the front pages of the sites, there are rude and infantile arguments about whether or not people should confront mill activity when they suspect it. Some say “we shouldn’t care where the pet came from, as long as the owner takes care of it” and “we shouldn’t ruin people’s day by talking about animal cruelty”. The site users have knowledge of pets with suspicious origins ending up shown on these sites, but many are unwilling to say anything.

People in the “cute animal business” know what pulls at our heartstrings and makes us desperately want to take home one of their products. They know that a child who sees bunnies all around Easter will beg his parents to get one, so rabbit breeders time their schedules to exploit this. Unlike a child with a short-lived and unconsidered desire for a bunny, adults should know better. But they don’t. The endless cute faces overwhelm their rational mind! People who are unfit to parent continue to have children and people unfit to care for pets continue to get pets!

The animal rights and cruelty debate (like most every other topic in the world) is vicious and heated. You have idiots on both sides: the “I want the pet of my choice no matter what horrors I am supporting!” and the “You should be killed for buying a pet from a breeder!” types. Good fun.

Unfortunately for humans, rational and considered thought is rare. As is obvious from the state of humans on Earth, the idiots get their way much too often.

High IQ link to being vegetarian. Yeah, baby! :-p

Pig Out

Of the 60 million pigs in the United States, over 95 percent are continuously confined in metal buildings, including the almost five million sows in crates. In such setups, feed is automatically delivered to animals who are forced to urinate and defecate where they eat and sleep. Their waste festers in large pits a few feet below their hooves. Intense ammonia and hydrogen sulfide fumes from these pits fill pigs’ lungs and sensitive nostrils. No straw is provided to the animals because that would gum up the works

They were crowded into pens and cages, never allowed outdoors, and never even provided a soft place to lie down. Their tails had been cut off without anesthetic. Regardless of how well the operations are managed, the pigs subsist in inherently hostile settings.

for Photo Friday: Peaceful

I thought about using a picture of one of the dogs for this challenge because they are naturally peaceful and mostly calm and always happy. I passed by many photos of my cat Naji because he is almost always sneaky or spiteful, and always unpeaceful. But this photo of him captures one of his quiet moments.

He was living outside before we met. He showed up at the front door one day while I was cleaning the living room with my mom. I heard a meow and went outside to see him walking around trying to peek inside. I called my mom out to look at him and we wondered who he belonged to. “Look, he’s so friendly and nice!” I said…

Of course, I fall in love with every animal I see so I started to pet him and within two strokes he had attempted to bite my hand. I was disappointed. “He’s not nice after all!”

But I started to feed him and slowly bring him inside with me. I wasn’t sure if he was 100% feral or had belonged to someone who just let him wander away. I named him Naji, since I had read somewhere that Naji means “safe” and it seemed fitting for him.

His first trip to the vet was interesting. The vet remarked, “I see he’s been scratching you,” looking at the streaks on my forearms. “Yeah, he’s a little aggressive,” I said. He would attack my arms at night and any other time he felt like it. The vet took his temperature, while Naji made obvious his hatred for thermometers. When the vet let him go, he quickly crawled across the table and pressed himself against my stomach as if to say “SAVE ME!” and I held him close while everyone in the room laughed in amusement at him.

He’s been with us for a long time but he’s currently living with my parents, after putting up such a fight to go back home in the car (he hates traveling, too).

He’s now mostly sweet but it took a few years to get him that way and he is still mischievous at times.