Okay, with stories out of Muslim Egypt and Jewish Israel about swine flu, I wrote up some musings about the intersection between religious dietary laws and this disease that emanates from that oft-prohibited animal, the pig.
There's definite connotations here in how people abuse religion for political power, how religious belief distorts the execution of all forms of powers, and as usual, how a minority is identified and scapegoated in a crisis.
If you like this kind of thing, check out my blog: it's highly awesome.
A couple of stories here that I'm trying to put into some context. First of all, let's go to Egypt, where the government has ordered a mass slaughter of all pigs in the country.
<span class="yshortcuts">Egypt</span> began slaughtering the roughly 300,000 pigs in the country Wednesday as a precautionary measure against the spread of swine flu even though no cases have been reported here yet, the Health Ministry said.
Is this a reasonable precautionary move? I'm not sure. There's definitely a risk of flu transferring from pigs to people; that's how it's been going down in Mexico for the most part. But without a single case of swine flu in Egypt, you'd need a pig bringing it into the country to infect the herds, and I really don't believe that many live swine are imported. And while I suppose it could transfer from people to pigs and back, it seems like quite a drastic measure. And there's this:
Agriculture Minister Amin Abaza told reporters that farmers would be allowed to sell the <span class="yshortcuts">pork meat</span> so there would be no need for compensation.
Oh yeah, I'm sure they're going to get a great price for pork now. The key issue here to me seems to be the fact that since most Egyptians are Muslims and don't eat pork, this is entirely a move that affects the Christian minority in the country, who seem to be being sacrificed to appease a panicky populace.
So as a bit of a cautionary tale here, see how quickly a real health concern can be turned into an economic offensive against an unpopular minority. When you see right-wing idiots salivating over the chance to close the border and deport all Mexicans, it's a very similar game being played: turn a panic into a political opportunity to attack a population that's already suffering.
Okay, that's the halal side of things, what about the Kosher?
Yakov Litzman, the Israeli deputy minister of health and a member of the fundamentalist United Torah Judaism Party in the Knesset, is demanding that his government drop the name "swine flu" because apparently, even saying the word 'swine' or 'pig' is unclean. Now, it seems to this Jew that the sense of pork being unclean dovetails quite nicely with the idea that a ravaging epidemic could come from the animals, but apparently, that's not a good reason to let this small bit of nomenclature slide in the face of a potentail pandemic.
The name will not be changed, as the Mexican ambassador to Israel quickly moved to reject Litzman's choice, "Mexican Flu."
And why, exactly, is someone whose religious beliefs are so delicate as to be traumatized by an accurate naming convention for a virus serving as health minister? Why, it's because Bibi Netanyahu's government decided to include this fundamentalist, ultra-orthodox party in his governing coalition. My kingdom for a freaking Labor government!