Bhutan – The Land of Ban
Saturday, June 18, 2011, KUENSEL
To supplement what was said in the My Say column regarding the meat ban for two Bhutanese months (first and fourth), I totally agree with what the writer has put down: “lift the ban or impose strongly not to eat meat during the auspicious months”.
We have learnt enough from the news and seen and experienced what happens during these ban periods.
Very recently, I attended two occasions at two of my friends’ places and had dinner. There were three items of meat served and, to be honest, they all gave off a rotten smell in spite of their best efforts to clean and prepare the meal. They said they had enough stock to last till the ban was lifted.
On one occasion, we had to eat at one of the hotels in town, which emanated a similar perfume.
Please … whom are we fooling except ourselves? Are we really doing something to protect or reduce animal slaughter? What does the evidence have to say? How about the health of people eating rotten meat? Consider what could be the reason or cause of stomach cancer topping the killer list among the cancers in the Bhutanese population. Why so many
food poisoning cases during these months?
Please one day very soon this ban will have to be lifted anyhow. Can we not do it earlier, so that the health of our people will be protected and before we have serious objection or even some hotels taken to court, if not by insiders then by outsiders?
It is for our decision makers to be level headed, see the issue clearly and make the call.
Dugyel Lepch