Rastafarian Perspectives: Let’s revise our table manners

06 Dec, 2015 - 00:12 0 Views
Rastafarian Perspectives: Let’s revise our  table manners Sunday Mail

The Sunday Mail

KWANZAA, an alternative to Christmas is celebrated from December 26-January 1.
Part of this wonderful first fruits festival is to divert masses from the heartless killing and eating of innocent animals in the name of celebration.
The opinion in discussion does not necessarily intend to change the way people live. l intend to help individuals and groups perceive the same from another perspective.
This might infringe with current commonly-held practices, hence take this as an opinion. However, l ceaselessly pray you hastily comprehend and seriously reconsider.
The majority of citizens are comfortable with not only killing but also eating other animals. Although this is unacceptable from my point of view; eating animals when one is an animal is just as wild as killing that animal.
There is no mercy involved in killing then eating a flock of sheep Jahovah trusted us to herd and safeguard. This ruthless behaviour is reserved for and only expected of wolves in sheep’s clothing.
The animals we domesticated and keep as captives in pans waiting for the slaughter do not like it. They have no voice, we proudly accept offer to speak on their behalf.
When a cow is butchered for food by the human species, fellow cattle mourn and grieve over the funeral.
During compilation of this commentary, the writer was informed by a reliable source of similar events that occurred in the latter’s rural home area. Neighbouring herds of cattle would mourn and grieve over the death of a certain deceased cow at the crime scene from whence the grievous homicide would have occurred.
Elephants too bury their dead. They gather vegetation and foliage and pile it over the deceased. Human beings are not unique when it comes to conceiving death, an array of animals do the same and must be respected just as much.
Animals are quite intelligent. They migrate thousands of kilometres without maps or GPS yet they never get lost.
Albeit lacking conventional high-tech tools, they predict tsunamis and other natural disasters long before they occur.
Killing and eating non-human species strips away humanity from the wisest and guardian species. Although arguable, we are no longer primitive and must be ‘civilised’ to the species God trusted us to preserve.
Holding a fork and knife and chewing fellow animal family members is more like dog eat dog behaviour. You see a living, conscious and self-aware creature and say yummy, what’s for dessert.
Most human beings who eat meat will never kill the animals they eat. They never did and will never partake in killing and excuse themselves every time.
Currently ‘science’ defines and classifies human beings as predators and omnivores. This humiliating classification is deforming our character and goodwill amongst the species. Not only Rastafarians but many groups of people who strive for the better treatment of animals do not agree with this generalisation.
Isaiah says in that day, referring to this day, lions shall graze grass. In this day of the reign of Emperor Haile Selassie I the Conquering Lion of the Tribe of Judah, Ras Tafari’s lions eat only grass.
We are host residents, stewards and guardians to the rest of creation in the Garden of Eden and not the Butchery of Eden. Jah Rastafarians are created in the image of God and not the opposite. Peace and love to all creatures in God’s garden is of paramount importance. War and destruction, hatred and ‘senseless’ killing is not to be tolerated.
During this festive season, a great deal of animals lose their lives to parties. Metric tons of fish, chickens, cows, vertebrate, and sentient animals are butchered.
Consequentially, human life too is lost during these festive times. Again human error, for God is just; what goes around comes around.
Removing one single species from an ecosystem is known to collapse and severely alter that ecosystem. Some species have since disappeared into oblivion and extinction due to human behaviour.
The Mauritian Dodo is gone forever. When Dutch sailors landed on the island sometime recently in the 1600 and 1700 centuries, they single-handedly caused the permanent disappearance of this beautiful creature we now only imagine on this day.
The Dodo is not the only species that has since disappeared due to ‘the white men and his greed’, now better known as ‘men and his greed’. Thirteen other bird species evaporated forever from this deserted island, the only place whence they existed in harmony with nature.
The Dodo, now a symbol of extinct species, and its keen were mediators to the successful ecological existence of a plethora of unique tree and plant species that once again disappeared from the island.
All this barbarianism resulted due to the fact that predators resiliently refused to peacefully co-exist with fellow friends; brothers and sisters from other mothers and fathers.
Nothing is civilised about killing animals. Although humans do it slightly different from hyenas, jackals, wolves and wild dogs, the act is still the same.
Some sensible groups of mankind advocate for the soft killing of animals in preference to the usual painstaking butchering of steak.
Even if we melodiously sing animals to death, we are still killing them.
Then again, eating meat possesses the same dangers as smoking tobacco.

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