There’s been a lot of debate since the 4 Corners programme on the abbatoirs in Indonesia. I haven’t seen the programme and have no intention of doing so as I’ve been told it’s quite graphic and disturbing. I had a discussion on Twitter yesterday and I hope I didn’t offend him. He told me this had been going on for 18 years and I commented on how interesting that number was.

The abbatoirs have been slaughtering the animals without any respect to them at all, in some cases they have been letting them die in pain and slowly. Sometimes they have cut the achilles tendon in order to keep them still while they die. I believe there was a lot of graphic footage about how these abbatoirs work. I thought there was a large Muslim population in Indonesia and that they eat Halal meat. I also thought Halal meat was prepared in many of the same ways as Kosher meat i.e. slaughter the animal quickly and cleanly with respect and prayers. If this is correct then this meat can not possibly be Halal. Maybe we should be getting the Muslims involved rather than just boycotting those abbatoirs.

I’ve been trying to watch The Last of the Mohicans, with little success I might add. I read the book some time ago and one of the things that struck me about both the book and the movie is the respect the Indians pay to the animals they kill. First of all they only kill the animals they absolutely need and that seems to be something we’ve lost in this day and age. Secondly they kill them cleanly, quickly and with respect, they ask for forgiveness for having killed them and thank them for giving up their lives for them. There seems to be little respect in those abbatoirs.

18 is a very interesting number. I’m not going to comment on mathematically or numerically, although you can get your Driver’s Licence in Victoria at 18 and you’re allowed to buy alcohol at 18, but that’s not what I’m going to talk about. In Hebrew, 18 is Chai and Chai is translated as ‘life’. If these abbatoirs have been getting away with this behaviour for 18 years then maybe this is a good year for them to change.