Killing pigs for peace
The crispy slice of bacon, the sizzling sausage, the voluptuous round of Clonakilty Black Pudding… Rainy Day likes its pork. Of course it comes at a price, but the thing about being a carnivore is that one cannot afford to be sentimental. The ecosystem is harsh, but fair.
So, anyway, there we were last week in a rather exclusive premises looking at some choice cuts of pork when the name jumped out: "Osnabrücker Friedensschinken" (Osnabrück peace ham). Peace ham! What in heaven's name could that be? The small print announced that for every ham bought, one euro would go to a project called "Children in war". A splendid idea. Given that some four million people have been slain in the horrific Congo war and that there's genocide going on in Darfur, collecting money to relieve the suffering of the children there is noble and, come to think of it, many of the starving in these conflict regions wouldn't say no to a succulent slice of ham.
Now it so happened that the Osnabrück "peace ham" came with a marketing leaflet and, being an omnivore along with a carnivore, we had to read it. It began, "Under the impression of the shocking images from the Iraq War…" The ham crashed to the floor and the nearby shoppers jumped in alarm. Do the butchers of Osnabrück not know that 95 percent of Iraqis are Muslim and that pork...? Didn't the Danes get into a spot of bother recently for mixing up their cultural messages? Of course, this could be nothing more than a sly attempt to piggyback on the latent resentment at the liberating of Iraq. And, one can picture some guilty Green, remorseful that a pig had to die to sate her appetite for Speck, cheering up at the prospect of a euro going to help the innocent victims of Anglo-American aggression.
Peace, ham! Peace, man! As our hippie friends might have said. They also might have said, killing pigs for peace is a bit like…
Comments
Come, come, Eamonn! Their very website says, "No single payment for the short term calming of the conscience..." At least, that's what Babelfish says it says.
Babelfish also reports that "A euro per sold ham flows directly into a rear". Wonder how that works.
I will point out that the pictures on that page show some decidedly non-Iraqi children.
Posted by: Angie Schultz | March 20, 2006 5:37 PM
Of course, this could be nothing more than a sly attempt to piggyback ...
Can't resist the pun, eh? I approve!
For Angie: on the chance you aren't making some sly joke I don't get, I'll offer translations.
"No one-time payment for the placating of the conscience, but rather a sustained engagement was called for."
"One Euro per ham sold flows directly into a fund ..."
As for the pictures, I agree. The top photo makes me think of Sri Lanka and the civil war there. The bottom picture I tend to associate with the Sudan.
Interesting to me that Osnabrück should dub itself "City of Peace".
Even more interesting that a butcher and meat-packer in Lower Saxony should bear so Anglo-Saxon (and un-German) a name as "Bedford". How unfashionably anglospheric!
Still, I'm not sure this was specially a jibe at the Iraq war.
Posted by: Melchior Sternfels | March 22, 2006 5:23 AM
...on the chance you aren't making some sly joke I don't get...
Not really. Toward the end of his post, Eamonn suggests that this is just a cheap feel-good measure for the buyer of gourmet meats. I just wanted to point out that the company itself anticipates such criticism, and tries to deflect it. (But I still think Eamonn's right.)
The part about the "rear" was just amusement at Babelfish's output. Thanks for the better translation!
I, too, wondered about the strangely English name.
Posted by: Angie Schultz | March 24, 2006 10:00 PM
You can't be 77453 serious?!?
Posted by: Mary Box | June 14, 2006 9:45 PM
i think killing pigs or any animal is wrong they dont diserve to die in such a discating way stop killing animals
Posted by: charissa | November 13, 2006 1:42 AM