| THE | ARUSHA TIMES |
ON THE WEB
| ISSN 0856-9135; No. 00210 |
March 2 - 8, 2002 |
ON THE WEB
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Dogs, Rats and Fat CatsBy John Bullock Occasionally, African dogs do get fat but apart from those that get lucky and land as pets with rich, dog loving, people the dogs that do gain unreasonable amounts of weights do so s they gain access top human corpses! Now, as most dogs in African don’t get to sniff too much meat, I would imagine that when meat is on the go they don’t mind what it is or who it is providing the feast. In the aftermath of the genocide in Rwanda, as survivors began to return home they noticed that lots of dogs had ballooned in weight.It is reputed that ninety per cent of America's dogs are overweight. It is obvious that ninety per cent of Africa's dogs are not. There ends my dissertation on world economics. Actually, I'm not going to end there because I have a lot to say on this subject. Occasionally, African dogs do get fat but apart from those that get lucky and land as pets with rich, dog loving, people the dogs that do gain unreasonable amounts of weight do so as they gain access to human corpses! Now, as most dogs in Africa don't get to sniff too much meat, I would imagine that when meat is on the go they don't mind what it is or who it is providing the feast. In the aftermath of the genocide in Rwanda, as survivors began to return home they noticed that lots of dogs had ballooned in weight. The people had never had it so bad the dogs had never had it so good. It was an unexpected loss of unprecedented proportions for the Rwandan people and an unexpected gain of unprecedented proportions for Rwandan dogs! In a similar glance back at horror, in the first hour or two of the battle of the Somme in the First World War 20,000 British soldiers were killed. Twenty thousand dead bodies, they were just the first of multitudes, now that represented rich pickings for the rats of the vicinity. History reflects the fact that the rats dutifully obliged and became enormous in the process. The Soldiers on the front line had to put up with a lot: living in a trench, infested with lice and being overrun by rats that had grown very big by eating their comrades. This sounds like a graphic depiction of what we might imagine hell to be like. But its not hell, as in hell, but hell as man creates it on earth. We are good at it aren't we? Imagine knowing that you were going to end up as rat food? That's gross'. As my ten year‑old would say, And yes it is but it was the end result of countless human beings. Through war, atrocities and man's general inhumanity to man we have grown in our capacity to inflict horror it is one thing that we have consistently improved upon down the ages. We start something without considering what it will mean. It is obvious that dogs in Africa are way down the pecking order in terms of diet and nutrition, so those who believe in reincarnation ought to hope that they don't come back as a dog in Africa. Better to come back as a mule in America than a dog in Africa eh? Anyway, perish the thought of coming back as a dog and eating one of your descendants. During the time that I lived in Tanzania I felt morally obliged not to give our two Alsatian guard dogs too much to eat because there was a real possibility of them having more food than some of the neighbourhood children. On the other hand they couldn't be so thin that they wouldn't scare a would be intruder. No easy solution to that one. Anyway, if you see a fat dog in Tanzania it will either belong to a rich person, an ex pat or its weight gain may well be due to somebodies loss quite literally. It offers no real consolation to know that in the parts of the world where most human beings are likely to be devoured by a dog or a rat the rat or the dog is most likely to be devoured by a human being. In those places we human beings have usually failed so miserably that it is no use declaring some kind of truce 'don't eat me and I won't eat you'. After all, desperate needs lead to desperate measures. We all know that usually dogs or rats don't eat people. In fact you can bet your bottom dollar that if you end up on the 'doggie menu' some body a 'Fat Cat' and not some doggie is responsible. So in memorandum to all those who have been eaten by dogs or rats I take it upon myself to apologise profusely to you on behalf of the human race. |
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March 02, 2002. Webmaster: WDJMallya |