My very first personally known PETA advocate, is also now a certified writer.
Food with a face
“Animals, too, are God’s creatures… Degrading them to a commodity seems to me in fact to contradict the relationship of mutuality that comes across in the Bible.” — Pope Benedict XVI
Lately, I’ve been having a problem of whether or not to go vegetarian. Various sources of information, from the Internet, the health and lifestyle sections of newspapers to some books I have browsed through all say that going vegetarian is the best thing one can do for animals, the environment, and one’s health. I have chosen to be an animal rights advocate. I have come to believe that animals, too, need to be respected. And this can only be done by living a lifestyle that does not support animal exploitation. It is not a mainstream idea, although it is something people from First World country care about.
I was taught to love animals, but not to the extent of shunning them for food. It seemed then to be the normal thing to do, and so as kid, I ate everything.
Our island town has eight barrios, and our province has 24 towns. You do the math as to how many fiestas we used to attend in all of which we were served all kinds of food, from “bistik,” “morcon,” “hamon,” pasta, “tapa,” “inihaw na lapu-lapu” and “sugpo” to roasted chicken and the requisite “lechon baboy.”
When I moved to the urban jungle to pursue a college education, I savored everything fast-food restaurants offered. In the countryside pizza was unheard of, hamburger was a funny foreign word, and a brownie was exotic. But my “probinsyano” [provincials’] palate quickly developed a liking for fast-food fare.
Some years later, when my weight ballooned to 170 pounds, I was determined to slow down. I needed a change in lifestyle. I had several options: the Atkins diet, the South Beach diet, diet pills (with all its scary side-effects), going vegetarian, or going to the gym. I quickly dropped the last, finding it boring. I tried my own version of Atkins—lots of protein and no carbohydrates. And it did the trick. But not for long; soon I was back to my old eating habits.
I toyed with the idea of going vegetarian but didn’t give it a serious thought at that time. The idea was alien to my world. I was not vain enough to give up my love affair with tasty foods. I cringed at the idea of never being able to taste foie gras and caviar.
Recently, I came across a news report about a picket in front of a foreign embassy to protest its government’s resumption of beef importation from the world’s superpower. One placard screamed: “Eating meat is insane!”
Somehow, that message got through to me. I gave the idea of going vegetarian a second thought.
What does vegetarianism have to do with animal rights? I looked for answers, and here’s what I found.
Full Story here: http://opinion.inquirer.net/inquireropinion/columns/view/20080828-157223/Food-with-a-face
Well, Leo here is a mug-loving law student with a hybrid of Zafra and Ong writing skills.
He also speaks good french ladies.
And he has the talent of pissing me off really nicely. Peace 
D nga.
