Freeganism, America’s newest food diet
February 20, 2007
This new movement gives new meaning to the term “one man’s trash is another man’s treasure.”
The term freegan is derived from the words “free” & “vegan”. Freegans are not just vegans but they are against the corruption of capitalism of the economy.
They prefer scavenge for food in dumpsters than to dine in a restaurant.
Read the article here.
Story of the wind-deer and the honey-grass
February 20, 2007
Once upon a time, the King had a gardener who looked after his garden. Animals from the nearby forest sometimes came into the garden. The gardener complained about this to the king who said, “If you see any strange animals, tell me at once.”
One day, he saw a wind-deer. Wind deers run like the wind but they are extremely timid and are very easily frightened by humans.
The gardener told the king about the wind-deer. The king asked if the gardender could catch the rare animal. He replied, “My lord, if you give me some honey, I could even bring him into the palace!” So the king gave him as much honey as he wanted.
This particular wind-deer loved to eat the flowers & fruits in the king’s garden. So the gardener smeared honey on the grass where the wind-deer usually came to eat. Sure enough, the wind-deer began eating the honey-smeared grass. Soon, it developed a craving for the taste of this ‘honey-grass’ that it would come to the garden to eat nothing else but the honey-grass!
Little by little, the gardener came closer to the wind-deer. At first, it would run away. But eventually, it lost its fear & came to think of the gardener as harmless. He soon had the wind-deer eating the honey-grass out of his hands.
Meanwhile, the gardener had rows of curtains set up, making a wide pathway from the far end of the garden to the palace. From inside this pathway, the curtains would keep the wind-deer from seeing any humans.
When all was prepared, the gardener took a bag of grass & a container of honey with him. He began hand-feeding the wind-deer. Gradually, he led the wind-deer into the curtained-off pathway. The wind-deer followed him right into the palace. Once inside, the palace guards closed the doors & the wind-deer was trapped. When it saw the people of the court, it became very frightened & began running around, madly trying to escape.
When the king saw the panic-stricken wind-deer, he said, “What a wind-deer! How could he have gotten into such a state? My friends, how dangerous is the simple craving for a sweet flavour, or any other taste sensation. See how this beautiful shy animal was trapped by my gardener who took advantage of its craving for taste.”
Not wishing to harm the gentle wind-deer, the king released it into the forest. It never returned to the garden & it never missed the taste of the honey-grass.
The moral is: “It is better to eat to live, than to live to eat.”
Please help NUS students with survey on keeping cats in HDB flats
February 20, 2007
A group of NUS students who have to complete a survey report as part of the fulfilment of one of the modules – Professional Communication.
For the survey report, they are gathering feedback on legalising the keeping of cats in HDB.
Our comments in the completing the questionnaire can help to influence the current HDB’s policy.
Please click here for more information & here to complete the questionnaire.
Guangdong inspects civet cat trade
February 20, 2007
GUANGZHOU, Feb. 19 (Xinhua) — South China’s Guangdong Province, the first to report fatal SARS cases in late 2002, has enhanced surveillance on civet cats, found by scientists to be a major source of the SARS virus, to prevent possible outbreaks in spring.
The province mobilized nearly 7,000 health inspectors in the past month and examined 10,000 restaurants for civet cats, said the Guangdong Provincial Health Department.A live civet cat and several frozen ones were confiscated and 18 restaurants were fined in the latest campaign across the province, said Huang Fei, deputy director of the department.
A restaurant in Shunde, Foshan City was fined 30,000 yuan (3,800 U.S. dollars) for buying civet cats.
The province banned raising, selling, killing and eating of civet cats in January 2004.
But “the health departments have received increasing reports of illegal trade in civet cats since November,” said Huang.
During the campaign, restaurants were required to make a written commitment on no trading of banned wild animals like civet cats.
Those who fail to keep the commitment will get their licenses revoked.
“The possibility of a SARS outbreak still exists in Guangdong in spring,” said Luo Huiming, an official with the Guangdong Disease Control and Prevention Center.
Severe acute respiratory syndrome, or SARS, first broke out in Guangdong in November 2002 and spread to 24 provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities on the Chinese mainland.
The outbreak caused alarm around the world, with infected cases reported in 32 nations and regions. The disease claimed more than 700 lives worldwide, including at least 349 on the Chinese mainland.
