Pork: Scriptures, Symbolisms and Sicknesses!

The baseline is not how swines are being kept under strictly hygienic conditions in other parts of the world. The baseline is

1. What do the major Scriptures say about swines?

2. The symbolic representation of swines in the society. How the swine does behave on its own?

3. What are the practical risks of consuming pork?

SCRIPTURES

The Bible:

“And the swine, because it divideth the hoof, yet cheweth not the cud, it is unclean unto you. Ye shall not eat of their flesh, nor touch their dead carcass.” [Deuteronomy 14:8]

2. I have stretched out My hands all day long to a rebellious people, Who walk in a way that is not good, According to their own thoughts; 3. A people who provoke Me to anger continually to My face; Who sacrifice in gardens, And burn incense on altars of brick; 4. Who sit among the graves, And spend the night in the tombs;  Who eat swine’s flesh, And the broth of abominable things is in their vessels; [Isaiah 65:2-4]

"And the swine, though he divide the hoof, and be cloven-footed, yet he cheweth not the cud; he is unclean to you. Of their flesh shall ye not eat, and of their carcase shall ye not touch; they are unclean to you." Leviticus 11:7-8 KJV

The Quran:

Forbidden to you (for food) are: dead meat, blood, the flesh of swine, and that on which hath been invoked a name other than that of Allah. [Al-Qur’an 5:3] The above verses of the Holy Qur’an are sufficient to satisfy a Muslim as to why pork is forbidden.

The Qur’an prohibits the consumption of pork in no less than 4 different places. Its prohibited in 2:173, 5:3, 6:145 and 16:115.

SYMBOLISMS

The pig is a symbol of filth, greed and idiocy. It eats faeces and dead bodies, snouts gutter water, wallows in sheer sordidness and a shameless animal which will invite its mate for sex bout. Pork consuming friends and families do share wives as well. George Orwell's "Animal Farm" has a better symbolic representation of pigs (swines).

SICKNESSES

As a Science student I am wary that most farm animals are carriers/hosts/vectors of varying pathogens, parasites and diseases. Even beef, the widely untaboo meat is a good carrier of the deadly anthrax and tape worm. However, the pig is guilty of most known, unknown and emerging disease-causing processes.

99% of helminthiasis, worms infestations is caused by pork (you can debate me on that) including round worms (Ascaris), pinworms, hookworm and the most dangerous Taenia solinum (a type of tape worm).  Even, well cooked pork still carries viable worms that are injurious to the system. Eight out of ten is likely to be infested after consuming well-cooked pork.

Taenia solinum for instance has the destructive capability to migrate to any organ in the body:

·         In the brain, you lose your memory,

·         Blindness at the eyes,

·         Deadly at liver (the liver is the most important organ in the body with over 500 known functions),

·         In the heart, you can be rest assured of cardiovascular torments

The emergence of Swine flu was rippling and deadly and nearly almost half of the world’s pig population was decimated. According to the Pet Doc Chart of zoonotic diseases, the diseases from pigs are nearly double of that of goats, sheep and cattle combined.

Pork has large amounts of saturated lipids (fats). Every health science student understands that most heart, blood, blood-vessel diseases are importantly caused by animal fat. Notably among these diseases include hypertension, atherosclerosis, stroke and heart attack.

In countries where religion is practised like democracy with little or no food taboos, there is high prevalence of cardiovascular diseases. More than 50% percent of Americans have hypertension, the commonest cardiovascular disease. The CDC and America Heart Association have related this phenomenon to unrestrained consumption of “High-fat cuts of meat”. As a matter of fact, pork is richly generous with fat – no other meat can challenge pork in terms of fat.

Let's stop the needless diplomacy over pork and other technical jargons that sought to justify pork. This afore-expatiated trinity is enough of a reason!

Just trying to help you choose a healthy meat for your meals!

Abdulai Hanan R. Confidence

confidencegh@gmail.com

P W Botha: The Black People are Inferior

The following is a speech made by former South African President P.W. Botha to his Cabinet. This reprint was written by David G. Mailu for the Sunday Times, a South African newspaper, dated August 18, 1985.

"Pretoria has been made by the White mind for the White man. We are not obliged even the least to try to prove to anybody and to the Blacks that we are superior people. We have demonstrated that to the Blacks in a thousand and one ways. The Republic of South Africa that we know of today has not been created by wishful thinking. We have created it at the expense of intelligence, sweat and blood. Were they Afrikaners who tried to eliminate the Australian Aborigines? Are they Afrikaners who discriminate against Blacks and call them Nigge*rs in the States? Were they Afrikaners who started the slave trade? Where is the Black man appreciated? England discriminates against its Black and their "Sus" law is out to discipline the Blacks. Canada, France, Russia, and Japan all play their discrimination too. Why in the hell then is so much noise made about us? Why are they biased against us? I am simply trying to prove to you all that there is nothing unusual we are doing that the so called civilized worlds are not doing. We are simply an honest people who have come out aloud with a clear philosophy of how we want to live our own White life.

We do not pretend like other Whites that we like Blacks. The fact that, Blacks look like human beings and act like human beings do not necessarily make them sensible human beings. Hedgehogs are not porcupines and lizards are not crocodiles simply because they look alike. If God wanted us to be equal to the Blacks, he would have created us all of a uniform colour and intellect. But he created us differently: Whites, Blacks, Yellow, Rulers and the ruled. Intellectually, we are superior to the Blacks; that has been proven beyond any reasonable doubt over the years.

I believe that the Afrikaner is an honest, God fearing person, who has demonstrated practically the right way of being. Nevertheless, it is comforting to know that behind the scenes, Europe, America, Canada, Australia -and all others are behind us in spite of what they say. For diplomatic relations, we all know what language should be used and where. To prove my point, Comrades, does anyone of you know a White country without an investment or interest in South Africa? Who buys our gold? Who buys our diamonds? Who trades with us? Who is helping us develop other nuclear weapon? The very truth is that we are their people and they are our people. It's a big secret. The strength of our economy is backed by America, Britain, and Germany. It is our strong conviction, therefore, that the Black is the raw material for the White man. So Brothers and Sisters, let us join hands together to fight against this Black devil. I appeal to all Afrikaners to come out with any creative means of fighting this war. Surely God cannot forsake his own people whom we are. By now every one of us has seen it practically that the Blacks cannot rule themselves. Give them guns and they will kill each other. They are good in nothing else but making noise, dancing, marrying many wives and indulging in sex. Let us all accept that the Black man is the symbol of poverty, mental inferiority, laziness and emotional incompetence. Isn't it plausible, therefore that the White man is created to rule the Black man? Come to think of what would happen one day if you woke up and on the throne sat a Kaff*ir! Can you imagine what would happen to our women? Does anyone of you believe that the Blacks can rule this country?

Hence, we have good reasons to let them all-the Mandelas-rot in prison, and I think we should be commended for having kept them alive in spite of what we have at hand with which to finish them off. I wish to announce a number of new strategies that should be put to use to destroy this Black bug. We should now make use of the chemical weapon. Priority number one, we should not by all means allow any more increases of the Black population lest we be choked very soon. I have exciting news that our scientists have come with an efficient stuff. I am sending out more researchers to the field to identify as many venues as possible where the chemical weapons could be employed to combat any further population increases. The hospital is a very strategic opening, for example and should be fully utilized. The food supply channel should be used. We have developed excellent slow killing poisons and fertility destroyers. Our only fear is in case such stuff came in to their hands as they are bound to start using it against us if you care to think of the many Blacks working for us in our houses.

However, we are doing the best we can to make sure that the stuff remains strictly in our hands. Secondly, most Blacks are vulnerable to money inducements. I have set aside a special fund to exploit this venue. The old trick of divide and rule is still very valid today. Our experts should work day and night to set the Black man against his fellowman. His inferior sense of morals can be exploited beautifully. And here is a creature that lacks foresight. There is a need for us to combat him in long term projections that he cannot suspect. The average Black does not plan his life beyond a year: that stance, for example, should be exploited. My special department is already working round the clock to come out with a long-term operation blueprint. I am also sending a special request to all Afrikaner mothers to double their birth rate. It may be necessary too to set up a population boom industry by putting up centres where we employ and support fully White young men and women to produce children for the nation. We are also investigating the merit of uterus rentals as a possible means of speeding up the growth of our population through surrogate mothers.

For the time being, we should also engage a higher gear to make sure that Black men are separated from their women and fines imposed upon married wives who bear illegitimate children. I have a committee working on finding better methods of inciting Blacks against each other and encouraging murders among themselves. Murder cases among Blacks should bear very little punishment in order to encourage them.

My scientists have come up with a drug that could be smuggled into their brews to effect slow poisoning results and fertility destruction. Working through drinks and manufacturing of soft drinks geared to the Blacks, could promote the channels of reducing their population. Ours is not a war that we can use the atomic bomb to destroy the Blacks, so we must use our intelligence to affect this. The person-to-person encounter can be very effective.

As the records show that the Black man is dying to go to bed with the White woman, here is our unique opportunity. Our Sex Mercenary Squad should go out and camouflage with Apartheid Fighters while doing their operations quietly administering slow killing poison and fertility destroyers to those Blacks they thus befriend. We are modifying the Sex Mercenary Squad by introducing White men who should go for the militant Black woman and any other vulnerable Black woman. We have received a new supply of Love Peddlers from Europe and America who are desperate and too keen to take up the appointments.

My latest appeal is that the maternity hospital operations should be intensified. We are not paying those people to help bring Black babies to this world but to eliminate them on the very delivery moment. If this department worked very efficiently, a great deal could be achieved.

My Government has set aside a special fund for erecting more covert hospitals and clinics to promote this programme. Money can do anything for you. So while we have it, we should make the best use of it. In the meantime my beloved White citizens, do not take to heart what the world says, and don't be ashamed of being called racists. I do not mind being called the architect and King of Apartheid. I shall not become a monkey simply because someone has called me a monkey. I will still remain your bright star,

His Excellency Botha

Barack Obama's Victory Speech 2012

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you so much. (Sustained cheers, applause.)

Tonight, more than 200 years after a former colony won the right to determine its own destiny, the task of perfecting our union moves forward. (Cheers, applause.)

It moves forward because of you. It moves forward because you reaffirmed the spirit that has triumphed over war and depression, the spirit that has lifted this country from the depths of despair to the great heights of hope, the belief that while each of us will pursue our own individual dreams, we are an American family, and we rise or fall together as one nation and as one people. (Cheers, applause.)

Tonight, in this election, you, the American people, reminded us that while our road has been hard, while our journey has been long, we have picked ourselves up, we have fought our way back, and we know in our hearts that for the United States of America, the best is yet to come.

(Cheers, applause.) I want to thank every American who participated in this election. (Cheers, applause.) Whether you voted for the very first time (cheers) or waited in line for a very long time (cheers) – by the way, we have to fix that – (cheers, applause) – whether you pounded the pavement or picked up the phone (cheers, applause), whether you held an Obama sign or a Romney sign, you made your voice heard and you made a difference. (Cheers, applause.)

I just spoke with Governor Romney and I congratulated him and Paul Ryan on a hard-fought campaign. (Cheers, applause.) We may have battled fiercely, but it's only because we love this country deeply and we care so strongly about its future. From George to Lenore to their son Mitt, the Romney family has chosen to give back to America through public service. And that is a legacy that we honour and applaud tonight. (Cheers, applause.) In the weeks ahead, I also look forward to sitting down with Governor Romney to talk about where we can work together to move this country forward.

(Cheers, applause.)

I want to thank my friend and partner of the last four years, America's happy warrior, the best vice-president anybody could ever hope for, Joe Biden. (Cheers, applause.)

And I wouldn't be the man I am today without the woman who agreed to marry me 20 years ago. (Cheers, applause.) Let me say this publicly. Michelle, I have never loved you more. (Cheers, applause.) I have never been prouder to watch the rest of America fall in love with you too as our nation's first lady. (Cheers, applause.)

Sasha and Malia – (cheers, applause) – before our very eyes, you're growing up to become two strong, smart, beautiful young women, just like your mom. (Cheers, applause.) And I am so proud of you guys. But I will say that, for now, one dog's probably enough. (Laughter.)

To the best campaign team and volunteers in the history of politics – (cheers, applause) – the best – the best ever – (cheers, applause) – some of you were new this time around, and some of you have been at my side since the very beginning.

(Cheers, applause.) But all of you are family. No matter what you do or where you go from here, you will carry the memory of the history we made together. (Cheers, applause.) And you will have the lifelong appreciation of a grateful president. Thank you for believing all the way – (cheers, applause) – to every hill, to every valley. (Cheers, applause.) You lifted me up the whole day, and I will always be grateful for everything that you've done and all the incredible work that you've put in. (Cheers, applause.)

I know that political campaigns can sometimes seem small, even silly. And that provides plenty of fodder for the cynics who tell us that politics is nothing more than a contest of egos or the domain of special interests. But if you ever get the chance to talk to folks who turned out at our rallies and crowded along a rope line in a high school gym or – or saw folks working late at a campaign office in some tiny county far away from home, you'll discover something else.

You'll hear the determination in the voice of a young field organiser who's working his way through college and wants to make sure every child has that same opportunity. (Cheers, applause.) You'll hear the pride in the voice of a volunteer who's going door to door because her brother was finally hired when the local auto plant added another shift. (Cheers, applause.)

You'll hear the deep patriotism in the voice of a military spouse who's working the phones late at night to make sure that no one who fights for this country ever has to fight for a job or a roof over their head when they come home. (Cheers, applause.)

That's why we do this. That's what politics can be. That's why elections matter. It's not small, it's big. It's important. Democracy in a nation of 300 million can be noisy and messy and complicated. We have our own opinions. Each of us has deeply held beliefs. And when we go through tough times, when we make big decisions as a country, it necessarily stirs passions, stirs up controversy. That won't change after tonight. And it shouldn't. These arguments we have are a mark of our liberty, and we can never forget that as we speak, people in distant nations are risking their lives right now just for a chance to argue about the issues that matter – (cheers, applause) – the chance to cast their ballots like we did today.

But despite all our differences, most of us share certain hopes for America's future.

We want our kids to grow up in a country where they have access to the best schools and the best teachers – (cheers, applause) – a country that lives up to its legacy as the global leader in technology and discovery and innovation – (scattered cheers, applause) – with all of the good jobs and new businesses that follow.

We want our children to live in an America that isn't burdened by debt, that isn't weakened up by inequality, that isn't threatened by the destructive power of a warming planet. (Cheers, applause.)

We want to pass on a country that's safe and respected and admired around the world, a nation that is defended by the strongest military on Earth and the best troops this – this world has ever known – (cheers, applause) – but also a country that moves with confidence beyond this time of war to shape a peace that is built on the promise of freedom and dignity for every human being.

We believe in a generous America, in a compassionate America, in a tolerant America open to the dreams of an immigrant's daughter who studies in our schools and pledges to our flag – (cheers, applause) – to the young boy on the south side of Chicago who sees a life beyond the nearest street corner – (cheers, applause) – to the furniture worker's child in North Carolina who wants to become a doctor or a scientist, an engineer or an entrepreneur, a diplomat or even a president.

That's the – (cheers, applause) – that's the future we hope for.

(Cheers, applause.) That's the vision we share. That's where we need to go – forward. (Cheers, applause.) That's where we need to go. (Cheers, applause.)

Now, we will disagree, sometimes fiercely, about how to get there. As it has for more than two centuries, progress will come in fits and starts. It's not always a straight line. It's not always a smooth path. By itself, the recognition that we have common hopes and dreams won't end all the gridlock, resolve all our problems or substitute for the painstaking work of building consensus and making the difficult compromises needed to move this country forward.

But that common bond is where we must begin. Our economy is recovering. A decade of war is ending. (Cheers, applause.) A long campaign is now over. (Cheers, applause.) And whether I earned your vote or not, I have listened to you. I have learned from you. And you've made me a better president. And with your stories and your struggles, I return to the White House more determined and more inspired than ever about the work there is to do and the future that lies ahead. (Cheers, applause.)

Tonight you voted for action, not politics as usual. (Cheers, applause.) You elected us to focus on your jobs, not ours.

And in the coming weeks and months, I am looking forward to reaching out and working with leaders of both parties to meet the challenges we can only solve together – reducing our deficit, reforming our tax code, fixing our immigration system, freeing ourselves from foreign oil. We've got more work to do. (Cheers, applause.)

But that doesn't mean your work is done. The role of citizens in our democracy does not end with your vote. America's never been about what can be done for us; it's about what can be done by us together, through the hard and frustrating but necessary work of self-government. (Cheers, applause.) That's the principle we were founded on.

This country has more wealth than any nation, but that's not what makes us rich. We have the most powerful military in history, but that's not what makes us strong. Our university, our culture are all the envy of the world, but that's not what keeps the world coming to our shores. What makes America exceptional are the bonds that hold together the most diverse nation on Earth, the belief that our destiny is shared – (cheers, applause) – that this country only works when we accept certain obligations to one another and to future generations, so that the freedom which so many Americans have fought for and died for come with responsibilities as well as rights, and among those are love and charity and duty and patriotism. That's what makes America great. (Cheers, applause.)

I am hopeful tonight because I have seen this spirit at work in America. I've seen it in the family business whose owners would rather cut their own pay than lay off their neighbours and in the workers who would rather cut back their hours than see a friend lose a job. I've seen it in the soldiers who re-enlist after losing a limb and in those Seals who charged up the stairs into darkness and danger because they knew there was a buddy behind them watching their back. (Cheers, applause.) I've seen it on the shores of New Jersey and New York, where leaders from every party and level of government have swept aside their differences to help a community rebuild from the wreckage of a terrible storm. (Cheers, applause.)

And I saw it just the other day in Mentor, Ohio, where a father told the story of his eight-year-old daughter whose long battle with leukaemia nearly cost their family everything had it not been for healthcare reform passing just a few months before the insurance company was about to stop paying for her care. (Cheers, applause.) I had an opportunity to not just talk to the father but meet this incredible daughter of his. And when he spoke to the crowd, listening to that father's story, every parent in that room had tears in their eyes because we knew that little girl could be our own.

And I know that every American wants her future to be just as bright. That's who we are. That's the country I'm so proud to lead as your president. (Cheers, applause.)

And tonight, despite all the hardship we've been through, despite all the frustrations of Washington, I've never been more hopeful about our future. (Cheers, applause.) I have never been more hopeful about America. And I ask you to sustain that hope.

[Audience member: "We got your back, Mr President!"]

I'm not talking about blind optimism, the kind of hope that just ignores the enormity of the tasks ahead or the road blocks that stand in our path. I'm not talking about the wishful idealism that allows us to just sit on the sidelines or shirk from a fight. I have always believed that hope is that stubborn thing inside us that insists, despite all the evidence to the contrary, that something better awaits us so long as we have the courage to keep reaching, to keep working, to keep fighting. (Cheers, applause.)

America, I believe we can build on the progress we've made and continue to fight for new jobs and new opportunities and new security for the middle class. I believe we can keep the promise of our founding, the idea that if you're willing to work hard, it doesn't matter who you are or where you come from or what you look like or where you love. It doesn't matter whether you're black or white or Hispanic or Asian or Native American or young or old or rich or poor, abled, disabled, gay or straight. (Cheers, applause.) You can make it here in America if you're willing to try.

(Cheers, applause.)

I believe we can seize this future together because we are not as divided as our politics suggests. We're not as cynical as the pundits believe. We are greater than the sum of our individual ambitions and we remain more than a collection of red states and blue states. We are, and forever will be, the United States of America. (Cheers, applause.)

And together, with your help and God's grace, we will continue our journey forward and remind the world just why it is that we live in the greatest nation on earth. (Cheers, applause.) Thank you, America. (Cheers, applause.) God bless you. God bless these United States. (Cheers, applause.)

Embarrassing Eve of 2013!

My 2012 ended in rather embarrassing manner. On the last day of 2012, I went into a Shell Mart to pick a gift for a friend. After I finished picking few items, I headed straight to the door: I was confidently walking out of the mart. Before I could push the door out, the attendant called, “Hello! Please sir, are you buying those items.”

I was in complete trance and stood by the door speechless. I really didn’t know what to tell her. At a moment, I thought I was dreaming. I walked slowly to her counter with legitimate guilt.

“Please madam, forgive me. What’s my bill”, I spoke uneasily and showed the items to her. I deliberately remove lots of notes from my pocket to prove a “worthless” point. I handed her a note. She gave me change. “Thank you”, I mentioned to her and walked unsteadily out of the mart.

The attendant was really calm and composed. She knew from her heart of hearts that I genuinely forgot. She could have raised an alarm to attract people around for my lynching. I keep murmuring prayers and humming hymns till I had disappeared metres away from the mart.

So, I asked myself, what was I thinking about!? Where was my mind!?

What would have been the story if this event had happened in Makola Market or Agborgboshie Market? Your guess is as good as mine. An innocent and promising gentleman would have been unjustifiably mobbed to death. I would have been used to commission 2013.

With this experience, I shall be a great opponent to mob justice under no uncertain terms.

Thank you God for your continued love and protection!

Abdulai Hanan R. Confidence

Love Goddess

The lustrous goddess appeared amidst crowd

Glistening with overpowering affection of irresistibility

Electrifying bodies beyond nerve acceptability

Thrashing brains in utter dementia

Breaking inertia of incorrigible hearts

I was driven to seventh heaven

The goddess crept into my inner core

Piercing beyond my heart of hearts

I realize on my temperament a character

Akin to the loyalty of alma mater

Building bond of affection like Dura mater

And detesting thoughts of apart matter

I believe I had found love

Very emblematic of dove

For my heart was no longer in rove

I believe lullaby is not sang to only babies

For her subtle words infested me with love rabies

As I succumb to her as a servant of deities

The goddess now confidante of my confidence

Had submerge me in love of practical evidence

With strongest hope of no love decadence

Oblivious of the many sad stories of love as precedence

Nonetheless the goddess remain my sole providence

Oh thou love goddess

Is this our bond’s deserts?

For I feel like desert

Because you opted for ‘desert’

Regardless of our nighttime dessert

Oh thou love goddess

I no longer know Valentine

As my heart ails in relentless quarantine

Of abjection in clandestine

With bitter memories of our daily routine

Oh thou love goddess

Save my soul from this painful

Doom 

Abdulai Hanan R. Confidence

 

My First Computer!

I was ecstatic when I had my first personal computer. But for limited space I would have enjoyed it to the fullest. My PC was just 10 Gigabyte (GB). So, I worship space like a sacred cow in India. I had to delete files and programs on my hard disk everyday to welcome new stuff. Many a times, I had found myself in the situation of ‘to delete or not delete’. It was really sad to say goodbye to old programs and files in order to accommodate the latest crazes.

I had all the tweaking apps and those programs that will clean up one PC with old junky files one really don’t need: System Restore backups, orphaned shortcuts, user usage history, misplaced files inter alia. Uninstalling programs were critical decisions I took when rigorous system cleaning was not producing desired results.

I could format my PC with new Windows as many times as necessary – space was of prime interest. Sadly, I umpteen times missed programs and files I shredded particularly my music files. Yes, my music files: I thought computer was all about entertainment. Space was a real jinx and incubus to my cyber orgasm!

Today, space, in the parlance of the Queen, is embarrassment of riches to me. However, ironic and perhaps paradoxical, I really don’t need space again. Yes, I really don’t need that badly as those days! I really can’t figure out the rationale!

NOW, my laptop is 500 GB, my external drive is also 500 GB. Good Heavens! That is fucking 1000 GB (1 Terabyte). My Desktop PC is 240 GB, my iPhone is 16 GB (more than my first PC), my Nokia Asha carries 16 GB memory card, my two pen drives are both 16 GB each, my digital camera houses 2 GB and frankly I don’t want to take a stock of my 1 or 2 GB memory sticks. Technically, I am 1,304 GB mogul. One hundred and thirty times more than the capacity my first computer!

But goddamn work will not allow me to enjoy this seemingly inexhaustible space with lots of fun. It appeared I enjoyed my 10 GB more than this useless and limitless space.

Do we work to buy things that we can’t enjoy? I am just feeling gobsmacked and metagrabolised with this unfathomable verisimilitude.

Confidence was motivated by a particular quotation (aphorism) to put up this write-up!