In two years, Beijing will be hosting the Olympics. Putting forward a good image is paramount for the Chinese authorities, and understandably so. All sorts of effort has been made to beautify Beijing, including building a new park, ridding the streets of undesirables and generally sprucing up the place.
However, there is one face-losing item that could show its ugly head to mar China's international image. It's a topic that would not take a whole lot of effort to suppress, yet there is no apparent campaign in China to clean it up.
I refer to the Chinese custom of ingesting body parts of endangered species. Every week there are articles in periodicals which expose the still-vibrant trade in endangered species. Most of the body parts seem to be to be used by men to revive their flagging sexual prowess. One can't help but come to the conclusion that flaccidity is endemic in China.
Have there ever been any "double blind" scientific studies to prove the veracity of one substance over another? For example, is ground up dog-penis a lot less effective than ground-up tiger penis? Or what about rhino horn, bear bile or elk antler? The list goes on and on.
Tigers and bears can't speak for themselves, so I've taken it upon myself to speak for them: "Don't kill me for my body parts!"
It's bad enough to kill animals for such purposes, but to kill animals on the verge of extinction is akin to genocide.
Maybe a new word needs to be coined. How about "satricide" (sat meaning animal in Thai), or perhaps "sinocide" (referring, of course, to the main perpetrators of this hideous practice)?
A decent society would take this issue seriously and take tangible action to reduce the trade. One big step would be to shut down the thousands of apothecary shops throughout China that sell body parts.
It would invigorate the black market, but at least it might put a dent in the barbaric business as a whole.
I, for one, will not be surprised if the Olympics are marred by protests in front of such shops in Beijing. They'd sure have my wholehearted support.
Ken Albertsen
Chiang Rai, Thailand
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