Viv wrote:
(snips)

> I noticed Taiwan was mentioned in that newsclipping .. and, after seeing
> how well *NOT* they look after their animals in the privately owned parks,
> and shocking conditions in the pet shops ...  I would not be surprised to
> hear that any dolphins they can get their hands on would end up on the meal
> table :-(

There are standards ... and there are standards. :(

> On a stop-over in Taiwan where a couple of my doc friends were attending a
> cleft, lip & palate conference I came across something I hope to never,
> ever see again.  I became violently ill after accidentally cutting through
> what I thought was a shopping mall.  It was actually Snake Alley .. where
> they slit the snakes live and you drank the blood, they threaded live baby
> turtles on to skewers and barbeque them live, etc, etc.

Without trying to hand out lessons, it's a matter, Viv, of what you're
used to. For example Christians (no, not me for a change) think
nothing of eating pork yet Jews and Muslims would recoil in horror.
It's worth noting, in the instance of this example, that (for want of
a better word "western") pork today is perfectly safe to eat, that
both those religions, mostly tribes actually in those days,
historically banned it because that was not the case at that time and
the tenet then became part of their respective religions. On a similar
example, Muslims forbid alcohol but used to condone other drugs such
as Hashish.

Which is worse? Me? I dunno.

We all have preferences: the Asians, as a generality, prefer rice as
their staple diet whereas the Westerners (a terrible word but I can't
think of one more specific) prefer potato.

As the French say "chacun a son gout" - each to his own taste. Then
again, the Germans, or at least the Austrians, say "Was der Bauer
nicht kennt, frisst er nicht" which, loosely translated means "what
the farmer doesn't know he won't gobble up."

There are things that I would prefer not to eat, Witchetty grubs,
locally, spring to mind as one but there are others. Yet I have also
tried, and often enjoyed, some exotic (by my "western" standards)
foods which have come my way. I am truly lucky in this regard having
grown up (apart from school in England) in the Far East.

Yet I believe that a Japanese restaurant anywhere in Europe would have
been a singular failure even just fifty years ago.

Today?

Viv, I can understand how you felt and I'm likely to have felt the
same. Yet this is the life of that region and there is that oft
repeated, rarely understood or indeed followed, English statement
"When in Rome, do as the Romans do."

It could loosely be translated into "respect the views, habits,
religion and race of others and endeavour to do as they do when in
their environment."

Just don't get me started on those last two if either or both of the
words respect and endeavour are removed.

I should add that I much doubt that YOU did not behave
appropriately/properly, even though what happened was abhorrent by
your standards.

Cheers,

Christian
--
I haven't quite worked out the secret of life yet, but I just know it
must have something to do with lunch.