Afghanistan's only pig in quarantine
Afghanistan has one pig -- it's in a zoo -- and it's quarantined:
Quarantine for lonely Afghan pigThe animal, known simply as Khanzir, the Pashtu word for pig, was given to the zoo by China in 2002.
The zoo director says Khanzir has been moved to a large space with lots of windows and fresh air and that he hopes the pig will be quarantined for only a few days.
the latest
latest episodes
Two things pop into my mind when reading this:
1. that pig needs a compnion.
b. Afghanistan treats it's pigs better than Egypt.
probably important to quote
Speaking to the BBC World Service, Mr Saqib [zoo keeper] says: "The only reason we moved him was because Afghan people don't have a lot of knowledge about swine flu, and so when they see a pig they get worried and think they will get ill."
Khanzir is a pretty excellent name for a pig. Pity about the hysteria.
Nobody sees the problem with it being the *only* pig in the entire country and being under quarantine??
Don't let that lady with the bow near it!
-- MrJM
Correction: The pig's name is of Arabic origin. It means 'pork'.
I would be surprised if it's the same word in Pashtun, because Pashtun is not a semitic language.
However, many non-Arabic speaking Muslim countries have adopted Arabic words into their vernacular due to the fact that the religion is practiced in Arabic only.
And yes, Egypt slaughtering all of it's 300,000 pigs in response to the 'swine' flu hysteria was a pretty ignorant and embarrassing move. The government also slaughtered all of Eygpt's poultry population a handful of years ago also, in response to the 'avion' flu.
on the bright side, that pig has about as much to worry about as an Israeli langoustine.
Afghanistan treats it's pigs better than Egypt
They can afford to, I guess, having only the one.
#5 - LOLz
Has anyone asked the officials how the only pig in Afghanistan is going to get swine flu??
It would make much more sense for them to quarantine all the Humans who had entered the country in the last few weeks. That would be ridiculous, but at least a little more logical.
Really, the trouble a simple name can cause...
Iraq killed the 3 pigs it had in it's zoo too. It's pretty ridiculous since they couldn't have been exposed to any Mexican pigs recently and the odds of a dangerous mutation in a population that small are even lower than peace spontaneously breaking out.
In Egypt, if I remember correctly, the mass culling is perceived as discrimination by the Muslim majority against the Coptic minority.
Yay ignorance!
Has anyone asked the officials how the only pig in Afghanistan is going to get swine flu??
From humans infected with the flu, perhaps?
Per the quote at #2, that's not really a quarantine, per se. It's laying low to avoid scaring people, not to avoid giving them a disease it couldn't possibly have.
Manooshi, yes, Pashto has many borrowed words from Arabic.
The non-borrowed word is apparently soor/suwar/sowdar, depending on dialect.
Compare that to Sanskrit "sukarah" (boar/swine). So they're cognates of English "sow" and "swine".
"The only reason we moved him was because Afghan people don't have a lot of knowledge about swine flu, and so when they see a pig they get worried and think they will get ill."
Oh, I see: It's better to just reinforce people's fears and ingnorance instead of educating them. Makes perfect sense.
#6 - re the Egyptian pigs. I heard on NPR that most (all?) the pigs were owned by Coptic Christians. The inference seems to be that part of the motivation behind the slaughter was not just 'pig ignorance' but also prejudice against the non-muslim minority.
@#16, SEKINO: This is the same zoo whose lion suffered a grenade attack.
I'll take "the better part of valor" for 100, alex...
Even if it's just because of irrational fears of the public, this is nice. Especially considering what Egypt did to their pigs.
@Eliterrell and @#17:
Re: Egypt's pig slaughter being perceived as prejudice against it's Coptic Christian minority.
I disagree. The Egyptian government slaughtered all of it's poultry population a few years back due to the 'bird' flu hysteria as well. Even though there were no cases of 'swine' flu in Egypt, the government acted "pro-actively" due to the fact that they were criticized for not acting fast enough in previous cases. Unfortunately, the government's recent pig slaughter was done prior to consulting any scientists-- of which Egypt has plenty. Even, the Coptic Patriarch was in favor of the pig slaughter.
The pig farmers were also compensated something like $170.00 per pig. I have no idea if that was a reasonable compensation for the Egyptian pork market... as it's not a major player in Egypt's meat market.
The discrimination is mostly a subjective feeling by the Coptic farmers, because they are the ONLY ones who raise pigs in Egypt due to the fact that the majority Muslim population does not eat swine.
However, the discrimination they feel may not be totally subjective, because the government used tear gas and rubber bullets against the angry mob of pig farmers when they were protesting the slaughter-- which is fucked up. But then again, I've seen the Egyptian authorities beat the shit out of protesters (Muslim, Christian, Space-Aliens, etc) all the time-- due to the fact-- that they simply are assholes about letting people protest ANYTHING.
It's very typical of Western media and/or people to turn the Egyptian pig slaughter into an "anti-Christian" move. No, it was an anti-smart move, instead. Again, it was a very ignorant and embarrassing move for Egypt on the world stage. They thought they were gonna get praised, and instead got laughed at. A shame, especially when there are so many educated scientists within the Egyptian population.
.
That pig is getting better health care than most Americans.
Could have something to do with doctors being arrested so lobbyists could monopolize a Senate hearing on national health care this week.
.
This sounds like the exposition for a children's book,"Khanzir, the lonely only pig".
Khaaaaaaaaaaaaanzir!
Pandemics are spread by HOLY WATER.
Poor pig.At least he can be sure he wont be at anybody's table in the future. This article is a wakeup call to me on countries that do not eat pork. I have always thought pigs are pretty common.
Free the Afghanistan One!