Wednesday, May 06, 2009

Kabul’s zoo is interesting and exciting

Here is an article about the world’s loneliest pig.  It is interesting and exciting, not only because it reveals that Afghanistan (the entire country) has only one pig, but that pig is now in solitary confinement.  I do not know if that is injustice or what, but I at first I didn’t understand how Afghanistan came to have ONE pig.  Normally pigs come in groups, right?  I mean, who gave birth to the pig if he has always been solo?

Then, later in the article I got some (sad but) interesting new information.  The other pigs could have been victims of a very strange war.  It seems that during Afghanistan’s civil war, the zoo was a battleground and a hiding place for Afghan fighters, who, among other things, got into a serious argument with a lion. 

Marjan, who is the Kabul zoo lion, allegedly ate a soldier who climbed into his cage (naturally).  The soldier’s brother responded to the alleged eating by exploding part of Marjan’s face with a hand grenade.  This incident was not an example of fair play and made me kind of annoyed. If the soldiers were so unsporting with a lion (who is fierce) just imagine what they would do to a flock of pigs (who are docile).

After more looking, I learned that the pig was a donation to Afghanistan from China.  This hilarious fact made me forget how annoyed I was regarding Marjan.  I mean, what was China thinking?  They are a massive country with loads of resources, art, money, and knowledge and when it comes time for Afghanistan’s birthday what do they give?  A single pig?  To Muslims?  This must be China’s idea of a joke.