Blog - Joyful Curmudgeon - Blog
A Mary T. Hoffman Commentary from All-Creatures.org

 

"Joyful Curmudgeon" An oxymoron?
No! I see all the beauty of God's creation and I'm joyful.  At the same time, I see all the suffering and corruption going on in the world, and feel called to help expose and end it so that we may have true peace and compassion.

 

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Slavery – 6 April 2008
By Mary T. Hoffman

What’s wrong with this scenario? A little girl in Nepal is returned home after being sold for 30 dollars by her parents. The family has been given a piglet to raise and sell. The piglet is kept tied to a short rope outside their home.

Multiply this scenario by the thousands and you have what the latest NOW on PBS program “Daughters for Sale” is about. According to NOW’s host David Brancaccio, “This is part of NOW's continuing series on innovative and sustainable solutions to world problems, what we call Enterprising Ideas.” Apparently David Brancaccio and Olga Murray, founder of Nepalese Youth Opportunity Foundation (NYOF), don’t seem to realize that anytime you use nonhuman animals as part of the solution to a problem you end up with more problems – for the humans as well as the nonhuman animals. So this short-sighted “solution” of trading one slave for another cannot be called “sustainable.” That is only turning the oppressed into oppressors.

Anyone who has studied the origins of the major plagues of the world, as well as common diseases, knows that there is a line that humans have crossed in their use of nonhumans. The best explanation of this I’ve ever heard was given at a lecture by Michael Greger, M.D. who is a physician, author, and internationally recognized professional speaker on a number of important public health issues. Dr. Greger has been invited to lecture at countless universities, medical schools and conferences around the world, including the Conference on World Affairs, the International Bird Flu Summit, and the National Institutes of Health.

Where there is compassion for all creation – human and nonhuman – everyone wins. If you are really compassionate, you will be compassionate toward all.

I will close with Proverbs 12:10 from the Hebrew Bible (Old Testament): “A righteous man [person] cares for the needs of his animal, but the kindest acts of the wicked are cruel.”

By their own words and actions David Brancaccio and Olga Murray have proven themselves to be wicked, according to this Bible definition.

Go on to: Another Reason to Go Vegan – 7 April 2008
Return to: Animal Abuse Increasing – 5 April 2008
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