More Moral Musings from the Heart of Darkness

Feeling a bit sick to my stomach today. I'm taking antibiotics, so I'm not worried about any pathogens, unless they're viral. And you might think that I'm queasy because I just bought a bunch of (uncooked) bee and ant larvae (eggs), but that's not it, either.

I'm feeling a bit wonky because of what I saw for sale in the market. Besides the usual bits of flesh, blood, and guts for sale by smiling, wholesome-looking women, there were also some
things that tested my ability to see the world in shades instead of black and white.

There was a whole line of what appeared to be chipmunks, or voles of some sort. There was a large, and very dead, canopy-dwelling bird with a large beak. There, next to yet another chunk of in-the-comb bee-larvae, was what appeared to be a skinned and cooked bat. (that one in particular turned my stomach, because the lady offered me some bee larvae, and I ate it)

I'm sorry that I don't have any pictures for you, but I just felt it was a bit...invasive of me to take them. Taking a picture might constitute a judgement on these people - and though you might argue that the taking of (possibly rare) canopy birds for commercial purposes is 'black-and-white' wrong - neither you nor I have any idea of the circumstances surrounding this act.

Of course, it is easier for us to be certain about wrongdoings in our own culture - people like former Enron Chairman Kenneth Lay probably deserve all of the ire and malfamy heaped upon them - for they have not only acted to the detriment of society for their own enrichment, but to them were given the keys to the kingdom - the benefit of a good childhood, good education, and all the opportunities that those things entail.

But of these people, can we honestly say that they had other opportunities to make 'an honest living'? What if they are simply doing what they and their ancestors have been doing for millenia? Is it their concern if the pressures upon the ecosystem brought about by encroachment of urban centers and the subsequent industrialization are as much to blame for the lessening of the bird population as they are? After all, it is we, the urban dwellers, who have brought an end to their way of life.