Egypt orders slaughter of all pigs over swine flu

CAIRO (AP) — Egypt began slaughtering the roughly 300,000 pigs in the country Wednesday as a precaution against swine flu even though no cases have been reported here, infuriating farmers who blocked streets and stoned vehicles of Health Ministry workers who came to carry out the government’s order.

Pigs are banned entirely in some Muslim countries including Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates and Libya. However in other parts of the Muslim world, they are often raised by religious minorities who can eat pork.

In Egypt, pigs are raised and consumed mainly by the Christian minority, which some estimates put at 10 percent of the population. Health Ministry spokesman Abdel-Rahman Shaheen estimated there are between 300,000-350,000 pigs in Egypt.

“It has been decided to immediately start slaughtering all the pigs in Egypt using the full capacity of the country’s slaughterhouses,” Health Minister Hatem el-Gabaly told reporters after a Cabinet meeting with President Hosni Mubarak.

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Bag of Randomness

  • I had a dream that I won a trip to Australia, the only problem was, I didn’t want to go, but WifeGeeding really, really wanted to go.
  • The StuffChristiansLike blog has an insightful piece about “Why bad things happen to good people.”  I know the topic has been addressed many a time, but this one, for me, had a bit of a different twist.   I think these two paragraphs were my favorite:The question is not “Do we have to fake smile through pain?” I don’t think so. I’ve had friends that have buried their children and seen moms fall to cancer 5 weeks after being diagnosed. There are many, many things in this world that suck and will continue to do so. I would never tell friends who experienced tragedies to turn a frown upside down or whitewash the year my whole life fell apart with instant rainbows and fluffy clouds.The question is not “If God is supposed to work all things out for the good, why is this situation so painful?” It’s His definition of good, not mine, that I must live with. Thankfully, mercifully, beautifully, He doesn’t promise to work things out according to my understanding of “good.” His good will always exceed mine because He can define “good” across the solar system and I can only define it with what I see with my own eyes.
  • I once heard that the Associated Press always gets the privilege of asking the first question at a White House press conference, but I don’t know why.
  • 100 Days of ‘Fair and Balanced’ Fox News Coverage
  • Hot Plane
  • Oprah appears to be bored with Twitter    Link
  • How do you teach God’s genocide to children?
  • This has been a long week.
  • I’ve been stuck in the doldrums this week.
  • I found a taker for my U2 tickets.  They are going to a friend that I know is a genuine U2 fan, and someone who has helped me get back up on my feet regarding my faith.
  • Funny thing, but the whole agreeing on a price to sell them was like a Bugs Bunny negotiating mind trick (this link should take you to the 4:33 in a YouTube video), you know, when Bugs gets the other party to change his or her mind.  I start off by telling him that the face value of the two tickets with convenience charges and taxes cost me about $127; and that prices for a similar pair of tickets on StubHub ranged from $248 to $2000 (the tickets get you pretty close to the band).  But since he’s a buddy and a genuine U2 fan, I would sell both of them to him for $210.  His counter-offer, which cracked me up, was $265, $55 more than I asked.  I countered his counter-offer by telling him I would not take anything more than $250 from him.  He replied back with, “Deal!”
  • Instead of using TinyURL, how about DickensURL – which converts long URL’s into something Charles Dickens inspired.
  • A tad long (2 minutes, but well worth it), but a nice message about family.
  • Grace
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