What vegans and Bangkok tailor shops have in common 

your say February 14, 2019 01:00

I am not long back from a stint in the Middle East and upon catching up with The Nation, I find that little if anything has changed in this letters column.

It’s really quite incredible that the noisy veggies are still clutching at any straw that passes their way, and that, as another writer has rightly stated, there’s never any mention of the omnivores where I have just finished working, for example. Not ruddy likely. That says much for me.

As does the fact that these people remind me of certain tailor-shop employees not far from me, on Sukhumvit Road. You can’t help but notice the number of these guys standing outside and always trying to get innocent passers-by to come in. As I said to one annoying pesterer some time ago: “If your products were any good, you wouldn’t need to stand out here burbling the same old spiel about your wares to anyone not interested enough to listen.” It’s always them pestering, never the innocent passers-by minding their own business. I hope this point is understood.

As for Darwin, he was a lifelong meat-eater like other normal people. As his son, Sir Francis Darwin said, “Latterly he gave up late dinner, and had a simple tea at half-past seven (while we had dinner), with an egg or a small piece of meat.” But as the Friends of Darwin Society say, many pro-vegetarian websites try to claim him as one of their own. Considering their usual desperation that does not surprise me at all.

His dad had a lot of quotations associated with him, and I for one have no doubt that the aforementioned bullies will cherry-pick those that fit with their unnatural instincts. Take the following as reality: “Intelligence is based on how efficient a species became at doing the things they need to survive.” Without meat, we would not have survived. Period. But I’d wager that the same old guff will be coming here shortly, as you might expect from the Buttinskys.

Simon Ordsall


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