He said: Why are you against the killing of pigs? I said: Who said that? I am with the killing of pigs, but not those that are kept in barns. He said: Are there other pigs? I said: The country is full of pigs, and those living outside the barns outnumber those in barns and are more dangerous. Some of the pigs that live in barns are weak and feeble to the extent that they seem more like rats, but free range pigs are fat and ‘blubbery.' He said: Because pigs only eat garbage, so they offer us a great service by getting rid of this garbage. I said: But the pigs that we suffer from among us eat the wealth of the country and do not get rid of the garbage but spread it everywhere, because they are corrupt pigs and distribute all kinds of corruption; financial, moral and intellectual, which is more serious to our homes than our waste which the pigs feed on. He said: But the barn pigs transmit a serious disease, this new influenza named after it. I said: How is that when it has been proven they don't have it? He said: They can become infected. I said: If it happens it would be through human contact so shouldn't we be more wary of humans who might transmit this disease from overseas rather than kill God's creatures who don't carry the virus? He said: If the disease moves in any way shape or form, human or otherwise, their dirty barns will be a breeding ground for the spread of the disease. I said: First of all the disease will only be spread through human contact as I've previously mentioned. We do not import pigs from other countries but our doors are wide open to many travelers Egyptian or otherwise and those will be the ones who will transmit the disease to us. This means we can become infected even after we kill the pigs because the disease spreads from an infected human to a healthy one and not from non-infected pigs to humans. He said: What is the damage from killing pigs as a precautionary measure that will hurt nobody? I said: This is not a preemptive stance because it would not benefit anyone, as I explained to you. It does not vaccinate us against the disease, and it harms us on more than one level, this arbitrary procedure – which we have not heard that the government has examined or studied its effects before its implementation – will hurt a category of the community, the owners of these barns. He said: But the government's decision guarantees their compensation. I said: It does not happen in any country of the world that we come to a profession and tell them we have decided to abolish your profession and we will compensate you. By so doing we are asking them to suddenly abandon their profession, which is perhaps inherited from their fathers and it is not very easy to transform themselves overnight into carpenters or hairdressers and construction workers. And then they used to get rid of the garbage the quantities of which exceed those of the largest cities in the world. I do not know what we will do with it now. Can we guarantee the government's decision to study how to deal with garbage which will double in quantity in the country now? He said: This is less harmful than the damage of the spread of swine flu. I said: It is more dangerous because it may be the cause of the spread of other diseases at the same time it would not prevent the spread of swine flu. He said: What other damage? I said: The damage is multifold and the most serious is the indication that the prevailing way of thinking is still random, while the sound judgment would have led us in another direction, as has happened in the rest of the world where they did not get rid of the animals created by God. They have taken the proper procedures laid down by the World Health Organization, which did not include the elimination of pigs, so why not leave our random genius ideas aside and do what the others have done? He said: Who is responsible for this wrong decision? I said: They are pigs of another kind and those whom I do not mind at all to rid our country of and their decisions, which reflect other diseases already prevalent in all aspects of our political, social and intellectual lives, the continuing prevalence of which may tax the future of this country and still not prevent the spread of swine flu.
