The
liberality of the American public in bestowing pecuniary favours on the animals
in a Kabul
zoo betrays the preference for animals over humans in western civilisation.
This satire takes a look at the western obsession with animals.
Excerpt:
"Now for the political reason, and this is closely tied to the
historical. Animals, we have noted, are all of a piece, and so are
birds: a myna is a myna is a myna. Association with the dog began just
before the imperial expansions – before the ‘discovery’ and destruction
of the ‘Red’ Indians, for instance. By identifying with a lesser
creature – the dog – the European was able to assuage his guilt at the
torment of an equal – the human being in North America or Africa. By
being kind to the former, he could be savage with the latter. Notice the
case of the Afghans: people are individuals, and that’s a fact that
Americans did not wish to take into account. Animals are uniform: they
are the same in every hemisphere. Marjan could equally have been an
American lion. Not so the Afghan – heaven forbid! She is Muslim, veiled,
says her prayers five times a day, wears her hair long, and has never
seen the inside of a Wal-Mart store."
