Pigs in Kandahar
This Alex Gregory cartoon from the March 8th issue of The New Yorker struck a hilarious chord. To be a pig in Kandahar. Would it really be so grand? Turns out that pigs are not spared the dinnertable because of taste but because they are deemed unclean by both the Koran and the Bible. There are legitimate health reasons not to eat pork. Perhaps because of their omnivorous eating habits, they are quite well adapted to carry and spread disease, most notoriously, trichinosis. Pigs also happen to be extremely smart and trainable, on par with some excellent canine breeds.
BTW, the Bible forbids eating or even touching the dead flesh of a pig (Deuteronomy, 14: 8), however, most Christians do not observe this particular stricture. Muslims are generally more rigorous in following this, and other, divine laws. According to the Koran, it is alright to eat pork if you find yourself in a helpless situation, like say, starvation brought upon by war, therefore, being a pig in, say, Afganistan these days doesn’t by law make you any less likely not to get eaten.