Why I Stopped Eating Pork

It has been more than a week since I stopped eating pork. I know no big deal right? Don't get me wrong, I don't mean to shout out that I'm holier than the pork-eaters out there. But this is certainly not due to religious reasons. Just personal reasons, that's all. I think my decision is also a willpower test (required entrepreneurial trait). But honestly and without hypocrisy, I still think about all the good pork I'm going to miss including but not limited to: bacon, pizza loaded with meat (switching to Italian pizza now), hotdog, sausage, ham, sizzling pork (a favorite local dish/beer mate), roasted pig, smoked pork ribs, sweet and sour pork, chicharrón, salami, and other ultra-processed or cured pork meat products.

I wrote that I just moved into a new apartment that I share with a lot of people (mostly tour/van drivers and partners in business). They are always out in the field working. I stay in most of the time since my business is online. I get along with most of my roommates which is nice. I see this as big self-improvement.

I guess the noise problem (dogs, roosters, noisy neighbors) in rural area/island will be the same wherever I go. It's just the reality in a collective society. Slowly, I learn how to cope. I don't want to wage war against anyone anymore. I am living with people who have the same problem with the noise. I guess it's easier to deal with issues if you share it.

Now there's a new issue which I learned how to deal with differently. It's quite special actually. So I realize that there's a factory farm just around the neighborhood. And at certain days, I can hear the pigs' wailing nonstop. Yeah, we are quite near to the slaughterhouse. It's a weird case I know. I don't live in a place with massive lands where people live quite far from each other. Or where people and animals live quite far from each other. They learn to accept things as they are, hence, community society. I just can't imagine people from self-obsessed societies to be living here. But I happen to be from a community society who grew to become self-centered, probably due to my traveling days and too much mingling with self-centered people.

Anyway, the main point is, I stopped eating pork because I cannot stand the disturbing noise of dying. Dying without a choice. No chance of escape, no justice, no nothing. One thing that bothers me is that it isn't like a one-time killing. It sounds like beating the animal to death. Sometimes I wonder how can one get used to the sound of death? How can one sleep at night? I can't.

The thing is I have no idea what's our method of slaughtering pigs here. I didn't bother much to research about it because I am afraid of what I might find out. I'm afraid to let go of tasty food or change my eating habit. What I don't know won't hurt me. Ignorance is bliss. And not eating pork would be the enemy of all things good in this life. It's like an insult to the late Anthony Bourdain.

I learned that the slaughterhouse is a government property or backed by the government. And where I am, eating pork is more important than thinking about the most ethical way to kill animals. Knowing the reality of my world, there's pretty much nothing I can do but to convince myself to not eat pork anymore, as a protest. And the good thing is that I also managed to convince my roommates not to eat pork as well. And in our house, everyone cooks fish and vegetables anyway. Now it's less one person + my roommates not eating pork in this world. I think that's a little change in this cruel world. Let's do it one little change at a time.

I'm a sensitive person and I love animals more than people. I get affected easily. And this is why I decided to stop eating pork. I love this test of my own willpower too. It makes me feel Godlike - like I can do anything now. So whenever I pass by meat shops, supermarket aisles with all that beautifully wrapped pork, I just continue walking.

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