Some announcements!

1. The Hong Kong Vegan Society will continue to hold quarterly seminars -
dates and details will be announced by our Secretary, Annie. If you wish to attend these please make sure Annie has your e-mail address:
annie@hongkongvegan.com

2. We hope to have a series of monthly gatherings - the first to be
held at Reena's house on Thursday 27th February. If you wish to attend
these, please e-mail Reena at: alumni@hkis.edu.hk

3. We are planning a regular "E-zine". If you wish to receive this or wish
to contribute to it, please e-mail Gene:
genecheng@alignworld.com

4. We hope that the Hong Kong Vegan e-group will become an active and useful forum.
Please encourage your friends to join:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/hkvegan/

We hope as many as possible will join us in our efforts to introduce the
Vegan ideas to our Eastern audience. Although the formulation of the ideas started in the West, they resonate easily with many ancient Eastern
philosophies, bringing practical ways of compassionate living to modern
lifestyles.

Please feel free to forward this e-mail to anyone you know who may be
interested.

so, john, could you tell us briefly what the vegan ethic is exactly? Is the Trouser Worm cafe linked to this?

Dear Insomniac,

Briefly, the vegan ethic is about trying to live as far as possible without harming others.

Here are some websites that I hope you will find useful:
http://www.ivu.org/hkvegan/
http://www.vegansociety.com/
http://www.aapn.org/vegetarianism.html

The Bookworm Cafe is lacto-ovo vegetarian but has plenty of vegan dishes (which are marked as such on the menu).

John.

Breast is best! What else can you eat/do then?

what makes you so sure plants suffer less then animals or animal by-products to be eaten? i mean, they dont even ever have the chance of escape as some animals would have. i heard a story about a pangolin once who was to be sold illegally in a beijing market as exotic (and thus profitable) fare, but he managed to somehow get away from his captors and once he was catched by the police for running around wildly as an unidentified species (i dont know to this day what a pangolin really looks like myself), there was no question of him being eaten anymore, he was transferred to a zoo instead, not my first choice of habitat for myself, but might have looked ok to him under the circumstances. i feel happy for this pangolin, but isnt it the sad truth that we must eat something to sustain ourselves?
and to deal with this unavoidable guilt, i dont think drawing such a clear line of what food is bad and what food is innocent will help a lot. isnt it more efficient to look at the way specific food items are produced instead? very well you choose to be vegans, but i think the majority of people will not follow your choice. and since you seem very radical it is easy for them to dismiss your criticism altogether as irrelevant and strange. on the other hand, in my hometown of berlin there are now a majority of restaurants that serve only meat from animals that were raised in conditions which are supposed to be more suitable for the given animal type, and also some supermarkets have such a choice. although personally i still prefer to eat a vegetarian meal, i think it is a good thing because it is better then the alternative, meat produced by reckless profitmaximising keeping the animals under stressful and unhealthy conditions, such as feeding them with foodtypes which are not natural for them, like the animal by products fed to cows which led to the BSE crisis.

<img src="http://www.lamma.com.hk/forum/images/e-zine/19/pangolin.jpg" border=1 hspace=10 align=left>La Miglione,
Here's what a Pangolin looks like, also called "Scaly Ant-eater".
Why somebody would want to eat something so scaly-but-cute eludes me, but then, people eat lobsters as well.

As an omnivore who loves vegetarian food I can sympathise with worrying about how my meat was raised, preferably in human conditions. I can't stand any animal being mistreated before slaughter, be it a cute pig or a snake sliced open alive in public to extract the gall bladder and then let to suffer for hours before being used for snake soup. But none of the local spectators seemed to mind.

I admire anybody in HK who's able to maintain a vegetarian lifestyle, amidst a local culture of almost total ignorance of animals as living, feeling fellow beings.

Visiting a slaughterhouse long ago, an incredible turn-off, it almost convinced me to become a vegetarian myself... almost...

_________________
Click here for Lamma-zine stories and recent Lamma Spotlights of the Week:
Photo, Video, Person, Wildlife, Bird, Artwork.

I believe Pfizer's Viagra has saved more extinguishing animals than all animal protection activists put together. And in the coming decades we will have flocks of extremely look-alike (they look all alike anyway) pandas running all over China, thanks to the cloning technique. It's time we should look into the impact of science on nature. Meat eaters are not the one who turned our earth inhabitable, it's mankind playing God. Would the earth be a better place if the lions are convinced to feed on grass? I respect the choice of the vegetarians. However, It's not an 'ethic' matter but only a personal choice.

_________________
Ich arbeite als hund.

lamma gung,

thanks for your picture. i feel more heartbroken now though that some da kuan(the disgustingly rich - literally it means big size or daaih fun in cantonese) in china are hunting down those cute guys and other exotic wildlife to make themselves feel or perhaps rather look more wealthy at mealtime

Hi doggy, Yeah... no matter how hard our industry (pharmaceutical) strifes in producing the so called 'miracle drugs' it's still a far cry from what we human beings should be attaining for our fellow creatures after all these years ! No amount of chemicals and substance is enough to combat what I like to call 'The human curse', that is, The bondage of Ignorance and Egoism prevailing in our so called 'modern societies' as we can all witness the wanton animal killings and sufferings in our midst for traditional, mystical and religious purposes and beliefs . Unfortunately, I can see no end to their plight ,we can't even save our own species,let alone animals! , however I wouldn't say that Pfizer has done more to their cause either vis a vis the activists as their work is often dangerous and daunting facing enormous risks and difficulties,they 're often propelled by their sheer affection,enthusiasm and love towards these wretched creatures....look at Greenpeace activists in the pacific defending whales being mercilessly overhunted in your vicinity, the seals in northern Canada again brutally mowed down with baseball bats and I can go on and on...... and yes, you're right, we ARE playing God !
As regards to meat eating argument, yes I agree, it's a personal choice which should be respected by one and all and vice versa.
Remember: THEY are the ones who act and often WE are the ones who criticise !

Hong Kong vegans invite you to join us at our first Vegan Potluck Dinner, Wednesday, February 26, 2002, 6:30 pm - 8:30 pm at 41 A Stubbs Rd, Villa Monte Rosa, B-2, 7th Fl (near Adventist Hospital). All those interested in veganism or vegetarianism are welcome. RSVP at 6105 4756.