To continue with the memoirs of "Eleven Years in Mexico"... In 2009, A Swine Flu epidemic outbreak began in the region of Perote, Veracruz Mexico. The region of Perote is where the largest pig "processing" company of the world has some of its most important processing plants, since Veracruzanos are huge consumers of pork... and because the land is desertlike, cheap and a few hours trucking from Mexico City (20 percent of the Mexican Population or around 20 million inhabitants). The problem with the proliferation of information of the Flu being caused by pigs was that it threatened a drastic decline in the consumption of pork... So, the Smithfield Foods pressured the Mexican Government (department of Health) and probably the WHO to stop calling it the Swine Flu and call it H1N1... So, suddenly everyone was speaking in codes... Maybe they liked the ring... Maybe they thought they were being scientifically correct, since the newspapers declared that the influenza was not caused by pigs but by the H1N1 virus... BUT, if you look up H1N1 on the internet, you will find that it is a virus caused and spread by pigs... In anycase, I am probably the only person standing on Mexican soil you will hear mention, Influenza Porcina... or Swine Flu... And everyone is incredibly content and satisfied eating their pork... If you drive down the highway from Aguascalientes towards Mexico City any given day, you will pass at least 4 or five two-level trucks packed with pigs suffering under the weight of all the rest of the pigs, with their faces pressed against the grates... If you aren't driving, I imagine you have the opportunity of seeing their suffering and their bleeding... And, if you have ever lived with pigs, you would know that they are more intelligent than dogs (as if intelligence quotient should justify the suffering of or the protection of non-human animals). But, what I wish to say about their intelligence is that their concern and fear and pain or suffering is very clear in the facial expressions... Plus, the more capacity one has for thinking, the more risk of prolonged suffering per minute one has... And, no one seeing a giant truck with dogs packed to the brim, crushed against grates or fences or walls would allow that to go unreported... The problem is our value system or rating system... You would think someone was telling "you" that if we didn't eat meat, we would immediately encounter ourselves at the brink of starvation... I say that, because what else causes us to intentionally blind ourselves to what is obvious and horribly cruel? And, I'm not a vegetarian... Go figure. I guess you would call me a hypocrite. I wouldn't. But, we can start that discussion any time you like.