Modest Meat

A splendid day to you! Thanks for orbiting down out of cyberspace. You're just in time for a fresh mug of coffee and a virtual treat so dig in. Say, here's a newsy item from Malaysia you may not have seen on the six o'clock news.

The International New York Times edition published in Kuala Lumpur on Jan. 22 carried a page-one story noting increased worldwide demand by meat processors for pigs raised in the fresh air rather than enclosed in pens -- illustrated by a photograph of a cluster of pigs feeding in an outdoor stall. 

However, the Malaysian printer (who had downloaded the digital pages and set them to paper) had added black boxes to cover just the faces of each pig in the photo. "If there is picture of nudes or (the) like, this we will cover (up)," a publisher's spokesman told the Malay Mail. "This is a Muslim country." (The story, headline and photo were otherwise identical to the versions that appeared elsewhere in New York Times editions.) [Malay Mail (Kuala Lumpur, 1-22-2014)]

I wonder? Is it a question of nudity or merely the fact that pork is a prohibited part of the Muslim diet... though the story suggests that there is nothing wrong with raising pigs to sell to non-Muslims.

To each his own, eh! That's what I say.

See ya, eh!

Bob