Disgusted

When I was in second grade my teacher said something about how humans contribute to the good of the world, when she was interrupted by one of my classmates who bravely said, "I think humans do more bad things for the planet than good things." My teacher went quiet and she didnt know what to say. That moment always stuck with me.

Last night I watched the documentary "Shark water" (2006) by Rob Stewart. It is thoughtfully made, captivating, and visually beautiful documentary. Sharks have remained unchanged for 400 million years, and they are vital part of life on earth and to our ecosystem. 80% of life is in the ocean and killing a major preditator in the ocean will change our ecosystem for ever.

We love to put things into categories of evil and good. Having constructed God in our own image, we are playing god deciding who gets to live and who gets to die. "A dog is cute and cow is food."

Steward shows how stereotypes and the media portrayal of shark as evil are wrong. In reality shark are shy and intelligent creatures. Furthermore, the documentary shows how shark have gone from preditator to prey. They are now on the danger of becoming extinct.

I could not sleep after I watched this documentary. There was a scene in particular that nearly brought tears to my eyes. A delicacy in China is the finfish soup. Shark fin apparently does not taste of anything, but it gives the soup a nice texture. So fishermen catch sharks cut off their fins while the shark is still alive and then throw them handicapped into the water again to die. It is horrific and to be dramatic it makes me almost loose all hope in humanity. I am disgusted with human behaviour. I wish we could look at the world in harmony, as nothing is evil and nothing is good. Just that things are the way they are and that everything is necessary for balance on earth.

Sometimes I feel that people think they are so limited in this world, that people think we do not have any power to change anything. But every single decision you make in life has an affect on something. If you buy a finfish soup you are supporting that industry. You have conscious choice. But too many of us are passive.
I know now why that moment in elementary school stuck with me because I knew my classmate was right, eventhough I didnt understand what it meant at the time.