Shark's Fin

To my chagrin, both my sisters and my parents are not moved by my resolve to boycott sharks fin soup. Shelly's wedding, my dad's 60th bday, serene's upcoming wedding, had/will be having sharks' fin soup served as a 'customary' dish.

I don't understand their insistence on having the dish, despite knowing that 1/3 of sharks are dangerously endangered from humans killing them for food. They probably just brush off the guilt (however small that pinch might be) thinking that killing sharks for their fins are just as cruel as eating chickens, choosing to ignore the point that there is a real threat of sharks being extinct from all this senseless killing.

Then you might be thinking to yourself "So does this mean that she would stop complaining about us eating the dish if the sharks numbers go up and are no longer endangered?"
My answer is YES. I'm not one of those moral activists who follow a strict vegan diet. I eat food that may have been from animals that were exploited for their flesh, or vegetables that were grown on farms that may not be entirely eco-friendly.

But I can tolerate all this, as long as the ecosystem is still sustainable, and I won't be causing the extinction of any species of plants or animals on the planet.

It disgusts me to see people's blatant indifference to this topic. It's not as if there hasn't been enough news coverage. The point is, the dish is served as a status symbol and just omitting the dish would let the older generation 'lose face' and create 'unecessary problems' for the younger generation. But don't they know that the inconvenience caused is minute as compared to the prospect of being able to sustain the sharks existence and balance the ecosystem...

Yes it sounds very high and noble which some people claim they cannot identify themselves with. Well, if you can't live in a civilised world then you don't deserve using civilised amenities. Go back to the forests and feed the wild boars.

And for those who claim to be anti-sharks fin killing, yet continue to have the dish when served to them, thinking they're obliged to eat to avoid offending others, or thinking that since the fish is dead anyway why not just eat it and not let it go to waste, I say that there is no difference between you and the restaurant manager who buys sharks' fins by the dozen to feed its petty customers.

So the next time a bowl of sharks' fin soup is served to you, think about the sharks being extinct and the ecosystem being messed up just so that you can enjoy those few mouthfuls which you probably won't even remember one week later.