Thursday, November 8, 2007

Terrorists or Monkeys?

As the United States and Americans fear terrorists, other nations may have bigger fish to fry, or should I say "bigger monkeys to fry"?
It is not the first case authorities have seen: the urban monkeys living in New Delhi have killed. On October 21 of this year, an important political leader died after falling off his first-story balcony from a pack of monkeys. The deputy mayor was peacefully reading his paper when urban monkeys attacked.
The estimated 5,500 monkeys living in New Delhi reside in the temple of Hanuman, the Hindu monkey god. But these monkeys usually don't stay in the temple. The Indian Parliament is has made many attempts at relocated the monkeys, like placing them in monkey "prisons" but that made animal rights group angry, or sending the monkeys away to other states but the neighboring regions refuse, or hiring more monkey catchers but even with a 450 rupees ($10.50) reward per monkey the city only has a force of three monkey catchers.
The monkeys have not only been blamed for the death of public officials but they have also broken into the Ministry of Defence, destroyed secret documents, weaseled their way through airport security and almost caused a complete shut of the airport.
Death by monkeys would seen sad during any other point in time, but seeing that we have a "war on terror" to think about, death by monkey is more than ironic.
We expect to be attack. We watch what color our national security is today, yet we can die from monkeys or chock on a pretzel.
Are we so tight that it is hard for us to accept being killed by monkeys?
Are we so scared of another 9/11 that we can't imagine another way to die?
Can we realize that other nations sometimes have bigger problems than terrorism? (unless you consider the monkeys terrorist)

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

I think that they should start killing monkeys in New Delhi. they have become a threat to the human population and therefore must be controlled despite the cruelty of it. this is similar to the foster city situation in which squirrels are now being poisoned because many have been found to be carrying the bubonic plague. these squirrels threaten the safety of humans and are therefore being killed, which is why the monkeys need to die!!! in regards to the portion of the post concerning monkey terrorism, i agree with the assertion made that we are becoming overconcerned with threats of terrorism. we should instead concentrate on issues that are more necessary to the preservation of public health.

benji said...

I saw a TV show about this a while ago. These monkeys are awesome. They're just like people- they have relationships and fights and sometimes have to steal food from the markets to feed their children. The show was called "Romeo and Juliet: A Tale of Two Monkeys" or something like that, and it actually follwed these two monkeys around, who liked to hang out together but whose families were rival gangs. But anyway, in response to the sort of issue, I think we shouldn't worry about it. It's not our country, it's not our monkeys, and it's not our responsibility. Let the people who have to live with them decide what's best.

robbie armstrong said...

Get rid of them. survival of the fittest and its either them or you. i do also think that we have gotten so worried about terrorist possible attacks that we have forgotten about the things happen in our country. I think the homicide rate in big cities is a bigger threat than a terrorist attack on us soil.

Kelsey said...

This is a TV worthy story. I bet some author fifty years prior wrote about this happening and is now chickling as his story came true. It is an interesting observation, that there are more immediate threats present in everyday living than the ever-looming threat of terrorism. It will be very interesting to see how New Delhi deals with this problem. I am not really ever for killing animals but I sort of agree with Greg. Whatever way they deal with it, it will be interesting to see how it works out.

Anonymous said...

In response to Benji's comment: What the heck? Monkeys have RIVAL GANGS? But monkeys aside, I think that terrorism is definitely one of the most prominent threats that society faces today. True, monkeys killing people is a problem, but these monkeys can't do nearly the damage that a terrorist group could do (September 11th, the suicide bombings in Afghanistan, for examples). Terrorism is such a danger to society because it is so hard to control and so deadly. With the development of nuclear weapons, no country is safe. That being said, however, terrorism receives so much focus from the press and society that other problems, such as world hunger, poverty, and AIDS, are pushed aside. Ideally, each problem could be given equal attention and aid, but ever since September 11th, terrorism has been our country's #1 focus.

Ellen Otsuka said...

I dont think we need to go to the extreme of killing the monkeys, maybe just confining them. Anyway, on the issue of terrorism I believe that it is a huge issue. While the government may be implementing policies which I dont completely agree with it seems as if there are no other alternative options.

Ryan Landis said...

The monkeys are sacred there, otherwise they would not care for their survival. It would be like killing priests and monks if they were not human. No religious person would allow it. I think it is kind of neat, and I would definitely like to visit there. In regards to them killing people, someone told me deer kill a lot of people every year. So, not to much one can do. But, I think our security is fine the way it is. If anyone saw snakes on a plane, it is absurd, and we do not need to worry about these ridiculous things being a threat because they do not happen enough. It is more likely that if we were not having such extreme security precautions that a story like this would not even hit the American news for more than a 5 second TV report.

Tara C said...

Here's hoping that this is just some crazy satire trying to convince people to move on with their fears on terrorism....