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Diary of a Gadhimai protester
#1
This is worth reading. It gives a feel for what it was like to be there.

http://www.theguardian.com/global-develo...-slaughter

I admire the people who work so hard to bring the truth to the light. I wish them peace in their spirits after such a horrific experience.
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Catherine

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#2
I have great respect for these protesters. It is something I would find so hard to do, but I am just glad someone is strong enough to do this.
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#3
I hope they realize that we are out there supporting them. I guess all the petitions we sign tell them that they are not alone. Except that they are the ones on the front line.

It was really interesting to read the diary and get a sense of what it was like. They did a lot of good. Many lives were saved and many more will be saved in the future. The protesters are true heroes.
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Catherine

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#4
I take my hat off to them. Brave people, with a desire to protect those who cannot protect themselves.

Two passages in the diary caught my eye:

1. "There were at least close to a million people living there with numbers peaking around the days of animal sacrifice. Everyone was bathing and defecating in public. Walking through human faeces and the skeletal remains of the sacrificed heads of the buffaloes from 2009 (buried in a pit and freshly dug up for this year’s sacrifice), we reached the place where the founder of this temple, Bhagwan Chowdhary, was buried". Apart from the unspeakable animal cruelty, these hardly seem fit conditions for nearly a million people to live. That is yet another reason to stop the "festival". A million people cannot be housed, albeit for a few days, in the middle of the countryside with no sanitary provisions and the risk of disease.

2. "About 265 years ago Chowdhary had had a dream that the goddess Gadhimai wanted blood in return for freeing him from prison, protecting him from evil and promising prosperity and power. Initially the goddess asked for a human sacrifice, but Chowdhary offered an animal instead, this was accepted and has been offered every five years since". If that is an example of organised religion, I want none of it. Any "god" who requires the live decapitation of many thousands of animals in return for some sort of favour must be a cruel "god" indeed.

Many blessings to those brave volunteers! If I am honest, I'm not sure that I would have the stomach to witness the mass cruelty and beheadings. The volunteers are wonderful people, who deserve "favours", if anyone does!
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#5
Chowdhary should have given his own blood, his own body, and his own life if he felt so strongly about what this Goddess said to him -and left everybody else out of it!

That is my humble opinion anyway!
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#6
The whole thing is really messed up. I admire the people who went in there to try and fix things and to get the truth out to the rest of the world.
It is a major world health hazard to bring a million people together like that. If any kind of infectious disease got loose, the returning pilgrims would spread it all over. We might not be able to contain it without thousands, even hundreds of thousands of dead. Could you imagine Ebola getting into that crowd. Even a bad influenza virus would spread like crazy.

The meat is not handled hygienically so there could be massive food poisoning outbreaks. That is the practical side of it.

The idea that religion needs bloody sacrifice goes back to ignorant superstitious days. The world does not need to be that place any more and religion does not need to be that way any more. I think we recognize that the God who created this incredible world could not be ignorant and superstitious. The world is too amazing for that. God has been waiting for us to grow up and leave barbaric superstition behind.

All those trying to stop Gadhimai now and in future are very much doing the work of God. Maybe we are seeing signs of change and a brighter future. After all, the numbers were down and the whole thing looks like the mess that it is.
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Catherine

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#7
(12-06-2014, 01:57 PM)Catherine Wrote: This is worth reading. It gives a feel for what it was like to be there.

http://www.theguardian.com/global-develo...-slaughter

Even though I know it's late, I was about to post this on here. Thank you for doing this Catherine. It's lovely that everyone here has been continuing to post updates about the Gadhimai situation while I haven't been here.
Even though I haven't been online much recently and I stopped coming to the forum for a while, I was receiving email updates from HSI throughout the whole Gadhimai Slaughter festival, and I've been watching the situation.

The protest in London on Oct 11th Nov went very well. Comedy Actress/animal rights advocate Joanna Lumely attended, which was a lovely unexpected suprise.
http://www.ciwf.org.uk/news/2014/10/joan...sacrifice/



(12-06-2014, 01:57 PM)LPC Wrote: The volunteers are wonderful people, who deserve "favours", if anyone does!

I agree 100%. The people kind people who go out to witness this type of violence and cruelty are incredible. To do something like this, a person needs to have very strong will power indeed, and a strong heart and soul to be able to see it through to the end. Without people like these, the world would not see the suffering that these innocent animals are sentenced to.

Even though the disgusting slaughter took place again, I really do believe that this will be the last time this event ever happens. The worldwide awareness of the cruel event has been growing and growing, to a point of no return. The public awareness and outcry surrounding this issue is not something that the Nepalese Government will be able to recover from, and it is going to continue to grow long before the next "5 year wait" is up.

.
"And ye harm none, do what ye will" ~ Wiccan Rede
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#8
Quote: Even though the disgusting slaughter took place again, I really do believe that this will be the last time this event ever happens. The worldwide awareness of the cruel event has been growing and growing, to a point of no return. The public awareness and outcry surrounding this issue is not something that the Nepalese Government will be able to recover from, and it is going to continue to grow long before the next "5 year wait" is up.
I am glad you are back. I agree with you that this could be the last big sacrifice. I am glad you brought Gadhimai to our attention so we could be part of the protest in our own way.

I put a news alert on my phone so I would get information regularly.
I think it is important to be informed and to continue the pressure.

If all of us keep making our feelings known then we can keep the pressure on the Nepalese government. They will not want to lose tourist dollars. It may be for financial reasons that the sacrifice is stopped, but that is okay. It is a victory for the animals whose lives are spared no matter why they are spared.
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Catherine

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