WILD BOAR EPIDEMIC: ONE PIG CAN HIDE ANOTHER

Seen from Flanders, it is very difficult to understand what is happening in the Gaume. Or rather: we laugh a lot; the most perceptive ones rub their hands; and the puppeteers sleep clearly on your two ears. Noblemen and pigs offer us a nice game of blind man’s bluff…

Why laugh? Nothing is done to tackle the few sick boars and understand the origin of the disease, while it is considered more efficient to eliminate all healthy pigs! As a reminder: Minister Ducarme ordered the destruction of 4,000 healthy pigs under the guise of the precautionary principle — while the procedure of confinement of farms is the solution recommended by Europe as long as no farmed pig is affected. As ridicule only kills pigs, we add mock measures, such as ministerial decrees which decree a ban on movement in the area concerned. It is therefore expected that wild boars crossing the French border will be duly ticketed. The real concern here is to reassure the market, i.e. the agri-food industry, a bit like when we make small savers pay for the blunders of the big financiers, when we ennoble the « robber barons » and imprison the « homeless », and so on. So don’t laugh sardonically at anyone.

Why rejoice? Everything that destroys small farms and upsets small breeders is the business of agribusiness in general, and of the Flemish industry in particular. Of the 60 farmers involved in the holocaust, only 7 had more than 100 pigs; 5 had between 50 and 100; 6 had between 10 and 50; 42 had less than 10. Since, basically, when capitalist concentration continues, the economy is in good shape, it is understandable that the concentrated (i.e., the rich) are ecstatic (and in Zoute).

Who are the puppeteers and what is their policy? The big landowners, who are also big democrats, and the big hunters (humanists), who together organize the import of wild boars from Eastern countries and elsewhere (from Spain and France?) in order to guarantee an impressive hunting table (for example 200 wild boars in one weekend) to their hand-picked guests (reformer). They are the ones who drive the information on the subject, and meticulously orchestrate the disinformation on the object. The subject is the civic act par excellence that is hunting. What would the Kingdom be without its hunting activities? A jungle? A Republic? Maybe — a Macronie certainly not. Since the lives of the peasants and their numerous offspring are no longer easily available to feed the vices of power, it is necessary to at least be able to make a real carnage from time to time. We’ll rape another time. The subject is the blatant conspiracy of those who claim that the mass importation of wild boar is responsible for the presence of African swine fever in Belgium. While in the region concerned, and in the satisfied industries, everyone knows, or almost, about these illegal imports, no one is talking.

The province is being trashed by a policy that thumbs its nose at common sense and the people, and no one is raising their voice. It’s like before 1789. The silence of the oppressed is not surprising, but the silence of judicial and political leaders speaks volumes about the omerta that the powerful can impose on the small and large details of community life. The pig is somewhere else, and it can only continue its predatory practices because they benefit some second-raters and terrorize the others. Unfortunately, it is difficult to imagine a white march against the trafficking of these pigs; the Association of the Bassesse of the Gaume of Belgium sees to it, with all the courtesy that we know. Hoelang nog in ‘s hemelsnaam, Catilina, zal je ons geduld misbruiken?

Fritz Ling

For more information:

Pigs-in-the-Light, « Pigs and Resignation. A look back at an ordinary defeat, » 2018; <cochons-en-lutte@pm.me>

Delvaux, Lionel, « African swine fever: when the perpetrators pretend to be the victims! », IEW, September 18, 2018

Josephson, Matthew, The Robber Barons: The Great American Capitalists, 1861–1901(New York: Harcourt, 1934); http://www.eindtijdinbeeld.nl/EiB-Bibliotheek/Boeken/The_Robber_Barons_-_The_Great_American_Capitalists_1861-1901__1934_.pdf

RTBF, « A hunter testifies: ‘Semi-trailers import hundreds of wild boars to us’  », 19 09 2018: https: //www.rtbf.be/info/societe/detail_un-chasseur-temoigne-des-semi-remorques-importent-chez-nous-des-centaines-de-sangliers-venus-d-espagne-et-de-france?id=10023402&utm_source=rtbfinfo&utm_campaign=social_share&utm_medium=twitter_share

RTBF, « African swine fever: Guy Maréchal again accused of importing wild boar », 22 09 2018: https: //www.rtbf.be/info/regions/luxembourg/detail_peste-porcine-africaine-guy-marechal-a-nouveau-accuse-d-importer-des-sangliers?id=10025878