Following the JainTradition

Published: September 29, 2011

Regarding Aidan Foster-Carter's "To Catch a Roach” (Meanwhile, Sept. 27): Last Saturday night, coming home from a party, we found a roach, a spider and an ant in our kitchen. Gently, I got the roach to climb on to the bristle part of the broom; my wife captured the spider in a cup, and our 12-year-old son helped scoot the ant onto a sheet of paper. Then we escorted them outside to our lawn.

As Jains, a religion of some five million people in India, not killing or harming even the tiniest creatures is part of our culture. The devotion to nonviolence in the Jain tradition is such that monks carry a brush to sweep away insects when they walk or sit.

By saving the roach, the spider and the ant we may have contributed little to the proliferation of global violence, but we were able to practice compassion and instill these values in our son.

Manoj Jain, Memphis, Tennessee

I.H.T. OP-ED CONTRIBUTOR

To Catch a Roach

By AIDANFOSTER-CARTER

Published: September 26, 2011

It's 1:30 a.m. I'm in Geneva at a major global conference on security issues. As I head bedward, bleary-eyed after too long online as usual, suddenly I'm jolted wide awake. For I am not alone in this room.

Some hotels put chocolate on your pillow. Well, it is small and brown, but it's a cockroach.

From that instant,choices kick in — and I make all the wrong ones. Or maybe first reactions are purest instinct. Several people told me later they wouldn't have slept a wink after that.

Whereas I laughed.Whatever else, this was funny. Also outrageous, of course. Not what you expect in one of Geneva's ritziest hotels, whose posted rack-rate is a staggering 925 Swiss francs per night. That's over a thousand dollars! You can fly to Australia for less. And back.

It helped that this was quite a pretty cockroach. Small, not like the three- inch monsters which came twitching out of the woodwork in Tanzania, or covered every surface of a paddle steamer on the Congo river in 1967. Closer to home, Oxford had its share. One such night visitor to Balliol junior common room in revolutionary 1968 met a cruel fate, crushed between the pages of the suggestions book, above the caption: "Do something!”

Nonviolence was more my bag, then and now. Call me sentimental, but I stayed my hand. Some guys — most people? — would have squashed the intruder on the spot. Sure, it had to go; but humanely. The Geneva convention, if you will.

Still, I hadn't booked double occupancy. Nor was it 925 of my own hard-earned Swiss francs, or I might have felt more cross.

Probably as startled as I was, the little bug proved dead easy to catch. I simply cupped a glassover her — no, I can't sex cockroaches, but somehow she seemed female to me; did that make me softer too? — then inverted the glass, covering it with the paper cap it came with. Bingo.

What next? I toyedwith marching down to reception and plonking glass and contents on the desk. But it was nearly 2 a.m., I was tired, and I doubted I could work up the faux rage needed. (Fact is, I was still giggling.) And anyway, only the night staff would witness my histrionics.

It could wait tillmorning. So I left Ms. Cockroach running around in her glass (which maybe wasn't so humane of me), used a different pillow, and slept soundly.

Come the dawn, cockroach gawn. I blinked, but no doubt about it. There was the glass, with the paper cap still on it. But no cockroach. I rubbed my eyes. Definitely no roach.

I kicked myself. In last night's doziness, I never thought to invert the glass. Right way up, the paper cap must have been a pushover for Ms. Roach to push up. Neat on her part, and a lamentable lapse in operating response procedures on mine.

That ruined everything. My inner imp had fancied taking my new captive to breakfast in her glass cage, pour épater la bourgeoisie.

The fantasy ballooned, as fantasies will. I imagined a groveling manager soothing my hurt — and buying my silence. A free weekend stay with your family, m'sieur?

But now I had nothing. No cockroach, no evidence. I might have made up the entire story, out of spite, or just for laughs. Maybe I dreamed the whole thing? Memory does play tricks.

Yet I didn't have nothing. This is a true story and stories are for telling. And tell it I did. I told people at breakfast, who were suitably shocked. I did tell the hotel, or at least two young ladies at reception. They were aghast, even contrite, but no free weekend was offered. (My fault entirely, for I still couldn't keep from laughing.)

Last but far from least, I told the final conference plenary. For the frisson, but more because Ms. Roach had given me a precious metaphor for a conference on security.

Terror is real, yet fear of it can cloud judgment. A scorpion in the bed, or a cobra: that would have been a clear and present danger. A cockroach is not a threat. We should beware mistaking a cockroach for a scorpion, let alone turning one into theother by overreacting.

Roaches will always be with us. Risk and repulsion are not the same. I was never at risk. And I'm still laughing.

Meanwhile, if you happen to bump into my little brown friend or one of her kin in Room 804, say hi from me. Then trap her properly, and demand a refund.

Aidan Foster-Carter is honorary senior research fellow in sociology and modern Korea at Leeds University.

 It used to be easy for moguls to flaunt their power. All they had to do was renovate the chalet in St. Moritz, buy the latest Gulfstream(GD) jet, lay off 5,000 employees, or marry a much younger Asian woman. By now, though, they've used up all the easy ways to distinguish themselves from the rest of us—which may be why a growing number of America's most powerful bosses have become vegan. Steve Wynn, Mort Zuckerman, Russell Simmons, and Bill Clinton are now using tempeh to assert their superiority. As are Ford Executive Chairman of the Board Bill Ford (F), Twitter co-founder Biz Stone, venture capitalist Joi Ito, Whole Foods Market (WFMI) Chief Executive Officer John Mackey, and Mike Tyson. Yes, Mike Tyson, a man who once chewed on human ear, is now vegan. His dietary habit isn't nearly as impressive as that of Alec Baldwin, though, who has found a way to be both vegan and fat at the same time.

It shouldn't be surprising that so many CEOs are shunning meat, dairy, and eggs: It's an exclusive club. Only 1 percent of the U.S.population is vegan, partly because veganism isn't cheap: The cost comes from the value of specialty products made by speciality companies with cloying names (tofurkey, anyone?). Vegans also have to be powerful enough to even know what veganism is.

"CEOs are smart. There just hadn't been enough exposure for people to glom onto this trend," says Ingrid E. Newkirk, president of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals. "The information is everywhere now. Instead of 'Better buy this blue chip,' it's 'Better eat vegan.' "

When Newkirk learned Wynn had become a vegan, she didn't think the news was crazy. "Having dolphins in a small tank outside a casino is crazy," she says. "Ordering vegetables is not."

Wynn agrees. The self-described "animal nut," who included the Humane Society of the U.S. in his will, sold the Mirage Hotel—and its dolphin tank—in 2000, and gave up meat and dairy this June. Wynn was converted when his friend—telecom mogul and recent vegan Gulu Lalvani—made him watch Eating, a documentary in which director Mike Anderson explains his strict meat- and oil-free diet. "I watched it, and I changed the next morning," says Wynn. "Bang! Just like that." The transition was eased by the fact that Wynn happened to be on a yacht with a personal chef. As soon as he got home, he began spreading the gospel as only a mogul can—like buying 10,000 copies of Eating, one for each of his employees. "I'm providing the ass for the insurance. If they're sick, we're picking up the tab," says Wynn. "If I can keep them healthier, I'm acting like a smart businessman."

Though he swears it's not a condition of employment, Wynn has persuaded most of his senior management to go vegan. And since the majority of Wynn's lunch companions ask his assistant in advance what he likes to eat, he's got the upper hand at lunch before even sitting down. He can also suggest one of his own joints—Wynn now offers vegan menus at his restaurants in Las Vegas and Macau, including the steakhouses. "Last night I had dinner with Terry Semel, and we were eating at Wing Lei, the Chinese restaurant," Wynn says. "They couldn't believe the stir fry wasn't in oil. Everybody switched to my food."

Wynn's a convincing salesman, but a decade ago even he couldn't have given away free seitan. Being a vegan then was so weird that pundits listed it as a reason Dennis Kucinich couldn't be the Democratic Presidential nominee. "People weren't sure if it was another political party or an ethnic group they'd never heard of," Kucinich says. While the Ohio representative failed to win the Democratic nomination in 2004—and in 2008—Kucinich's diet has become so accepted that he was able to persuade Representative Robert A. Brady (D-Pa.), the head of the Committee on House Administration, to include vegan options in the congressional cafeteria. When Bill Clinton announced his dietary epiphany—"I got back to basically what I weighed in high school," he told Wolf Blitzer this September—Kucinich decided to finally finish his own diet book, whose working title, The Cleveland Diet, will probably be changed by its publisher. Kucinich, however, did not go vegan for power, but rather for love. Fifteen years ago, he says, "I met someone who was vegan when I went to the state senate. This was someone I was very fond of. This was kind of a courtship strategy."

This is how most guys go vegan. According to Bart Potenza, co-owner of Manhattan power vegan restaurant Candle 79, the rise of the power vegan coincides with the rise of the vegan second wife. As the Four Seasons of seitan piccata, Candle 79 regularly hosts not only Zuckerman but also News Corp. (NWSA) CEO Rupert Murdoch and former Viacom (VIA) CEO Tom Freston, who both have pro-vegan wives. "I live in the shadow of a power vegan," says Freston, whose wife, Kathy, got Oprah to convert for a three-week trial. "I'm well on the way myself. It's pretty clear the benefits are undeniable and many." In other words, as Potenza says, "I think she has him pretty much handled."

For others, veganism is a moral imperative. In 2000, Twitter co-founder Biz Stone went to visit Farm Sanctuary, an animal rescue organization with a location in upstate New York, and returned a vegan. So far it hasn't hurt business. "My meal companions are sometimes curious at most," says Stone, "but never judgmental." Though that tends to happen when you run a company with an estimated value of more than one billion dollars.

Farm Sanctuary's board includes a number of powerful vegans, including Tom Anderson, a former partner at McKinsey and CEO of college financing company Upromise. As an associate at McKinsey, he kept his veganism quiet for fear it would make him seem like a hippie. However, as he's climbed the corporate ladder, he's become increasingly eager to share the gospel of his eating ethics. In fact, he's bonded with a few executives over their shared anti-meat-and-dairy proclivities. The only times it hurts him, he claims, are when potential business partners tell hunting stories. "I'll have to say, 'I don't want to hear about that.' Then someone is on the defensive, and you don't want that in a business context," he says. Though as one associate of Dick Cheney can tell you, it's less uncomfortable than getting shot in the face.

Veganism's image, however, could still use some updating. While it remains associated with indie rock stars, such as Moby, and people with pixie haircuts, such as Ellen DeGeneres, it also counts among its newest converts ex-NBA star John Salley, Atlanta Falcons tight end Tony Gonzalez, former National Hockey League brawler Georges Laraque, professional poker player Daniel Negreanu, and, less recently, pop star and amateur bodybuilder Madonna. Ultimate Fighting Championship mixed martial artist and vegan Luke Cummo says that he drinks his own urine.

And herein lies veganism's appeal to moguls: It affords them the opportunity to control their own health with the same manic id with which they control everything else. Wynn says his new diet has allowed him to get off Lipitor (PFE). Clinton's diet made him a fashion darling at his daughter's wedding this summer. "It's probably a good thing in a CEO," says Freston about veganism. "At least they won't be toppling over like those McDonald's (MCD) CEOs." This latest show of power, in other words, gives them all the more time to enjoy the Swiss chalet and the private jet.

OhWhyOhWhy.org is a non-profit dedicated to spreading vegetarianism through compassionate media and open-hearted analysis. 
OhWhyOhWhy.Org was founded as a means to promote vegetarianism through methods which touch people at their core -- the songs, videos, and essays on the site all share the same mission of questioning our current eating patterns in order to help propel a shift of our collective consciousness towards peaceful alternatives. 
The initial song, with a chorus of "Why Must We Eat The Animals?", hopes to have an impact as consumers make their choices in supermarkets, restaurants, and in their kitchens. Click on the link below to hear the song.
http://www.evana.org/index.php?id=59572

I am not quite sure if Ahimsa Silk does not involve any violence. In my opinion, leather, wool, silk and such, no matter what they say, will most likely involve himsa.

From (http://www.wormspit.com/peacesilk.htm)

I think that Ahimsa Silk doesn't really equal non-violence to insects, once you understand the process and do the math. I think that a lot of vegans and vegetarians want to find a way to rationalize using silk -I can certainly understand wanting to wear silk, it's a wonderful fiber, and none of the synthetics even come close. The thing that many

people don't do, is look carefully at how the whole system works. If some vegetarians make the determination that it's OK to let the living eggs dry out and die, or ignore the fact that the caterpillars will starve, then that's their business. That's a moral question, and it's not my morality. I'm a bug-baker myself; I make reeled filament silk from the cocoons I raise. I just want to make sure that the peace-silk folks think through the whole process with a clear understanding, especially if they're planning to email me and call me a monster and ask me how I can sleep at night with the blood (or hemolymph, actually

- the goo that passes for blood in insects) of so many helpless moths on my hands, etc.

Here are some sites dealing in Ahimsa or Peace Silk. I was kind of torn about listing these, as I've made it really clear that I disagree with their philosophy. But, a lot of people ask me, so here you have some:

http://www.aurorasilk.com/info/peacesilk.shtml - Cheryl Kolander's site, Aurora Silk, is the main source for "Peace Silk" in the US.

http://www.ahimsapeacesilk.com/ - From what I can tell, the silk is being woven in India, although their business phone number goes to Hong Kong.

http://www.meditationbench.com/Ahimsa.html - This site is selling Ahimsa Silk Shawls. If you click the link (PDF) on their front page, it takes you to a BEAUTIFUL study about how raising Tasar silk is revitalizing tribal areas in India - unfortunately, the site's organizers must not have read all the way through the PDF, because they're REELING (i.e. killing and unwinding) those cocoons. The PDF isn't about Ahimsa silk at all. Always remember to RTFM. Here is a link to the PDF on its original site.

You can watch it online using BBC Iplayer - http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00psnkq/Kill_It_Cook_It_Eat_It_Burgers/

Warning: There are some explicit scenes in this program

Steiner, a vegan, also points out some of the flaws in the reasoning that meat eaters use to explain why it's okay to kill animals and not okay to do the same to humans.