Sciences Participating with Arts & Culture in Education

The Feast

A family is about to sit for dinner. A bride-to be is having a dinner honouring her and her fiancé, with both of their families in attendance. “Congratulations! I knew you would end up marrying each other!” says her aunt. The bride-to-be blushes and her fiancé, wearing his best suit, holds her hand. Another hand pulls her away from the crowd and in to the kitchen. It’s her mother. There is a sort of light in her mother's eyes. She feels so happy for her daughter. “Come over here I want to show you our feast” Her mother tells her that she has picked up the most expensive pork meat in the supermarket to celebrate the blessing God has given to their family. She spent five hours cutting the meat and preparing it with her grandmother’s ancient recipe, a tradition that should never be forgotten. “Mom, it looks great. Thank you." Finally, they sit down and her mother begins a prayer, thanking God for the food they are about to consume.

Miles away, a factory is spewing its waste into a nearby lake. The waste is composed of pig feces and bacteria which kills thousands of fish residing in the once clean water. Inside, abnormally large pigs sit in gestation crates and toss and turn their heads, back and forth. They’ve got nothing better to do since they have no space to turn around and scratch their bums. So they continue to eat the corn meal they are given, filled with pesticides and drugs.  A pig, a mother of six, has her babies taken away from her. She squeals and demands the human to give them back but the human replies with a steel rod to her head. Hey eyesight turns dark, yet in the distance she sees a sort of silver sharp object she has never seen before. The object is in the hand of the human and she notices it coming closer and closer to her. “Will it help me see well? Will it help me find my children?” she asks herself. She accepts it blindly. It comes close to her throat and she feels spews of blood pouring out. She finally realizes she is hanging upside down. She is scared and screams for help. Other pigs behind her tell to accept her fate, but she continues to ask where her children are. The hook brings her into another room where a blade cuts her stomach open. Her heart continues to beat for her children but her voice has gone silent. 

Back at the house, they are toasting with champagne after having eaten the best pork chops in the country, according to the fiancé. “Well, we better get going soon. Right, honey?” he says. Her mother embraces her daughter and cries. “It is time I let you go and I hope you will still visit,” the mother says. The daughter replies, “Of course I will Mom. Nothing can tear me away from you.”