Come Back to Afghanistan Blog #3

In the article I read, the only pig in Afghanistan, a country where pork products are illegal, has been quarantined for fear of swine flu. The pig, named Khanzir for the Pashtu word for pig, lives in Kabul Zoo, given to it by China in 2002, and has been moved into a large space with lots of windows and fresh air, according to the zoo’s director, Aziz Gul Saqib. They hope that the fears of swine flu will go down soon so that he can be put back into his pen, where he enjoyed grazing next to deer and goats. The only reason Khanzir had been moved into isolation was that in Afghanistan, the news has shown pigs with a disease that can infect humans, and some visitors at the zoo had already expressed views of fear that the pig could be carrying the H1N1 virus, or swine flu. They quarantined him so that other visitors to the zoo would not be nervous or panicked when they saw the pig. However, Khanzir is very lonely being the only pig in Afghanistan, says Mr. Saqib, and hopefully they will be able to find a female to keep him company. But, because of the swine flu outbreak, they want to wait until the disease clears up to make sure they don’t infect Khanzir with the virus and possibly people who come to the zoo. I thought the basis of this article was absolutely hilarious. The way they portrayed the pig as some sort of rare creature that people marvel over was probably the part that made it funny because of my own being from Indiana and knowing that pigs are one of the most common livestock in my experience. All in all, I sort of felt sorry for the pig, being the only one of its kind in a foreign land. Hopefully they will be able to find a mate for Khanzir soon.