Fishing

Last night was quite insane. Stayed up till around 11am in the morning to finish the essays because I thouht the deadline was 12pm. Turns out that it was 12pm the next day. Alas, it feels great because I'm ALMOST DONE! Left with Georgetown which is due on the 10th.

Anyway, I went fishing with the scouts as part of Dennis' birthday celebration. It is actually quite an interesting experience - a bit squirmish when it comes to squishing the dead prawn into tiny bits to act as bait on the smaller rods, but it was fun watching others reel in their huge catches too. The funniest part was watching Marcus continually putting on the live prawn bait only to see them eaten away without the fish being hooked. lol, we call those the 'elite' fishes. And there seemed to be one particularly noobish fish that got captured by Raj and Fungshing twice. Being nice people and partly due to the fact that it was a small catch, they decided the release it, only to find themselves nabbing another similar-looking fish a few second later! haha totally cmi.

Fishing seems like a cruel sport. There are quite a few sadistic parts to the whole process. Hooking up the live prawn. Allowing the baited fish to suffocate. Dumping the smaller fishes (we're not even allowed to release them back to the pond! apparently, that will be potentially wasting the baits of other fishermen).

Allow me to be philosophical for a moment. Why are there diverging opinions over the issue of cruelty in the treatment of fishes and prawns in fishing? Why do some people subscribe to the belief that maltreatment to these organisms are alright because they are 'millions of them'? Aren't there millions of us as well? Perhaps we have been so conditioned to the notion of Man's superiority that we tend to view other beings as 'lesser' forms. Hence, we instinctively judge these organisms by their instrumental value and assess their existence by their utility to us, homo sapiens. Fishing provides a steady source of livelihood. As a recreational activity, it has entertainment value as well. Looking at the matter through a utilitarian point of view, the lives of fishes and prawns are better spent in such cruel existence than not.

However, such a selfish view is too simplistic. It does not consider the intrinsic value of the lives of these fishes and prawns. It skews the perception in a unilateral direction where everything has to be seen in relation to us. Is it good for us? Or is it bad for us? What if one day a species emerge that is more superior than us? What will we say if we are placed in the shoes of the bait? I guess it is always easy to overlook the inconvenient truth when it suits us. Then again, an alternative perspective might defend it as survival of the fittest. Oh well.

OH. Today marks the end of 50-cent MRT rides. Sigh. Travelling is going to take on a different perspective from now on.