While waiting to see the doc, yesterday, I had a quick flick through the magazines on offer, as you do. There was one called… Wait a minute; don’t want to get myself into trouble here. Er… Hmm… There was one called Well Being (wink wink). It had a full length shot of a glowingly healthy minor celebrity, her eyes sparkling and her pretty mouth smiling.
That looks interesting, I thought, so I picked it up. Then I read the headlines and the titles of the articles inside and, suddenly, I wasn’t as confident that they had given the magazine an appropriate name.
“Fasting made easy”; “the 5.2 day diet”; “the 2 day diet”; “the skip every second day diet”, and “how to lose your winter weight”. Maybe the last one was all right but I wasn’t keen to find out.
Then, in big bold red print, next to the celebrity were the words: I believe in Chinese medicine. (I don’t want to offend any Chinese person reading this blog so you might want to leave now and come back next week.)
Now, I know that acupuncture has helped myriads of people and the Chinese are great exponents of the benefits of massage. No problems with that. However, there are some aspects of Chinese medicine that are based on superstitious practices that date back to years before Christ. Being old, isn’t automatic proof that it’s right. Just like some Western ‘herbal’ remedies do, it totally ignores any scientific knowledge that has been gained in the past few centuries.
For example: many Chinese herbalists still believe in the aphrodisiac and other health benefits from rhino horn. They ignore the fact that the horns are merely compacted and stiffened hair (no bone at all) and actually don’t do anything for your libido. Mainly because of their insatiable desire for the horns it is now official: the black rhino is extinct. Extinct!
Not very healthy for the rhino. Not really very healthy for the planet. And, never was healthy for human beings.
I put the magazine back down and entertained myself with my own imagination, instead. I dreamed of a world in which all life was respected. A world in which people educated themselves; read a lot; did their best to keep learning so that they weren’t sucked into superstitious, fear-based attitudes.
Then I woke up. I remembered that I live in a country in which the newly elected government no longer has a Minister for Science (first time since the 1930s), has disbanded the Advisory Board for Climate Change and is seriously considering allowing the Great Barrier Reef to be dredged to make more sea ports for their buddies in the coal mining industry.
Flipping heck! Goodbye dugongs. Goodbye green turtles. Goodbye Nemo. My apologies to the great Chinese nation. Obviously I can’t throw any stones.
R.I.P. Black rhinos. I, for one, will miss you.
Crazy stuff. Thanks for that insight into Chinese medicine. I have wondered, but never delved too deeply. We’re sad about the black rhinos too.
Just like all “natural” and “herbal” remedies, there are aspects of Chinese medicine that are helpful. However, we have much better ways of dealing with these conditions these days that don’t result in the extinction of a species.
Chinese herbalists use rhino horn for fevers and rheumatism. Some in the Middle East use the horns to make dagger handles. It seems to be mostly Westerners who make the equation horn=horny. That says something about the imaginations of the people who hold that view.
I expect you’re right, Ken, but it doesn’t make much difference to the rhinos. Nor, for that matter, to the sun bears that are kept in tiny cages, unable to move, so their bile can be drained. Oh dear…I’d better get off my soap box. I know I need to keep an open mind but I saw the notice about the end of the black rhinos in the wild and something went “ping!” in my brain. 🙂