{"id":140859,"date":"2024-03-09T16:16:49","date_gmt":"2024-03-09T23:16:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=140859"},"modified":"2024-03-09T16:25:35","modified_gmt":"2024-03-09T23:25:35","slug":"serving-manioc-as-the-only-option-for-vegetarians-diminished-the-diversity-image-of-the-royal-thomian-encounter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2024\/03\/09\/serving-manioc-as-the-only-option-for-vegetarians-diminished-the-diversity-image-of-the-royal-thomian-encounter\/","title":{"rendered":"Serving \u2018Manioc\u2019 as the only option for Vegetarians diminished the \u2018Diversity\u2019 image of the Royal \u2013 Thomian encounter"},"content":{"rendered":"

Senaka Weeraratna<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n

People attend the Royal\u2013Thomian match to see the cricket and enjoy the attendant fun. Not necessarily toeat food. But eating becomes necessary when spending a day there. This is when the trouble starts.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

At this year\u2019s Royal\u2013Thomian match meat eaters were well catered with slaughter products ranging from<\/strong> Beef to Pork, and Chicken, Mutton, Fish, and Egg, thrown in. In the process of catering to flesh food\u00a0consumers, the caterers seemed to have ignored the requirements of another significant group \u2013\u00a0the Vegetarians and Vegans.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

A plea for Vegetarian food to alleviate hunger pangs was met with a \u2018tough luck\u2019 response from the\u00a0staff behind the counter. \u00a0\u2018Eat Manioc\u2019 this is all we have was their response. Even the plate of \u2018Kadala\u2019\u00a0(usually a Vegetarian\u00a0option) was mixed with egg and served, thereby denying that plant-based option for the strict\u00a0vegetarian.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

This policy of avoiding catering to vegetarians properly raises several questions. Why this blatant\u00a0discrimination?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Do you know who should be held responsible for this lapse? The Caterers, the Organizing Committee, or<\/strong> both?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The damage unfortunately has been done. Can it be avoided in the future?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

A related question is, why has South Indian food especially the short eats been continuously left out of the Menu?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ulundu\u00a0Vadai and Masala Vadai are favorites among the locals. They must not be considered \u2018infra dig or<\/strong> beneath one\u2019s dignity to consume. Remember – the colonial era is long gone.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mindless decision-making on the part of the Organizers produced a state of affairs that was prejudicial<\/strong> against non\u2013meat eaters. Two leading supermarkets in Sri Lanka are also the leading registered abattoirs in<\/strong> the country.\u00a0 They have a vested interest in the meat industry and its expansion and in force-feeding<\/strong> vegetarians with meat. Despite the world increasingly becoming consumers of plant-based food<\/strong> and\u00a0subscribing to ethical\u00a0living in peace and harmony with other living beings, the caterers with a pure<\/strong> profit-making aim have gone\u00a0ahead regardless of the harm caused to vegetarians who found themselves<\/strong> virtually starving on the first two days of the match. They are unkind to both animals and humans who show<\/strong> kindness\u00a0to animals.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Vegetarian food items are slowly disappearing from the Menu cards in restaurants in Sri Lanka.\u00a0 In the New<\/strong> Colombo Port City Restaurants there is hardly anything food-wise available for a Vegetarian or Vegan. The meat<\/strong> industry is becoming a law unto itself in\u00a0the country. The Animal Welfare Bill is getting delayed unnecessarily<\/strong> because\u00a0of\u00a0the unreasonable demands of the meat industry.\u00a0 This Bill is no longer pro – Animal unlike the Law<\/strong> Commission version of the Animal Welfare Bill (2006).\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

With respect to the Royal-Thomian encounter,\u00a0 allowing the meat industry to choose what<\/strong> should be\u00a0included in the menu card for visitors to the Royal-Thomian\u00a0cricket match is preposterous.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Contrary to reason. It is\u00a0like allowing Judges\u00a0to run Jailhouses or prisons. The scene that emerges\u00a0from the huge imbalance in the\u00a0Menu\u00a0Card ( Only Manioc\u00a0for Vegetarians resulting in starvation for a good\u00a0part of the time) is that\u00a0the\u00a0Organizing\u00a0Committee has failed, and with intent or unwittingly surrendered to\u00a0the Meat\u00a0\u00a0Industry giving them a\u00a0free hand to pick what is best for the Vegan and Vegetarian. This is an\u00a0unacceptable practice. The Principal of\u00a0\u00a0Royal College and the Warden of St. Thomas College must step in\u00a0without delay and collectively regulate this\u00a0aspect of food catering.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

There is however a silver lining in the dark clouds mentioned above. I was privileged and happy to meet an\u00a0old boy who\u00a0had been a National Table Tennis Champion and Captain of the Royal College Table Tennis team\u00a0in the\u00a0\u00a01970s. Our\u00a0meeting occurred after the first day\u2019s play ended in the SSC dining room. It was quite\u00a0accidental.\u00a0\u00a0Being of Islamic faith he astounded me with his declaration of being a Vegan. He being a man of\u00a0compassion for all living beings, made a profound statement:\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I do not believe in killing animals for food when there is enough plant-based food available for human\u00a0consumption\u201d.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Royal Thomian Organising Committee should have heard this statement before handing over the responsibility\u00a0for\u00a0\u00a0catering to meat vendors and registered\u00a0abattoirs who have in their perverse wisdom left out the needs of\u00a0Vegetarians from the Menu Card.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Senaka Weeraratna<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Senaka Weeraratna People attend the Royal\u2013Thomian match to see the cricket and enjoy the attendant fun. Not necessarily toeat food. But eating becomes necessary when spending a day there. This is when the trouble starts. At this year\u2019s Royal\u2013Thomian match meat eaters were well catered with slaughter products ranging from Beef to Pork, and Chicken, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[165],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-140859","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-senaka-weeraratna"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/140859","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=140859"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/140859\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=140859"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=140859"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=140859"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}