The Tragedy Of The Wild Boar

He is the caretaker of the house I always stayed in Jolo. He is a working student. Very often we talked about school, his studies and his work. During our last conversation, I asked him what it is like living in Jolo. I asked him whether he feels safe going around the island.

In some areas he said yes. He would just lie about his surname and use his mother’s instead when asked. He feels safer that way. His father is a not a Muslim, his mother is.

He told also me that Muslims has other way of finding out whether a person is a Muslim or not by looking at the person’s physical features. I found what he said unusual because I thought we all have the same features. I can’t tell the difference unless the person is a foreigner.

I asked him about dogs, because Muslims consider dogs unclean as pigs. He said that some Muslims now have dogs. They use it for catching wild boar.

He got my attention. Wild boar is a pig and why would they want to catch pig? They wouldn’t even want to hear the word pig. How would they catch a wild boar if they wouldn’t want to touch it?

He said that some would. They would sell it to non-Muslims. Some would even eat it in secret. Some believed that it is different from a pig.

All the while I thought those wild boars are safer in the wild. I thought they were safer here in the conflict areas in Mindanao dominated by Muslims.

I am sorry pig. I was wrong.
.