Shrimp - very short story

Shrimp

Shrimp. shrimp? I don’t even know what a shrimp looks like. I know prawns, mackerel and even tuna – though only in the tinned form. How urban can you get? So I looked it up on the Internet: ah it looks like a prawn: why is it not called a prawn? I even came across www.godhatesshrimps.com - does he? He probably prefers a nice piece of hack in batter, chips and salad. An unfortunate name to be called - shrimp. Maybe God doesn't really like them after all. Of course this is the English language, maybe in Thai it's more beautiful. Mind you they aren’t what humans consider beautiful looking - shrimp possibly don't think we're particularly beautiful either, especially now in the last century our increasing dirty habits and becoming their slave keepers in commercial farms. www.shrimpsreallyhatehumans.com that would be a good start and they would have a good reason to.

Paul asked me to look into it in India – trouble was I was not in India, I was in Thailand and I felt no expert to look into it other than admire them on my plate when I occasionally had them for dinner. He suggested I go on a tour, talk to the fishermen who had been killed by police in India because of protests. Em- hem, don’t I mean talk to people who were there and witnessed it all. Anyways, I don't think so I thought. Having previously always admired journalists who on purposely got themselves to the centre of a war zone and still managed to put pen to paper and write eloquently rather than let their emotions fog over any thoughts other than ‘oh shit’. I suddenly didn’t fancy the opportunity to go skulking amongst protesting shrimp farmers and possibly get in trouble with the police. Thanks, but I’ll just stay being a tourist and work at that real hard: continuously read books, top up my tan and go swimming. And anyways Yves the French man said the fishermen only speak Thai and it’s a man’s world. Right so, that lets me off the hook, even though that is of no help to the shrimp people that look like prawns looking for their shrimp-rights in the salty human-polluted seas of the world.

Joan Walsh © 2005

link: www.doryman.com