Food, Faith and Fear

Last week I took a grinding bore of a training course that despite the plodding, “you fill in the blanks while I lecture” format, managed to keep me captivated for much of the day. Despite the grueling format, I might actually have learned something. I think there is some kind of certificate coming in the mail, on which the Queen will attest that I know something about food hygiene and safety. This in preparation for my next role as kitchen yogi (cook’s assistant) here at the Center.

As it turns out, all the food safety laws and procedures don’t specify much what to do as much as they say nobody should get sick. And if somebody does, you’re supposed to be able to show that you did all you could to prevent it. So it’s not a rules-based system as much as a faith-based system. You can clean up, and the inspectors will tell you how, or rather what they accept as “all you can do,” but in the end, when you “disinfect” your tools and counters, you still can’t see if there are bacteria there, which there certainly are. The game is not elimation, but reduction of bacteria.

Watching food fears rising in the wake of the wave, it’s easy to see how easily that dovetails into fear of god, and how easily food preparation rituals parallel religious rituals. Faith and practice. Nothing is certain, except what the authorities tell you. And even the most well-meaning authorities can end up catching arrows.

7 Replies to “Food, Faith and Fear”

  1. great question. not much. look at the nepal site. i need to frame all this up and post it this week. i’ve got just another couple hours of techie stuff and then i can focus on invitation/framing of the thing for real. chug chug chug. then i can announce it at giving list and omidyar and oslist. i really want to be able to launch this invite already! thanks

  2. yeah. lot of time spend trying to game my way into somehting that’s not going to happen, at least not yet.

    messing with individual post pages, too. and considering a favorite posts section, but not sure if that flies too well, either. technically it works, just not sure i want to classes here.

    i should stop messign with this and go to work on scnn!

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