When eating an elephant take one bite at a time

I use spoon and fork at the same time when I eat; if I ever go to Canada, or more importantly in Montreal, and eat in that way, I'd be called a pig because it is yucky and disgusting. I was led to an article last night that caused quite an uproar in the Filipino community in Canada; I'd say I was disturbed by it myself. A seven-year old kid of Filipino ancestry was punished several times by the school's lunch monitor and principal for what they would consider as inappropriate table habits; Luc Cagadoc was transferred to a table to sit by himself whenever he would eat with both spoon and fork instead of only using one utensil.

I would gladly point that this could root to one fact that the principal and the lunch monitor had never left their country or much so even their town and mingle with people of different races and cultures. "It is not the way you see people eat every day. I have never seen somebody eat with a spoon and a fork at the same time," the principal Normand Bergeron said. He further reiterated that he simply wants the students to eat intelligently. I pity this man, for if the time comes that he visits Thailand or Indonesia, he'd be eating with disgusting people. I know that for westerners, eating is mostly with fork and knife, but that is because rice was never a staple in their dinner tables. Try eating Nilagang Baka using only those utensils, and we'll see if it still is eating intelligently.

If to them pushing the food to fill a spoon with a fork is baffling, what would they think if they see a Chinese person hold chopsticks on his right and a soup spoon on his left; bet they did not know that Chinese people use spoon too. Try eating Young Chow Fried Rice only in chopsticks; chances are you'd feel like an idiot fumbling through each grain; that's not eating intelligently now would it? These two people from Luc's school need some cultural awakening, and be brought to eat with Arabs or Indians. Would they consider watching Indians eat Roti Prata and Briani rice with hands pure torture or of Arabs eating their kebabs lounging on a couch abominable?

Of course there are certain rules or decorum to be followed, but if a Canadian who had never used chopsticks in his life goes to a Chinese country and eat with the locals, he'd be given a fork by the host if he's having a hard time tackling these little sticks. The local people would laugh at this foreigner's antics but they would patiently teach him how to use the chopsticks, not set him aside on another table to eat on his own with his fork and knife and call him barbaric.

When you are dining with a demon, you got to have a long spoon. -- Navjot Singh Sidhu