Tell Us What We Should Eat

Not long after dinner, I realized that something was wrong. Very soon, I had a high temperature and a strong headache along with vomiting and diarrhea. Doctors diagnosed my problem as severe food poisoning. After making sure that all was well, I was discharged from the hospital where I had spent two days.

Laboratory tests confirmed that I had eaten contaminated food. I was surprised as I am not a big eater and rich dishes are not a feature of my normal diet. I eat sparsely and my table is a rather austere one. I eat a lot of vegetable salads and the doctor warned me that the poisoning may well have come from such a salad. I was amazed and quickly ruled out that possibility because I eat salad only after it has been washed thoroughly.

Then like a brain wave, I remembered something I had read in one of our newspapers. The article concerned the arrest of a farmer in Jeddah for having irrigated his vegetable farm with sewage water. Suddenly I understood what the doctor was suggesting. Along with the lush green vegetables, I had ingested sewage because of avaricious farmers who have no scruples or sense of responsibility.

We may all be poisoned in this way due to the farmers’ attempts to get rich quick. They never think twice before poisoning the public. I consider this an act of terrorism and I consider them terrorists who should be publicly executed.

I wonder why the names, photos and addresses of these murderers have not been released to the media. Is there any worse crime than poisoning the vegetables that are a main item on every dining table in the country?

Tell us what we should eat if our watercress, parsley, lettuce, radish, Jew’s mallow and mint are contaminated. The worst contamination, of course, is the contamination of the conscience and the civic sense.