Fighting obesity?

[:en]I’ve been six hours packing at home, struggling with my stuff to make the suitcase comply with the airlines’ weight allowance: 20 kg. You can’t easily do with less than 20 kg of luggage for a one month holiday, and it’s time-consuming to select the most necessary things, all the essentials and nothing but the essentials, and still leave some margin for the gifts you’ll bring back home.
Now I’m waiting at the boarding gate, and I see this massive guy, probably no less than 120 kg fat, sitting in front of me. And I think: that man has paid for his ticket the I paid! Now, how fair is that? Airlines are only too ready (and happy!) to charge you a forfeit if your luggage exceeds the limit in just one kilo, but then they don’t penalize that colossus, even though he’s worth much more than me and my suitcase together. Actually I could carry two more pieces of luggage and still I’d be lighter than him, with the added advantage, in my favour, that in case of an emergency my baggage could be thrown overboard to drop ballast, whereas a person couldn’t. So, to be fair, I should be entitled to 50 full extra kg of staff, then offered a discount for ‘disposability’.
That’s why I believe that governments don’t really want to fight obesity. Politicians talk and talk about healthy eating and responsible feeding our kids, but that’s only drivel: if they truly wanted to end with obesity, it would be as simple as passing a bill to allow–or even force airlines to tariff per kilo of total weight; say, for instance, passenger plus baggage limit: 100 kg; anything above that, pays forfait. Then you’d see a sensible percentage of obese people start exercising and eating healthier: if only they had to pay extra in the airplanes!
But of course governments won’t do that, even if only because the food industry is so powerful and gluttons keep the market wheel spinning round, injecting money into the system with all the food they buy, which creates jobs and makes companies richer and more powerful. Monsanto probably loves fat people, and of course governments love Monsanto, needless to say why. So, unlike me, obese can’t be spared. I’m almost worthless for the system, perfectly expendable. But them? They’re the fuel of these greedy economies.
Meanwhile, here I am, sparing clothes for a 20 kg allowance. How fair is that?[:]

This entry was posted in Opinion. Bookmark the permalink.

2 Responses to Fighting obesity?

  1. Philip says:

    One could make an argument that do to the mitochondria in a thin or fat person, the fit person can and often does eat more than a fat person. Nevertheless fat people on airplanes should be banned. Lol along with Catalonians. Or is that redundant? Lol

    • Probably many thin persons eat more than many fat ones; I didn’t think of it when writing this ‘article’. But I bet 2 to 1 that, average in the planet, the fat eat more than the thin.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *