Trolleys and trolls

As a kid, I used to love supermarket trolleys. A trolley ride meant I need not walk around, need not worry about getting lost, and once in a while sneak a pack of candies or chocolates, which would conveniently make its way into the shopping bags without my parents finding out before it was too late.

Come to think about it, some studies should probably be conducted by our universities on the possible correlation between supermarket trollies and childhood diabetes, but I digress.

Now, however as a working adult, the magical trolley has now been reduced to a barometer or reminder of sorts of our general economic conditions.

The further away it is from pay day, the emptier the trolley. If the ringgit is doing well, chances are we will fill the trolley up with spaghetti and salmon.

If it isn’t, probably mee kuning and kurau.

Of late, however, the simple trolley appear to have been, fairly or unfairly, subjected to much scrutiny, expanded beyond and above its intended humble role.

It started with animals in trolleys. A picture surfaced of two ladies, with a smallish dog in their trolley, and a pool of what was said to be urine beneath it, taken allegedly at a local, well-known, UK based hypermarket chain.

That simple photo started a public debate in multiple directions.

Animal lovers, dog lovers, dog haters, people with asthma, Muslims who thought it was OK, Muslims who thought it wasn’t, even photography experts to examine the validity of that picture.

Not too long after, another poor family had a kitten in a trolley and that started an indignant round of postings by some with long threads and multipronged arguments that can be summarised in one often used, somewhat valid, but highly Malaysian philosophical line- “Eh, why they can, I cannot?”

The trolley debate, since interrupted with more pressing arguments like what to put in MAS nasi lemak, how should national gymnasts dress, and the evils of K-Pop.

Now that these pressing issues have been properly sorted out, the eminent among us has the free time to relook the trolley debate. This time to separate the halal trolleys from the non-halal trolleys.

I can understand the need for separate counters, the need for separate cashiers and sections.

As Malaysians, religious sensitivities must be respected. It would be rude to expect a person to handle something considered either something sacred (in the case of beef with Hindus) or abhorrent (in the case of pork to Muslims) as an everyday commercial commodity.

But trolleys?

Most meat and meat products and liquid drinks in supermarkets are sold in ready packed form.

If they are in loose form, they are packed before they are placed in the trolley.

By the time a meat or vegetable item ends up in your trolley, chances are they already have been in two layers of plastic, and usually for items purchased from the non-halal section (in malls that have them inside the main groceries area), they would likely be in three layers of plastic, and sealed.

Choices of selection inside that area (for potentially wet items) utilise a different set of trolleys and baskets.

It would be, of course, quite different and quite understandable if the trolley is being used in a livestock farm where a customer pushes it over to a pig pen after picking out a head of cabbage from a patch, and picks out which leg of pork he or she wants while the butcher gleefully amputates the poor oinking fellow.

I imagine that would be disconcerting to even the most liberal of vegetarians, let alone those who find pork offensive for religious or non-religious sensitivities. Of course, that would be rude, not to mention unhygienic.

But given that a trolley is only used for transporting goods from one location to another- while all packaging, loading, and handling and the like are done by people who are not disallowed to handle it, why is this an issue?

And why now? Is this already shrinking shared common space growing even smaller now?

Do we need to re-draw the line again? And if yes, how far back do we continue to draw it?

Expanding on the trolley-as-shared-transport point, would trucks transporting non-halal items be exclusive and for single purpose only? How about roads used for those transport?

How about shipping containers? How about vessels carrying those shipping containers?

Can the profits be mixed or should it be treated separately?

Where do we stop? Is there even a point to stop at?

Wishing all Malaysians, who celebrate it, a very Happy Deepavali. – November 10, 2015.

* This is the personal opinion of the writer or publication and does not necessarily represent the views of The Malaysian Insider.