So what fish shall we have for dinner tonight?

How about a mutant? A genetically modified thing that has been bred in a fish farm that stinks, that is fed God knows what, something resembling a fish but that was not born in the sea or the river as nature intended it to be but that has been ?made? by man so that you, the fish-eater can be fed. And so that other people can make money while they are playing at being God.

But I guess you don?t care, do you? As long as whenever you feel like eating fish, it?s available at the market, grocery store or it?s on the menu at your favourite restaurant.

Who cares what exactly it is that you?re eating as long as it tastes and looks like fish?

You might not care ? and the makers of the fish (no, not God ? She is the maker of the real fish that is born naturally), the wannabe gods who think they can control and manipulate nature according to their whim, might not care either.

Guess who might not be too amused by this?

Nature. Oh you don?t agree, do you? You don?t think that a ?thing? can get angry; that a ?thing? can get so irate that ?it? might just decide to avenge ?itself?for all the wrongs that we have done to ?it??

Well, shows what you know. Nature has been hinting ? none too subtly ? for a while now that it has had enough of us and of our greed, of our arrogance, of our unreasonableness.

The hints are devastating enough ? the food crisis, climate change and the growing scarcity of most resources we have always taken for granted. Of course these three catastrophes are related; we have plowed nature, we have exploited her, we have violated her to our heart?s content. Yet we say we?re aware of the consequences of our actions, we say we?re concerned; our leaders make grand speeches, saying it?s time to rethink the way we have been living so far; in Mauritius we?re talking about the subliminal ?Maurice île durable? project that is meant to make of us a life-sized laboratory in sustainable development. Great. What?s even better is that this project is ?close to the heart? of the Prime minister. But then what do we go and do? We amend stupid laws to permit people who want to play at being god to make and breed genetically modified fish.

Why? Because there?s a food crisis and people will need to be fed. Let?s not worry about the fact that it has not been established that aquaculture will not increase the stock of fish available to human consumption, let?s not worry about the fact that aquaculture is dangerous to the environment, that aquaculture will destroy our lagoons, that aquaculture is plain and simply wrong because it?s against nature. Why let these silly arguments get in the way of making money? We never learn, do we?