Centrefold: Sprouting dogma: Prepare yourselves for the trance of a lifetime
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Your support makes all the difference.'Healthy, wealthy and wise?', sang the headline in 24 June's Today, 'You must be a veggie'. The reason? Dr Margaret Thorogood, from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, had announced: 'We can confirm that those who have chosen (a vegetarian diet) might expect reductions in premature death due to cancer and heart disease'. All of which must have been a blessing in ink for Nigerian prince, lay Buddhist monk, dance musician and general peddlar of peace Keni St George. Not only does he get to live longer, he receives scientific approbation for his Anti-Meat and Fish Peace Vigil, an all-day event which takes over Trafalgar Square on 4 September.
But this isn't your average barricade-smashing, boot-stomping, banner-waving demo. So don't be alarmed when the skies around Nelson's Column become clogged with old 'It's a Knockout]' props: a 15ft moon and 35ft earth will be in attendance, their magnificence challenged only by an 18ft inflatable gorilla and a 10ft hamburger. Musical support comes from 14 Zulu dancers and a flock of monks who will be chanting for the souls of dead animals.
The protest has a serious side. Two dead cows will be displayed in glass coffins, a visual non-sequitur which Keni hopes will enforce his view that a carnivorous culture is one bound for the rubbish chute: 'A society that tortures its members in labs, murders them and feeds their corpses to others will forever experience hell, depression, murder, rape, child abuse and wife abuse'. This is all more emotive than rational, and substantiated by nothing but the most tenuous connections. Still, you've got to admire a man who will meditate before the masses in WC2. 'I understand', a spokesperson from the Department of National Heritage said to Keni, 'that you will be sitting on a 6ft wooden pyramid and going into a deep trance'. And, indeed, he will.
The Anti-Meat/Fish Peace Vigil, Trafalgar Square WC2, 4 Sept
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