Meat

In Muslim countries, people are very careful to kill any animal. Firstable, don’t let animals be aware that they are going to be killed by going behind them and cutting their neck arteries as quickly as possible. Afterward, the blood of animals has to be completely pushed out right away by hanging them upside down. The Muslim believes that the pain, the anger, the fear of an animal before its death are strong enough to poison its blood. If all of the blood doesn’t promtly pour out, they might refuse to eat the meat.

The viewpoint is also similar to Osho’s. He said that  the fear, the pain and the resentment of an animal before its death, much or little, still remain inside its meat, as an emotional poison then transfer to those eating the meat. The smarter an animal is, the stronger the poison is. This might be the cause that Meat eaters are likely to have shorter temper and use more violence than Vegans

Cog railway

Being launched in the late 19th century, Cog/rack Railway was a technology that provides steam locomotives power to climb steep grades. Thus, Most rack railways are mountain railways.

Extend across to the north and the south of the Alps in the central of Western Europe, Switzerland has many high mountain’s peaks, roughly 4,000 metres. It is hilly topology that restrict Swiss transportation systems. To overcome the problem, the Swiss were soon to make use of rack railway technology and numerous lines were built. Indeed, Switzerland is still the country where most rack railways are located.  

For many people, it would come as a suprise to learn that Vietnam also had Cog Railways built by French finance and Swiss technology in the early 20th century. It took over 30 year (1901-1932) to construct an 84km branch which connected Tháp Chàm in Ninh Thuận Province with the central highlands resort of Đà Lạt, called Langbian Cog Railway.

 *The Langbian Cog Railway

In 1920, Chemin de Fer de l’Indochine (CFI), France, ordered 7 Steam locomotives HG4/4 constructed by Schweizerische Lokomotiv und Maschinenfarbik (SLM), Switzerland. In 1929, two Steam locomotives GH4/4 manufactured by Maschinenfabrik Esslingen, Germany, under the license from SLM were supplied to Vietnam as Germany’s indemnificaton for its loss in WW I to France. There was a total of 9 steam locomotives in Vietnam initially. 

In the period of Japanese conlonial (1945-1946) 4 of 9 original steam locomotives were destroy. Meanwhile, Swiss railway was mostly electrified in 1942. Therefore, in 1947, the CFI purchased four second-hand steam locomotives HG3/4 from Switzerland to replace those lost during the conflict.

When France withdrew its army out of Vietnam,  9 steam locomotives were taken over by Vietnam operation railway in 1947. The Langbian Cog Railway continued to offer a public service until September 1969. After 1975 the track was removed and sold/scavenged as scrap mental. Since 1996, a plan to rebuild the Langbian Cog Railway has been proposed, but as yet, it hasnt been untaken due to no any feasible study.

Back to Switzerland

 * Antique steam locomotives retrieved from Vietnam is running over Furka Pass in Switzerland

In January, 1990, a Swiss cogwheel railway company went to Vietnam to purchase seven antique steam locomotives that have been abandoned for a long time. Those rusted engines were planned for museum display as part of Swiss heritage, since most of them were originally made and departed from Switzerland almost a century ago. However, beyond expectation, they continued running again thank to Swiss railroad craftmen for their successful restoration. Now, HG 4/4 type is the most powerful cogwheel locomotive in Europe, day by day offering tourism service to pass through the Alps.