the fat of the land

A strange story from the BBC today, with the headline Peru arrests ‘human fat killers’. According to the report,

Four people have been arrested in Peru on suspicion of killing dozens of people in order to sell their fat and tissue for cosmetic uses in Europe.

I wonder what use the fat is put to. Particularly as, according to the Health First Europe website: “Europe has the highest number of overweight and obese people in the world.”

Over 400 million people are overweight in Europe, so why do we want cosmetics made with other people’s fat? And with over 130 million obese Europeans, you’d have thought we could manage to find our own and not have to outsource to South America.

Mind you, it seems Peru has a tradition of such happenings: there is a legend there of people being killed on lonely roads for their fat, and the modern gang has been named after these traditional killers, the Pishtacos. (Which looks to me like a cross between “fish taco” and “pistachio”, which is pretty much guaranteed to make you fat.)

The BBC reports that:

The gang allegedly targeted people on remote roads, luring them with fake job offers before killing them and extracting their fat.

This conjures a very strange image. If I were walking down remote road and someone appeared and offered me a job, I’d tend to be suspicious. I’m not saying I’d expect my fat to be at risk, but I’d certainly be a bit wary and read the small print before signing any contract.

Of course, what the story really made me think of was the Doctor Who episode Partners in Crime with those cute little Adipodes which “spawn every night, removing a little of the host’s body fat each time.”

Author: don't confuse the narrator

Exploring the boundary between writer and narrator through first person poetry, prose and opinion View all posts by don't confuse the narrator