On Tuesday Muslims across the world are celebrating Eid al-Adha, the Islamic day of sacrifice. Every Muslim who is rich enough is supposed to donate an animal to be slaughtered, and the meat is donated to the poor.
Sourcing the ideal beast can be time-consuming, but in Indonesia help is at hand. There is now an easy alternative - you can buy an animal at your nearest ATM machine. A newspaper, TV station and local bank have joined forces to provide the service. Having made their electronic purchase, customers are promised photographs of the slaughtered animal and a letter of thanks from the community which will benefit from the donated meat.
So far almost 4,000 goats have been sold this way at a cost of about $70 (£40) each. A sacrificial cow will set you back more than $500.
(Source: PSD Blog)
5 comments:
Chris Hellmann's comment:
"If you are seriously into sacrificing animals, then this seems like an effective way to do it. But I do not actually know how this whole thing works, because the only thing I know to do with an ATM is get money out of it. I guess if I was looking for something important and the closest source was an ATM it would be valuable. Around Thanksgiving turkeys would be in high demand also. This sounds more like a foreign Ebay than an ATM, even though they are not bidding. And I am also sure that animal activists are against the facilitation of killing animals for whatever purpose.
Americans would consider using the ATM for material things before we would ever electronically shop for an animal we would be killing. Instead of a sheep, people would want a fur coat. The main difference is their needs versus our wants. The poor need the meat while Americans want whatever excites them at the time."
I think that this is a good idea. It reduces transaction costs, so more sacrifices are made. Its similar to the internet's effect on reducing costs and increasing the amount of transactions: you can buy something or in this case kill something without going to the trouble of locating the product yourself and avoid the whole shopping process. There are probably websites where you can order a sacrifice too, but maybe there are less computers than ATMs available to the people making the sacrifices.
This comment got made by me, and my name is Richard Murphey
Although it may seem a little bizarre, this is a very smart move to make when you think about it economically. Instead of taking the time to actually go out and get an animal, a person can save their time, reduce their transaction costs with the ATM machine, and increase production at the same time. I wouldn’t be surprised to see this type of technology expand in use over the years provided that people are willing to use it.
Ravi Bhatia
I would not be surprised to see this type of technology increase in the future either. If costly transactions can be reduced, more people will make a profit. And if the transactions become easier, more people will be willing to invest money in more goods over a period of time. The technology may be used in purchasing more expensive goods like cars and houses, although a test drive or walkthrough would be needed before final purchases. One problem with the ATM is the same problem around today, identity theft. Once a solution to the problem is found, the technology will increase over the next couple of decades.
-Chris Hellmann
The whole idea about being able to go to an ATM to buy a goat or cow is very efficient. This takes away the costs that most rich people would have to endure to get the animal, so more people will be willing to do it. I dont know how much religion ties these people to animal sacrifices, but just giving money would be far more useful on the whole. On the other hand, making charitable donations more appealing to some people. What if in America you could get online and make up a menu to feed a hungry family for one night? Although this isn't a huge donation, I think tons of people would think that it was a fun way to donate. This would increase total donations as well, even though each person is only contributing a small amount. These types of donations are very simple and quick, but makes the donation feel alot more personal than just giving money.
Brian Berkowitz
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