Is Rideau Hall next on protestor's agenda? [General]

2009 May 27
Raw! I think I'd want it grilled just a bit!

www.theglobeandmail.com

I have to admit I relish an instance where a government official takes a non-PC stance to support Canadian tradition and culture. Until we are willing to actively defend the realities of our history I think that Canadian values will be continually watered down or retracted as the fickle winds of popular support blow.

If you disagree I welcome your input, but please let's keep the discussion somewhat sophisticated and leave the sanctimony out of it!

2009 May 27
I saw that yesterday and I sure hope not because I work there.

2009 May 28
A week ago I watched an episode of an awesome BBC food show - Cooking in the Danger Zone, "where food writer Stefan Gates explores some of the most controversial food issues in the world". It is on at 11:00 on Sundays.

In this particular episode, Gates visits Canada's Arctic - Igloolik. He goes hunting with an Inuit guide, Theo; visits a local grocery ($18 strawberries, anyone?); delivers pizza on a Friday night; eats raw whale skin and raw seal meat; and even partakes of some 18-month-old aged walrus carcass (his hosts were gobbling it down with gusto!)

The point is that these are traditional foods for Inuit people, and ignoring that is sheer ethnocentrism. Imported food is ridiculously expensive up there, and eating food "from the land" is both healthier, cheaper, and an important link to a time when Inuit were masters in their own land and didn't have Southern-style settlement forced upon them. So our GG eating some traditional food while travelling up there should be no more shocking than watching her eat apple pie in the Annapolis Valley.

news.bbc.co.uk

The show also has strong political overtones and highlights the dangers of global warning, which Igloolik residents can see first hand, while our politicians twiddle their thumbs.


2009 May 28
i don't think this story has much traction, much as the CBC is trying hard to protract it via mentions on the National, etc. for the past 2-3 days. There are kooky elements in any social movement, but (and this is anecdotal) most animal rights activists (with a brain) tend to also be pretty sensitive to indigenous rights. I know some vegetarians (self-included) who might step up to bat in the very same way Michaëlle Jean did out of respect for the cultural circumstance.

The fact MJ did so under the spotlight of one or more cameras obviously brings the situation into a different focus (politically). And, for this and other reasons, i'm not certain ethnocentrism captures the full spectrum of issues at play here -- at the very least, we can say that television cameras are a historically recent introduction into "traditional" seal meat redistribution rituals.

Nonetheless, were i a spokesperson or communications strategist for PETA (or similar), i'd sidestep the issue and aim to reign in the amateurs (the actors). Then, this issue could disappear similar to how the N. Korean testing of nuclear devices raised barely a mention on this evening's National.