See No Evil, Report No Evil
It is very important to learn, early in life, that you can beat City Hall and that You can change the System. You might be beaten and gassed by Police a few times before you succeed — but that stuff goes with the territory. And you will be proud of it later, just as you will make many smart friends who will stand with you for the rest of your life.
— Hunter S. Thompson, Hey Rube. May 14, 2001
Where is Michael Moore when we need him? His beloved Canada has just baned the press and all other observers from whitnessing the annual Seal hunt. We know why China bans the press (unless they’re accompanied by a censorhip officer), we know why Zimbawe’s dictator bans the press from seeing what he has done to his people but, if Canada’s seal-pelt hunt is "humane," why the secrecy?
Canada claims that the hunt is now humane, because the new rules require that the hunters slit the arteries of the baby seals after crushing their skulls, so they are not skinned alive anymore. There is evidence that often the babies were stunned, but not dead, as they were skinned, every year, for the last 400 years. So, no more skinning alive, according to Canadian authorities. Good. But, why keep the reporters and observers out? Oh Canada.
We know why European and American observers have been barred by Zimbabwe’s dictator Mugabe, and many foreign media, including The Times, denied accreditation. Mugabe has presided over the total economic collapse and destruction of his people. The unemployment is 80%, education and health systems are almost non-existant, and life expectancy for women is 34 years and for men, 37, according to the World Health Organization.
We also know why China accompanies and severly limits the press access in Lhasa. Yes, this is old news.
But why is Canada suddenly a censorhip country? I received some thougthful emails from readers who said that this seal slaughter (killing not for the meat, but for the fur to rich women in countries like Russia) has been going on for 400 years, and is the income of hunters (actually about 5% of their income), so I should be more considerate of their trade. Okay.
That, however, is the beauty of living in a free country like Canada. If one is born into an evil business such as murdering for vanity, that person can learn another trade — like tourism, for example. But a baby seal doesn’t have that option to choose another role in life.
If the Canadian hunters are too dumb to learn another trade, maybe the generous Canadian government can help them. I’m all for tradition. But I’m also hip on human evolution. Why not?
Your friend,
Anita Thompson
p.s. Evolution? It appears that we have been slowly evolving as a species. A human jawbone has just been found in Spain. "it looks superficially similar to jawbones of H. erectus found at Dmanisi in Georgia, which date to about 1.7 million years ago, according to the study published in the journal Nature. "I think this part of human history is poorly known in Europe. We have very few fossils and artefacts. But this jawbone is the oldest human fossil we have from western Europe," said Dr de Castro, of Spain’s National Centre for the Study of Human Evolution.
