One of my favourite stories from Childhood was one called "What would you do with Charlie?" It's a cute little story that expresses a mother's frustration with the inability to deal with her son's wanton ways.
I am reminded of the story when I hear the verbal spume that comes from Newfoundland and Labrador's Lex Luther Capt. Paul Watson.
Is it hypocritical to say "I think that of all the animals in the world or any environmental problem in the world the harp seal is the easiest issue to raise funds on... it's easier to make money and because it's easier to make a profit because there are over a thousand animals on the endangered species list, and the harp seal isn't one of them... the seal is very easy to exploit as an image. We have posters, we have buttons, we have shirts, all of which portray the head of a baby seal with the tears coming out of its eyes. Baby seals are always crying because – its - they're always - the salt tears keep their eyes from freezing. But they have this image - they're baby animals, they're beautiful, and because of that, coupled with the horror of a sealer hitting them over the head with a club, it's an image that just goes right to the heart of — of animal lovers all over North America.” (from Animal Crackers) Is it hypocritcal to say that when you are pissed-off with Greenpeace because you are kicked out of the club but then use those same tactics when you start up your own club and make yourself the Shepherd. I would say that is definitely hypocritical! – but... "What would you do with Pauly?"
Is it bigoted, and racist to call a whole province "a blight and a curse... they debased Canada when they joined Canada in 1949..."? In my mind it certainly is racist. Subsitute Newfoundland and Labradorean with Jew, Muslim, Cree, Black – whatever your ancestry might be. Then re-read it. What is it’s affect on you in this context?? - but... "What would you do with Pauly?"
Is it inciting hate to say "a place where priests rape orphans and residents kill seabirds for fun, and idolize animal killers". Certainly I see that as hateful; but... "What would you do with Pauly?"
What would you do with an individual who would take each of your arguments and spin them into an extreme image of blood and death and crying babies and barbarians with blood splattered faces and grimacing grins. You can pretty well say whatever you want - that image is stronger.
So... I go back to the lesson's of my childhood story. As is turns out the infamous "Charlie" was the young boy’s dog. In context, all of the bad things that Charlie did were perfectly acceptable for a being that does not have the moral capacity to know right from wrong, hypocrisy, racism, and all of these values of humanity.
The truth is some people have a natural ability to incite hatred. ... and they find their followers - it is in all of us, it just takes someone like the Good Shepherd of the Sea to bring it out. He has been playing the game for quite some time - he is bloody good at it.
The umbrella of protest is a convenient one, people have used all sorts of things to justify their own evils. So "What would you do with Pauly?" He will never recognize his own hypocrisy, racism, and other demerits. Maybe some sort of leash, maybe one with a muzzle? Apparently I have a club somewhere, but I’ve never seen it. Maybe they passed them out with the Cod Liver oil years ago. I don’t recall.
Excerpts from The Independent Vol. 3 Issue 45
9 comments:
good article. summs up how I see it. Too bad your not getting wider circulation.
Thanks isdaby greatly appreciated. Ya part of me wishes for more circulation but that comes with a lot of BS like Myles has to deal with from dis-interested people who wouldn't know a Newfoundland and Labradorean if one clubbed them on the head.
The right people read this thing so I'm pretty happy with that. A few dedicated sensible readers is not a bad thing. :)
Thanks again.
The best way we can deal with this is to attend the conference on the future of the Atlantic seal hunt at St. John’s this week.
I've been contemplating writing about this but haven't seen any substantial articles from which to draw from?
I'm also inclined to dismiss Watsons comments because I know them to be untrue. On the other hand people from elsewhere don't! Obvious by the size of the protests. So something needs to be done to educate the world, yes the world because it is the world and the global economy that we need to protect, not to mention our good name in the name of people who fought and died for it!
Some of the issues i have with the seal hunt are:
Wastage: leaving the carcasses to rot on the ice. Wastage could be fixed by using Slaughter house/ships to utilize all of the seal.
This would also remove the unsightly red blood on white ice from the seal protestors.
Rendered into fish and animal food.
Killing just the younger seals (not white coats but pups). A more sustainible practice would be too kill the older ones preferable male. Like is done in every other sustainible wildlife hunt.
How would I respond. It seems as with everything else NL has to do with Canada our only choice due to the Canadian political farce called a democracy is to go the legal route.
Class action suit for deflamation of character, slander, Inciting hate, loss of income, etc etc.
We have to hit back at the only thing these people understand their pocket book.
Where do I sign?
Build it they will come!
Absolutely in agreement nl-expatriate. The goal should be no animal killed and left to waste. No animal killed inhumanely. I don't believe in the "cull" term. Reform and better monitoring and regulation - absolutely. Once again a common theme is the half-arsed Support, monitoring, regulation and promotion by DFO - since it is unfortunately in their mandate.
As for dealing with Pauly? (I shrug my shoulders) He is a proven hypocrite, racist and terrorist.
How about some form of fork to pin the head of the seal with a third pin that shoots out directly into the brain?
This would remove the very gross swinging of the halapik to kill the animals? Protestor friendly killing practice.
It's all about disconnecting the act of killing from the actual killing.
I also suggested using chokers like used in logging to haul the either dead or unconscious seals onto a factory slaughter house/ship for humane slaughter house killing practices.
I received an email from a sealer saying that he didn't think this was feasible because the seals flippers were to small and pulling the seal against the grain of its fur would be to hard. I think he had a mind set though and wasn't willing to entertain new ideas and practices. I didn't mean a man would pull the seal but rather a winch set up should be used because adult seals weigh a couple of hundred pounds and pulling that on the ice by hand wouldn't be feasible anyway. Which is why I imagine they only take the skins and leave the carcass to rot.
I had another thought on the against the fur grain problem. Use a hook set up similar to a fishing hook and hook it into the seals mouth, this would eliminate the against the grain problem but the weight issue is still there for a manual labour set up.
A winch for a ATV only costs 100-200$ and could be used to pull several seal carcasses at a time with a off shoot of several leads set up.
This would also be an easier way of harvesting for the sealer and safer because each sealer would always have a life line.
To seek legal redress, one must have suffered a legal wrong.
Bottom line - its not slander if its true.
Which in your case, it is.
Wow, Isdaby, BND, NF-Expat. The whole gang.
I assume that you're just waiting for Crazy American to bring the lotion?
By the way, Expat, you would have made one helluva Nazi in a previous life.
No wonder you guys need your own little space. You each have found the only four people on the planet who doesn't think you're all worthless pieces of shit.
Enjoy
Just want to say I thoroughly enjoy your comments about Watson. Myself and watson have been emailing back and forth for a few years each seal hunt time, and suffice to say if you bust him on an issue, he'll pretend you never said it. The silence is deafening regarding the chef who was said by HSUS to be a part of their seafod boycott and the same chef being on TV saying he heard nothing about it and uses Canadian seafood.
Keep it up!
Thanks Anon, I appreciate your comments. I'd be interested to read some of Watson's ramblings in your discussions with him. On my post about "Canada's N Word" I referred to some of the things Paul likes to say about Newfoundlanders. I actually had a gentleman from the Telegram contact me about the article. I had an interesting conversation with him, he told me he had talked to Watson on a number of occasions and he is as sweet as honey talking one on one. He also hires himself out for public lectures and such. He's as slick as a greased eel that guy - he's been at this racket for quite some time and he is bloody good at it.
I haven't been able to peg him. He is either a two-faced hypocrite or a great con-artist. Maybe a bit of both. I think the quotes in "Canada's N Word" is a good representation of where his mindset trully is.
Thanks for reading.
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