The Other Seal Hunt

Stageleft has published a particular nasty racist little email that was sent to some Northern folks, the Inuit. It attacks them for seal hunting.

The Inuit who also are affected by the anti-seal hunt activists they have produced a new pro sustainable development video promoting the Seal Hunt in the North as part of a sustainable fishing/hunting economy.

But of course their video is nothing like the corporate campaign the Green NGO's do because of their deep pockets. Pockets filled annually by the fundraising campaign around the seal hunt.

In 1974 IFAW hired the same advertising agency as Coca-Cola to co-ordinate a $100,000 "Stop the Seal Hunt," campaign. Seal pup products are now banned in Europe and the U.S. Marine Mamal protection Act prevents any importation of seal products into Canada's largest trading partner. With annual revenues of $60 million a year and support from U.S., Canadian and European celebrities, the IFAW represents a publicity juggernaut, Simpson said.

The Reality

The Propaganada Image




Amongst Northern peoples, those in the Circumpolar Arctic, sealing is part of the traditional economy. The Green NGO's like to claim that the Inuit and other aboriginal peoples are simply dupes of the fur industry! The fact that traditional hunter gatherer economies are based on hunting, duh oh, might have something to do with it of course doesn't cross their minds.

This is a morality play about the angst people in the south feel about the North, urban sophisticates living in the metropoles versus the rural rubes and rednecks who live in the Southerners much cherished 'wilderness".

Its people in the south versus Peoples in the North, and by the way the Newfoundland Hunt is in Labrador where it is part of the traditional way of live of the aboriginals who live there as well as the Fisher folk from the Rock.

Its about old economies based on fishing and hunting which are suffering from underdevelopment, but that underdevelopment, is in the eye of the beholder, sustainable fishing and hunting economies can exist. But not for PETA and others who want to end all use of animals so we can become vegans.

Unfortunately the Green moralists believe that the Hunting and Fishing Folk should pay the price for urbanites to wander in a people-less wilderness.

McCartney called the hunt "barbaric" and a "stain" on the country, and urged Ottawa to replace it with subsidies for fishermen and an eco-tourism industry.

It comes from all those cutesy wilderness movies put out by Walt Disney that generations have grown up on. The ones with the anthropomophic animals that talk. Which maybe why Ms.McCartney almost got bit by a baby seal, because she was probably trying to have a conversation with it.

POSED UNPOSED

Tom Hanson, Associated Press

A seal pup tries to nip at Paul McCartney and his wife Heather as she tries to pet it on the ice floes.

Paul McCartney and his wife Heather pose with a seal pup as part of a high-profile publicity stunt.
(CP Tom Hanson)

He and his wife posed for photographers while petting whitecoat pups, which are illegal to target.

And its nice to see someone put the Seal Hunt in context;

Seal hunt pales next to Iraq slaughter: senator

Also See:

Seal Hunt Articles 2006

Seal Hunt Articles 2005:

Green Opportunism

Green Party Seal Hunt Flippers

SEAL HUNT DEJA VU

Did Viagra impact the Seal Hunt

A Rational Observation on the Seal Hunt


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V for Anarchy

V for Vendetta is out today, not Guy Fawkes Day but not far off, as it is Saint Paddy's day.

And the links between V and the IRA struggle back in 1916, could be made.

As could links to the current State of Terror that we are facing with our new Security States. Those in power who claim that we are under attack and thus must give up our civil liberties for the good of the State.

Now while this V guy is kinda of violent, he is the opposite of our poor Windsor Smith in 1984. Servility or Liberty.

“The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants. It is its natural manure.” Thomas Jefferson

Which makes this review from CTV all the more interesting in that it is well balanced.

At the center of the story is the mysterious V, (Hugo Weaving, The Matrix, Lord of the Rings) a Guy Fawkes mask wearing anarchist who saves a woman named Evey from being raped by state police. After their chance encounter, V inspires her to join his crusade to restore civil liberties through acts of terrorism.

"It's less of a message and more of a question which is 'when if ever is violence justified'? And you can say that there are certain situations when it is justified," Natalie Portman, who plays Evey, told eTalk.

Vendetta explores the idea that one person's terrorist may be another person's freedom fighter.

The debate over the politics of the deed versus mass mobilizations will be taken up again as they did over the Black Bloc.Already some anarchists are planning to leaflet the movie to use it as a chance to clarify that Anarchy really is. Good on them. It will help counter the Anarchist as Terrorist mythology.

THE TERROR LAST TIME
New Yorker, United States - 5 Mar 2006
... When the war was over, his politics shifted. ... Merely by virtue of what the Haymarket eight had said and written about anarchism and dynamite, they were ...

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May 68 Redux

The streets of Paris have ignited in days of rage as students strike against the new employment laws. Reminding us once again of the Paris Maydays of 68. Complete with cops attacking protesters. It's a Flashback; Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose.

About 250,000 students took to the streets of major cities. Some wore black garbage bags to symbolise their charge that the Government treats young people as disposable workers.The student rallies have worried the Government because of their rapid spread, the threat of participation by trade unions and the historical power of students in France. A student protest that began at the Sorbonne in 1968 led to the resignation of the President, Charles de Gaulle.

France's newly passed labour law

Due to come into effect next month, it will make it easier to hire and fire young people at a time when the youth unemployment rate averages 23 per cent.

The protesters' anger focuses on provisions that will allow companies to fire employees under 26 at any time during their first two years of work, without cause.

"They're offering us nothing but slavery," said Maud Pottier, 17, a student at Jules Verne High School in Sartrouville, north of Paris.

"You'll get a job knowing that you've got to do every single thing they ask you to do because otherwise you may get sacked. I'd rather spend more time looking for a job and get a real one."

Business leaders complain that existing French labour laws make it virtually impossible to dismiss incompetent employees without giving them prohibitively costly severance package

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Philosophy Update

I have updated links in my blog article; A Philosophical Dilemma

I have included a link to Tony Negri's work on Spinoza; The Savage Anomaly
THE POWER OF SPINOZA'S METAPHYSICS AND POLITICS

This is an online edition of the full length book.

As well I have included a link to Eric Hollands article Spinoza and Marxism. Enjoy.



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Dimiti Shostakovich 1906-2006

It is the hundredth birthday of the Russian avante-garde/modernist composer Dimitri Shostakovich.

His work was always heroic, some say bombastic. It was played by the orchestra in Stalingrad as the Germans advanced, and Shostakovich himself composed during the seige of Lenningrad.

The Leningrad Blockade Museum

September 16, 1941

"An hour ago I finished the score for the two movements of a large symphonic composition.

If I succeed in bringing it off, that is if I manage to finish the third and the fourth movements, I'll be able to call the work the Seventh Symphony.

Why am I telling you this?

I am telling you this to show that life in our city is normal.

We are all at our battle stations.

Soviet musicians, my dear numberless comrades in arms, my friends!

Remember, our art is in peril. So let us defend our music, let us work honestly and selflessly!"

Dmitry Shostakovich, speaking in a Leningrad Radio broadcast

His work was critical of the Stalinist regime while a paen to the revolutionary struggles of 1905 and 1917. The hero in his music was not an individual but the people and their struggles. His music ironically spoke to the soul of the listener. His is the voice of the dialectic, the struggle of humanity is also the struggle of the individual. He remains a major Socialist voice in modern music.

He was trashed in the West during the Cold War as a Stalinist hack. Without regard for the rigours of trying to remain within that regime while existing with personal and musical integrity.

As in death, he was fated to be at the heart of controversy during his life. However, if, during the Thirties and Fifties, Shostakovich was subjected to so-called 'right-wing' criticism from official circles professing the most reactionary conservatism, today he often becomes the target of attacks from the 'left', either from those post-war avant-garde adepts who see him as a traditionalist, or from 'truth lovers' bitten by the bug of unmasking, who smirk at his imagined conformity. Today it is very easy to be more Catholic than the Pope. It is more difficult to find what can be called the historical ear -- something that anyone who has pretensions to the title of music historian or music theorist should actually possess. Naturally, it is naive to expect younger generations to be informed of the social experience of the previous generations, for they will never be able to bridge this gap. They hear and see the recent past differently from those who experienced it, and that is not in the least surprising. Nevertheless, those who study the art of the past ought at least to try to correlate it with what used to be social practice during that time. The lack, among the young, of personal knowledge of these matters can be compensated by the study of historical facts and, naturally, as far as possible, by their correct interpretation. Otherwise, distortions -- or, at the least, superficial judgements -- will become etched in stone. To restore the historical truth and take a fresh look at Shostakovich's work are endeavors that are equally imperative today.

Shostakovich was an artist with a complex and tragicfate. Persecuted for almost his entire life and almost sharing the fate of Meyerhold, Mandel'shtam, and [the writer Varlam] Shalamov, he courageously endured hounding and persecution for the sake of what was most important in his life: his art. Occasionally, however, during the most complex conditions of political repression, he had to manoeuver. Without this manoeuvering, there would have been no Shostakovich art at all. Many of those who had started with him perished, while many others were brought to their knees. He survived and persevered, endured everything and, in the end, fulfilled his calling. And we can only bow before his fortitude and steadfastness.

What is important is not only how he is perceived and listened to today, but also who he was for his contemporaries. For those who listened attentively to his strong voice, filled with anxiety and, at times, breaking with despair, Shostakovich became a crucial symbol of intellectual integrity. For many years his music remained a safety valve which, for a few short hours, allowed listeners to expand their chests and breathe freely. At the time, his music was that truly indispensable lungful of freedom and dissidence, not only in its content, but also -- which is no less important -- in its musical form. However, first and foremost, we were grateful to Shostakovich for the fact that during those precious minutes of communion with his music, we were free to remain ourselves -- or, perhaps, to revert to ourselves. The sound of Shostakovich's music was not only always a celebration of high art, but also an interlude of truth. Those who knew how to listen to his music would take it away with them from the concert hall. His music became an emblem of spiritual experience and of hope for the future. It can be said, without exaggerating, that Shostakovich was the authentic conscience of his time. I would suggest that it is our task to carry over that understanding of his work into the present and to instill it into the coming generations of musicians and listeners.

The Dissident
Mark Aranovsky's introductory article in the Shostakovich issue
of Muzykal'naya Akademiya, Winter 1997

COMPOSITIONS by DMITRI SHOSTAKOVICH Internet Edition compiled by Onno van Rijen


Listen to: Written With The Heart's Blood

The five parts of Quartet No. 8 depict significant moments -- both positive and negative -- in the composer's life. The piece is dominated by the repeated use of Shostakovich's musical "signature" of D, E flat, C, and B. This recurring motif both binds the piece together and gives it an oppressive, almost inescapable quality. In the second movement (Allegro Molto, featured here as arranged by Barshai for the New Century Chamber Orchestra), the relentless repetition conjures images of prison or endless pursuit: the strings race around each other with a manic urgency, swelling and spreading until they form a seemingly inescapable web. The piece's breathless, unsettling quality influenced both the work of Bernard Hermann, who composed the music for Psycho, and the band Faith No More, who sampled it in "Malpractice," on their 1992 album Angel Dust.

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A little taste

"Wow you are right Hamid that opium is great, thanks for the taste."

"Yep Stephen it gives you something to smile about."

"Better than Timmies."

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Seal Hunt Disinformation

A debate yesterday on Mike Duffy live between the advocate of a ban on seal hunting, and a Senator from the Rock (Newfoundland).

No matter how often the Senator tried to convince Duff and the anti-sealing advocate that clubbing baby seals does not happen, it was blissfully ignored. The hunt is not for babies. Killing baby harp seals has been illegal since 1987.

Yep never let the 'facts' get in the way of propaganda, since of course this IS NOT ABOUT SEALS. Its about the annual fundraising drive for Green NGO's. How many times do I have to say this?

Well until the deaf grow ears I guess. Besides think of all that Green Anti-Sealing propaganda that would have to be changed. Yet you still see this everywhere;



Which is a baby seal. Not a Harp seal, a white coat. And the hunt on them has been banned since 1987, and skinning seals alive, which is another piece of this propaganda, is also banned.

And this is the image of the hunt that is still used by those who want to foist their morality on fishers on the Rock.

And that's what it's about. It's not about the seals being endagered, its about the morality of the hunt. Its linked in many cases to the Animal Rights movement which is not about animals but about the moral superiority of the vegan diet.

Of course with the usual stars arriving on the ice flows to continue the propaganda campaign, like the McCartney's and Bridgette Bardot, folks on the Rock are getting a bit upset. Not only Senators and the Premier but ordinary bloggers. Which leads some of them to start their own campaigns. Like this one;





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Deja Vu

Wait a minute this isn't new, or news, this is the same policy that led to the invasion of Iraq.

US document cites Iran ‘confrontation’
Deccan Herald - 1 hour ago
A new US national security strategy document warns of a possible “confrontation” with Iran if “diplomatic efforts” fail to pressure Tehran to give up its aspirations to develop nuclear weapons. Preemption remains US policy option


Also See: Making Iran Nervous


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Iraqi Distraction

When you get bad news;

Like the lowest poll numbers ever, for both your Presidency and your private war.

The folks that are supposed to govern Iraq meet for for less than an hour and adjourns.34 Iraqis Killed, Sectarian Parliament Meets for Just 30 Minutes

Your allies the Brits announce they are withdrawing 10% of their troops.

The leader you have deposed is calling on his people to end sectarian violence and unite against you. Saddam Urges Iraqis to Unite Against GIs

The people you were supposed to liberate burn down a monument to the masacre of their relatives because they still don't have housing, water or electricity, Kurds attack Halabja memorial and govt offices

And you want to let folks think that all is going well, than make a big announcement about a standard training mission for the Iraqi Army. Don't include the press, and you create a distraction from a bad news week.

Which is what this is all about; US launches major air assault in Iraq


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Nosferatu Fortier

The saying goes is that the Red House, the Senate is where the dead play.

Hmmm perhaps this is why the Harpocrite's newly appointed Conservative Senator Michael Fortier looks like Nosferatu.

See: Abolish the Senate






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