Golly.

[pyat]

If you had not heard, Canada's ceremonial head of state, the Right Honourable Michaëlle Jean, did a very interesting thing this past week. WHile visiting Rankin Inlet, Nunavut, she helped skin a dead seal. She then ate some of its uncooked flesh, specifically requesting a bite of the heart.


Whatever your feelings on the annual seal hunt, I have to admire her for so boldly stepping outside of the diplomatic, political sphere when responding to the matter. One US columnist compared her to Sarah Palin, which immediately caused a rift in space-time, since Jean is essentially the Anti-Palin in many ways.

Comments

[firesign10.livejournal.com]

I'm kinda "ick" about it! :-)

I love your new icon LOL!!

[madmanofprague.livejournal.com]

QAPLA!

[relee.livejournal.com]

Eeeeeew. XD

I doubt I could even eat a cooked heart, unless it was ground into a fine paste.

[redeem147.livejournal.com]

Beats McDonalds.

[foomf.livejournal.com]

One should only compare any politician to Sarah Palin in order to contrast the politician's good points against the example of what one could be getting instead.

From the context I am guessing that she was visiting with Predecessor Peoples, and was expressing her respect for their culture. With reporters present, this is automatically transformed into a profoundly political thing.

[mrs-dm.livejournal.com]

I once had marinated chicken heart at a barbeque. It was yummy! But, I think it's part of the "do you eat organ meats?" question. I have been known to like steak and kidney pie, and liver and onions. But infrequently, and preferably organic as organ meats can have a lot of cholesterol and pollutants in them.

[mrs-dm.livejournal.com]

You know, I seem to recall our grade 6 class being made to watch movies (from the 1960's) of one of the last truly indigenous peoples in Canada hunt seal and other sea mammals in their traditional way. They really wore animal-skin parkas and spoke no English. Many of us went "eeewww" at the sight of these First Peoples immediately killing, skinning and ripping out the entrails of a seal shortly after pulling it through a hole in the ice. Later, the little Inuit kids played with the inflated bladder.

I wish the teacher would have promoted some discussion, like about the difference between agricultural and hunter-gatherer societies and how the latter are dying out. At any rate, if the sight of people carefully dissecting their raw meal in a gymnasium now grosses people out, there really is a disconnect happening here. Maybe the school board should dust off those old CBC documentaries.

[pyat.livejournal.com]

Or, heck, some footage from a slaughterhouse. I approve of knowing exactly where our meat comes from.

[paka.livejournal.com]

Yeah, but by definition a Canadian politician participating in a seal hunt which provides true benefit to real human beings, and which is there to make sure that the traditions and values of a native culture persist into the future, is a lot different from some Bible-waving American piece of shit wanting to murder animals so that her happy richassed cronies can further exploit the environment and make a bigger boodle.

I'm sorry. Am I a little bit too cranky about the difference in our two countries, and about the difference between Governor Palin and anyone who might be viewed as a decent human being?