Ray

Damn youngsters ......

treskillard

Ah Ha, got it. Artemis is really Veggie in disguise and is winding everybody up in order to... err...wind everyone up...because she likes winding people up...ah yes, she is a teacher...finding freedom to express herself on the world wind up web!

It is such a pity that this thread has to end as end it will. Anybody got any views on genetically modified food? I read the French government are considering closing it down but may bow to pressure from the big companies. Britain is being seen as a role model here by many French commentators. Personally I can't stand the idea of it. Seems that food supply is principally a problem of politics and distribution not of production. The main benifit of GMO (genetically modified organisms) to use the French acronym is that they allow for products, that is food and animals, to be copyrighted/patented. Quelle capitalist ploy...

Vive la revolution! Well France did just win, let's revel while we can...

Jorgi

Artemis you seem to have hijacked this thread in order to offend all and sundry. You may remember that I came in to try to lighten a thread which was/is becoming increasingly bitter. Personally I do respect your views and those of others. I am always prepared to listen to reasoned argument but I do take objection to having those views rammed down my throat. I am sure you did not intend to sound that way but,as you can see,others are taking it that way. What you will find is that there is an established right of freedom to hunt in France (And most other countries). I am not entirely thrilled about this but I am, and you will be, a guest in their country. You may find that the"Moral high ground " will collapse under you. "Whinging poms" are not only in Australia. I wish you well and if we do meet I will accord you the same respect as I do to everyone.

treskillard

Dear Jorgi,

This thread raises a number of interesting questions (i) the issue itself; (ii) the vague possibility that Artemis is deliberately winding people up (I make the latter suggestion because I met someone recently who said they participated in forums precisely to do that); (iii) that 'reasoned argument' is of limited value in many contexts!

The wholesale despising that Artemis voices for hunting and hunters and all compromised apologists of hunting is one that I find so much easier to accept and respect when it comes from someone, like you in fact and many people I know, who live out their respect for all sentient life by refraining from ingesting their remains. Why Artemis won't discuss this idea is an interesting question for me. In an earlier post I wondered if this might be a feature of a protestant or more properly puritan cultural milieu: "pleasures of the flesh", hunting, drinking, fornicating to name a few, are to be abhorred and their adherents harshly judged while those who calmly go about God's work, which here seems to be going to the cheese counter, are safe and perhaps saved. The eco-crisis has many resemblances with the Christian end-of-the-world-apocalypse: 'evil' people have brought it about, it can be righted by mass conversion, punishment will follow etc. This is not to say that I don't believe in it, please don't understand that! Rather that there is something here at work that has roots in a long human cycle of self-understanding.

rugbymatt

The French kill the bull too...........

treskillard

Ah yes, but those are the southern French who are of course not as culturally advanced as their northern counterparts (this is sarcasm, or is it irony? or just misplaced? the latter I fear...)

On the Bull fighting note, things are really hotting up here in France and I hear in Spain too concerning its future. I know that when they recently had a Corrida locally to me, there were more protestors at the opening than supporters! At least the newspaper reports made it sound that way, I wasn't there. It is clear that there is increasing pressure for it to be banned here. I read that in Spain the numbers attending the Rings are dimishing and that there are less and less 'heros' to take the place of the famous Torreadors of past years.

Is this the case rugbymatt? How do the Spanish feel about Bull fighting these days?

jdr

Some of the TV channels have dropped it from their programs, as you say it is going out of flavour here.

treskillard

Right I see. I guess that it isn't really the easiest of events to cover on a television anyway. I would imagine it takes a serious set of aficionados to have a sufficient commitment to it for it to make sense on the little screen. I think there has been an actual drop in attendance at bullfights as well, is that right? Do indeed Spaniards like to watch television rather than get hot and emotional at a bullfight? Do you think the British lobby has any impact? Is there a British lobby? Just assumed there was as I recall there was great British outcry at the way donkeys were treated in Spain years ago.

I hold a rather contradictory opinion. While I don't yearn to see bull fighting I do have a sneaking respect for any large scale ceremony for the death of an animal rather than it just getting 'humanely' slaughtered with a bullet to the head in a abattoir.

jdr

I think it is on the wain, but will take years, if ever, for it to completely disappear in Spain.

ANN49

I am seriously impressed at the activity of this forum it is a pleasure to see such interest and indeed diversity. I am hooked.
Ann49
p.s my brother is married to a girl from Ecuador,(I,m not sure of the spelling, but big on bull fighting) rumour has it that one/ two horns on the bull are filed down to disorientate the bull, does anyone know if this is indeed a fact?

treskillard

Not me : but I would doubt it althought there are probably different practices for different audiences and styles or calibres of bull fighting.

jdr

This guy wished they had been filed down.....

treskillard

Ouch! Now what I wonder was that Bull called?

ANN49

Anything he want's, who will argue after all he's made his point
Ann

rugbymatt

Lucky?