HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Citizen, 2012-03-22, Page 5THE CITIZEN, THURSDAY, MARCH 22, 2012. PAGE 5.
Ihave just come back from Ho Chi Minh
City where I have seen many amazing
things, including Ho Chi Minh himself.
What’s left of Uncle Ho (his mummified
corpse) reposes on display in a gargantuan,
graceless mausoleum in the centre of the city.
I saw other amazing things – pagodas, sacred
caves, water buffalo placidly plodding through
rice paddies, sylphlike sampans, graceful as
eyelashes, skimming the surface of canals and
rivers…
But I think the most amazing thing I saw in
Ho Chi Minh City was motorbikes.
Motorbikes are to the Vietnamese today what
the automobile was to North Americans in the
1950s. Times 10.
In Saigon alone (nobody other than
government flunkies call it Ho Chi Minh City)
there are four million motorbikes. That is not a
misprint. Four million. Virtually every Saigon
family owns at least one. It functions as the
family station wagon does for us. Again –
times 10.
It is not uncommon to see a family of five on
one motorbike, the youngest wedged between
the handlebars, the rest hanging on anyway
they can. It is also not uncommon to see
motorbikes carrying multiple bags of animal
feed, freakishly high tiers of lumber, a
refrigerator (I’m not making this up), 20-foot
stepladders, butchered hogs, mattresses,
aluminum doors, toilet bowls…
And – Culture Shock 101 – crates stuffed
with live animals – including puppies.
Saw this myself from a bus outside Hue – a
little Honda putt-putting along, one rider, with
a dozen wooden crates full of what looked like
Akitas or Huskies, weaned, maybe three
months old, lashed down and teetering behind
him.
And you just know they weren’t heading
for the Hanoi Obedience and Agility Dog
Trials.
Unpalatable fact: South East Asians eat
dog – or some of them do. It’s an old
tradition bound up with beliefs about the
merits of dog meat as an energy booster and an
aphrodisiac.
The natives are aware that canine entrees on
the menu would make tourists nervous if not
hysterical, so you don’t see escalope de poodle
or barbecued border collie advertised but if
you go to an obscure Thai or Vietnamese
restaurant that caters to locals you might come
across a dish called, ironically enough ‘pad
krapaw’.
That’s um, stir-fried dog meat with basil
leaves.
Eating dog meat is, I’m delighted to report,
a disappearing feature of Southeast Asian life.
It’s a cuisine phenomenon mostly restricted to
working class clientele. Kids in school are
being taught that it’s not cool to eat pets – and
in any case it’s relatively expensive, dogs
being rarer than carp or chickens.
Did I try it? Get serious. I’m a bourgeois
North American geezer. I’m so reactionary I
seldom even buy sushi – unless I’m fishing
and I run out of bait.
Besides, I knew if I indulged I would have to
avoid eye contact forever with a Bearded
Collie and a Golden Retriever/Border Collie
cross back home.
Still I didn’t raise a fuss when I saw
unfamiliar, possibly pooch-oriented entrees on
the odd South East Asian menus. Wouldn’t do
for me as a Canadian to get too holier-than-
thou over animal cruelty. I remember two
other times when I saw cages of animals
crammed together and stacked in tiers.
In one case the cages were stuffed with
battery hens on a ‘factory farm’ in southern
Ontario; the other time was a barnyard
crammed with tiny, windowless plastic cubes
on a farm near Vancouver. The cubes were
the only home that veal calves, brusquely
separated from their mamas, would ever
know.
South East Asians can’t teach North
Americans much about cruelty to animals.
Arthur
Black
Other Views In Vietnam, don’t order the mutt-on
One thing that you learn as you grow
older, at least I have, is that everyone
has their own unique set of problems.
Everyone has a past they don’t share with the
world and incidents where they’ve been adrift
and alone left to choose between sinking or
swimming. (Graphic details to follow.)
Last week in a London courtroom Terri-
Lynne McClintic admitted that she struck
eight-year-old Tori Stafford in the head several
times with both sides of a claw hammer
causing massive head trauma and killing the
young girl back in 2009. This flew in the face
of the popular public opinion that it was
McClintic’s boyfriend Michael Rafferty,
currently on trial now in London, who had
physically killed Stafford, not McClintic.
The Canadian Press reported that March 13
McClintic testified to seeing Rafferty sexually
assault Stafford in his Honda Civic before
tossing her to the ground outside of the vehicle
when he finished with her.
In the next part of the story, McClintic
testified that her own troubled childhood, full
of abuse and violence, played a vital role in her
decision to wield the hammer and end a
beautiful, innocent and promising life.
The Canadian Press report goes on to state
that as Stafford lay on the ground, McClintic
decided “something had to be done” and she
began kicking the eight-year-old girl, as she
lay wearing only a t-shirt. Following this,
McClintic said a bag was placed over the
child’s head before she used the hammer to
strike the Grade 3 student’s head several times.
In court on March 13 McClintic said that
pent-up rage from years of childhood trauma
caused the then-18-year-old girl to
inexplicably do what she did to Stafford.
“All I saw was myself when I was that age,
and all the anger and hate and rage that I had
and blame that I had built up towards myself
came boiling up out of me,” she testified
according to The Canadian Press. “I went back
to the vehicle and I savagely murdered that
little girl.”
McClintic already pled guilty to first degree
murder in 2010 and is serving a life sentence.
I may not understand exactly how
McClintic’s brain operates, but the “cause” of
this violence has left me lost and confused. If
perhaps she saw some of her younger self in
Stafford, having experienced abuse herself,
wouldn’t it be Rafferty who would be the target
of her pent-up anger? Wouldn’t she want to
help the young girl out of the situation?
I have made no secret of the fact that I
cannot stand people blaming someone else for
their problems. It is my biggest pet peeve.
Something is always someone else’s fault in
today’s world.
To contrast McClintic’s testimony, this
week’s From The Minister’s Study, Pastor
Mark Royall says the greatest gift we can give
to one another is born out of the pain we’ve
endured.
“There are people right now who are where
you were a year ago and who would benefit
greatly by having someone like you walk with
them where you once walked so they can get to
where you are,” Royall says.
So what was it? Perhaps it was the drugs?
Perhaps it was the bad childhood? But by her
own admission, McClintic was drowning in a
sea of self-loathing and hatred.
So what did she do? She didn’t choose to
swim. She didn’t choose to shout for a life
preserver. She chose to take the closest,
innocent person down with her, which is
slowly becoming an acceptable way to deal
with a sub-par childhood.
Sink or swim
Jermaine Jones: do you know the name?
You probably shouldn’t. He’s a contestant
on the newest iteration of American Idol
and, to be honest, I really don’t condone
watching the show.
If you have to watch a reality television
show with judges try something like America’s
Got Talent, at least the comedy there is
intended.
Apparently, Jones was, for one reason or
another, brought back to the show after being
eliminated. However the “Gentle Giant”, as
host Ryan Seacrest calls him, looks like he will
be facing elimination again and it has nothing
to do with his talent (or his large stature).
In this world of squeaky-clean pop-stars
being forgiven and given a second chance for
hitting the drugs and the booze and shaving
their heads and... well, doing everything that
we’ve been told not to by our parents and after
school specials, it appears that there is no
forgiveness for Jones who apparently wasn’t
forthcoming with the fact that he has a bit of a
criminal record for assault and several other
charges including providing a false name to
the police.
I find this to be absolutely ridiculous.
A quick discussion with my editor Shawn
highlights that, without thinking too hard, we
can name several artists, both past and present,
who have rap sheets larger than a pterodactyl’s
wing span.
Those artists include Chris Brown who
assaulted fellow artist and love interest and (if
the tabloids are to be believed) future wife
Rihanna.
Jones isn’t the first contestant to be
disqualified and likely won’t be the last
(unfortunately the show has probably got a
few seasons left before Fox goes back to When
Wild Animals, Vehicles, Police Chases and
Children Attack, Charge, Blow Up, Go Wrong,
Assault, etc.
However, it is reported that a criminal record
does disqualify contestants so I guess that
means that the creators of American Idol, or
just the bigwigs at Fox are within their rights.
What really seems ridiculous, however, is
the fact that two of the three judges of the
show have sordid pasts; Jennifer Lopez was
arrested with then-romantic-interest Sean John
“Puff Daddy” Combs (or P. Diddy, or Puffy or
Puff or... whatever, talk about providing false
names) was linked to a shootout and found in
possession of a firearm and Steven Tyler may
have recently had previous drug charges
expunged from his record but that doesn’t
change the fact he has been to rehab (at least)
twice.
The only one with a clean nose (no pun
intended) is Randy Jackson.
Heck, one of the most influential bands ever
(and no one can argue that regardless of their
taste in music), The Beatles have a sordid
history. Arrest reports against John Lennon
and George Harrison were even put up for
auction in late-2009 related to drug charges.
(Interestingly enough, the arresting officer,
Detective Sergeant Norman Pilcher, was well-
known for targetting musicians like the
Beatles and also arrested Mick Jagger of The
Rolling Stones).
Some even claim that artists who imbibe
illegal substances tap into creativity they
didn’t know they were capable of.
Of course given that most commercially
successful musical acts don’t write their own
material anymore, expanding creative abilities
may be a bit of a moot point.
Dozens of musicians have criminal records
and we don’t scorn them (or forget why we
were scorning them when their album drops):
• Jagger and his friend Keith Richards were
reportedly heavy drug users and have the
records to prove it and yet we don’t condemn
them. Most people celebrate them and their
music.
• R. Kelly, a popular rhythm and blues artist
faced 14 charges related to having intercourse
with a minor and child pornography.
• Grammy award-winning Lil’ Kim spent a
year in prison for charges related to drug
possession, perjury and conspiracy.
• Ozzy Osbourne has been arrested multiple
times for urinating on the Alamo, public
intoxication and, when violently drunk,
allegedly attempting to murder his wife
Sharon and all that happened before he was
given a television show to show how wild and
zany his home life is.
• Vanilla Ice was arrested for assaulting his
wife and served two years probation.
• He may be a metaphor for change, but 50
Cent fits right in with this list as he pled guilty
to selling heroin and cocaine when he was 19
and later was charged with battery and assault.
• Axl Rose, lead singer of Guns ’N Roses
(and one of my favourite bands, I love Use
Your Illusion) has been arrested more than 30
times including assaulting a security guard in
Sweden... with his teeth.
• Marilyn Manson, whether you love him or
hate him, is a musician of some talent, was
charged for criminal sexual assault after rub-
bing his groin against a security guard’s head.
• Tommy Lee of Mötley Crüe has seen the
strict side of the legal system when he was
given two years probation for assault.
• Eminem, who has been honoured with
both an Academy Award and several
Grammies has been charged multiple times for
having concealed weapons and assault.
• Lindsay Lohan (and yes, she, and the next
entry, have put out albums) was a sweet child
star before Hollywood got to her. It wasn’t
long before she was arrested multiple times for
cocaine possession, transporting narcotics and
driving under the influence of drugs. She was
also recently allegedly involved in a hit and
run.
• Paris Hilton (don’t groan too loudly) was
arrested for a simple DUI and then broke
probation. Unlike most artists (and I use the
term loosely), the heiress did spend some time
behind bars.
I’m not condoning any of this... except
maybe the Beatles. I am saying if the judges
have criminal histories, how can contestants be
denied entry for the same. Hypocrites.
Shawn
Loughlin
Shawn’s Sense
Denny
Scott
Denny’s Den
Rock stars and criminal records