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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Citizen, 2010-08-26, Page 5THE CITIZEN, THURSDAY, AUGUST 26, 2010. PAGE 5. Ever heard of The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County? It’s the title of the story that made Mark Twain famous. America’s Dean of Humour wrote it for a weekly paper in 1865 when he was a 30- year-old HumHHHitinerant bumming his way around the American west. It’s a tall tale about an inveterate gambler who’d lay a wager on anything. One day he bets a stranger that his pet frog can jump higher than the stranger’s can. The gambler loses the bet – even though his frog is known as a champion jumper. Why? Because when he wasn’t looking, the stranger poured a quarter pound of lead buckshot down the champion frog’s throat. Lucky for Twain, he wrote that story nearly a century and a half ago. If he published it today he’d be famous all over again, but for all the wrong reasons. He’d be outed on Facebook as a callous enabler and slammed by PETA for cruelty to animals. When it comes to the interaction of people and animals times have changed, as the people of Ailsa Craig could tell you. Although it sounds like the name of an Advice to the Lovelorn columnist, Ailsa Craig is a sleepy little village not far from London, Ontario. Each year at their summer festival Ailsa Craigians sponsor a turtle race. They’ve been doing it for over 30 years. Kids go out and find painted turtles, which, in season, roam freely all over town, take them home and ‘train’ them (it’s like herding tomcats) then enter them in the one day, once-a-year ‘race’at the summer fair. The turtles straggle toward the finish line, a winner is declared then all the turtles are plopped back in the river. “These turtle races are a tradition,” says Laurie Rees, one of the event organizers, “a way for families to get together.” Well, not any more they aren’t. This year the Ministry of Natural Resources informed festival organizers that they were breaking the law. It is illegal to hunt or harbour any wild turtle in Ontario. Draconian? Perhaps not. We humans have grown accustomed to treating the other inhabitants of this orb with a kind of arrogant contempt. We throw baited hooks in the water, blow ducks out of the air, put canaries in cages, blast away at deer and elk and moose and bear and don’t think a whole lot about the morality of it all. I remember seeing some kids in a local park tossing a small grass snake back and forth. I told them to stop. Their mother huffed up, looked at me like I was some kind of sentimental fool and hissed “It’s only a snake!” Which brings us to the Calgary Stampede. Call me unpatriotic, but I don’t get off on this annual spectacle either. Oh, I have no problem with a celebration that encourages city geeks to wear goofy hats, talk like Yosemite Sam and dress up like extras from the Village People, but the animal toll is getting hard to ignore. This year, six horses died. Two had heart attacks, one broke its back during a bucking event, two were so badly injured they had to be euthanized. Last year the death count was three horses and a steer, which suffered a spinal cord injury during a roping competition. Let’s see now: you cattle prod a terrified steer into galloping across a corral, throw a lasso around its neck and yank it to a standstill. Gee, how could anything go wrong? So-called ‘broncos’ and Brahma bulls are encouraged to buck by means of what are euphemistically called ‘flank’ straps, cinched about their guts. Apologists claim the straps don’t bother the beasts, but it’s amazing how placid they become as soon as the straps are loosened. Call me a gay vegetarian metrosexual Commie, but the whole animal- teasing premise doesn’t seem all that far removed from bull-baiting, a 19th century English ‘sport’ in which packs of dogs were turned loose to tear at a tethered bull and much merriment was had by all. Not counting the bull. Times change. About the time this year’s Stampede was winding down, the Spanish region of Catalonia was making history by outlawing bullfighting, an Iberian tradition that dates back to at least the time of the Romans. Which will mean a menu change in some Spanish restaurants I suppose. I heard a story of one American tourist who, while ordering a meal at a plush Madrid restaurant, noticed a nearby diner being served a magnificently garnished dish with two giant meatballs in the center. He asked his waiter what it was. ”Cojones de toro, senor,” he was told. Bulls’ testicles, fresh from the local bullfighting arena and available only after a bullfight. The tourist tries to order, but is told only one dish per bullfight is available. He will have to wait until the following day. The next day he arrives at the restaurant, sits down, knife and fork at the ready. The specialty dish is placed before him, but this time he notices the meatballs are tiny, almost miniscule. He complains to the waiter, who shrugs and says, “Senor, you have to understand…sometimes the bull wins.” Arthur Black Other Views Th-th-th-that’s ball, folks! What a difference a few years can make indeed. Just under four years ago I was sent out to a Huron East Council meeting on my second day as a paid journalist. I didn’t know what to write, I didn’t know the issues and I didn’t know the players. Around that time, I was asked to write a column for the first incarnation of Shawn’s Sense. Because of space requirements not knowing where exactly we would stick it, (the first) Shawn’s Sense only lasted for two weeks. In my first chance to express my opinion in a column, I discussed council meetings, what they meant to me and my views on politics before and after becoming a part of The Citizen. In addition to being 24 years old, many other things from that column have changed as well. I had no interest in politics before taking a position at The Citizen and found the world of rural politics to be fascinating. It’s a world where decisions are made and the public is consulted and a world where politicians’home phone numbers are listed on the municipality’s website. In this same spirit, I remember being struck at how forthcoming most councillors were. Their willingness to speak frankly and speak their minds was not what I was expecting. I go back to something told to me during my last days with Rogers, something that I mentioned in that first column, which was a local politician in Pickering telling me to never trust a politician. He told me that all politicians are dirty and that they would always be nice to me because they need me (the media). The man told me to always dig deeper. And while I’m sure there are plenty of storylines that may never see the light of day, over the years I have found that many area councillors wear their hearts on their sleeves, put in scores of hours of unpaid time and truly care about their community and the people within it and not just about retaining the territory politically. In that first column, I stated that as time went on, the issues took a backseat and it was the people who were the real story, what they did and how they ran the municipality. On that, I was right. As time has gone on, I have seen numerous councillors commit countless hours to various battles, including the Accommodation Review process despite owning their own businesses, having rough waters on the homefront and despite taking on a seemingly-undefeatable opponent in the school board. While some battles may be lost along the way, it is instances like these that make me think we are winning the war, because we have politicians who care about us fighting for our best interests. I have found over the years that some councillors’ best work is done when galleries are empty and this comes from a true commitment to their friends and neighbours, not the idea that the election is the shortest distance to a term of free lunches. So as this fall’s election approaches, I’m reminded of my first few months with The Citizen, covering all-candidates meetings and remembering how confusing and intimidating it all seemed to me as a brand new reporter who was just trying to keep up. As time has passed and I have now covered my first full term as a reporter, I’ve watched veteran politicians decide to hang up their gloves, I’ve watched new politicians learn the ropes and gain confidence and we’ve even lost some councillors along the way. What a difference a few years can make. McGuinty trips on marital arts What a difference... Premier Dalton McGuinty has changed his mind and will allow an alleged “sport” calling itself professional mixed martial arts (MMA) to be staged in Ontario, but it is doubtful he knows quite what he is getting into. The Liberal premier said only six months ago he had no interest in the province legalizing such contests, which consist mainly of muscular young men kicking opponents in the face and punching, kneeing or choking them until they submit or the referee intervenes. He has reversed himself mainly because it will bring his government money to help it through economically difficult times. McGuinty also has been subjected to intense, adroit lobbying by the multimillionaire owners of the so-called sport and their highly paid lobbyists, who never get close enough to the brawling to collect a splash of blood on their expensive suits, but sit back counting the money. MMA is now permitted in many jurisdictions in the United States and Canada and large audiences can see and sadly enjoy it on Pay-Per-View TV in Ontario. Allowing bouts in arenas here will increase its live audiences and boost the profits of hotels, restaurants, bars and stores where it is held and the province will collect more tax, so there is a lot of money in it for McGuinty. The premier said in February allowing mixed martial arts in Ontario is not a priority for him, which should have cooled off most advocates from pressing further. But they persisted and pushed their case steadily, low-key and without rancour. They hired the biggest arena in Toronto to tell news media their athletes are wholesome and virtually boy scouts. The lobbyists managed to get lengthy articles in all four of this city’s major daily newspapers that encouraged the advocates of mixed martial arts, while not actually endorsing legalizing it. The Toronto Star, which editorially opposes legalizing MMA, published a news story saying a study by a university in the United States found 40 per cent of its bouts ended with injuries, but most were minor. The Globe and Mail said “No-one has died in the UFC (Ultimate Fighting Championship, the dominant organization in the sport.) Fighters can honourably surrender by tapping out rather than being beaten into unconscious.” Another Globe article suggested Ontarians should be allowed to watch “grown men kicking, punching and wrestling and generally beating the crap out of each other,” if they want to. Toronto Sun writers have argued permitting MMA would create jobs and pump money into the economy and one declared he is proud to be a supporter of MMA and his paper has become one of its official sponsors. The National Post managed to find a member of one of Canada’s richest families, the Bronfmans, who is so enamoured of mixed martial arts she has built a gym for it in her 10- bedroom mansion. Newspapers here have been exceptionally charitable to MMA, reporting its organizers’ claim there never has been a death in it, but this writer’s research found two fighters have died of injuries in contests staged by MMA- type organizations in recent years. Two of the best-known fighters in UFC history clashed in Vancouver recently and the winner Rich Franklin broke his left arm and the loser Chuck Liddell lay motionless for several minutes before being carried to hospital. In another, heavyweight champion Brock Lesnar was reported by news media as having “turned opponent Frank Mir’s face to mush with nasty ground-and-pound” and added an insult about having sex with his opponent’s wife. Mir was reported as saying he wanted to break Lesnar’s neck in their next fight. Another UFC fighter, Chael Sonnen, boasted he could “drag Anderson Silva (his next opponent) outside the hotel and beat him up any time I want.” These sound the type of people the premier may want to take home to mother. Eric Dowd FFrroomm QQuueeeenn’’ss PPaarrkk Shawn Loughlin SShhaawwnn’’ss SSeennssee Letters Policy The Citizen welcomes letters to the editor. Letters must be signed and should include a daytime telephone number for the purpose of verification only. Letters that are not signed will not be printed. Submissions may be edited for length, clarity and content, using fair comment as our guideline. The Citizen reserves the right to refuse any letter on the basis of unfair bias, prejudice or inaccurate information. As well, letters can only be printed as space allows. Please keep your letters brief and concise.