yokebearer

Jizzmonkey - I realize you are taking the !@#$ but just for interest - Shark Fin soup is actually not an old Chinese tradition at all - it recently developed as a way to show how much $$$ you have. It has virtually nothing to do with the tradition or culture of China.

This is the sad thing - Chinese ancient culture is actually quite refined and respectfull of nature - it has been destroyed and perverted by the communists who have enslaved the billions of peasants and destroyed most of their humanity in the last 50 years. As a result you and I probably know more about Chinese culture than the average Chinese these days.

Sadly all that is left of their famous culture is the cuisine....of which shark fin soup never was a significant part until Rolexes and Mercedes Benzes along with expensive wedding banquets (where the bride wears a white dress and the groom a tuxedo - but lets not go there..) became de rigueur. Its the victory of the tasteless nouveau riche masses more than ancient culture.

The average Hong Konger would like to tell you different - but as I said they know less about their culture than you do probably....

betpump5

Pogie, finally a sensible post on this ridiculous thread. Although I'm surprised it took two pages before someone like you mentioned the absurdity of the tree huggers.

I too am amused at those who will gladly eat steak and other meat products etc but cry at the thought of shark fin, horse meat or any cruelty to animals that may be considered a man's best friend!

N1 Vibes

Pogie,

the point is if human fingers were selling for $100,000 a pop would you cut yours off and then die of septicaemia so the rest of your 'cheap' and 'useless' carcass was left to rot?

Then perhaps you might understand why idiots that pay a fortune for something that is no more 'valuable' or 'useful' to the human race are the real fcukwits here.

And an airline that wastes its resources transporting this around the world in a velvet lined box to people around the world paying thousands of dollars for the 'luxury' are themselves part of the fcukwit culture?

When it ends in the waste of all that protein while people in the world starve - I think so.

Bon Voyage,

N1 Vibes

Pogie

Messiah,

And they're also not used for steaks! LOL! I'm guessing somebody grew up a city boy!

Vibes,

My fingers? Probably not, but I can think of a couple tools that I've worked with that I could stand to make a million dollars each off of.

Wasting resources? Or missed opportunities? I suspect that CX refusing to haul shark fins is more about trying to polish their "image" as a caring airline than it is about standing up to something they believe in. You know as well as I do that the "new Chinese Culture" is all about money, and we capitalize on it every which way we can. Every first class seat sale is an example of that. Is first class really worth twice the price of business, or is just another means for the self-loving to show off their wealth?

Pogie

Anyone who is appalled with the shark fin trade, but gladly eats steaks and pork chops is a hypocrite living in denial in my opinion. Don't agree? I suggest you watch this video:


If the link doesn't work, then search for "slaughterhouse how to kill animals" to see the video.

I grew up on a pig farm, and later a beef cattle farm with a slaughter house next to it. My best friend in grade school lived on a chicken farm, so I spent a fair amount of time working there as well. I've witnessed about half the stuff that you see in the video (gladly not the chicks being thrown into the meat grinder, though -- that's especially nasty!). Unfortunately, it's real, and it's just what happens behind the scenes getting your meat to the grocery store (where your wife picks it up all nicely wrapped in plastic in her SUV.)

Did I like castrating pigs with a pocket knife, or dragging a bawling heifer by a nose-clamp into the blood-soaked kill-room at the slaughter house? Heck no! You'd have to be a cold-hearted psycho to enjoy that, but it was a dirty job that had to be done.

So, excuse me if I roll my eyes when you or Gordon Ramsey protest the shark fin trade while your steak is cooking on the Bar-B!

The Messiah

Well excuse me, beef cows are also not an endangered species

N1 Vibes

Pogie,

as somebody once said - "You can't polish a turd."

BuzzBox

Actually, you can:

spannersatcx

Outrage over Hong Kong's 'shark fin rooftop' - Yahoo! News UK

DUSKY DOG

I take the thread to be more about extinction than human rights.
Lets be realistic, something that's been around for 300 million years is worth preserving,unlike a lot of humans I know that are only 30000years old.No wounder they go around killing each other.
Extinction is forever.