Dog = Yum

Here is me throwing my hat in the political ring:

Concerning the story all over the news, here is what I think:

1) There are arguments on both sides, and they both bore me.

2) There has been beige racism since the story hit the media.

3) Diasporic cultures still thrive in New Zealand.

And despite all the hoo-rah-rah around this I can't help but conclude:

A man ate his dog... who gives a fuck? Really.

Because:

1) We should be more understanding of other cultures since,

2) the dog was killed humanely and

3) Despite what you hear on talkback I'm sure the majority of NZers don't have knee-jerk emotional reactions to such stories, despite how icky eating dog might seem.

Can we get back to real issues now?

Don't Pin It On Us

I'm finding the media commentary surrounding Micahel Jackson's death a little audacious. Reporting from a helicopter Emma Murphy comments:

"Neverland was built as a magical escape from the realities of life, but it's now in tatty disrepair. It seems to reflect the decline in Jackson's fortunes and his very public fall from favour"

I'm sorry Emma, but I believe the tidal wave of sorrow and grief after Jackson's death shows that Jackson never truly lost public support. If anything, it was the story-thirsty media that hooked onto Jackson's public stature like a bear-trap during his child molestation allegations and court hearings, and milked it for everything it was worth to win a share of public interest. It was the news and tabloid publications that Jackson fell out of favour with. Not the people.

Is the media, which so brutally tortured Jackson for his entire life with postive and harmfully negative press, now trying to save face in wake of his death, and in the face of such public support for the pop star? It seems so, and their efforts are making them look horribly hypocritical.

The frenzy around the allegations against Michael have become so blurred in history that it is easy to think the people disowned their favourite son. But the trail of blood leads directly to one source, and journalists such as Murphy seem to be looking very flushed. The media should be ashamed for the way it treated Jackson, and I'm sorry, but they're not going to pin this one on the public. It is clear how much people loved him.

I always love it when the media are caught off guard.

EDIT: Note that in that story, even in death Jackson continues to get negative press. His quirky Neverland might be destroying rural communities now!

Animal Rights

There is a difference between recognising the rights of animals and upholding them. The case of a puppy Jack Russell which was murdered by nineteen year old Jeffrey Hurring, after first being no less than tortured is a fine example of this. Hurring has finally been sentenced to a year in jail after his truly hideous actions.

The NZ Herald reports:

"Hurring admitted killing the dog, named Diesel and owned by a friend, by first trying to strangle it using a chain, his hands and his feet.When the dog did not die after 30 minutes, he poured petrol down its throat, stuffed a pillow-case down its throat and finally hit it on the head with a spade.The impact broke the dog's back and jaw, killing it."

The Otago Daily Times says that a former owner 'says she is relieved some justice has been done for a dog that was "a sweetie".'

If one should be 'relieved' that a man has been prosecuted for torturing and murdering a creature that got to experience no more than 18 months on this earth, then perhaps there is something very wrong with our mentality towards animal rights within the law of this country.

Should that have been an eighteen month old human baby that had been strangled for 30 minutes before being forced to chug petrol and having it's head smashed in, the public would be crying 'life'. The maliciousness of the both the person and their actions does not lessen because the victim was not human. A person should not have to be 'relieved' that a criminal was convicted, just because the victim was a dog.

Diesel the Dog

Especially since the case of Diesel a sadly common story. In late 2008 there were two seperate, by spookingly similar cases of dog owners dragging their pets for dozens of metres behind their car. In December a Labrador-Pitbull cross was tethered to a car and dragged for several hundred metres in Napier:

"One hind leg of the suffering animal had been ground down to the bone ... The dog had lost skin from all over its body. The pads of two of its paws had been ripped completely off and large patches of skin on its stomach had been torn away. It had also lost several claws."

During it's treatment, the Pitbull cross - stereotyped as the most vicious breed of dogs - proved to have a wonderful nature, without snarling once during the painful recovery process.

The poor Napier Pitbull Cross

And there have been more, similar cases; one involving a goat, and another a cat (attached to the vehicle by hooks through it's rear legs).

Should we be 'relieved' at Hurring's conviction or should it have been a certainty? I personally hope our perspective of animal rights is not in such poor shape that we believe our courts to see a dog as a mere dog, instead of an objective 'accused and victim' case. I believe the court did well in Hurrings case. One year in jail is a fitting punishment, but considering the horrible nature of the crime it could easily have been much, much more should the victim have been human.

Either way, I believe animal abuse is an understated issue in New Zealand. It is something to keep an eye on.

Let Me Keep Remembering

Re: the fight for Georgie Pie

Yes, to answer the constant pounding of the question I remember Georgie Pie. That is no reason for the revival of its corpse.

I find it fascinating how a simple question can provoke not only a movement but achieve an objective that was never intended. As a part of a youth that is now entering it's 20s and beginning to realise 'we' are not so young anymore, I have witnessed a tidal wave of 'do you remember...?'s from friends and acquaintances. A marker of how we have moved on from our childhood years.

The "Bring Back Georgie Pie" campaign was never a truly a campaign, but a brilliant example of merchandisers hitting a phenomonenal market just before its peak. The slogan we now see brandished on badges, t-shirts, mugs, etc. was meant to be taken no more seriously than the "I Heart Newtown" merchandise is a campaign to make David Bowie play in the Newtown community centre. Rather, this is an identity issue, a tag of belonging, a slice of nostalgia cake for twenty-somethings like myself who are beginning to realise they are not going to be young forever.



Yes, I remember Georgie Pie, I also remember Captain Planet, HotBodz, Eek! The Cat, Squirt TV, and Telethons, and I am quite happy never to see them again. Without pretending to be an expert on the subject, we can assume that Georgie Pie failed for a reason: it sold pies for $1. And the pies were of $1 quality. It easy to think a decade into the future that the Mince and Cheese pies tasted like they had mince from the finest hand raised cows, and cheese churned from the breasts of Venus but, alas, they did not. They tasted like $1 pies.

I have no doubt that should the chain return soon we will witness an initial boom of support and it do quite well to begin with. But the hype will slow down, the nostalgia will diminish, and what then for the fate of dear old Georgie Pie? Get overtaken by McDonalds again? We shall see.

In an age where Michelle Obama is being pumelled in American media as elitist and irresponsible for growing an entirely organic garden, surely there are causes worth fighting for and resurrecting more than a fast food chain. Let's let nostalgia lie in the past, where it is nurtured and beloved.

- C. Gilbert