Japan, together with a cluster of other countries, has a notorious attitude towards whales. It contually pushes for a return to commercial whaling, albeit "sustainable" whaling (nothing wrong with that you say) and has exploited a loophole in the current anti-whaling moratorium in order to slay whale for "scientific purposes". This wouldn't be so hard to believe if they weren't killing so many and the bounty wasn't turning up in the supermarket as sashimi, in children's school dinners and more recently in dog food.
So I wondered what people around thought about it. And before I got a chance to ask my query was answered. Yesterday I went to my smallest elementary school. Only 4 students, tucked away in the mountains of a dying village. The lesson was days of the week and as there were so few kids we ran through everything really quickly, so we practised new animals and played an extra game. As I showed the kids the new animals I asked them what they were. Some they got ("rabbit!" "Lion!"), some they didn't (zebra, giraffe). Some they guessed at. And the final picture was a picture of a whale. "What's this?" I asked. The kids looked confused. Suddenly the 5th grade boy's eyes lit up. He shouted out his brainwave- "SEAFOOD!". At which point the principal and I fell over laughing.
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I don't know if this is relevant (but it are news), but thought I'd toss it into the mix-- my junior high school mascot was the Whalers. The school was built in the pre-PC 60s, and our sports record boards featured real harpoons framing the lists of speedy students and winning baseball teams over the years. A huge 3-D orca and baby protruded from the gym wall.
At some point after I had moved onto high school (becoming a rape-and-pillage Viking), the PTA got up in arms and the mascot changed to the "Whales". Down went the harpoons, but the orcas stayed. I don't know if it was really any better. Yo' team so fat...
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