The Former Gopher Loafers, Moral Relativism, and Thai Take-aways.
Kate Moss went to Glastonbury in a pair of wellies once; wellies hit centre stage as a fashion accessory and now you can buy spotted wellies, striped wellies, flowery wellies, every sort of wellie you care to mention, ‘cos obviously you couldn’t possibly go to Glastonbury without wellies – that is what they mean by a ‘fashion leader’.
Kate is leading the way in a new fashion now. ‘Stuff dinner’ she said, and the world followed suit.
Not anorexia, but taxidermy. Elle Kaye is giving master classes in oh-so-fashionable Borough in how to strip your dinner (sourced from an ecologically correct free-range ‘wild rabbit’ farm, naturally – ‘wild’, ‘farm’, er?) of its fur coat, and turn it into a heap of cotton wool stuffed rabbit fur whilst its innards slowly simmer on the hob. It’s the new ‘cool’, and the London Taxidermy Academy will gladly teach you the ‘knowledge’. Hurry, the Mouse and Gerbil masterclass has just been reduced to £60, it’s on special offer…
A special mention is due for the enterprising husband who commissioned Elle to turn the family’s pet gophers into a pair of slippers for his (presumably) size 3 footed wife…now there’s a Christmas present to remember.
And why not? Did you love, tend and feed that back leg of a cow currently adorning your left foot? No, well pipe down then.
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Hen Party racing – no artificial enhancement…
Talking of free range, a mention for free range hens. We pay eggstra for their eggs, we extoll the virtues of letting them run around – so why the disquiet over an ancient British tradition – that of ‘Chicken Racing’? There were dark mutterings of fowl play at the 25th Annual World Championship Hen Racing event on Saturday. Not all amateurs it appears. The poultry park ferme lauded a three year old Rhode Island Red called Road Runner; a steward’s inquiry is underway, it seems that professional enhancement might have been utilised. It’s called ‘positive behaviour enhancement’, something that has long been used on humans, but is to be despised when applied to Henrietta.
Why not Hen Party racing? Just put that worm in a bottle of Tequilla and they’re off…
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We don’t like Puppy Farms either; we like an individual breeder, preferably one with well cared for pets of her own. We wait expectantly for the birthing day, and then we go along and pick out of the litter the one with the brightest eyes, the cutest markings, the loudest bark; pay the bill and off we go – dog and happy owner, basking in the praise accorded to the owner of a sleek pedigree dog. Do we give a thought to the trauma suffered by Bonzo”s brothers and sisters at being parted? Do we agonise over the runt of the litter? Nope.
Yet transfer the process to humans (and I have yet to hear anyone refer to ‘sanctity of life’ as being ‘sanctity of human life’) and we have international outrage.
Pattaramon Chanbua is the Thai girl who belongs to that breed described as ‘selfless women bringing hope to the childless’. She was hired as a baby breeder by an Australian couple for £8,000. She had two kids of her own, so they knew she could produce a good litter. None the less, they insisted on a scan at four months – pretty much the same process we apply to sheep. One of the litter was noted to be sub-standard, and Pattaramon was commanded to abort that foetus. ‘Nope’ she said, ‘I might sell children to unknown foreigners that I’ve never even met, but I don’t kill them, one has standards you know’.
‘OK, have it your way’, said the Australian couple – but when birthing day came around, they picked the one with the brightest eyes, the cutest markings, and left Pattaramon with the runt of the litter. The world is outraged.
‘The world’ has raised £100,000, in order to give baby-reject the medical treatment that Down’s children across the world all urgently need – but don’t get. The world ‘is appalled’; not that a married woman with two children should think it reasonable to raise a litter for unknown foreigners just for the moolah (we’ll have no emotive guff about ‘my sister couldn’t have children’ or ‘my selfless Mother’); nor that it is common practice to quietly abort a baby on the grounds of Down’s syndrome; nope, the world is appalled that two people paid to have what they wanted from someone who was prepared to give them what they wanted for the cash and then didn’t take the runt of the litter into the bargain.
How appalled would ‘the world’ have been if the Australian couple had said ‘Goody, we’ll take the Down’s syndrome one, a lifetime of social security benefits ahead of us’ – and left Pattaramon with the ‘perfect’ kid. Would we be hearing of how ‘truly dreadful’ it was to split the litter up then? How ‘appalled’ would the world have been had Pattaramon agreed to that abortion?
India provides residential hostels where white eggs can be fertilised by white sperm and incubated in ‘disease-free, psychiatrically tested’ dark skinned Indian girls for eventual delivery to California’s new breed of ‘gay marrieds’ who naturally can’t have children, no matter how many laws we change. But we don’t turn a hair at these baby farms.
Israel, which cheerfully grants citizenship to anybody prepared to prove that they’ve had their penis docked for religious reasons is drawing the line at 65 so far ‘undocked’ Thai babies male-ordered by gay couples in Israel. Their multiple Fathers are organising a ‘Bring Our Babies home‘ demonstration so that they can have a mass genital mutilation ceremony.
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Moral relativism, it’s a minefield isn’t it?
- Moor Larkin
August 4, 2014 at 10:47 am -
If I hadn’t read it here, I’d never have believed it.
- Fat Steve
August 4, 2014 at 10:47 am -
Gosh Anna Monday mornings are hard enough without you depressing me further by drawing attention to my failings as a human being !!! I’m off to race my pigeons —first one home gains immortality by being stuffed and perching for all eternity above my computer screen and has the honour of being turned into Pigioneau au Fermier (spelling?) for supper this evening—there !!!!—- I am finally I am on my way to the modern world and all I need to complete the perfect picture of happiness is a boyfriend and enough money for a surrogate mother and the mohel. Gosh once again and as always I am grateful for the guidance on how to live a moral life
- Ho Hum
August 4, 2014 at 11:29 am -
Poor kids. With immoral relatives like those…..
- Moor Larkin
August 4, 2014 at 11:37 am -
I recall that when I was reading this the other week, I was pondering that there may be the beginnings of a way to finally nail the Nature v Nurture debate: http://www.today.com/parents/viral-photo-two-dads-meeting-baby-touches-hearts-1D79899365
- Dioclese
August 4, 2014 at 12:29 pm -
Interesting that the refusal to abort never made the initial news story isn’t it?
I have no problem with what the Aussie couple did other than that I would make surrogacy illegal across the world. One wonders why they didn’t get an Australian girl to carry the baby in Australia. Illegal? Immoral? Maybe just plain cheaper?
And how did this story break anyway? Did the girl sell it to the press to make loads more money? If so, it’s worked. In spades…
- Mrs Grimble
August 4, 2014 at 3:20 pm -
Illegal – Australian law forbids commercial surrogacy. Since there are very few Australian women prepared to be surrogates for no more than expenses, most couples go to countries like Thailand where commercial surrogacy is a flourishing business, operated by agencies. It’s been going on for years, so I’d have thought that the standard agency contract would fully cover this sort of situation.
- Mrs Grimble
- EyesWideShut
August 4, 2014 at 1:21 pm -
Marx put it best (I know that will get some people’s danders up on here, but what the heck)
“All fixed, fast-frozen relations, with their train of ancient and venerable prejudices and opinions, are swept away, all new-formed ones become antiquated before they can ossify. All that is solid melts into air, all that is holy is profaned, and man is at last compelled to face with sober senses his, real conditions of life, and his relations with his kind.”
Or if you don’t like that, how about:
“You pays your money, you takes your choice.”
Welcome to the wonderful world of neo-Liberalism.
- C H Ingoldby
August 4, 2014 at 1:29 pm -
I admit that when I hear about this, I did wonder if that Thai woman was going to name the child ‘meal ticket’.
- Mrs Grimble
August 4, 2014 at 3:11 pm -
“meal ticket”? I can take it you don’t have experience of raising a Downs child?
Although I am slightly sceptical about the woman’s account – I’d like to see proof of her story that she’s a surrogate – I certainly don’t begrudge anybody with a disabled child getting some money. Especially when that child needs extremely expensive medical treatment just to stay alive.- Moor Larkin
August 5, 2014 at 10:39 am -
According the Metro this morning, the Aussie couple are denying even knowing there was a twin. According to the same report, it’s a Downs Syndrome child so will not need any special medical treatment, just a lifelong commitment. What did the car stickers used to say about “not just for Christmas” ?
- Moor Larkin
- Mrs Grimble
- Ancient+Tattered Airman
August 4, 2014 at 8:33 pm -
Thinking about all this moral relativism makes my brain ache. Sophistry has been carried to even further lunacy than most of us air breathing terrestrial carbon based land mammals can imagine. This is progress for the human condition?
- Backwoodsman
August 5, 2014 at 7:45 am -
God, what a depressing contrast to Gildas”s wonderfully moving introduction to Cat. I must confess to prefering my canine friends to most people I come into contact with.
- Ms Mildred
August 5, 2014 at 10:09 am -
l wonder how we can stand all this bad news about human frailties that is constantly served at us? We used to have to worry about where our next root or berry or seed was to be grovelled for, and if the sabre toothed tiger down the track would pounce on us. Get back home and find a bear in our cave. Now we are expected to worry for the whole world. I always thought Bali was an idyllic place. Now I know better after reading about their notorious prison where even the guards deal drugs, then bully someone serving many filthy, corrupting years for dealing ecstacy. Relieve the stress from that by reading about a lovely English lady fashion writer living in France. She walked a little black dog called Biff for friends and fell for him, and he for her. Line dancing with lively ex pats and pondering on the men not in her life. The prof who invented IVF, so I understand, has uneasy thoughts about the selfish creativity of dubious uses of his creation. Good use, bad use. Same with most technology. Someone will hack, troll, cheat, subvert the use for their own ends.
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