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posted by
davidt
on Monday March 31 2008, @08:00PM
TLM130 sends the link:
Statement from Morrissey - true-to-you.net In late June the Montreal Symphony are hosting a TV Special to salute Buffy Sainte-Marie's 50th year making music. I am honored to be asked to take part. I first bought a Buffy Sainte-Marie record when I was 12, and her music has always remained with me. In the 1960s, as a political activist, Buffy's lyrics were fearless, and I'm very grateful for all the risks that she took. I am also pleased to be asked to join the bill at the V Festival at the Thunderbird Stadium in Vancouver, and also at Fort Calgary in Calgary. However, as we all know, the psychologically and constitutionally sickening Canadian seal-kill has started and is once again in full-cry. The horror of the Canadian seal-kill is untranslatable, and although I fully realize that highly concentrated evil exists in other countries - Japan's dolphin slaughter, Iceland's newly-revived whaling, the cat-skinning trade in Switzerland, and China with just about every injustice imaginable - there is something especially menacing about Canada's seal-kill. Loyola Sullivan (Canada's Ambassador for Fisheries Conservation) is a man of glacial coldness who claims that the seal-kill is "humane" - a view he might alter if his own skull were cracked open with a spiked axe. The fact that the seal-kill provides a livelihood for fishermen is an insultingly dim excuse for it to take place - after all, the German gas chambers of World War 2 also provided work for someone. The seal-kill takes place to satisfy greed for fur-pelts, and this Canadian government is happy to drag the global image of its own country down, and make it a place that people such as I couldn't bear to visit.
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So.. (Score:0)
That's really lame (Score:0)
Suffer little fans (Score:0)
We HATE It When Our Friends Become Seal-Clubbers! (Score:1)
Fact is, some are aware of it and some are not. It is not because we are igonrant. Moz is being a little ignorant here...come to Canada and raise awareness if you are so passionate about it!
To be fair, he hasn't ruled out these shows. Is "coming to visit" different from "coming to do some gigs"?
There was a point in my life where listening to The Smiths/ Moz made one a bit of an outsider or because one didn't quite 'fit in' or whatever - chicken or the egg? It was great going to shows and being part of a terrific community united to celebrate Morrissey's wit, music, humour and presence.
Now we're (Canadian fans) being continually alienated by someone that we once found sympathetic. Morrissey has become one of his headmasters.
Now, if I get the chance to see Morrissey, it will be to be entertained by his arrogance and the WORST part is I'll probably have to drive to the dreadful UNITED STATES to see it.
VS.
(User #8425 Info)
Oh, push off. (Score:0)
The seal hunt is thousands of kilometers from where I live, and even further from my life. If you feel you need to alienate us Morrissey, then go right ahead. There are plenty of bands right here in Canada that I'll spend my money on. They are writing songs that are more relevant to my life then anything you have done in the recent past.
Bull fighting (Score:0)
sad.. (Score:0)
i'd like to see mozzer put is money where is mouth is and do a proper cross canada tour with part of the proceeds going to animal rights groups to fight for the cause.
instead he'd rather tour all over the USA where troops are killing people everyday overseas and their president is the biggest wanker alive.
I too shall boycott! (Score:1)
(User #36 Info)
It's his choice... and not a bad one at that! (Score:1)
(User #20478 Info | http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=suparni)
I agree (Score:1)
No sarcasm.
I hope other artists and bands will follow his example.
(User #5103 Info | http://www.patcondell.net/)
cash rules everything around morrissey. (Score:0)
If the seals migrated to the usa and england and the hunt took place there, I guarantee he would still play these countries because it would be devastating to him financially not to.
If morrissey truly cared about the seals, he would make a canadian stop on every tour, doing a benefit show to help organizations fighting the cruel hunt and creating awareness. but when it comes down to it, its not a mater of caring for animals but one of money.
I love moz, but he needs to realize that his solution isnt the answer. At the same time, what can you expect from someone who supports and organization like PETA who kills countless animals every year, supports BSL and all sorts of other non animal friendly endeavors.
More focus on the Government (Score:0)
Godwin point (Score:0)
Fair Points (Score:1)
He really can be an idiot sometimes.
(User #12339 Info)
Ugh. (Score:0)
Once again, he demonstrates why he is a smart guy who isn't well educated.
Even associating yourself with PETA demonstrates that you have a poor capacity for reason.
Canadian fans should boycott his albums. Don't be a sucker.
(User #20764 Info)
Morrissey is such a fool... (Score:0)
hey Moz, you forgot to mention Iran (Score:0)
yet you tell us you're thinking of playing there.
if you're gonna claim the moral highground, perhaps you should educate yourself a little more deeply about international affairs...
look forward to hearing your new song, 'because of my poor education'.
Juxtaposition (Score:1)
I'm with the bloke up there who said it's in his heart that he cannot bear to play there. I don't personally think that him boycotting playing in Canada is going to make any difference, but if he feels so strongly about it (and enough to hurt his fans' feelings - because despite quite a lot of things, I think he does really care), then maybe it's something we should accept.
Then again, that's easy for me to say when I don't live in Canada....
I do wish he'd stop comparing it to gas chambers, though, but from his point of view, if he values animal life as being equal to human life, then it is, in Morrissey-speak, a valid comparison.
So in summary, I still think what I wrote two years ago.
http://prettypettythieves.com/moz/mozseals.htm
(User #12421 Info | http://www.prettypettythieves.com/)
Guys can we stop bringing up Iran, etc, every time (Score:1)
It's completely fallacious to say that we must all be concerned with all the moral outrages in the world equally and in a complete order of precedence.
If that were so then surely most of the money we spend on the national health service in the UK should be sent to the starving millions in Africa. And we should all be paying 90% tax or something, to support poorer nations.
No, there is nothing wrong with favouring a few moral projects and pursuing those the best one can. It's actually the only practical way to live, and we all do it.
You may not agree with Morrissey's stance on the seals (I don't, in fact) but incessantly bringing up other alleged moral outrages when he mentions the seals is just childish.
(User #4798 Info)
FAO Sir Steve (Score:0)
signed,
Morrissey
Well (Score:1)
(User #864 Info | http://www.bozboorer.com/)
Hey Morrissey... (Score:0)
I strongly support the Canadian seal cull (Score:1)
Fur is bio-degradable, and is infinitely preferable to synthetic material, produced from petroleum.
I love Morrissey's lyrics and music, which have enriched my life for 23 years.
However, just as I never listen to music written by MPs and Congressmen, I never take my politics from musicians.
(User #256 Info)
You crashing bores! (Score:1)
You like your Morrissey to be some Gandhi/Mother Theresa/Jesus kind of person. Don't you have certain issues you favour and have a passion for?
If he shouldn't play anywhere where there's injustice and cruelty of any kind then his next gig will be at the dark side of the moon I'm afraid.
I'm swedish and Morrissey seems to have fallen in love with this country but he can't come here either 'cause women still don't get payed and have the same rights as men have etc...
(User #16190 Info)
A whole spectrum left out (Score:1)
What I don't accept too well in Morrissey's discourse, however sensitive and thoughtful it is, is his nearly-exclusive focus on Canadian seal hunting. What about the countless other species of animals being unnecessarily decimated across the Earth, on an hourly, daily basis? What about the bats the Africans tie upside down and kill to produce cold medicine? What about the Gorillas that are beheaded and have their hands and feet cut off so their body parts can be sold in the market? What about wild horses that get hung upside down (like the bats) and have their throats slits and their flesh exported to the Chinese market? Why then does he focus so exclusively on seals, when so many other species of animals could definitely benefit from his words?
(User #14157 Info)
Isaac Bashevis Singer (Score:1)
"What do they know--all these scholars, all these
philosophers, all the leaders of the world--about
such as you? They have convinced themselves that man,
the worst transgressor of all the species, is the
crown of creation. All other creatures were created
merely to provide him with food, pelts, to be tormented,
exterminated. In relation to them, all people are Nazis;
for the animals it is an eternal Treblinka."
He won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1978. He never wavered in his belief that human barbarity to our fellow man was inextricably linked to our cruelty and inhumanity to animals.
I do not support people who cavalierly make comparisons to Nazi atrocities, that is no subject to ever take lightly. Morrissey, PETA and other animal-welfare advocates should be very careful when taking on the subject.
Singer, however, knew what he was talking about. He spent his life in contemplation of this very subject, and wrote heartbreakingly on the human capacity for cruelty, and compassion, in all it's forms.
(User #14203 Info)
What would Bono do? (Score:1)
Or
"Umm, Sir, the switchboard is overloading again with calls about the seals, brought on by that British guy who's touring the country all summer...and your e-mail is down again...and the picketers are here again...and the local newspaper is here again...and the local TV and radio is here again...and your car is covered with toy stuffed-seals covered in ketchup again... etc...etc...ect..."
Morrissey is a coward when it comes to action, which is the number one reason why people who cheer at his concerts when he makes idiotic statements like "Ronald Reagan is dead...it's about time...it should have been George W"...those people single themselves out to the rest of the crowd that they, too, are just about as worthless as Morrissey is when it comes to the topic of politics and the globe.
Morrissey is an expert pop historian with a great voice, sly lyric, and incredible stage show. He's expert in nothing else.
(User #2326 Info)
wait a sec... (Score:0)
Why doesn't he... (Score:1)
No better place to protest something than IN the country it's taking place.
The multi-million dollar documentary on the annual dolphin slaughter in Taiji, Japan is really going to shcok Morrissey and just about everyone who sees it.
(User #80 Info)
Relax, you're not missing anything (Score:0)
But it's not as if the canadians are missing out on anything. I was unfortunate enough to be present at several Moz shows on the YATQ and ROTT tours, and the guy is a washed up diva of the lowest order. He's been going through the motions for years, just raking in the cash and soaking up whatever devotion is left from his dwindling fanbase. What Morrissey needs is a period of sustained commercial failure, after which he may actually come to appreciate the fans he has left.
weak weak weak (Score:0)
make it a big tour against seal-clubbing and donate every pound to organisations who fight this cruelty...
THAT and only that would be a true statement...
Morrissey is obviously losing it....
i'm dissapointed (and not even canadian)
Moz goes clubbing (Score:0)
Do you think that seals around the world will now go into their local record emporium and purchase his Greatest Hits? they're so cute though. ah bless.
At least he admits to his infalliblity in his statement but what about the elephant cull about to occur in South Africa? Even conservationists think it needs to be done. Or the badger cull in Britain? And on and on and on.....
bb
Sorry, Canada.... (Score:1)
Get a grip.
(User #20384 Info)
Jesus Christ... (Score:1)
It's not that big of a damn deal. It's as if he thinks he's helping the seals by simply refusing to go to Canada. This is all just incredibly stupid.
(User #20654 Info)
Sad (Score:0)
At times I feel to be a Canadian and is to be a Dixie Chick. Speak out against and you will be ignored or ridiculed.
So, as to what Morrissy says and does; I wish he would come here and lead some sort of protest against it. Maybe use his time here to bring more awareness to the issue. On the other hand, the hunt is such an awful thing with a terrbile history that I can see why someone might choose to never come here. I'm hoping that in the future the backlash and mud on Canada's name will put an end to the hunt. That, however is something that ultimatly must be done by governments and they don't tend to listen to their people -or Morrissey.
As a Canadian I feel sort of stuck. So, to anyone who feels the need to slam Canada, do what you will, but try to remember that there are some of us who actually don't find much comfort in the hunt.
Good. (Score:0)
Why the anti-Moz stances? (Score:0)
I sense it is far easier and more convenient to take issue with him for doing the right thing than it is to actually put the work in to change the policies regarding the murdering of seals. Put forth an effort to make a change.
And here I thought we Americans were a lazy lot.
'O' Canada (Score:1)
To boycott Canada once again serves no purpose. If you, Mr. Morrissey were serious about a true Boycott then why did all your new material find its way on to our store shelves? I'm sure the rewards you reap from our dollars are all donated to PeTa. Or did it make its way in to your bank account?
To punish your fans this way is something I never imagined you would do. Now who will sorrow come to in the end?
(User #15822 Info)
finally someone is talking about china (Score:1)
(User #17066 Info)
Canada (Score:1)
Here in Britain, an African student who had the temerity to become terminally ill during her visit has recently been deported to an inevitable, premature and lonely death in Accra.
A gay Iranian teenager whose partner was executed in that country for sodomy currently faces deportation as well.
Both these people, along with countless others, are victims of a media-led popular hysteria to which the Brown government feels compelled to offer succour.
It would be just fantastic if celebities (who are inherently of interest to the media) would stretch their compasssion to reflect on the fate of these people before they go sounding off to magazines &c.
Why not save ALL the animals - including the people?(!)
(User #18093 Info)
Dear Merck Mercuriadis (Score:0)
Annual letter? (Score:0)
Doubt it.
Nothing new (Score:0)
Contact the Minister of Fisheries (Score:0)
his office in Newfoundland is (709) 772-4608 or email him at [email protected] I encourage everyone to call or phone him and make know how you feel...that includes our American and UK friends!
very very very (Score:0)
(User #20374 Info)
Why just Canada? (Score:1)
(User #8642 Info)
Update (Score:1)
"I am almost 50, and it's obvious by now that, in spite of what Mother said, i'm not going to live forever."
Recently moved to tears by the fate of baby seals (when a reliable source has confided he never cries for anyone), Sir Morrissey has decided to "do his bit".
"People keep saying I'm a hypocrite, and I must admit it's true: until now, I've always put myself first. Even the cutest baby seals always came second. But that's going to change. I'm a new man."
When asked if anything in particular prompted this change, the Iconic Briton just smiles.
"Well, there's someone very, very special in my life."
This very special person, it transpires after a few vodkas, isn't the pretty miss Y. ("far too superficial"), but someone " with badly cut hair".
We immediately think of Patti Smith, but the Icon-Artist loses his saintly patience.
"No! It's someone who's extremely devoted to me, who's been everywhere with me...And I don't see what's funny in that, really!" he scolds.
And?
"And well, she cares for baby seals too, in fact they're number 2 on her list of People With Special Needs, right after me, and after a few years of private maths classes, she finally put two and two together, and decided to stop collecting Air Miles to give baby seals what they want: good ice."
Long story short, the guy has finally realized that the music industry is detrimental to the planet's climate. So he's decided to boycott himself.
"No more air travel around the world. No more trees sacrificed just because I have this urge of printing a picture of my bottom. All this is over. From now on, I'm going to listen and do what Nature says."
So don't expect plastic cases for the new record. We can reveal it won't be an object at all. ("There's enough rubbish with my name on it all over the planet already"). Someone has finally understood the need to dematerialize music.
Any plans for the future?
" Well, J. (-the U-turn girl, editor's note-) has bought an ice cream maker, we plan to invite a few seals over and together we'll mend what we can."
Enjoy retirement, Mor-Icey. And
*(April fool's day. Shame eh.)*
(User #20114 Info)
join the club (Score:1)
(User #16308 Info)
do some research (Score:1)
Second of all, Morrissey's rhetoric is way overheated. At least, familiarize yourself with both sides of the issue before rushing to join the predictable Official Team Morrissey Yay Seal Boo Canada Defense Team: http://www.cbc.ca/news/background/sealhunt/
Finally, Morrissey not coming to Canada is a blessing. Not even a blessing in disguise, anymore after ROTT. Just a blessing.
(User #257 Info)
at least (Score:1)
(User #2318 Info | http://pechogrande.com/)