Seal Hunters Thank God for China's Lax Ethics, Big Appetite

When the communist revolution comes, we'll eat seal penises for dinner and light our homes with whale oil.

The Halifax Chronicle-Herald defends the deal Ottawa inked with Beijing to allow Canadian seal products to be sold in China, arguing “Seal populations are at record levels, so there's no fear -- despite the propaganda from some quarters -- that the seal harvest, properly monitored, will hurt the species.” The editorial board says “Chinese consumers will decide, as they have a right to do, whether they wish to buy edible seal products from Canada. Are animal welfare groups suggesting Chinese tastes should be the same as those of the majority of Canadians?” They are suggesting exactly that, actually. In fact, that is the basis of all rights groups; that there are certain inalienable principles that everyone should share. Whether the anti-seal hunt crew is in the right however is another matter.

“There won’t be much time for worrying over seals’ penises” once China takes over the world, writes the National Post’s Rex Murphy. That little gem is one of several ways Murphy tries to make the point that we Westerners “are apologizing ourselves into impotence and irrelevancy over many of our greatest successes, while more confident — even ruthless — powers such as China are emerging brisk with the determination to develop as fast and as far as they can.” Murphy, who has made clear in the past he’s no friend to the anti-seal hunt crowd and other environmental activists, suggests that China’s ascendancy is largely due to the fact that Beijing doesn’t care what damage it does on its way to the top, while Westerners quibble over “great pieties” like global warming and animal rights. Alright, it’s no secret that economies will always grow faster when they’re unfettered by ethical concerns, but Murphy seems confused. Does he want us to be more like China, whose commitment to communism he says “constitutes persistence in known evil,” or does he want a more open form of government where people are free to engage in activism, no matter how wrong-headed or economically damaging their cause is? Who knows, they might actually have a valid point every once and while.