Re-thinking

I’m rethinking this blog. Can’t be bothered with the news thing so much. Just for my thoughts and stuff.

Brussels minces words

British gastronomy takes a lot of flack, particularly from the French, though that may have more to do with a millenia-old rivalry between England (then Britian, then the UK, though Scotland and [Northern] Ireland were dragged into it by the various stages of Union rather than any particular animosity toward the French) and France. Jacques Chirac once stated that British food was the second most boring in Europe (Finnish food took the gold in his eye, not that I would tell you what Finnish food is like). Britons mostly laugh this stuff off, since, as all good people of the Angloshere can tell you, at the end of the day the French are pretty well good for wine, cheese, bad politics, and surrender. But this time it seems, the Eldest Daughter of the Church has gone too far.

Among the many great things Great Britian has given the world (afternoon tea, english, kilts, etcetera), a well aged steak is right up there. Cattle carcasses need to be hung for 3 or 4 weeks for the flavour and texture to really come out (and let us not forget delicious mince). Thusly aged beef is a staple food throughout the British Isles, from Leinster to Jersey. But an EU regulation designed to protect eaters of the French staple (which, it must be said, is quite delicious, especially with a good claret or snifter of calvados, but that isn’t the point) steak tartare.

Fear over bacterial contamination led to the implementation 4 years ago of Regulation (EC) No 853/2004, buried on page 33 of a 60-page book of regulations, the revelant section of which reads as follows:

“When prepared from chilled meat, minced meat must be prepared:                                                               (ii) in the case of animal other than poultry, within no more than six days of their slaughter.”

Now, this rule has been on the books for years, and the UK was expected to apply for an exception, which would most likely be granted, because they’re been aging the meat for some now and have gotten pretty good at it (as evinced by the fact that they are still alive). However no such exception has been applied for. My guess would be that it rather slipped past the folks at the Commons, what with such things as the resignation and ship-jumping (conversion to Roman Catholicism) of long-serving and important Prime Minister, and that whole “war in the Middle East” thing.

Traditional farmers feel threatened, unsurprisingly, by the new rules (new in that they the UK is only now harmonizing). In Scotland, a huge producer of mine, where large numbers of Angus, Galloway and Highland (all traditionally hung for weeks before butchering) are farmed.

“Hanging meat for a long period has long been recognised as a good way to improve the texture, flavour and quality of the meat generally, and it’s vital to our beef industry that we continue to keep the quality of our product,” says Penny Johnson of the National Farmers Union in Scotland.

“It will impact the entire beef industry. The quality of our beef products, our steaks, our roasts, everything.”

Supporters of the bill say it will come out as a boon for the industry. Apparently producer of long-hung (that sounds dirty) beef are in peril. I’m not sure how that works, since it’s popular all over the British Isles, but we’ll give them the benefit of the doubt on this one. In any event, if the UK Food Agency can get an exception for heritage reasons, for which they have now applied, it could certainly raise prices, which would in fact help the farmers.

While this is all of terribly great interest to Anglophiles and British foodies, it does seem rather immeterial to the rest of the world. That, I dare say, is a mistake. This is a classic example of the danger of the transnational organization: regulations harmful to one member state passed for the good of other ones.

Britian here is perenially a victim of EU policy. Let us not forget that under the Treaty of Lisbon (ie. European Constitution Lite) the Queen, in right of the United Kingdom, is essentially a citizen of Europe (just writing that hurt me a little). Here Brussels is making a decision for the good of the French, the Dutch, the Swiss, etcetera, all of which are incidentally decidedly more europhile than is the UK. But that decision risks seriously hurting Britain. British traditional, identity, and economy is at stake on this one, all over how long Europeans are allowed to hang meat.

Protests in Dhaka over inheritance law

Large protests took place in Dhaka, the capital of Bangladeash (the former East Pakistan), despite a prohibition against such assembly under the interim, military-backed regime. The protesters were from the Islamic Constitution Movement, one of a number of Islamist movements in Bangladesh campaigning for a non-secular constitution (the Bangadeshi constitution is secular, though the state religion is Islam, and the the country is Muslim-majority, but there are minority populations of Hindus, Buddhists, Christians, and indigenous belief adherents).

The cause of the riot was report of a draft law to grant equal inheritance rights to men and women. The protesters insist they are in favour of women’s rights, but feel that they must exist within the framework of Islam. While the two are hardly mutually exclusive, and such a balance is certainly possible, the fact that a violent protest broke out over a draft law (it will not be legally binding, it will merely act as a guideline for the forming of legislation by the Parliament expected to be elected at the end of this year) suggests that these men are fighting to protect priviledge, rather than faith.

Islam is an adaptable faith, as evinced by the rise of Islamic banking (since Muslims cannot earn interest from other Muslims, Islamic banks offer customers “gifts” at regular intervals, calculated using the interest rates of other banks). Muslims can communicate their desire to submit and live in the modern world. There weren’t any protest from the ICM or Jamaat-e-Islami (Bangledesh’s largest Islamist organization) when they first started getting a reasonable rate of return. Islamists and even Islamic fundamentalists (the two are not synonymous, Islamism is a political ideology that holds that Qur’anic principles should guide the governance of Muslim nations) now collect what is essentially interest but don’t call it interest. So men and women can gain equal inheritance rights and call it something else. But Bangladesh’s “Islamist” movements won’t stand for that.

These men are defending their priviledge. It’s just like men who insist that women must be convered head to to at all times – that certainly isn’t in the Qur’an. Rather like how Western imperalists used Christianity to justify oppression of other nations and enslavement of other races, the ICM, Jamaat-e-Islami, and the Ahkame Sharia Hefazat Committee (another group that took part in the protest) are using Islam to justify sex-inequality.

Execution warrant of Mary, Queen of Scots

The execution warrant of Mary, Queen of Scots will be on display in Scotland. Signed by Elizabeth I and given to Scotland by the Archbishop of Canterbury, this very important part of Scotch history will now be on display for the people of Scotland to see.

See the video

Martin Hirsch defends his anti-poverty plan

Martin Hirsch goes up against François Fillon, Prime Minister of the French Republic, defending his anti-poverty plan. Despite the logic behind his idea, that 3 billion Euros for 3 million or fewer poor is a sensable plan, his chances look grim. Fillon, who is no Dominique de Villepin in a number of respects, feels that an alternative should be found, one that won’t be such a drain on the public purse. Something tells me this won’t be the last time that Fillon butts heads with is High Commisioner.

See the full article from Libération.

The President Speaks

Nicolas Sarkozy, President of the French Republic, gives an interesting speech on French agriculture. He has some interesting comments on agriculture being central to French identity.

Discours de M. le Président de la République lors du 62ème Congrès de la FNSEA

The link above will take you the homepage of the Elysee Palace where the speech should be the most recent video. If a new video is up, just look for the above title on the rigth of the page entitles “Discours France.” If a new video is up in that category, the one to which I can refer be found on the menu on the page clicking that brings you to.

Sarkozy is one of the more interesting politicians out there today. I think that it has to do to a large extent on the fact that he is basically the anti-thesis of the French presidential prototype: he runs, he doesn’t drink, he takes vacations in the US, he doesn’t gesticulate Gallically, etcetera. I must say though, he is an engrossing speaker, despite a lack of gesticulation.

Feuding

The on-going feud between the Ontario Liberal and Federal Conservative governments over the financial future of Ontario (are we heading for a recession; will we be a “have-not” province, whatever that means, etcetera) seems rather too prototpycial. It is a truism of Canadian politics that whichever party is in power in Ottawa, the (Progressive) Conservatives or the Liberals, the other is in power in Toronto (the obvious exception being during NDP government in Ontario). It is a further truism that the two governments feud. So having the two governments feud over the possibility of recession on Ontario, and reducing the issue largely to an ideological disagreement between Tories and Grits, at a time when serious economic pressures in the United States could actually cause a serious recession, and when an increasing number of Ontarians are against Conservative policy (to the point that they are even abandoning attempts at gaining votes in the province, and investing almost all their majority governments hopes in Quebec), seems a bunch of smoke and mirrors.

John Tory throwing his voice behind the Federal Conservative position certainly added to the air of of smokescreen aswell. Given that he had nothing to say on the issue during the previous election, nor during the intervening months, but not until he had dealt satisfactorily with internal PC issues over the future of his leadership (economic of the kind now being talked about having been brought up by the Ontario NDP during the former, and the Federal Conservative’s opening salvos of the feud having come while the latter issue was being addressed), the issue doesn’t seem to be too high on his mind. No, in fact it seems that he is just jumping on the Federal Conservative wagon, in the hopes of building on any dissatisfaction it may be generating among Ontario voters with the Liberals.