Irish Activist Protests Bullfighting in London!

by aesop Tue Jul 03, 2007 13:48

Firstly I am anti-taurine & happily live in a city which is anti-bullfighting. That city is Barcelona and is the capital of Catalonia which many often say is Spain and just many object is not. There were two purpose built arenas or bullrings for the blood sport. One is now a museum and the other after serving time as a dossing down site for homeless people is now being convereted at great cost into a glass domed shopping mall and "cultural space". OK. The Bull has many know is a symbol of Spain and one which is beloved of the nationalist right wing who are often seen carrying a variation of the Spanish flag with a bull in the centre where once perhaps they would have happily carried the eagle of Franco. OK.
Olot and Calldetenes are also mentioned as "towns which have banned bullfighting" under the catch-all nationality of Spainish. Olot is a town which was founded around a medieval abbey in the foothills of the Pyrennes. It is one of the most catalan places you can find. Olot has never had a bullfight and never seen bulls run on its streets. This is simply because Olot is not Spanish and Bullfighting is. Olot's move to formally declare itself "anti-bullfighting" is as resonant as the good residents of upper Dalkey deciding to prohibit hare coursing, or the upset natives of Achill island saying no more "morris dancing". In short the decision taken by Olot had very little to do with animal rights & everything to do with those people who in the most recent municipal elections returned a mixture of catalan fascist "no migrants or immigrants" ticket as well as more lefty outright independence from the flag and bull tomorrow people. The people of Olot did this to remind everyone they aren't Spanish. & then come PETA in front of the London embassy listing them as a Spanish town.
doesn't it make you think?
Now let's deal with Pamplona or Iruña as it is known in the Basque language. Pamplona is the capital of Navarra which for half its population is considered Basque and the other half Navarran. The sport of running bulls is only found in that part of the Iberian peninsula where for over 40 years political efforts have been accompanied by politicised violence in the name of self-determination and a statehood for Euskal Herria. Think how many people would be well pissed off to see their little bit of bull listed as "Spanish".
hope you're thinking now.
Yesterday in Yemen a convoy of three SUVS was making its way to see the temple of Saba. The three SUVS were escorted by armed guards provided by the Yemeni state who are well aware that their archaeological treasures and legacy of the queen of Sheba are suffering after a communist / capitalsit proxy civil war and then islamist revolution encouraged by their most famous son Osama. The 13 tourists had booked their holiday in Bilbao or Bilbo which is a city in the Basque and is majority nationalist. The tourists who weren't Basque were Catalan. Only one tourist of the group came from Madrid which is Spain and which is where you see Bullfights. Just like you don't find kilts in Dublin and you don't find aran jumpers in London. Yet today the Irish, British and pretty much all media reported the death of 7 Spanish tourists. Ah! how death reduces nationality and aspiration and cultural identity to documentation..,
If we continue with such blythe disregard for identities which are I assure you of great importance to those who hold them within our own continent - then I suggest our capability of offering anything other than gurgle ribbid and belch analysis of events in the middle east, horn of africa or beyond is just about nil.

Animals of course just like animal welfare campaigns know no such sensitivities or fine distinctions.

no actual animal with eyes or nerves was harmed in this comment. this comment was written as a patch to prevent any possible suffering by basques or catalans and the horrible consequences

by Laura Tue Jul 03, 2007 18:42 lauratheanimal@miros.com

i think this is a great piece of work to end animal abuse, no one does it better!

by knickers Sat Jul 07, 2007 14:18

PETA europe brought their bunch to Pamplona / Iruña the capital of Navarra this week to protest the running of the bulls which yearly takes place on the streets of that city & is one of the most popular aspects of Basque culture internationally no doubt owing much to Ernest Hemingway's account of the annual events of the Saint Fermines fiesta.The PETA crew lined up to do their naked protest & to the disappointment (or perhaps relief) of media and locals didn't take off their shorts or knickers. I find this hilarious. They continue to describe these solidarity actions with our animal friends & not so friends as "nude protests" but not a single one of them ever gets down to the pelt. The newspapers in the Spanish state dwellt briefly on it - "Animal activists strip to underwear and hold what they say is a naked protest". One newspaper showed a girl in a girdle modestly covering her nipples as she held a french Peta poster aloft. oooooo! the outrage if my mother could see me now.
A few of the locals who support this tradition and love it dearly decided to make their own point back with little statements of contempt. I believe the popular expression is "get your tits out" & it appears Navarran women will do this much more ease than French.

This morning the bulls began running through Pamplona something which they do a few times through the day- more humans get hurt every year than bulls. The first enclosure this morning saw the Red Cross treat 104 individuals, six were hospitalised and this year only one managed to be gored seriously - a 36year old Australian. (It is an oddity that generally only foreigners with little respect for the power or agility of these animals tend to get seriously gored).
"Naked protests" are generally just that. You can't say you're doing a naked protest if you're in your undies. You can say you're ding a naked protest if you're bits are hidden by a poster or hard to see on a bike saddle (such as the thousand strong naked bike protest in Madrid a month ago) or indeed you don't even hide that much and let people see your sanitary strings or verify your haemorhoid status as the 7 okupes who did a naked protest this morning in Barcelona. Though you don't have to be so provacative - you can opt for "discreet" nudity with bodypaint. Indeed the photo above is "discreet undies with bodypaint".
I realise that animal rights activists are a sincere and often ridiculed bunch, I realise that they have a serious agenda which if considered properly has implications for how we cherish the human individual, mammalian sentience, food distribution, textile production & sweatshop labour. But one thing I would suggest is this :- there are some countries and states in Europe where naked and nude mean just that. Don't make a laughing stock of yourselves by not going all the way. you're not that special & we've mostly seen all the flabs, warts, pubes, stretch marks & botched circumcision cuts before............ ¿but perhaps "underwear protest" isn't as provocative?

by animal wrongs Sat Jul 07, 2007 22:10

....to coin a phrase!

by corpo bow wow Sun Jul 08, 2007 15:23

Now that's just in case any of you get the idea of doing proper naked protests in Eire. We'll have no full frontal nudity in Erin gurb mile maith agaibh why indeed it is rumoured hard-core elements would rather sabotage our museums and art galleries than allow youngsters their natural curiosity and verify with their own eyes what lurks under the fig leaf. In total RTE made three reports on the event managing to get in all the key words - Gore - Spanish - Basque - Drunk - Reckless - Hemingway. [ I honestly believe the rté internet people are getting better at copy writing]
http://www.rte.ie/news/2007/0707/pamplona.html http://www.rte.ie/news/2000/0708/pamplona.html
http://www.rte.ie/news/2001/0707/pamplona.html
Oddly enough in the outskirts of the neighbouring San Sebastian in the Basque the terrorist group ETA were credited with doing their little bit for animal rights when they cancelled the Saturday "Lasarte" horse-racing meeting with a fake bomb warning yesterday. ETA have never done naked protests though.

by srinivasan, India. Sun Sep 07, 2008 11:05 cheena_sha at yahoo dot com

Whether the protesters were stark naked or in their undies, is immaterial. They certainly drew the attention of the world to this cruel 'sport'. As somebody pointed out, if matadors are hurt in bullfights, they chose to fight the bulls and in the process got hurt, but the bulls were not given an option !! Killing a bull which is half-blinded and half concious is nothing but cowardice !!

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