My current event this week will be about a bill that Governor Brown signed. He recently made a law that banned the possession, sale, and distribution of shark fin into California. I think the people who were pro-ban of shark fin were too poor to buy or they were american born chinese that betrayed the chinese. The amount of sharks killed near California cannot be as much as the amount killed in Asia. Shark fins are used by the Chinese culture to make an expensive yet tasty soup that is full of texture. Even if the nutritionists say there is a lot of mercury in this soup, we as Chinese do not drink it everyday. It is only consumed maybe once in 5 years depending on your wealth.
The first thing i could relate this law with was the 18th Amendment to prohibit the sale, consumption, transportation of alcohol. The phrase "If we don't learn the mistakes of history, we are doomed to repeat them." could really work in this situation. It is quite possible that Chinese people will illegal smuggle shark fins and consume more than ever before. Humans are like teenagers, the more you tell them not to do something, the more they do it.
I do not understand this law. I know that it is the save sharks from dying and polluting the ocean but at the cost of Chinese tradition? I agree with our senator Leland Yee that it is racist to only ban the fin and now the whole shark. Leonardo DiCaprio’s opinion should not matter because he is Caucasian and shark fin soup is not part of his culture. This bill is clearly racist because what would Americans say if the government banned hamburgers. If one day cows started dying because of hamburgers, America and McDonalds wouldnt give a cow crap. They would just keep eating it . . .
I completely disagree with you. At the cost of chinese tradition? Chinese people know that this has no taste. They have artificial shark fins, and the only reason they eat it, is that it symbolizes wealth and prosperity. And it is a big deal in California. Have you been to Chinatown? We have the second largest Chinatown because of San Francisco and Oakland. In economics, this would be considered a supply and demand. I think your sentence about racism is a bit biased. I mean...people can disagree with shark fin soup however they want. Especially because it is TASTELESS. it provides NO quality except for the symbolic value. We can get the same from ARTIFICIAL shark fins. If you compare the killing of sharks here to Asia, there is a BIG skew towards Asia in Chinese people...We are in AMERICA. and no, America is not all about the Chinese. or are you about to say my opinion doesn't matter? I am, in fact full Chinese.
ReplyDeleteSorry to sound harsh. But this pertains to the environment, and you seem to not care.
I agree with Linde. The way that these people kill sharks is inhumane. These sharks have their fins cut off and are pushed back into the ocean to die. I am chinese as well and I don't feel that this ban on shark fins is racist against us. I understand that tradition is important and this ban changes the traditions that we as chinese people are used to, but this pertains to the future of the world. Wouldn't you like for your children to be able to know what a shark is?
ReplyDeletehaha oh wells . you two probably think the dream act thing is good too.
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