An Amputation For A Fish Tooth

A few days ago I un-friended someone on Facebook. 

Not unusual you might say - people have been culling their massive lists of late, keeping their nearest and dearest close and saying sharp goodbyes to acquaintances and insurance agents. Well one doesn't even wish goodbye on Facebook. It's a mere unemotional delete, a clinical amputation.

Anyway, the person I removed was someone I know from university. Nothing about those past interactions made me contemplate the removal though said person was an asshole sometimes. But then who isn't. It was a post about shark's teeth instead that provoked my ire. 

Said person put up a picture of a great white leaping into the air wrestling a seal in its mouth. The image caught a giant tooth dislodged from the predator's jaws, flying into the air. What triggered my outrageous action was this person's comment "Look at those yummy fins". I replied that the comment was offensive. The reply that came back was some crap about cultural imperialism which no one would be able to link back to the shark and the point I was trying to make. I then posted that eating sharks' fins was perhaps in fact Chinese cultural imperialism to which the reply was a straightforward terse "No". I gave it a couple of minutes before deciding not to reply. I was irked, perhaps more than bothered. Several thoughts swirled in my head. It was easy to be impetuous and I would have lost my level head, and made a stupid reply. Quickly, I knew it wouldn't be worth it.

Two things bugged me about this encounter of sorts, and perhaps these are perennial bugs.

1. People not being able to accept their own argument turned against them. It's a failure of logic for me. It's like when a fat person tells you to lose weight. When one's argument is turned against himself, the sane thing to do would be to admit one's mistake. Pride and ego has got in the way. We've all been there. I guess it's about growing up.

2. We have yet to figure out we aren't here to ravage the planet. Our very existence is detrimental to Earth. A shocking statement perhaps but think about it. We've polluted the land, seas and sky. We've cut down trees because furniture is more important than oxygen and home for animals. We've killed off animal species and are killing off more for their feathers, bladders, horns, skins and other parts for decoration, medicine and sport. Our burgeoning populations are demanding more and more resources from the planet to meet modern day needs. Not just food and water but energy and minerals. Not many are thinking about what will happen when these things run out. 

So with the sharks - we're killing them off for the wrong reasons. Their fins have no nutrition whatsoever. It's an arrogant display of wealth for animal parts with no intrinsic value, just a dollar sum assigned by the winners of capitalism. Chinese capitalism at that. Sigh. 

We're killing off sharks for fins, not meat, and not many care that we're vanquishing an apex predator. Fishermen whose sole purpose in life is to fend for themselves and their families hack off sharks' fins because they fetch more money than sardines. The loss of these creatures will have repercussions down the food chain, a crisis we can't imagine yet because it's never happened before. Maybe with the dinosaurs but we weren't around then. We are going to be the death of this planet. The flu might take us first though.

With said friend, the relationship was lost years ago. We didn't really keep the conversation or the friendship going. So it was an easy decision to make, now that the shark line was drawn. Harsh? Maybe. Impact to my life? Minimal. Feeling better about myself? Yes. Feeling sad for un-friend? A little. I hope un-friend's kid(s) gets to respect sharks more. Maybe I am doing old man things. 

Picture from http://uk.news.yahoo.com/