The Editor,
Re: "Fin ban advocates confront restaurateur," News, Aug 24
A $75 dollar bowl of shark fin is not my cup of Earl Grey, but, at one time it was on my bucket list. But, not no more! I've seen the facts and 'No soup for me!'
So how does one educate others to the facts when the facts are being ignored?
Well, let's look at what we've done to the once sexy, cool looking, hip, widely accepted cigarette - and, right from the get-go, I'm not comparing the pros and cons of cigarettes to shark fin soup, but how we might deal with the issue of shark fin soup.
Cigarettes are bad for you, but most smokers ignored the info. Shark fin soup is bad, but not for you, just for the shark says the info.
With cigarettes, we banned all TV ads and made the image of someone smoking on camera just not cool. Smoking was banned from public places and delegated to unattractive, lonely spots outside. The once proud, good looking, sexy cowboy mounted on his steed lighting up a cancer stick saying "Come to where the flavor is," while surrounded by 10,000 cattle (never understood that image) is long gone.
With shark fin soup ... well, the Discovery Channel would have to cancel Shark Week for a start. Gone are the images of powerful underwater leviathans enticing restaurant patrons to a soup bowl of fin. Flashing their proud erect dorsal fin to a viewership of young potential consumers would be no longer. Shows like this make the shark look powerful, smart and invincible. So it only makes sense (to some) that by removing a part of its anatomy, maybe one could attain such prowess.
The movie Jaws would be limited to late night viewing only with an 'R' rating. Trouble with that is, if you were a purveyor of soup with fins in it, while watching that mighty shark thrash around, you might get the munchies for a hot bowlful!
And if the practice of eating shark fin soup prevailed in restaurants, it would have to be consumed on the exterior of the building sharing an overhang, shielded from the rain with the last remaining smokers.
Yes, good people, lets unite! Let's make it look uncool to slurp down a hot bowlful of the tiny tip of a once great ancient beast. It will be something the smokers will unite with us on. Let's put a ban on Shark Fin Soup!
How we do it? Well, suggested one way. If you want to ride your bike around with a big red circle with a line through it and a shark fin in the middle of it on your teeshirt go right ahead. Just leave my Buffalo Wings alone! It doesn't hurt them and the animal and they still can have babies!
Bob Niles Richmond
