On a more serious matter

This was written on a Thursday 4th of October 2012:

I thought about writing about more serious matter today. I'll start with this: in the kingdom of Sweden slavery was forbidden since the year 1335. So this applied to Finland too. In the other words, explaining in plain, here where I live having slaves has been illegal for almost seven hundred years. Puts American history into a perspective, doesn't it?

Let us imagine the ancient Greek talking about putting an end to slavery. Great wise men would gather to talk about the matter in hand and there would be arguments for and against. Those men for ending it would argue about value of human life, equality and other ethical efforts. Those men against would be afraid for their living and also those who would be afraid the slaves would just end up being slaves for the barbarians if freed. They would say, that the slaves in Greece would have better quality of life so it would be better for a slave to be one in Greece than with the barbarians. This situation is totally hypothetical situation and exaggerated to the maximum.

Imagine how absurd it would be if anyone would argue that keeping slaves today would be a good thing or in anyway morally right thing to do.

Well, let us change "slavery" to "fur farming" and keep the conversation in today's perspective.

In Finland there's a collection of names for a citizen petition going on. With 50 000 names the parliament has to take the matter in the hearing for closing down the fur farming. This is been a debate in many places including with me and my friends. I can see the point of fur farming being someones living and loosing work is always a scary thing. I understand the point, that if fur farming is shut down here, the fur would be brought from some other country where the conditions for the animals could be worse. The point "here they at least get water" is very clear and not invalid to me.

But let us look at the bigger picture. Will it ever end if the ending doesn't start at somewhere? How can it end if  the western "civilised" countries don't see the importance of shutting it down? The animal can't choose to move somewhere else where fur farming is illegal. We don't really need fur at this stage of industrialism. We have other means to be warm, other fabrics that even looks like fur. Fur is a fashion product, not a vitality. Is there any good reason to keep the fur farming going on?
Don't get me wrong, I haven't yet signed the petition - lazy as I am. I also have my grandmothers godknowshow old fur hat that I'm not giving up. It's so warm and lovely, and I get cold so easily. And if I were to throw it away, the animal would have died in vain. Every day in Finnish frost I wear the hat thankful for it's purpose until it's too worn out to be worn. Reminding me that a living being has died for my comfort - probably in better conditions than today's...

That hat will most likely last from generations to the next. When I give it to my child in the future, I will remind him/her for those times there were slaves in Finland. Slaves that couldn't help build a better society and civilisation, but slaves whose carcasses hanged around rich peoples necks. Slaves whose lives where lived and wasted for nothing.

The petition got enough signs and now the government is trying to figure out a way to wiggle out of it. Let's see how it goes.