Home General Asylum

General audio topics that don't fit into specific categories.

Ivory Affidavit of Origin

For the benefit of our two environmental stewards and anyone else interested, I have the Affidavit of Origin in front of me.

First, the brilliant individual that believes that the ivory used in this project resulted in "a lot of dead elephants", is just plain wrong. I'm guessing that the ivory used in the restoration of this piano might have been about 1% or less of a good sized tusk. Now, if that ivory was harvested illegally, unethically or inhumanely, the amount wouldn't matter. I would be as upset as anyone else, probably more.

I'm going to quote directly from the affidavit:
"This document serves as an Affidavit of Origin attesting to the legal pre-act status of the ivory listed below. This ivory is African Elephant (Africana Loxodonta) ivory. It is legal within the United States in accordance with Federal law and regulations 50 CFR section 17.40 e and US Code Section 1533(d). The ivory is legal within the United States but can NOT be exported to another country under any circumstances in any form as sold, reworked or modified."

John Marks correctly stated what is contained in the last sentence.

For those that don't know, this is part of The Endangered Species Act of 1973.

So the individual that inferred that the ivory used in the restoration of this piano might be roughly 18 years old is, again, incorrect. In fact the ivory could be anywhere from 43 to hundreds of years old.

Our two environmental stewards are taking a brave stand against the killing of elephants for their tusks. But it's all talk, no action; easy to do behind the protection of their computers. I would bet neither has contributed a cent to any Save the Elephants foundations. I'm sure neither has marched in any protests, here or in Africa, started or participated in any grass roots internet campaign, etc. That would require action, not just words. And like I said before, I'm sure these two have and will continue to boycott any classical concert that has a piano with ivory keys.

One of these guys is proud to claim "And for the record, I will eat anything that moves." So it's okay to eat endangered species, shark fins, monkey brain, elephant meat, etc or horribly abused US farm animals but don't you dare put any animal parts on your musical instruments. Of course he will "eat anything that moves" because not doing so would require some effort and inconvenience on his part. And I bet he doesn't own or never will own a piano, so it's easy for him to lash out at others since it causes no inconvenience to him.

Let's take a pig for example. This animal is one of the most intelligent on the planet. But apparently that doesn't matter; it's just a fat, ugly, filthy critter not a majestic elephant. But let's assume it does matter. Pigs are far more intelligent and sensitive than say elephants, dogs, perhaps even more so than some individuals on AA (sorry, I can't help myself, I'm a pompous ass). Here's just one quote from the book I provide a link for below:

One facility he visited held 1,500 pregnant pigs in cramped individual cages. "They were like people sitting in the seats of one of those regional aircrafts," Estabrook says. "Their sides stuck out through the bars; they could not turn around. They could not move in any way at all and that's the way those pigs basically lived their entire life."

Now the majestic elephant gets to live his entire life in his habitat, with his friends and family, doing what elephants love to do all day. Then a guy with big tusks gets shot and dies relatively quickly and far more humanely than most farm animals in the US. Millions of highly intelligent pigs live their entire lives in indescribable suffering, orders of magnitude beyond what any majestic elephant has ever or will ever experience. But our environmental steward, proud to "eat anything that moves" will never respond to this terrible inhumanity simply because doing so would require some effort. And he still doesn't get it. Denial? Laziness? Stupidity? Who knows? Point the finger at anyone else when it doesn't affect you, but God forbid taking any action when it does.

One final comment. Just for fun, let's assume, by some miracle, our two environmental stewards inherited this piano. After doing the research, and I believe this to be roughly correct, they found that an accurate restoration, as close to perfect as possible (the miracle that Glen and his son performed), would net them $5M. But being the stand up guys that they are, they also research the environmentally responsible route; substitutes for the ivory, any of the hardwood inlay, the chemicals used to finish the piano (we know the worst stuff makes guitars sound their best), etc. Oh yeah, can't chop down any of that beautiful sitka spruce so let's go with fiberboard made of hemp. And so on. Then, to their horror, they find that they will net $500k, probably less because the piano looks and sounds like crap. There is absolutely no doubt in my mind which way they would go and I can assure you that dead elephants would be the last thing on their minds.
Open up your mind, in pours the trash. - Meat Puppets, 1987



Edits: 05/08/15 05/08/15 05/08/15 05/08/15

This post is made possible by the generous support of people like you and our sponsors:
  Kimber Kable  


Follow Ups Full Thread
Follow Ups

FAQ

Post a Message!

Forgot Password?
Moniker (Username):
Password (Optional):
  Remember my Moniker & Password  (What's this?)    Eat Me
E-Mail (Optional):
Subject:
Message:   (Posts are subject to Content Rules)
Optional Link URL:
Optional Link Title:
Optional Image URL:
Upload Image:
E-mail Replies:  Automagically notify you when someone responds.