Get Hopping, It's The Easter Bilby
by Warren McLaren, Sydney on 03.22.07
The Easter shopping frenzy seemed to start the very day after the Christmas sales concluded. Supermarket aisles were suddenly packed to the ceiling in oddly shaped compound chocolate, all wearing garish coats of aluminium foil. Eeek. But, say you can’t instead cycle down to your local food co-op and get some fair traded, organic dark choccy to celebrate the death of a wise man some 2,000 years ago? It’s a conundrum that fortunately Australians can avoid. Elsewhere they have a bunny, but we’ve got the Chocolate Easter Bilby. Like a bunny, the bilby has long ears, a cute nose and lives in a burrow. Unlike rabbits the poor little guy is officially listed as endangered. Actually a bandicoot, the Bilby has pouch, a bit like a kangaroo or wallaby, for toting the little 'uns around in.
Since 1999 there has been a concerted attempt to save the the greater bilby from the extinction that was visited on their cousin, the lesser bilby. $300,000 AUD of funding was raised to built a massive 25sq km electrified predator-proof fence around a bilby sanctuary in the Currawinya National Park in remote Queensland. Feral cats and foxes were trapped, and eventually when the enclosure seemed predator-free the cute little creatures were released. All the while, Darrell Lea, a confectioner of 90 years standing have been slinging the fund between 30 and 50c from sale of each bilby chocolate lookalike. By our reckoning almost half a million lumps of long eared choc have been consumed, and $185,000 AUD donated. Of course, you could also just donate directly to the fund. Save the Bilby Fund
Maaaaaaan,
Easter, nearly forgot. It's my big gig and I'm still on my way back from Thailand. You know, it's hard work sometimes being an international, traveling, superstar Bilby.
No wonder we're endangered.
Thanks for the nudge Treehugger dudes.
TAXI!...get me to Australia quick. I've a job to do.
Later, you big lumpy, small-eared mammals you.
I don't want to sound like a prude and I am sorry if I do but did you really have to insinuate your thoughts on who Jesus was? Was it really necessary? I came here for news about the environment - not to be reminded of the leftist views of so called 'post-modernists.'
I come here to write about environmental issues. If there is a secondary agenda, it is not mine. (I wouldn't know a leftist post-modernist if I fell over one.)
But, yes, I do think that someone who advocates respect for others is a wise person.
And I also find it interesting that many western societies co-celebrate Christian and pagan rituals. Especially as the latter celebration was once about fecundity, but now generates enormous waste.
As creatures of habit and ritual we might occasionally benefit from stepping back, and asking "just why are we doing this, or that?"
Our main grocery store actually has organic fair trade chocolate bars right there on the checkout aisle with the other candy! I don't know about organic/ft chocolate bunnies.
I must point out though...Easter celebrates the resurrection, not the death. Either way, giant animals giving out candy is how every holiday should be celebrated ;)