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World sensitive jamboree


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http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=472655&in_page_id=1770

 

Youngsters celebrating the 100th birthday of the scouting movement have been banned from eating burgers and bangers - because they might offend youngsters of other religions.

 

And the scouts have been banned from having campfires and instead have to sit round a potplant - because of safety fears.

 

The traditional camping food made way way for vegetarian dishes - a hundred years after Scout founder Lord Baden-Powell took his first group of 20 boys to the great outdoors.

 

The 1907 boys caught rabbits and cooked them on an open fire on Brownsea Island, in Poole Harbour, Dorset.

 

But in 2007, as 300 Scouts travelled back to the site where their movement was born, meat was whipped off the menu in favour of vegetarian cuisine because it might offend the different faiths of youngsters from 162 countries if it wasn't Halal or Kosher.

 

And wood and flint were dropped for safer gas stoves because of the fire risk to plant and wildlife.

 

Instead Scouts sat around a pot plant.

 

Clare Haines, spokesman for The Scout Association, said: "It was really to do with religion that we were not able to provide sausages and burgers and all that kind of food.

 

"We have been very careful though to make sure food is provided to everybody's tastes and beliefs, so no one feels left out. They enjoyed their vegetarian meals, especially vegetable chilli, fresh salads and jacket potatoes."

 

She said camp fires were banned on the island, owned by the National Trust, because of a devastating woodland blaze 30 years ago.

 

One adult at the Brownsea Island site revealed: "The boys couldn't sit round a traditional camp fire with sausages on sticks. It seems crazy, but what can you do?

 

"Instead groups sat around a 3ft bay tree in a plant pot and exchanged stories."

 

More than 40,000 youngsters from 162 countries at the same time gathered at Hylands Park in Chelmsford, Essex, for a two-week World Jamboree, which draws to a close next week.

 

Scouts at this jamboree, however, were allowed to tuck into meat as Halal and Kosher meat was on offer.

 

They watched 300 fellow Scouts on Brownsea Island renew their vows to build a tolerant and peaceful society at the poignant Sunrise Ceremony, on Brownsea Island, via a live satellite link on Wednesday.

 

The ceremony was broadcast around the globe to 28 million youngsters.

 

One Scout who took part in the ceremony said: "I was really disappointed we couldn't have what we liked to eat.

 

"I thought we should have been given the choice. And not being able to light fires was silly. I go camping with my mum and dad and we always have a small fire. It's not hard to be safe if you're sensible."

 

No meat ! No Fire ! Not quite my type of scouting.

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Until late in the story when it was identified as a bay tree, I was concerned about the pot plant.

 

Why if someone else's food is to be kosher/halal/vegetarian does mine have to be? How does my food affect the physical or spiritual qualities of theirs? Not griping, actually asking the question.

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My son is at the WSJ right now, and I assure you that they are eating meat. Although the article isn't clear, it seems to be talking only about the encampment on Brownsea Island, which was attended by two representative scouts from each country, and which was (I think) only for one day. Since they were from all different countries and presumably all ate together, it's not surprising that food was chosen that they all could eat. I don't know about the campfires--again, I can see why they don't want campfires in an encampment of 40,000 people, but I don't know about Brownsea Island--but they give a pretty good reason right in the article.

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  • 4 weeks later...

The Daily mail is one of those reactionary tabloid papers, when they are not printng something about Diana, they will print stories that are designed to get people going, only when you re-read the story and possible read it from other sources do you realise that its all a fuss over nothing.

 

From what i understand one of the 'news' papers from the 'dialy mail family' printed a story about a Camp site that had alegedly removed a campsite chapel under the headline "Scouts' forest chapel torn down after 70 years because it might offend non-Christians" followed by the usual rantings.

reading into it a bit further, it appears that the chappel was moved, as for structures it consisted of little more than logs and a few poles ( ie no permanant buildings)

 

As for the origanal story..

Almost all camps that i have been on where there are a lot of people in a small area ) ie a full-capacity campsite, individual or group open fires have been banned, the only exception being if its part of the camp as a whole.

Brownsea island isnt owned by the Scout association )UK=, but its Owned by the national trust, its their land and people should respect their wishes and be grateful that the National trust allow Scouts to camp there.

As for the food, at a rough guess they had to have a reasonably large amount of food to prepare and not muich time to mess around with asking people what they want, the easist option is this situation is to go for something that everyone can eat-drink.

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FWIW, at the WSJ while they made sure to make available food for vegetarians/vegans, kosher, and halal, this did not mean that other foods were not available.

 

In the adult hub, we had sausage rolls, hamburgers, and other meat items. Final meal was a cookout with burgers and sausages (with other items also available).

 

 

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One has to realize, that our Scouts went to the World Jamboree, and not to our local Camporee. Our kids are spoiled, and they think our meals is the one's we should all eat, even at the World Jamboree ? I traveled around the world, and I mostly always tried to eat local food, even if the Mac Donald's store was around the corner. I am glad that the Jamboree was not run on the ' boy run' concept, otherwise we would have had a disaster. jambo

 

 

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  • 3 months later...

Baloney ... or Bologna ... or maybe baloney was right after all.

 

Plenty of chow for us omnivores at the IST dining hall. I ate bangers every morning until I figured out that was what was giving me the runs. So I ate bacon, which is more what we would call ham or Canadian bacon. Tuna, chicken or shrimp salad for lunch everyday. Dinner always included at least two meat selections.

 

Junior, sitting here next to me, tells me he also had bangers every morning until he, too, figured out that they were giving him the trots too.

 

By the way, no on wants to eat burgers in the UK. Yuk! Ground beef just isn't the same there. I had a $40 burger at the Hilton at Gatwick and could barely choke it down.

 

The fire ban is correct. But no one could look at the site and even consider striking a match. All the sites were essentially in hay fields. Even if fires had been permitted, fuel would have been an issue. The wooded areas were few and far between and I really didn't see the down wood around like you see in the woods here.

 

Don't believe everything you read.

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" meat was whipped off the menu in favour of vegetarian cuisine because it might offend the different faiths of youngsters from 162 countries if it wasn't Halal or Kosher."

 

They had no meat. The Lord of Znurfran would be offended.

 

This prompted me to look up the Halal rules on-line and I wonder about all of the muslims that I see eating at McD's. I'm sure that the slaughterhouses that are used by McD's don't make their employees say the name of God before they clobber the cow.

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Funny thing, When our Uncle Sam sent me to Saudi Arabia we weren't supposed to have certain items in the "kingdom".

 

Services for Jewish Marines were listed like this

Catholic 0800 Mess Tent Sunday

Protestant 0900 Mess Tent Sunday

Brand X 1800 Mess Tent Friday

 

Perish the thought of an illegal Jewish service in the "kingdom"

 

We didn't pull out the Ham and Chicken loaf from the MRE's the Iraqi's ate it anyway. I recently saw a youtube tape of them trying to do jumping jacks in 2007 . They could not do them in 1991 either.

 

Somebody forgot to tell those idiots that owned the "kingdom" we were there to save their butts not kiss their butt.

 

 

If the PC stuff gets worse the 200th Jambo will have

 

Foil celery

Dutch oven celery

Raw celery

bean soup

 

A large percentage of the world eats dog. I just wouldn't take any in the chow line, but I would not want it banned. Some of my brother scouts really like Fifi and Rex in a dutch oven and good for them.

 

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