Pics of Your kitties

Yesterday's post made me think that I'd like to invite (my precious few) readers to email me photos of your cats. No, they dont have to look like Hitler. If you have anything to say about them (in a line or 2) send that too. Since I've already posted several pictures of my cat, Lucy, I'll refrain for now. but if you don't send me any photos, I'll have to post another of her.

Don't worry, I also love dogs, so at a later stage, I'd also definitely love some doggy photos too.

classic

If you are interested in seeing more cats that look like Hitler, here they are.

an idea!

There is this great place in London (they give away a free copy of the Independent, which is crap, but I love free stuff) that didn't sell ham sandwiches, they did sell pig sandwiches though. It was refreshingly (and disturbingly) honest.

So I have a game that I think carnivorous should play; they should be honest at the dinner table or during food preparation. The more detail the better, so for instance "pass me a drumstick please", could be "please rip that chickens thigh out of it's hip socket, I'd like to pick the flesh from it's bones".

You can stick some other examples in the comments.

animal testing

I support animal experimentation in principal but only in a small number of cases. Unfortunately since I know almost nothing about this kind of research, so I don't know where I think the line should be drawn between what is acceptable and what is not. Having said that I think it is very likely that way to much testing goes on. Whenever I read anything on testing in the media it just bashes on about the benefits of testing. Implicit in this line of reasoning is that testing is fine just so long as it benefits humans which people like me deny (it’s an example of begging the question according to my handy guide to clear thinking). In my view, there must be no other way of doing the test's and the benefits to humans (or animals for that matter) must be enormous. Here's what the Economist has say

Great apes are man's closest relatives, having parted company from the human family tree only a few million years ago. Hence it can be (and is) argued that they are indispensable for certain sorts of research. On the other hand, a recent study by Andrew Knight and his colleagues at Animal Consultants International, an animal-advocacy group, casts doubt on the claim that apes are used only for work of vital importance to humanity. Important papers tend to get cited as references in subsequent studies, so Mr Knight looked into the number of citations received by 749 scientific papers published as a result of invasive experiments on captive chimpanzees. Half had received not a single citation up to ten years after their original publication.

So it can't plausibly be argued that this research is essential for human’s at all. And this is for monkeys! Imagine what is happening to lab mice!

The moral of the story is that people respond to incentives. It's no good telling scientists that they must only do testing that is essential and then leaving them to it because they're decent chaps. Unnecessary testing should be against the law. The more I think about it, a rule allowing special cases for testing sounds suspiciously like torture permits. Designed for extreme circumstances but gradually becoming routine as has apparently happened in Israel.

Censorship of artists

When a dictator takes over a country, often the first to be killed are the intellectuals and artists (writers, artists, etc.). The reason for this is that they make people think, they express things that are sometimes taboo but need to be expressed. They are the social conscience, they comment on society and culture, they can delight us and shock us, make us question. This is dangerous for anyone who wants to keep people under strict control. Questioning, non-conformity, individuality are all things that don't do well under a dictatorship.

This leads me to my concern about the continuing censorship of our social commentators. In London, plays have been closed due to Muslim pressure, Jerry Springer the Opera has received violent critism and threats from Christians, and now most recently, an exhibition of one of India's greatest artists at has closed due to pressure of the Hindu Human Rights Organisation because some of his paintings depict the Hindu gods without clothes.

The pressure that religious groups are placing on artists and intellectuals to not be offensive defeats the purpose of artistic and intellectual endevour. Read this interesting article why religious groups should be expected to respect the law and the freedom of expression of artists like the rest of us.

What's been happening lately?

I'm sorry for posting so little these days. The truth is I've been very distracted with training for my professional qualification and choices about my future, like should I change jobs even though I was just promoted?; should I study further, if so where and what?; should I move to UK and when? I'd like to do all three really, but it's all about the order and unfortunately money. Money is not really important to me, but you do need a certain amount to lead a comfortable life. Now I realise that for many people as soon as they get more money their expectations rise. It's a wonderful/terrible thing about human nature, always leaving us dissatisfied and striving for more. But for me, I'm trying to keep my material expectations stable. Basically I want to stay in the same block of flats, be able to afford my medical aid, rent and food. So even though I've just started earning a lot more in my job, I'm willing to leave it for a much lower-paying job that I think I will find more fulfilling, provided it meets my minimum financial requirements. But for me it also depends on my future plans, I'd really, really like to study further and live overseas, both of which require money (even if I am fortunate enough to get a scholarship) and so ideally I should earn a bit more than I need so that I can save towards these goals. So it all takes careful planning, and in the end one has to look at the budget - which I hate doing!

With all this soul searching, planning and budgeting I have not forgotten the ill treatment of animals bred for eating and those used for testing. I wish there was more to be done, but short of being an animal activist, many people just don't take animal rights seriously enough to even consider the idea. I find the violence of opinions against and complete disdain for animal rights quite alarming. Accompanied with it is such a callous arrogance. I'm not referring to you dear reader, but rather to some other blog dialogues that I have seen.