Hi everyone,
It's been a long week. I've been gradually getting over my cold and hand infection, and getting used to driving the Mazda Lantis, which I really love. (see photo). I succeeded in selling my old Charade today, for less than I hoped but at least to a mechanic who can fix it up properly.
One joyous experience and one really rotten one. Joyous experience first. The informatics specialist who was hired to handle the data coming in for Israel's LTER network, a new American immigrant, came round to our office to see what we do with data. He went to our chief scientist, who realized after three sentences that he doesn't even have the language to understand what this guy is saying (and I'm not talking about English) so he sent the guy round to me. Almost as fast, we figured out that we are in the same field, ecological informatics, and so far as I know, we are probably the only ones in Israel. Both of us have been thinking we are alone. So we spent two hours intensively rapping system analysis until we were exhausted, but barely scratched the surface. We need to work together in the future, and couldn't be happier. What a difference being two of you makes from going it alone.....
Now the rotten experience. I'm involved in animal welfare here in Israel, and a PETA (animal welfare group) clip is making the rounds here about making cheap fur from cats and dogs in China for the export trade. The clip didn't spare details, and the cruelty made me nauseuous. I won't tell all of it. Suffice that the Chinese figured out that they get a better quality of fur if they skin the animal alive. Cats sometimes remain alive and fully conscious up to ten minutes after being skinned alive. Puppies are killed by dashing their brains out against the floor. The film had sound, and the screams and cries o the animals still haunt me. Jesus Christ, it is horrific.
The animals are farmed under inhumane conditions, transported by truck, slammed around breaking bones, terrified, hung with wire nooses and slowly strangled while being skinned. The industry makes Nazi death camps look kind and compassionate in comparison (and yes, I've seen my fill of documentation on those as well. The comparison is not hyperbole.)
I have no illusions about human depravity, and generally expect the worst of people. But I had no idea that people can be so vicious on an industrial scale, not just a pervert here and there. My only comfort is that if you tried doing something like that here, the locals would hang you by your nuts with the strangling wires and skin you alive. A deserved fate, I might add. Damn, and my professional conservation society is having its annual conservation meeting in China in two years.
So we are trying to find out what has been happening in China since that film came out. I've got journalist friends among the animal welfare people here, and they are working on it. I hope the Chinese got shamed into closing these operations down. Whenever I think of the situation there, I shudder; I have no idea how the guys who did the undercover filming had the stomach to do it....guess they figured it was the only way to bust up the little house of horrors.....hope they did.
Still, it remains that people could do things like this as a normal business. Two million cats and dogs tortured to death per year in China for the cheap fur trade. It's not like it was any kind of necessity. Just plain fucking sick and evil..... Oh yes, evil is real enough in this world, and it is entirely human. We don't need a devil to help us along; we humans are quite capable of it all by ourselves....
So I shudder, and gather my 12 cats and 3 dogs a bit closer and back off a bit more from any belief in natural human goodness....
Aside from that shadow which is now in the back of my mind, things are going well enough. Winter is coming, the first rains starting, temperature is dropping. I am glad of the new car, and feel a lot safer for driving in bad weather. It has power, and the other blessing is that it is very stable and reliable. Kinda like driving a tank. Frankly, at my age, a tank is exactly what I want, although it is a challenge to park it in a crowded parking lot. Never mind, I'll learn.
shabbat shalom
Linda
It's been a long week. I've been gradually getting over my cold and hand infection, and getting used to driving the Mazda Lantis, which I really love. (see photo). I succeeded in selling my old Charade today, for less than I hoped but at least to a mechanic who can fix it up properly.
One joyous experience and one really rotten one. Joyous experience first. The informatics specialist who was hired to handle the data coming in for Israel's LTER network, a new American immigrant, came round to our office to see what we do with data. He went to our chief scientist, who realized after three sentences that he doesn't even have the language to understand what this guy is saying (and I'm not talking about English) so he sent the guy round to me. Almost as fast, we figured out that we are in the same field, ecological informatics, and so far as I know, we are probably the only ones in Israel. Both of us have been thinking we are alone. So we spent two hours intensively rapping system analysis until we were exhausted, but barely scratched the surface. We need to work together in the future, and couldn't be happier. What a difference being two of you makes from going it alone.....
Now the rotten experience. I'm involved in animal welfare here in Israel, and a PETA (animal welfare group) clip is making the rounds here about making cheap fur from cats and dogs in China for the export trade. The clip didn't spare details, and the cruelty made me nauseuous. I won't tell all of it. Suffice that the Chinese figured out that they get a better quality of fur if they skin the animal alive. Cats sometimes remain alive and fully conscious up to ten minutes after being skinned alive. Puppies are killed by dashing their brains out against the floor. The film had sound, and the screams and cries o the animals still haunt me. Jesus Christ, it is horrific.
The animals are farmed under inhumane conditions, transported by truck, slammed around breaking bones, terrified, hung with wire nooses and slowly strangled while being skinned. The industry makes Nazi death camps look kind and compassionate in comparison (and yes, I've seen my fill of documentation on those as well. The comparison is not hyperbole.)
I have no illusions about human depravity, and generally expect the worst of people. But I had no idea that people can be so vicious on an industrial scale, not just a pervert here and there. My only comfort is that if you tried doing something like that here, the locals would hang you by your nuts with the strangling wires and skin you alive. A deserved fate, I might add. Damn, and my professional conservation society is having its annual conservation meeting in China in two years.
So we are trying to find out what has been happening in China since that film came out. I've got journalist friends among the animal welfare people here, and they are working on it. I hope the Chinese got shamed into closing these operations down. Whenever I think of the situation there, I shudder; I have no idea how the guys who did the undercover filming had the stomach to do it....guess they figured it was the only way to bust up the little house of horrors.....hope they did.
Still, it remains that people could do things like this as a normal business. Two million cats and dogs tortured to death per year in China for the cheap fur trade. It's not like it was any kind of necessity. Just plain fucking sick and evil..... Oh yes, evil is real enough in this world, and it is entirely human. We don't need a devil to help us along; we humans are quite capable of it all by ourselves....
So I shudder, and gather my 12 cats and 3 dogs a bit closer and back off a bit more from any belief in natural human goodness....
Aside from that shadow which is now in the back of my mind, things are going well enough. Winter is coming, the first rains starting, temperature is dropping. I am glad of the new car, and feel a lot safer for driving in bad weather. It has power, and the other blessing is that it is very stable and reliable. Kinda like driving a tank. Frankly, at my age, a tank is exactly what I want, although it is a challenge to park it in a crowded parking lot. Never mind, I'll learn.
shabbat shalom
Linda
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