I’ve often wondered whether people who live their entire lives in places with really fantastic National-Geographic-esque animals still get excited when they see them. Are elephants still cool if you live in Kenya? And are squirrel monkeys equally entertaining for Amazonians as they are for me, or are they just like, well, squirrels? For their… Continue reading On the Need for a Huaorani A.L.F.
It occurred to me that my last three posts have been about, respectively, animal slaughter and alcoholism, ethnocide, and beggars. I will now attempt to share some less depressing anecdotes. Last week I had the pleasure of meeting Manuela Ima, the President of the Huaorani Women’s Association. We met up in my hotel, which happens… Continue reading On a lighter note…
Q: How do I know Yasuní National Park is the most biodiverse place in the planet? A: Because on Saturday mornings, that diversity is on sale in Pompeya. I´m not quite sure what I was expecting to discover this Saturday, but I certainly didn´t plan on finding anything as disturbing as I did. One of… Continue reading Blood on All Hands
Last summer, it was a beard. This summer, it’s Kraft Macaroni and Cheese. Almost exactly one year ago, I arrived in Uganda, expecting to see some elephants, learn a bit of Luganda, raft down the Nile, and maybe, in between visits to national parks, do a bit of economic research on agricultural cooperatives. It didn’t… Continue reading Africa Beards, Expat Guilt, and Mac’n’Cheese
This is, most definitely, not the blog post I was hoping to write on this topic. A few weeks ago, the Worcester College MCR—the graduate student government—debated a “Meatless Mondays” resolution, which would urge our dining hall to go vegetarian for one day a week. Initially, the people who drafted our motion couched it in… Continue reading Vegetarian Mumbo Jumbo
Long before I came to Oxford, I had heard about Oxford’s notorious animal rights activists. They epitomized the absolute extreme to which the movement had come: “they” broke into labs, harassed professors, and even committed acts of bombing and arson. While there were many reason why my interviews for the Rhodes and Marshall were disasters,… Continue reading The Face of Terrorism (Oxford and elsewhere)
There are a few questions that seem to get asked at every single animal rights event I’ve ever been to, in spite of their complete inanity. At the end of any lecture by a vegan philosopher, it’s inevitably that some carnivore with raise their hand and smugly—as if they had come up with an idea… Continue reading On “Happy Meat”
I’ve stayed faithful for months now. I’ve had plenty of opportunities to give into temptation, but I resisted. But, it had been a long week, marked by not enough sleep, too much work, and constant frustration. The never-ending deprivation from things I’m used to was really starting to set in, and I needed a pick-me-up.… Continue reading Cheater
Alex V. Barnard - Sociology 