Cattle in national parks
Should government allow 25,000 cattle to starve or does it allow them to graze (until the next wet season) in protected nature reserves where they will certainly damage the natural environment? If this...
View ArticleKilling animals: The case of hunting
I recently joined a group of hunters pursuing Sambar deer in central Victoria – the mountainous area not far from Walhalla. As one who teaches classes on animal rights I do have strong views on the...
View ArticleLankov on North Korea
I am fascinated by North Korea and the book by Andrei Lankov intensifies my fascination. Its a bit like the guilty pleasure of gawking at an extreme traffic accident. A Stalinist monarchy that has...
View ArticleJade Scorpion
In the AFR Friday I read an amazing story that seems so fantastic that it strains credibility. A province in northern Myanmar (Burma) mines jade primarily for the Chinese market. Up to 500,000 workers...
View ArticleElephant ivory
I read in NewScientist that the US Fish and Wildlife Service are crushing and destroying 6 tonnes of illegally-poached elephant ivory. The obvious response as an economist to this action is that it...
View ArticleDon’t buy civet coffee
This YouTube shows why. It isn’t fashionable or smart to use coffee beans that have been passed through the arse end of a civet. It promotes cruelty to the animals. So too is eating civet – in China...
View ArticleNepal shifts to the right
Living in this fascinating country had lead me to focus on their current election. The communist insurgency ended in 2008 but there really hasn’t been effective government in Nepal since that time....
View ArticleThailand’s new fascism?
What is happening in Thailand suggests a possible move toward dictatorship. The Yellow Shirts (and their political representatives in the Democrat Party) are a fascist group who want to suspend...
View ArticleThailand facing civil war
What is happening in Thailand comes close to open class warfare – it can spill over into full-blown civil war rather than just sporadic gun fights unless the opposition Democrats back down and reengage...
View ArticleEPA rejects review of WA shark cull
There has been much uninformed criticism of the WA cull. Similar culling practices already occur in NSW and Queensland. But the EPA also gets it wrong. The EPA boss says that public opinion is...
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