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Giant Rabbits To Feed North Korea
Posted by
kdawson
on Sun Jan 14, 2007 02:35 AM
from the mmm-thumper dept.
from the mmm-thumper dept.
iamdrscience writes with news of an East German pensioner who breeds rabbits the size of dogs. Karl Szmolinsky won a prize for breeding Germany's largest rabbit, at 23 lbs., in 2006. News photos reached the North Koreans, who asked through their embassy whether Szmolinsky would be willing to sell them some as foodstocks — each rabbit yields about 15 lb. of meat. A deal was struck and Szmolinsky will be traveling to North Korea in April to help them set up a breeding program. (The photos in the article use the most extreme, contrived camera angles to make the rabbits look even more huge.)
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i for one (Score:5, Funny)
May I be the first to say... (Score:5, Insightful)
In Soviet North Korea, rabbits eat you!
Seriously though, how absurd is it that anyone thinks this is going to make any difference: it's a Communist dictatorship. The government runs food production and distribution, so of course they don't have enough food. All the rabbits in the world won't change that. It's sad and absurd that the average North Korean is still paying the price for a government that ignores that basic fact, proven so thoroughly and with so many graves in the 20th century.
Parent
Re:May I be the first to say... (Score:5, Interesting)
But I gotta give them credit, at least they got the right idea about how to properly run a communist country -- fear! Stalin style (yeah, I like the alliteration, just came up with it!) People will obey when they see their neighbors in the evening and by morning the secret police have taken them away because someone made up a lie about them being "enemies of the people." I am not making this up, this happened to families I knew personally, this is how things are in NK.
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Re:May I be the first to say... (Score:5, Insightful)
Such comments are really nothing but an insult to people who actually did live in Communist Russia. I know some of them, myself, and likening the United States to Soviet Russia is such a laughable comparison that you should be ashamed. Many of these people used basically all the money they had to move to countries like the US.
Parent
Re:May I be the first to say... (Score:5, Insightful)
So what would you have people do, wait until it's too late. Wait until they really are being dragged out of their houses, do you honor oppression by waiting until the last minute when it is more appropriate to propose an analogy? I think they would want that.
Parent
Re:May I be the first to say... (Score:4, Insightful)
How about being accurate? How about if you talk about what's actually happening now instead of saying basically:
"Everyone knows about this bad thing that happened in the past (Nazis, Killing Fields, slavery, plague, whatever). Without being specific at all we're saying that what's going on now is just as bad."
- How is it just as bad? We're not telling you that.
- What's the bad thing that's happening? Nothing specific, but it's really bad, we assure you.
- What should you do about it? You should do what we tell you to do!
- Who are the victims? Everyone!
- Can you give me a few examples? No, just believe us. Are you stupid or something?
Etc, etc, etc.
In other words, instead of talking about what happened 60 years ago in WWII, talk about exactly what you don't like that's happening now and actually try to make the case that it's bad in some way. Be specific and reasonable and talk about reality.
Why should anyone listen to hysterical ravings? Do scaremongers have a good track record for correct predictions of the future?
Parent
Re:Correction... (Score:5, Insightful)
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Re:Correction... (Score:5, Insightful)
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Re:May I be the first to say... (Score:5, Funny)
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Re:May I be the first to say... (Score:4, Funny)
Parent
Re:May I be the first to say... (Score:4, Insightful)
I don't think we are hated for taking prisoners. It might be the treatment of those prisoners. I imagine your assumption is that everyone who was taken prisoner is a "terrorist" and doesn't deserve humane treatment. However many were civilians caught up in the wrong place at the wrong time, some are legitimate solders, and others just fighting on the "wrong side" for whatever beliefs they had. Certainly there are some real terrorists in custody but I think the number is a extremly low one. To lump everyone together is a pretty big mistake.. kind of like lumping Iraq and 911 together.
Parent
U.S. bureaucracy = North Korea? Yeah, right. (Score:5, Insightful)
Go for it, son, define "large" for me. Give me some numbers. We have plenty of bureaucracies that are as large or far larger than the entire North Korean government, General Motors, for example, and while they may be inefficient, they do not leave millions of their own starving to death or subject to a high likelihood of torture or death. Equating the two is beyond wrong, it's flat out irresponsible.
Those of us living in reality point, rather, to lack of accountability, lack of transparency, inefficient cross-communications, y'know, the stuff that us actual experts in industrial organization are always willing to explain to those clued enough to pay attention.
You go out there and talk to some genuine experts in the reasons for North Korea's current state. Read up on, say, rule of law. See what energetically capitalist outlets like the Wall Street Journal have to say about the causes of North Korea's problems.Then come back and we'll have this chat again.
Oh, and if you're so hyped on decentralization, tell me, what in the real world have you done to bring that about? Personally, I've been working at that for over twenty years, just testified this past week on government procedures to New York's city council. This wasn't so bad since I've been dealing with the senior relevant councilman since, oh, about two months since he was elected, back in '01.
So, how about you. What have you accomplished?
Parent
Re:May I be the first to say... (Score:4, Informative)
OK if North Korea could afford to feed the rabbits, it seems likely they could afford to feed the people
Boy that sounds like people food to me, if I were breeding food rabbits they'd be bred for max production eating things like hay, alfalfa, clover and maybe throw in some field corn and soybeans on occassion; but that's not what's going to happen here, they are going to starve people to free up food for rabbits to feed the starving people, pathetic.
Parent
Rabbits can be a worthwhile food source (Score:5, Insightful)
In Roman Britain Rabbits were an important food supplement. A large number could be easily be fed and cared for by the Children while the parents did more arduous agricultural tasks such as attempting to grow crops or maintain larger animals.
Pretty bad that in 2006 we have come to this though, especially when the US and EU ploughing food back into the soil and African countries would dearly love to be able to have foreign food markets.
Parent
It might help (Score:5, Insightful)
All the rabbits in the world won't change that.
Maybe not but it certainly might help. Rabbits can survive on grass and crude silage, can be grown in relatively small areas and reproduce reliably. Faster than goats, the most widely eaten animal on the planet.
Similar husbandry programs with cavia porcellus, guinea pigs to you, have helped many families lift themselves out of poverty [amren.com] in Peru and other areas in South America.
Rabbits would be better suited to the colder climate of North Korea. The fur would provide a secondary revenue source. It may not sound like much but when you're dirt poor having meat to eat and furs to trade is big deal.
How is this not a good thing? Why would you want to see the North Korean people starve just because their government is the asshat of the world? That's almost as silly as people hating all Americans because Bush is a douche bag. It's not like they elected that idiot in North Korea and there's growing evidence we didn't elect our idiot, either.
Parent
No need to do much research (Score:4, Insightful)
This is because Marx had this stupid idea of condoning or even encouraging violence as the way to achieve Communism.
So when you have a "Communist" Revolution ala Marx, guess who ends up becoming leader of the country?
The one who was willing AND able to exert the most violence.
Yeah, that's right, most of the time you get Mr "Silence all Opposition".
Marx's Communism is severely flawed because of this.
You basically have to wait till you get taken over by a Benevolent Dictator, or the Evil Dictator hands power to nondictators, or Mr Dictator has a change of heart.
Parent
You got it the wrong way (Score:4, Insightful)
Move specifically, the "dictatorship of the proletariat". It is in the official Marxist road to Communism, a temporary state of dictatorship that should lead to the promised land.
Just about all self-declared Marxist regimes claimed to be the "dictatorship of the proletariat" state, being bright enough not to claim to the people that the current state of affairs was he best they could hope for. The one exception I know of was Albania, which at some point claimed to have reached "true Communism".
It has been rough to get there, but those intellectuals that still dream of Communism have mostly reached the conclusion that any kind of dictatorship of temporarily suspension civil rights are *not* acceptable steps on the way. It just took a few (well, rather more than a few) million lives to get to that insight.
Hopefully it will take less than that for the neo-Conservative to see that torture and other suspension of civil rights are not acceptable means to reach their goals, neither abroad or at home. Unless, of course, that is their goals.
Parent
Re:You got it the wrong way (Score:4, Informative)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dictatorship_of_the_
Do not blame an ideology for the people who believes in it.
Parent
Re:You got it the wrong way (Score:5, Insightful)
You mean, "don't judge it by what it has achieved in practice, almost every single time it was tried" (Kibbutzim worked better, but they are only inhabited by people who want to be there).
Parent
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
"Giant Rabbits To Feed On North Korea"
Harvey? (Score:3, Funny)
On the plus side, I don't see anything wrong with eating rabbit meat. Rabbits are well known for their reproductive capabilities, so if it's edible, why not? It beats kimchee...
Roos (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Roos (Score:5, Funny)
Parent
Seems like a make-work project... (Score:5, Funny)
who breeds rabbits the size of dogs.
Why don't the North Koreans just continue to eat dogs?
Re:Seems like a make-work project... (Score:4, Insightful)
Parent
You don't understand (Score:3, Funny)
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
Because the fashion industry doesn't like to admit to selling products made out of dog fur.
really, they don't [google.com]
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
A dog must eat meat to grow, which means you have to first feed an animal that you feed to the dog. As you can understand this is wastefull since you'll loose energy in the conversion from vegetables to dogfood.
The problem is that any conversion from vegetables to meat is a lossy one, so in the end even the rabbits are a stupid (yet so brilliantly communistic) idea. It would be better to grow crops and feed the north Koreans vegetarian food. (though
Rabbit Starvation (Score:5, Informative)
Here is why this is a bad idea (Score:5, Funny)
The giant rabbit thing sounds straight out of a cheesy horror film. I think I would go with micro rabbits instead. You could breed them by the millions and just eat them whole like little snacks. They might be a little furry and a little crunchy, but at least there is less danger they will turn out evil and eat your children.
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
http://imdb.com/title/tt0312004/ [imdb.com]
Giant rabbits you say? (Score:5, Funny)
Help the poor North Koreans? (Score:4, Interesting)
If Korea is really concerned about starvation, they should look at their neighbor China. China went from a disaster of 10's of millions of starving people to total solution almost immediately. How did they do it? They let the farmers have private property rights.
Giant bunnies vs. Just get rid of Kim! (Score:5, Informative)
Large empty streets, every foreigner is followed by an assigned guide. If a tourist as much as takes a digital photo of one of their leader's statues that is off center or has the head cut-off they are forced to retake the picture. There are stories of children being used to help harvest poppies for heroin production after they get off school. Everything is a show, they use all of their funds to build their military while hundreds of thousands are starving. Their leader is crazy and he has nukes. Iraq was a kindergarten compared to NK. Until the crazy dictators are ruling the country no amount of giant fluffy (and yummy) bunnies will save the people from starvation...
Parent
Re: Giant bunnies vs. Just get rid of Kim! (Score:5, Informative)
A regime that would rather see the misery of all it's citizens than reunifying under the leadership of the south.
Parent
Useful Scientific Facts About Bunnies (Score:3, Funny)
They may not taste good but they can dance.
Terrorism (Score:5, Funny)
Efficiency? (Score:5, Insightful)
I'm not a vegetarian myself, but even this raises questions regarding the efficiency of such an operation.
Is it more efficient to feed these rabbits vegetable matter to be converted to protein (which, according to the article, is what the diet of many N. Koreans is deficient in), or would it be better instead to grow protein-rich plants that can be consumed directly by the people?
If the rabbits can consume grasses and other things that humans are unable to digest efficiently, and convert that into protein, then I suppose it would make sense.
Re:Efficiency? (Score:5, Insightful)
Parent
Long term effects? (Score:5, Informative)
Oregon Trail (Score:5, Funny)
PS we used a raft to get past the last river.
PPS my wife died of cholera
Parent
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
But see, the thing is... the average Kim Joe in NK is already starving/malnurished. The place is a culinary hell-hole, that way. The Stalinst way they run their agriculture is having (shocking!) the same results that it did under Stalin: mass starvation and death, unless you're in the military. Eeesh, what a place. And the people there seem to really believe that t
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Those were exactly my thoughts reading the comments attached to this article.
Military applications... (Score:3, Funny)
Move along... (Score:5, Funny)
If I Were A Thinking Man.. (Score:4, Funny)
One step closer (Score:4, Funny)
North Korea now safe... (Score:5, Funny)
It's the end of the world (Score:3, Funny)
"They cost a lot to feed" (Score:4, Insightful)
"I'm not increasing production and I'm not taking any more orders after this. They cost a lot to feed," he [German Farmer] said.
They're too expensive to feed for the German farmer to continue. By German rabbit-breeding standards. Now if the North Korean regime already (and allegedly) finds it too expensive to feed it's own people on even the lowest standards, how is diverting those much needed foodstuffs to rabbits going to solve anything?
Usually there's a logic to this. Unfortunately, the same people powering this decision are the same people that had the foresight of building a massive hotel that couldn't be finished (you know what I'm talking about if you're familiar with Pyongyang.)