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Bear bile farming will be drawn into the spotlight in Sydney as a group of animal activists protest the practice still rife in parts of South East Asia.
Luke Sullivan, controversial artist and protest organiser, said despite international pressure to shut down the industry the practice is still lucrative in China, Vietnam and Korea.
“The Chinese government has estimated that there are between seven and ten thousand bears kept for the specific purpose of bile farming in China, with another five thousand in Korea and Vietnam,” Sullivan said.
“The bears used in the barbaric practice are invariably the endangered, Black Asiatic Bears.”
Bear bile is used in a variety of traditional Chinese medicines, however the active acid in the bile, ursodeoxycholic acid, has been available synthetically since the 1950s, which Sullivan says is evidence that the practice should be outlawed.
“To extract bile from the bear, a needle is inserted into its gall bladder, on a daily basis. The bears are kept captive in tiny “crush cages” and most captive bears have a life expectancy of 8 years, compared to an expectancy of 35 if left in the wild,” he said.
“It is no coincidence that the population of an animal unique to Asia has been steadily declining since bear bile farming became a profitable industry, and an industry traditionally supported by the Chinese government.”
“Efforts have been made by some governments to condemn the farms, and animal rights groups have drawn the practice onto the world stage at various times, yet the industry continues unrestricted.”
“The Chinese government must take on and accept the responsibilities of being a global power, close down this industry and provide for the rehabilitation of these bears. This is a cruel and disgusting industry.”
Sullivan, no stranger to headlines following the global reaction to his 2007 work The Fourth Secret of Fatima, said the protest had been organised to embarrass the governments complicit in the industry.
“Negotiations with the Chinese government have been held with animal welfare groups over a number of years and international pressure has been applied, yet the Chinese govt will not outlaw the practice. This is morally and ethically reprehensible, and the general public should be made aware,” Sullivan said.
The protest will be held 10:00 Friday 20 May outside the Chinese Consulate, 39 Dunblane Street, Camperdown. Sullivan urges like minded people to join in.
Twice in the last two weeks I have posted ‘care packages’ to mates living overseas. As a London resident for 4.5 years, I know all too well the ridiculous joy a violet crumble or cherry ripe can bring, especially out of the blue.
Hours have been spent selecting items to post, packing them carefully, addressing them clearly and then standing behind 20 people all conducting non-phi related business at my local post office.
It’s been a while since needing to post anything in Australia, but the 20% price increase in domestic stamps since my last purchase seemed a bit galling, given CPI has sat under 3% each year of my absence.
I reasoned that due to increase in e-mail any economy of scale in postage may be lost, hence the impressive price hike. But then quickly dismissed that idea, given my tax payer funded Australia Post clearly has an income stream through its diversification into becoming a variety store of bizarrely eclectic standards (“would you like a weather vane or mobile phone with your stamps today?”)
Upon handing over my parcels of love, they were weighed as carefully as a new born. And then I was presented with the bill.
My 1.2kg parcel worth $AUD 20 to the UK cost $67 to air freight.
My 1kg parcel worth $AUD 10 to the US cost $40 to air freight.
This means freight to the UK is more than $55/kg, and $40/kg to the US. One way.
As at the time of writing this, I could buy a one way business class seat to NY for $3915, making the price per kilo for an average Australian $AUD 39.15. Similarly the price per kilo of an average Australian to fly business class to London is $AUD 33.76.
I understand there are associated costs with postage but surely that cost is borne across all items of mail, not just packages filled with a bag of sherbies and a box of vitawheats? I also assume that the cost of business class luxuries would average out to be slightly higher than depreciating an AusPost van?
I’m no economist, but I’d hazard a guess that the number of packages you can fit in a cargo plane would be slightly higher than the 300 or so passengers you can fit in a long haul plane, which lends itself to creating an economy of scale, surely?
Given AusPost last year reported a profit of $AUD103m, and as a government enterprise business, I support operating costs through my taxes, surely that makes me a share holder? In which case:
Dear Australia Post
Give me my dividend in reduced postage; else my mates are getting cut off.
Lots of love Jane
I made a PR cry yesterday. Not internationally... well... maybe a bit intentionally.
The PR had sent me a presser about subject X, in which she had said "40% of blah, blah, blah".
40% is a lot. Even for me, a maths moron, I know 40% is a lot. So I was surprised this was a figure I'd never before seen bandied around about subject X.
I rang the PR to ask from which study the figure hailed.
The PR tells me "it's from my client's experience."
I say "so, it's made up?"
PR assures me that it's not, but seems confused about my persistance about empirical evidence being needed as opposed to 'back of fag packet' calculations by someone with a vested interest.
I ask to see the data confirming 40% figure.
PR reiterates "it's from my client's experience".
By this stage, I'm becoming frustrated. I have 40 more calls to make, 4 stories to file in 4 hours and have just received an email about a site visit by a federal minister that will pretty much make my day go to pot.
I explain to the PR that her "clients' experience" means jack all in an actual news setting and that unless she can find me an independent, verifiable source for the figure I will assume it is as fact-based as Harry Potter.
Somewhere around this juncture the PR sobbed, and offered me a fully researched study done by another client in a completely unrelated area. I declined.
At this point I have to admit I have worked in PR. I have done good PR and bad PR. I have managed to present lucid, interesting stories that are helpful to journalists and editors. I have also whored around mindless pap on behalf of hateful clients too cheap to buy advertising and insistent that if they find their content interesting it is naturally interesting to everyone.
I have also worked as a journalist off and on for a long time. I have written concise, meaningful copy that has been cut up to better fit a page defined by community advertisements and I have written pieces about things I don't fully understand that have ended up on the front page. The point is, sometimes the media can be a mystery.
So for any wanna be PRs out there, looking for advice about what actually works beyond the usual stuff, here's a few tips:
1. I probably won't know about your company. And more, I probably won't need to. So if you use acronyms in your presser define them. Else I'll make up my own definitions, and I have a potty mouth. You've been warned.
2. Your client is not the story. I know they think it is, but what they have done is the story. So turn the lead around to put the client name down the back. Don't tell me "Company W has been instrumental in finding a vaccine for cervical cancer". Tell me "A vaccine for cervical cancer has been developed by Company W".
3. Don't make up statistics. Most rounds journalists live and breathe their content like star trek zealots. We are rounds journalists because we know our stuff, so if a surprising stat comes up from a surprising source, it will, axiomatically, surprise us. And no one likes disappointing surprises.
4. Similarly, don't pitch something to us about 'this moment in time' without checking if we have run that story in the last two months and/or if your pitch adds either a new angle or new evidence to the existing angle. Pitches from naive PRs about stories I've just written are like calls from ex-lovers: it only works if you're both desperate.
5. The reason we run "questions to client were unanswered at time of publication" is because you have pissed us off. Case in point, I spoke with a PR a few weeks ago. I asked her my questions, politely and efficiently and she asked me to email them to her. I refrained from saying "do you not have your own pen?" and emailed them, including a lead time of more than 24 hours to turn the info around. 24 hours to a journalist is the equivalent of long service leave. So it's always a bit perplexing to me (having worked on both sides of the page) why collating information will take longer than 24 hours, unless you're hiding something. I followed up with the PR in question up by phone and email. Twice. By my deadline I'd heard nothing. Not even a "I'm getting to it", just a big blank nothing. So I filed and wrote "Questions to Company X remain outstanding." I got a terse email from PR three days after publication at 01.00 chastising me for not following up again. She was very busy that day and "journalists usually follow up with me". At the time of writing this, the questions still remain unanswered. 35 days later. I'm now looking at a much larger investigative piece into said Company, simply because she's shitted me. I mean, it's newsworthy. But it's mostly because she's shitted me.
There are any number of tips you'll hear as a PR about how to work best with journalists, and the best advice I can give you as someone straddling both sides of the fence: think like a journalist. If you've never worked in a newsroom with an editor screaming about needing to fill copy on page 8, and the picture editor demanding to know the names for a caption while your check sub asks you question after question to make sure the nuance is accurate, all while you're still writing copy, you need to do it. Until you fully appreciate the noise, distractions and energy in a newsroom, your pitches will always be a little bit off.
And for PRs looking for better distribution methods, here are a few free newswires, via @mashable.
PRBuzz.com – Completely free distribution to search engines, news sites, and blogs.
PRCompass.com – Distribute your press release with a free or paid version, others can vote it up ala Digg style.
PRUrgent.com – Not only distributes your release, but attempts to teach you how to write one, and even offers downloadbale samples for you to work with.
Press-Base.com – Submit your release for free and get on their front page and the category of your choice.
PressAbout.com – A free press release service formatted as a blog.
PressMethod.com – Free press release distribution no matter what, but extra services based on the size of your contribution.
PRLeap.com – Free distribution to search engines, newswires, and RSS feeds. Fee based bumps get you better placement.
PRLog.org – Free distribution to Google News and other other search engines.
TheOpenPress.com – Gives free distribution for plain formatted releases, fees for HTML-coded releases.
It was when I was told for the 25th time “we’re sorry for this inconvenience this is causing you” as I again, reported a problem I’d been having since day one that I began to suspect that UK-based international telecoms giant wasn’t really sorry. I began to suspect that UK-based telecoms giant indeed couldn’t give a rat’s arse.
The story begins innocently enough: I needed a new handset and, despite four years of perfect service with another provider, sold out for a better deal
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September 15th 2009 17:32
WITH the benefit of 20:20 hindsight, I can pinpoint the exact moment today when things went phut.
Due to a looming manuscript deadline and a neighbour with a vast collection of Bob Marley routinely played at Stadium Australia volume, I recently decided to ditch my London existence for a weekend away. In a quest for a geography that would inspire me I headed ''up north''. Specifically to that part of England where the road signs stop listing town names and simply say "the north" and "the south"; where people say hello to you on the streets, and where articles in sentences are optional. This, however, is not the aforementioned moment
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There are many things I simply don’t understand about life.
The inverse relationship between people who work in customer service and their desire to serve for example; why Adam Sandler films are classified as "comedy"; when reading porn on the Tube during commuter crush became acceptable and why Southgate in London is so far north it could be in Bedfordshire. But curiosities aside, I have been stopped in my tracks again by one of life’s unanswerable questions
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I admit, it’s been a while since I was last in a public library.
The advent of eBay and Amazon meant the last time I was in a library looking for a non textbook to borrow Kurt Cobain was still alive; Nelson Mandella has just been elected and OJ had been accused of killing his wife
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A circus clown gave up his seat for me on the tube this afternoon.
courtesy of http://www.magicalenterprises.com/images/200508020225500.TOBY-CIRCUS-BALLANTINE.jpg
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So, have spent all of today at complete and utter pointless wank fest of training day for "communications professionals". The name alone should have been a heads up to having to spend the day with complete cocks who were going to talk in bellicose metaphors about taking charge of organisational culture and working together to create a better world.
However, because I'm clearly not that bright, and the day meant I didn't have to commute to the suburban hell of my office somewhere slightly south of the hebrides, I signed up. And turned up
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Ok, again apologies for never bothering to update this thing. If any of you have stuck around, good work! I have no defence; I just never bother to think of it.
So, am back in the land of chicken and beer (ok, I may have some defence, I did relocate again
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Comment by JaneD
on Australia Post: where *all* the packages go first class
Yellow Brick Road