Archive for June, 2017

Image from youthlobby.org

You can listen to this episode above and subscribe to our podcast on iTunes. You can also listen to this episode on StitcherCyber Ears or download it on Archive.org (43mins, 34MB).

Nick is joined by environmental activist Mark Allen to discuss ethical Superannuation funds such as Cruelty Free Super. While these ethical Super funds are generally significantly better than “standard” Super funds and are worth switching to, we need to look critically into where they invest their money. For example, often there is just “one degree of separation”: while ethical Super funds don’t directly invest in fossil fuels (or animal exploitation as well in the case of Cruelty Free Super), they invest in companies who promote urban sprawl, which leads to harm to the environment and animals.

We also discuss the importance of divesting from unethical companies but the need to do more than just divest. Activists encouraging people to divest need to also push people to do more. On this topic, Sam Graham-Felsen’s article on encouraging supporters to ‘up the level of engagement’ is quite relevant – we discussed this on episode 118.

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Clips:

Ouch My FaceEaten by buildings’, Marianne FaithfullGreen Fields (Last Song)’.

Because Australian tourists are the REAL victims here! There is a strong focus on Australian tourists being “duped” in the campaign against dog meat in Bali.

You can listen to this episode above and subscribe to our podcast on iTunes. You can also listen to this episode on StitcherCyber Ears or download it on Archive.org (70mins, 59MB).

This episode covers the Bali dog meat scandal, where Australian tourists have been eating dogs thinking they were eating a different species of animal. To discuss this, Nick is joined by his cousin Emil Raji, who has lived in Bali for most of his life. We give a critical perspective on this scandal and the campaign against it, highlighting the nationalism and racism underlying the outrage behind eating dogs as particularly exceptional or worse than eating other animals.

We play Nick’s talk ‘Rescuing Dogs in a Mercedes-Benz: Animal Advocacy in China’. This talk gives a critical perspective on Western opposition to the dog meat trade. You can view the PowerPoint for this talk here and it is also embedded above. This talk is from the most recent TASA (The Australian Sociological Association) conference. You can listen to other talks from this conference here and you can hear our recap of this conference on episode 151.

We also play Colin Salter’s talk ‘Normativity, Intersectionality and States of Exception’, which argues that animal advocates shouldn’t focus on the relatively small number of animals killed in non-Western counties as exceptional but instead address the far more widespread animal slaughter in Western countries. This talk was recorded at the most recent Institute for Critical Animal Studies (ICAS) Oceania conference. You can hear a recap of this conference on episode 152 and there are links to audio of all of the talks from it in the show notes of that episode. Also a reminder about the upcoming ICAS Oceania conference (14-16 July) and the Development for Species – Animals in society, animals as society conference (18-19 September). They are both in Melbourne.

I spotted this at the vet. On the episode I mentioned that it was the ‘Fuck Off We’re Full’ sticker but it was actually a different racist sticker alongside the Sea Shepherd sticker – same problem though – do animal campaigns feed into racist attitudes?

Other stuff covered on this episode is: the thousands of dogs killed in Australia each year, using the website/app happycow.net to help with vegan eating in Bali and all around the world, nationalism and racism in the campaign against live export – for more on this, check out episode 97 (also featuring Emil) and Nick’s talk ‘Live Animal Export, Humane Slaughter And Media Hegemony’.

If you like what you hear, please support the show!

Clips:

Madness on tha Block ‘Ironi’, Nick’s talk ‘Rescuing Dogs in a Mercedes-Benz: Animal Advocacy in China’, Colin Salter’s talk ‘Normativity, Intersectionality and States of Exception’, Ugly Bastard ‘Menuju Pulau Seribu Luka’.

Check out Emil’s photography on Instagram!

Photo: Wasi Daniju

You can listen to this episode above and subscribe to our podcast on iTunes. You can also listen to this episode on StitcherCyber Ears or download it on Archive.org (69mins, 56MB).

Nick is joined by Mark Allen to discuss the Grenfell Tower fire. We discuss the benefits of “red tape” and the dangers of poor quality high-rise buildings, including in Australia. Mark also covered this issue of poor quality high-rise on our show back on episode 127.

There is also a return of the segment ‘Angela Davis ALWAYS Makes Sense’, this time on capitalism, activism and creating new arenas of struggle.

We discuss the fire as a powerful example of the devastating impact of economic inequality, drawing on the following academic articles: ‘World-Economic Trends in the Distribution of Income, 1965-1992’; ‘Inequality: Causes and consequences’; and ‘Income Inequality and Social Dysfunction’.

We also cover the success of Jeremy Corbyn’s grassroots campaign, despite very negative mainstream media coverage.

We finish the episode by covering the Finsbury Park terrorist attack and using social media to challenge the selective labelling of terrorism. For more on the selective labelling of terrorism, check out Nick’s article ‘Malcolm Turnbull Benches Team Australia, But Will The Narrative On Terrorism Change?’ and our 112th episode.

A reminder to come along to the Institute for Critical Animal Studies (Oceania) conference in Melbourne from the 14th-16th July! Registration is now open.

If you like what you hear, please support the show!

Clips:

Musician Akala: People died in London fire ‘because they were poor’, ChumbawambaUgh! Your Ugly Houses!’, Jonathan PiePapering over Poverty’, Angela Davis – interview 1972 – talking about revolution, Lowkey – ‘This is Criminal’, The JamThe planner’s dream went wrong’.

*The episode title is from the Jonathan Pie video ‘Papering over Poverty’, which is featured on the episode.