The Price of Rat Meat Quadruples in Cambodia

[MacGuffin]

Virulent

I'm not mocking you, though I do think you're demonstrably wrong.

I'm not suggesting you did mock me. How could mocking me prompt me to make an initial post. Your "hilarious" and "g-strings of prostitutes" remarks seemed to me to mock Cambodia. Nowhere in your original post did I detect sympathy for the plight of Cambodians, only ridicule eg "funniest part about this article".

I can only say that if you don't think there is something hilarious about a government official claiming that children are happy to hunt rats for dinner, you may be in need of a holiday in Cambodia.

We will have to agree to disagree on this one. I don't find it hilarious when government officials, corrupt or not, from devoloping or developed countries, lie to the people. In this case however I don't think he lied because I think every kid is happy to get money no matter how. I dispute that a holiday in Cambodia would somehow change my view and find that to be an unecessary and flippant remark. And in my experience the western temple visiting tourists usually come away with the wrong impression.

You're right though that you didn't say that rat meat was a delicacy. I never said you did, either.

True Reuters did not use the word delicacy but with "Spicy field rat dishes with garlic" the implication of a dish not a meal does suggest a delicacy. True you did not suggest I said it was a delicacy, I misread, my apologies. As to rat being last resort and me splitting hairs let me clarify. Last resort to me implies the sort of thing you see in survival scenario's like cannibalism. I was suggesting rat eating is not considered so terrible and when cooked with the "garlic and spices" can taste pretty good. Its the sort of thing where Cambodians are quite happy to eat not out of necessity but maybe to save money or simply as a change.

If your replies are specific to one individual, and you'd rather not have others comment on them, you can always private message them I suppose. Or do you just mean you'd rather I not reply to you in general?

To clarify, my comments (about foreign investment) were in response to denu asking "what other recourse could there be". She raised the point in this thread so I responded in this thread. Of course all comments on my posts are welcomed, did I suggest otherwise? Sending private messages in response to public posts would defeat the object of a discussion board would it not.

Cambodia's forests were cut, primarily, by Western lumber concerns. There had to have been a terrific amount of money made in the clear-cutting of Cambodia's forest. That the vast majority of the people still suffer in abject poverty seems like a clear demonstration that foreign investment, such as that of lumber permits, is ineffective

Yes of course, although I am not sure that this sort of activity is called foreign investment. Even so, you are taking an extreme case of foreign investment. I meant investment as in establishing subsidiaries and factories in a way similar to what has happened in neighbouring Thailand. Now surely a multinational with a factory employing thousands goes some way to helping or would that also be ineffective.

Most importantly though, the people didn't benefit.

Regarding deforestation, I agree with you entirely. But it's no different in Cambodia than in other developing or underdeveloped nations. It's a global problem not just a Cambodian one. I think an article on the price of rat then comments about deforestation threw me, I didn't see the correlation, but no matter.

I was making what I thought was an obvious attempt at humor (Denu got it, at least).

Both you and denu find humour in a government official saying "Many children are happy making some money from selling the animals to the markets". Fair enough, I have a different sense of humour from you and denu.

I have no interest in defending the epistemological accuracy of statements made in jest.

Fair enough, I have no desire to debate the humour of rat trapping or eating so it's best if I just walk away and leave you guys to it.