To exterminate or not to exterminate? Expatica blogger Alice in Germany describes the moral dilemma that overcame her vegetarian Buddhist flatmate when she discovered mice in their shared house.
I think there's a broader analogy to the giant genocidal rat currently pooping on the West's living room floor...
Bruno once told me that in Germany you could walk for days and never leave civilisation - the opposite from Australia. We, however, live in the middle of a farm. At first glance it is really special: a dirt track through the trees, over the lake filled with water birds, past the horse stables, not a house in site. Then Liana pointed out it is the perfect setting for a horror movie, with the lake being perfect for body disposal. A walk one night through the neighbouring woods did feel suspiciously like the Blair Witch Project.
The shock of mice
Of course that is all idle fantasy. The mice were another thing altogether. A true shock to a civilised lifestyle. There are a number of other students who live here, four live downstairs and seven others live upstairs with us. Most are German but there are a couple of Bulgarian exchange students. We share a bathroom and kitchen with Ivanka, who has retained the temperamental spirit of her Yugoslavian forbears.
Depths of courage
I was lying on the bed peacefully reading my book when I heard a terrifying scream coming from the kitchen (and I rather fancy a similar noise might be elicited from somebody being hacked apart with a chainsaw). Naturally, when faced with a potential serial killer in the next room, my first reaction was to lie there and play dead. But, dear Reader, when faced with the death of a loved one (well, a hypersensitive, domineering housemate), it is true: I found courage within me I did not know I had. As the noise did not subside, and not wanting to leave Ivanka to face death alone, I gathered my resolve and went to her rescue. On entering the kitchen I found her standing on a chair, whimpering, while two girls held her hand and tried to soothe her. The offending mouse, having most likely long since died of shock, was now nowhere to be seen. I have to say I shamefully found the whole situation rather amusing.
Agonising over beliefs
For the next few weeks Ivanka agonised over reconciling her belief that she is a Buddhist, love-everything, left-wing, vegetarian pinko and her huge desire to see all mice blown to smithereens and rotting in hell. This stress-inducing conundrum was antagonised by the numerous unanswerable questions that the appearance of mice had raised. Why were they here? Where had they come from? Are mice not dirty? And yet the house is German-clean! My suggestion, that every house without a cat has to deal with mice at some stage, was taken as a sign of my naivety. It was conceded that perhaps this was the case in Australia.
The landlord's responsibility
Her torturous reveries were regularly broken by yelling down the phone at the landlord. Apparently in Germany the elimination of mice is the landlord's responsibility. However the landlord, being an unorganised, un-German sod, never quite got around to it. When threatened with rent being withheld, the landlord got off his sorry arse and sent around a pest exterminator. There were numerous household meetings in the hallway where various legal options were discussed. These meetings went unattended by the eastern Europeans. Someone said they had heard that Nora 'did not care about the mice'. In hushed tones it was unanimously agreed that the Bulgarians must in fact 'care about the mice' but growing up in a police state they did not know their rights. Or if they did, they were too afraid to use them. That made sense.
A true professional
When threatened with rent being withheld, the landlord got off his sorry arse and sent around a pest exterminator: a large man who set poison everywhere. A true professional, he took great pride in his trade, gleefully explaining "the mice think it is coconut, mice love coconut, and it burns them from the inside."Ivanka translated this for me whilst trying to keep the huge relieved smirk off her face (think Buddhism, think Zen, everything deserves life, it is just unfortunate that the mice are disgusting vermin that must die etc. etc.) Ah, the agony of reconciling who we want to be with what we can stand.
#3
Every house that does not have a cat must, sooner or later, have mice. Or, in my own case, my house had an extremely elderly cat who found the temporarily resident chipmunk(!) running across his feet puzzling.
#4
I once had an excellent mouser, he would bring me his catches daily.
Problem was they were all alive and unhurt, not much help in the long run.
He'd lay them at my feet, they would sit up, look around and head for the tall timber, then he'd look down and was so puzzled when they weren't where he put them.
I suspect that the same mice got caught many times.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
01/19/2006 8:55 Comments ||
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#5
Yes, and then there was the cat I "inherited" when I got married.
It too presented us with its trophies at night.
Unfortunately, the trophies came from the great outdoors. It seems that the mice IN the house were off limits. (must have been a union thing)
#6
Every house that does not have a cat must, sooner or later, have mice.
Or rabbits.
I never saw rabbits around the farm where I grew up. Maybe back away from the house, in the woods, but never within sight of the house. Then the cat we'd had for as long as I could remember died, and the rabbits showed up.
And the geese, but I don't think she kept them away.
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
01/19/2006 9:54 Comments ||
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#7
We don't have any inside our house but the cat catches them outside from time to time. She eats the lower half and leaves the head on the porch.
Apparently, cats bring us mice becuase they are trying to teach us how to hunt, the same way they teach their own kittens. Unfortunately, as a species we are very slow learners. The same cat that in his dotage was puzzled by the chipmunk had caught a large variety of things over the years -- our mighty hunter he was. He tried everything, poor darling: rodents of various species, ditto birds, baby things and adult things, dead and munched upon, dead but beautiful, half dead, and alive but in shock; on the doorstep, at my feet, and once, memorably, a live pigeon in my lap as I was braiding trailing daughter#1's hair before Kindergarten. She got there late that day.
You've heard a lot about the ACLU lawsuit since its filing yesterday.
But you haven't heard much about its less famous plaintiffs, plaintiffs with whom I'm all too familiar and about whom I've written a great deal. The details on these individuals makes the National Security Agency's monitoring of phone calls not just warranted, but a necessity.
I'm referring to ACLU lawyers Noel Saleh, Mohammed Abdrabboh, and Nabih Ayad, the ACLU Plaintiffs named in the yesterday's Complaint, attorney William Swor, a member National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, and Nazih Hassan -- all named in the lawsuit. They are exactly the kind of people whom the federal government should be watching, but probably isn't. One of these men admitted to funding Hezbollah, one was accused of tampering with a witness, and a third signed a document contradicting statements he made in the lawsuit. Not to mention, one of these men engaged in exactly the same "spying" (on me) that he now opposes when done by the NSA.
Their clients are no different from that of convicted Attorney Lynn Stewart's (convicted of helping the Blind cleric spread terrorist messages in Egypt). Yet, instead of monitoring them, the federal government's representatives in Detroit -- including U.S. Attorney Stephen Murphy III, FBI Special Agent in Charge Daniel Roberts, and Immigration and Customs Enforcement Special Agent in Charge Brian Moskowitz -- have been courting them, their clients, and friends in a series of exclusive meetings.
Take Noel Saleh. The thrice-disciplined attorney (who was suspended from the practice of law) openly stated at a townhall meeting with federal officials that he has financially contributed to Hezbollah. He heads an Arab welfare agency that gets millions in our tax dollars, yet was raided by the FBI for engaging in Medicaid fraud. The organization also spent thousands in our tax dollars on "job training" (commercial driving lessons and attempts at HazMat hauling certificates) for two men indicted as members of the Detroit al-Qaeda terror cell. He has represented a number of Islamic terrorists, including Ibrahim Parlak and "former" PFLP terrorist Imad Hamad. Rest at link.
Posted by: ed ||
01/19/2006 19:24 ||
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Thanks for shortening, ed. I got more than enough from your ed-it.
Posted by: Bobby ||
01/19/2006 20:47 Comments ||
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Let's say that George Galloway, Ramsey Clark and other luminaries of the international progressive movement got their wish. Let's say the Iraq war never happened. Saddam Hussein is still in power. How does he react to the Iranian nuclear program?
"You guys go ahead, I'll stick with Russian artillery pieces. Besides, those things are more trouble than they're worth! The testing, the maintenance, the hiding -- it's like having six wives! No thanks. I'll sit here in my palace and smoke my cigar and have nothing whatsoever to do with terrorism, thank you."
Or: Colorful Tikrit-specific profanity, hurled ashtrays, and a crash program that launders oil-for-food kickbacks into a secret weapons program facilitated by Libyan and North Korean assistance with information from the A.Q. Khan network, conducted under the indifferent eye of a world tired of pretending it cares about Iraq.
Some would actually prefer option No. 2, since it would give the region a "balance of power."
Well, tell that to Egypt, which came out against Iran's nuclear-bomb plans right around the time Vice President Cheney dropped by. Huzzah: That annual $2 billion bribe is finally paying off.
Tell it to the Saudis, as long as you're in the neighborhood -- Prince Saud al-Faisal opposes the Iranian bomb, although he blames Israel for the problem in the first place. Damnable pesky nation, insisting on surviving: the sheer cheek of those Jews.
Tell it to International Atomic Energy Agency Director General Mo ElBaradei, who, sporting the rented testes that U.N. types like to use when diplomacy proves futile, threatened the Iranians with "force" if additional palaver fails.
No one wants Iran to have the bomb, except the apocalyptically minded mullahs. For them there is no God but Allah, and J. Robert Oppenheimer is his messenger.
At least it's not that bad. Scott Ritter could be defending Iran.
So what now? The Iranian situation has eerie overtones of the Iraq debate -- the gathering threat, the nuclear ambitions, the frowny faces of U.N. diplomats preparing the 13th Strongly Worded Document, complete with threatened revocation of parking garage privileges. But things are different now.
The American left believed in Iraq's WMDs and terrorist links in the '90s because that gave them much-needed hawk cred; it was Viagra for their dovish side. But they've spent the last two electoral cycles preaching defeat, insisting that when the Bush administration says something's a threat, it's a lie, a diversion tactic, an election ploy, a floorwax AND a dessert topping.
Oh, they'll suggest that Iran should have been the main target in the first place, but if the U.S. had invaded there in '03, we'd be looking at huge casualties, an occupation that continued to this day (quaqmire!) and evidence that the Iranians were still years away from a bomb. Years! And we invaded on that slender pretext? Impeach!
Well, something's going to happen. Iran is taking delivery of anti-aircraft missiles from Russia in March, press reports say. (Thanks, Vladimir! Anything we can do for you? Besides having the NYPD put the boot on all your U.N. limos?)
One suspects President Bush is disinclined to do the long, slow gavotte with the U.N. again, especially when half the big players have been in bed with Iran so long they feel comfortable enough to complain about the ayatollah-patterned sheets. (Honestly, Monsieur; c'est creepy.) The U.S. may attempt a political change, since the great mass of urban, educated, decent Iranians would rather rejoin the outer world than blow it up.
But if the mullahs looked brittle and nervous a few years ago, now they look downright insane -- and determined to turn their nation into a collective suicide bomb.
If there are attacks that set back the program, and they don't inspire a wave of nationalism that strengthens the mullahs' hands, and the threat is pushed off three years, and the Bush administration ends with the neutralization of the region's worst actors -- well, you can imagine what the progressives will say:
"What about North Korea? You did nothing about North Korea. We're no safer than ever. Oh, one more thing -- don't you DARE do anything about North Korea."
You can't win. But we must.
Posted by: Steve ||
01/19/2006 13:24 ||
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"The American left believed in Iraq's WMDs and terrorist links in the '90s because that gave them much-needed hawk cred; it was Viagra for their dovish side. But they've spent the last two electoral cycles preaching defeat, insisting that when the Bush administration says something's a threat, it's a lie, a diversion tactic, an election ploy, a floorwax AND a dessert topping."
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
Bruno once told me that in Germany you could walk for days and never leave civilisation - the opposite from Australia. We, however, live in the middle of a farm. At first glance it is really special: a dirt track through the trees, over the lake filled with water birds, past the horse stables, not a house in site. Then Liana pointed out it is the perfect setting for a horror movie, with the lake being perfect for body disposal. A walk one night through the neighbouring woods did feel suspiciously like the Blair Witch Project.
