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Scientists hiring armed guards for field research - 8/10/2008 12:27:10 AM

Vendaval

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This article in Live Science raises some important issues about field research in a world where so many countries have armed conflict.

"The Reason More of Today's Scientists Hire Armed Guards"

By Meredith F. Small
August 08, 2008

"Over the past three decades, archaeologists, animal behaviors, botanists and others have had to curtail their research, or step right into the conflict, to do their work. It's no longer just about science, it's also about politics, poverty and diplomacy, subjects they don’t teach in graduate school.

For my field, primatology, this difficult situation became shockingly real back in 1975 when four research assistants were kidnapped from Jane Goodall's chimpanzee site in Tanzania. After months of talks, they were released by Zairian rebels, but the field of primatology was never the same.

Every primate researcher who goes abroad, every professor who takes students into the field, worries endlessly about safety."

http://www.livescience.com/culture/080808-hn-war-torn.html

(format edit)

< Message edited by Vendaval -- 8/10/2008 12:28:40 AM >

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RE: Scientists hiring armed guards for field research - 8/10/2008 6:20:26 AM

candystripper

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I remember the Jane Goodall incident -- I guess that ages me -- but it also illustrates that this is not a new problem.

candystripper

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RE: Scientists hiring armed guards for field research - 8/10/2008 1:55:41 PM

Vendaval

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And I remember the attacks on the London Underground a few years back, made for difficulties in sending foreign exchange students to study in the UK for a while.

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RE: Scientists hiring armed guards for field research - 8/10/2008 2:01:31 PM

Owner59

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The 3rd world can be a fucked up place.Life is cheap and getting cheaper.

I wouldn`t be surprised if this has been going on longer than we think.

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RE: Scientists hiring armed guards for field research - 8/10/2008 2:06:32 PM

Lockit

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The love and commitment one must have to face these terror's and dedicate your life to such worthwhile things is amazing to me. I am not sure I could do something like that, although I once had the fantasy of doing so. I am still working on the domestic primates and they are dangerous enough! To go live in harsh enough settings and then to face such dangers... wow! Jane G was one of a kind it seems, but every one that follows in her footsteps, must have something she had. It would take a real love and joy for me to face those types of dangers and even then, I'm not sure I would have it in me. I think knowing these people and being able to sit with them for an hour would be an amazing time!

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RE: Scientists hiring armed guards for field research - 8/10/2008 2:20:20 PM

popeye1250

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Bottom line is that they're going to have to arm themselves and learn how to use weapons and tactics if they wish to continue this type of research.

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RE: Scientists hiring armed guards for field research - 8/10/2008 6:30:52 PM

thishereboi

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quote:

ORIGINAL: candystripper

I remember the Jane Goodall incident -- I guess that ages me -- but it also illustrates that this is not a new problem.

candystripper

I kinda remember it...What year was that again?

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RE: Scientists hiring armed guards for field research - 8/10/2008 6:37:13 PM

Naira

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Hm. I remember one of my professors talking about her team. Several diggers of course, TAs for other things, but she always had a team of armed men who would protect her team from any threats.

Kind of sad that it's come to that. But, in archeology, a lot of the gravediggers don't want to get caught. Some of the desecration they do to the more ancient sites can get them long prison sentances or even death...they are desperate to make sure no one knows. So, if they kill a few people in the process, in for a penny, in for a pound.

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RE: Scientists hiring armed guards for field research - 8/10/2008 6:52:56 PM

outlier

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I don't remember any particular incident with
Dr. Goodall but I do remember Dr. Dian Fosse.
Who unfortunately was murdered in 1985

Of course having a movie made about her work
starring Sigourney Weaver helped make her easier
to remember. "Gorillas In The Mist'

http://www.gorillafund.org/dian_fossey/

Outlier

edited to clarify, Outlier

< Message edited by outlier -- 8/10/2008 7:45:05 PM >

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RE: Scientists hiring armed guards for field research - 8/12/2008 5:10:37 AM

thishereboi

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That was a great movie. Of course I would probibly like any thing with Sigourney Weaver.

Wonder if Candy is going to come back and tell us which one she was talking about?

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RE: Scientists hiring armed guards for field research - 8/12/2008 2:47:31 PM

batshalom

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~fast reply~

And then we have the recent string of attacks on animal researchers by some fringe pipe-bomb-lovin' animal rights group handing out scientists' names and addresses in Starbucks. If I were a lesser woman, I'd wish them some sort of endless suffering that could have been avoided if only they hadn't killed / maimed / terrified some animal researcher.

Oh. Wait. I am a lesser woman.

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RE: Scientists hiring armed guards for field research - 8/12/2008 7:59:03 PM

Vendaval

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Go here for information on Goodall's research and biography.

http://www.janegoodall.org/jane/default.asp

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"Beware, the woods at night, beware the lunar light.
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Post #: 12

RE: Scientists hiring armed guards for field research - 8/12/2008 8:04:22 PM

Alumbrado

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I love this anecdote...

quote:

Cartoonist Gary Larson once drew a cartoon that showed two chimpanzees grooming. One finds a human hair on the other and inquires, "Conducting a little more 'research' with that Jane Goodall tramp?"

The Jane Goodall Institute thought this to be in bad taste, and had their lawyers draft a letter to Larson and his distribution syndicate, in which they described the cartoon as an "atrocity."

They were stymied, however, by Goodall herself, who revealed that she found the cartoon amusing.

Since then, all profits from sales of a shirt featuring this cartoon have gone to the JGI.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jane_Goodall

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Post #: 13

RE: Scientists hiring armed guards for field research - 8/12/2008 9:49:52 PM

Vendaval

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hee hee...that's a good one Al!

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"Beware, the woods at night, beware the lunar light.
So in this gray haze we'll be meating again, and on that
great day, I will tease you all the same."
"WOLF MOON", OCTOBER RUST, TYPE O NEGATIVE

http://KinkMeet.co.uk

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Post #: 14

RE: Scientists hiring armed guards for field research - 8/14/2008 3:58:43 AM

thishereboi

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Now that was funny.

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