In which Tim goes to the zoo, and discusses his research

If you have known me for a very long time, you know that I do very much enjoy a nice day spent at the zoo. Earlier in my life I had plans to study the zoological sciences in my career. Alas, high school chemistry convinced me that I did not apparently have what it takes to be a real scientist (thankyou, Ms. Pumper), so I've had to settle for dealing with people instead. But I still like going to the zoo.

The National Zoo of Bangladesh is no Sandiego Wild Animal park, but it made for a pleasant afternoon. It was nice to get away from the noise of traffic, the smell of car exhaust, and the crowds of people, and to just stroll along the shaded paths. The state of the zoo is a little depressing. Lots of bars, cement pens, and under-fed animals who don't look terribly happy to be there. I think the zoo is government funded, making the condition of the zoo no surprise. If I were to call Bangladeshi government "inefficient", it would probably be a compliment. I will leave it at that for now, and follow that line of thought later. The animal experience was not completely depressing, since I DID get to take my first Elephant ride ever. That was fun.


I promised a few entries ago that I would share a little bit about the research I am doing. Here it goes...

Acid attacks are a serious problem in South Asia. Bangladesh has more occurences than any other country. What usually happens is that a man gets angry that a woman has refused his marriage proposal and/or sexual advance, so he goes and buys a glass of some seriously strong acid, and goes and pours it on her. It's extremely sick and twisted. BRAC has done quite a bit of work as far as providing help and support to victims, but has done very little to figure out what may need to be done to prevent attacks from happening in the first place. Rachel and I are beginning to project that will examine six or seven specific cases in depth. Our goal is to come up with a decent profile of the perpetrator, with the intent of giving BRAC something that will be useful in designing a prevention program. We are working pretty closely with the a group called The Acid Survivors Foundation. They are helping us get interviews set up and stuff. Work begins full speed this next week. That last link has a lot more interesting info on acid attacks, if you want to educate yourself a little more. These attacks are a terrible thing. Hopefully our work will contribute something useful to the fight against it.