Doctor Chicken

Fish Yogurt – Update

Featured Image: Russian President Vladimir Putin announces his interest in either dissolving or privatising the Russian State Yogurt Corporation, branded as YogCorp. For more information, check out our first blog post on fish yogurt.

Monday, 6 February 2018, Moscow, Russia – When you consider the stress of militarily invading other countries, suppressing the political opposition, cracking down on gay people, and dealing with an ongoing scandal of interfering with a foreign country’s democratic elections, one could say that Russian President Vladimir Putin has a pretty busy schedule. But for some reason, Putin has found time to make a surprise press release Sunday in regards to Russia’s failing fish yogurt industry. Specifically, Putin says he wants to work with the State Duma to eventually privatise or dissolve the российская государственная йогуртная корпорация (Rossiyskaya Gosudarstvennaya Yogurtnaya Korporatsiya, RGYK) (Russian State Yogurt Corporation), commonly known as YogCorp.

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Doctor Chicken

Australia Day

Featured Image: Australia Day is supposed to represent all Australians, but controversy still lingers over its symbolisation of the struggle of the country’s Aboriginal peoples.

Saturday, 26 January 2019, Sydney, Australia – Today is Australia Day, Australia’s equivalent of America’s Fourth of July. On this day the Australian Government’s official celebrations include citizenship ceremonies, awards and knighthoods, and a controversial re-enactment of the arrival of the First Fleet. Indeed, Australia Day commemorates the anniversary of the arrival of British ships in Australia on 26 January 1788, to claim British sovereignty over the country’s eastern coast. And this simple fact has generated enormous controversy surrounding the discrimination, subjugation, and near-extermination of Australia’s indigenous peoples.

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Doctor Chicken

Saudi Arabia and Arms

Featured Image: More than 16,000 civilians have been killed in Yemen’s civil war, with most deaths caused by airstrikes (Washington Post)

13 January 2019, Cairo, Egypt – On 9 August 2018, a fighter jet, belonging to a coalition led by Saudi Arabia and consisting of other regional allies, dropped a bomb on a busy marketplace in a small village in Yemen. The bomb ended up falling on a school bus and killed 40 children inside. The Saudi coalition has conducted thousands of these airstrikes in Yemen, and they have intentionally targeted civilians a third of the time. The United Nations has denounced the attacks on civilians as possible war crimes. And it was later found that the bomb that killed the children on the school bus was made by the Lockheed Martin Corporation. This bomb was made right here in the U.S. and it’s being used to target civilians in Yemen.

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Doctor Chicken

Colombia’s Hippo Problem

Featured image: Hippos

Sunday, 16 December 2018, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil – Pablo Escobar (1949-1993) was the most powerful drug lord ever and the richest criminal in history. His Medellin Cartel supplied 80% of the cocaine smuggled into the United States, and by the time of his death in 1993 his estimated net worth was 25 to 30 billion dollars. Pablo Escobar’s power, wealth, and violence created huge problems for Colombia, but everyone forgets about another problem that he created for the county: hundreds of invasive hippos.

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Doctor Chicken

California Wildfires

Featured Image: The Paradise, California inferno known as the Camp Fire has been the deadliest on record, with 71 deaths so far confirmed.

Saturday, 17 November 2018, San Francisco, CA – The California wildfires, in particular the Camp Fire in Paradise and Chico and the Woolsey Fire in Ventura, are the most destructive wildfires in the history of California, with 71 people dead, a quarter million acres burned, and over 1,000 people who are unaccounted for in casualties. Air quality in Chico reached 365 AQI on November 15, making it the worst air quality in the entire world. And 20,000 people living in the town of Paradise have been evacuated from their homes, living in shelters and with nowhere to go.

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Doctor Chicken

The Flawed Nature of Juries

Featured image: Chicago residents protest the Chicago Police Department as a result of their involvement in the death of Laquan McDonald.

Tuesday, 16 October 2018, Chicago, IL – In October 2014, a 17-year old black teenager named Laquan McDonald was shot 16 times by Jason Van Dyke, a white Chicago police officer. A graphic dash-cam video released one year after the shooting documented the incident. McDonald was walking down a busy road, holding a knife. As he turned away from the police cars, Van Dyke shot and killed him, seemingly for no reason.

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Doctor Chicken

Nelson Mandela

Featured Image: To commemorate Nelson Mandela’s death, the South African flag flew half-mast outside Drakenstein Correctional Centre, where Mandela was imprisoned from 1988 to 1990.

Friday, 22 July 2018, Johannesburg, South Africa – 100 years and 4 days ago, Rolihlahla Mandela was born in Mvezo, a small village in the Eastern Cape region of South Africa. Disillusioned by the unrelenting racism of his country’s government, he stood up not only for himself, but for the entire black majority of South Africa, fighting against the white minority government for a democratic, egalitarian future. The government attempted to suppress him, famously sentencing Mandela to a life prison sentence for treason and sabotage.

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