Cav's Place

This February, the Global Population Speak Out has kicked into motion.
Such an initiative was badly needed, despite the fact that I still say that, when it comes to such important issues, those who are going to care already do and those who don’t, won’t. This is not about implementing measures now, but about “softening the ground”, which is something that could be accomplished to some extent if those who already care would focus their talks (and other actions) about the issue of overpopulation within a relatively short time frame.

It should also, hopefully, provide me with the required kick in the butt to write another post about the issue. If it works, you’ll see it next week, so I won’t say anything more right now.
Just hope that all those who have pledged to take action will follow through with it. 200 people seem few enough as it is, even if most of them have at least a certain amount of notoriety, at least in their own fields…

Considering the fact that safe, reliable and easily accessible contraception is of crucial importance if we are to ever solve the overpopulation problem and that I see human overpopulation as by far the greatest problem this world is facing, it seems quite odd that I have hardly mentioned the issue so far. But now I mean to rectify that, especially since not writing about it hardly means not thinking about it. The fact that this post has been in my drafts for just about a year and a half should serve as some proof of that.

Since I firmly believe that most people alive today, myself included, must never have children, the most suitable birth control metods would obviously be the permanent ones. However, those tend to involve surgery, which is not something people tend to look forward to. I for one certainly won’t apply for a vasectomy in the foreseeable future, despite knowing that permanent sterilization would be the right thing to do, simply because it involves surgery. Not to mention that it seems to have some troubling long-term side effects. Plus that, as a person who sees oral sex as the most important part of the strictly physical side of sex, I’m wondering what does removing the sperm from semen do to its taste, because if it would somehow make it less desirable for heterosexual women and homosexual men then we are faced with yet another problem.
On the other hand, assuming they desire contraception in the first place, most people would still be bothered by the permanent methods simply because they’re permanent. They want to know they’ll have the option to change their mind in the future. That means they would shy away from the permanent methods even if they would not involve surgery and risks. It’s clearly not the right attitude if we are to reduce the population, but persuading them not to have children now buys the time needed to persuade them not to have them in the future either.

Which means that a look at the most common complaints regarding the most commonly used and easily accessible effective birth control methods is in order. Those would obviously be male condoms and female birth control pills.
Still, I wouldn’t put condoms in the same category as everything else because they are the only currently effective method of protecting people who have casual sex from contacting STDs. That means they would still have a purpose even if everyone would move on to other birth control methods, simply because a lot of people would still need the kind of protection they offer and would have no other means of obtaining it. Actually, the incidence of STDs around the world indicates that many more people should use them far more often, but that’s another issue.
That leaves us with the female birth control pills. They have a distinct advantage over all other currently available methods because they don’t require surgery, don’t require periodic injections, don’t take away from the spontaneity of the act, don’t directly interfere with the sensations and offer protection during an unlimited number of encounters at the same price. That instantly puts them above implants and other surgical methods, shots, spermicides and the strictly contraceptive use of condoms. The fact that their use is not noticeable also puts them above patches and rings (though some research might suggest that some women prefer the rings).
On the other hand, they are pills which must be taken over a long period of time, which means it’s hard to avoid the undesirable side effects. That problem is made worse by the fact that they’re a hormonal treatment, affecting a very delicate balance within the body. Of course, they can also fix already existing imbalances, but a lot depends on the skill of the doctor who prescribes them. Another common complaint is that they cause weight gain, though that’s not actually the case. Still, perhaps the most worrying aspect is that they must be taken daily in order to be effective and people sometimes forget, which sparks debates over their availability. As long as those debates result in better methods, it’s all good, but I fear they might result in restricting access to existing methods before truly better ones would become readily available and affordable…
As a side note, an interesting use of birth control pills could be stopping periods, which, despite the general belief, only have to be a part of a woman’s life if she’s currently trying to conceive. I think that, as soon as the cultural reluctance to the concept will be overcome, treatments aimed specifically at eliminating periods are going to be quite sought after.

But most of that deals with women. Save for using condoms or having a vasectomy, there aren’t many things men can currently do for the purpose of contraception. But that seems about to change, offering more choice for couples and also allowing men to have better control over their reproduction. That can only be a good thing, even though some of the proposed methods are questionable.
Research towards developing a birth control pill for men similar to those used by women has been going on for quite some time, and the results show, even though the side effects reported by men who test these pills tend to be more severe than those reported by most women who take oral contraceptives. But I think that, seeing as non-hormonal methods have the potential of also being effective, more emphasis should be placed on that area of the research. Any results could then be used to try to develop similar treatments for women as well, hopefully allowing those who desire only the contraceptive effect to get rid of most of the side effects associated with hormonal treatments.

As long as there will be continued interest and new developments in this area, I’m sure it won’t be long until enough safe, effective and easily accessible birth control methods will become available so that everyone will be able to find the one suitable for them. Convincing everyone to use them at all times, even preventively for those who are not currently sexually active, however, is another matter entirely…

M A T E R I A   M A G I C A

 .0  Return to the Real World.
  1. Enter the World of Alyria.
 .2  Enter the Online Chat Rooms.
  3. Read the History of the World.
 .4  Change your Password.
  5. Change your Personal Information.
 .6  Delete this Character.

Your choice? 6

Enter your password: <*****>

Are you sure you want to delete this character (y/N)? y

Your character has been deleted. Goodbye.


<<Session Disconnected: 1:28 am>>

And this is how it ends.

Yreobryn was “born” some six years ago (though possibly only five years and eight months, according to some of my notes, but can’t know for sure anymore), so quite a lot of work went into him… Been in that clan for four years too… But it had to be done, there was no point anymore. Even so, I’m quite shaky right now…

A new law has been put up for public debate by the Bucharest City Council. Don’t take the fact that it’s been put up for debate as a good thing in itself. It’s a requirement to put laws up for debate, but not to pay any attention to what people are saying, so they usually don’t. And in this particular case they’ll have quite a lot of ignoring to do, because quite a few people are angry and I for one am livid!
The law I’m talking about deals with stray animals and was written mainly as a means to control the number of stray dogs after another law was passed which no longer allows shelters to kill the animals which are captured and brought to them. That’s not the problem, since a means to do that is indeed required, but the law itself was written by barbarian control freaks!

But let me start from the beginning, with what I believe to be a key paragraph from the “specialist report” the law was supposedly based on. That paragraph says the following:

“For all dog and cat owners who are unable to control their pets’ breeding, sterilizing the animals is required, along with identifying and registering them in the institution’s master database. The abandonment of puppies and kittens in public places, around markets, hospitals, courtyards of educational institutions or other areas where, according to the citizens, there are “kind people” is thus avoided.”

That makes perfect sense, and it certainly should also apply to people who don’t properly control their own breeding, but something got lost on the way between the report and the actual law. The report talks about the owners who are unable to control their pets’ breeding, but the law makes it mandatory for all animals who are not registered breeders according to the Dog Owners’ Association to be sterilized! So even if your pet is never left unsupervised outside and therefore presents no risk of creating unwanted puppies or kittens, it still has to be sterilized unless it’s a “registered breeder”!

But the bigger problem is the way it must be done, according to the law:

“Art. 7
The sterilization of the animals must be carried out by means of ovariohysterectomy for females and orchiectomy for males.”

Yes, sure, that may be “how it’s done”, but it’s barbaric and utterly wrong! Those procedures don’t just remove the risk of unwanted puppies or kittens, but they also change behavior and instincts and likely cause changes in the hormonal balance of the animals in question. Yet instead of trying to find means to just eliminate the risk of unwanted pregnancies without any other side effects, they actually impose these methods!
If you think about it a little, you realize the full impact of that phrase. It means that a pet owner who does happen to desire to sterilize their pet but has found and is willing to pay for a vet who knows of a, shall we say, fairer way to do it, will be unable to do so. Actually, it means the vet will be unable to perform that procedure, because this law forbids them to sterilize a pet by any other means!
I still wish that all those who support such a measure would have it done to themselves. I wonder if they’d like it as much then as they do now…

But what am I going on about here when I haven’t mentioned the part where pet owners are actually required to do this, right? Here it is then:

“Art. 11
(1) Natural and juristic persons who own dogs and cats over 6 months old, within private precincts, without the right to breed and not registered with the Dog Owners’ Association have the obligation of sterilizing, indentifying and registering them in the Administration for the Supervision of Stray Animals’ master database, starting with the date this present decision comes into effect.”

And there you have it. A pet that’s not a registered breeder must be sterilized, and as far as I know only purebreds can have that status. Any pet must also be registered as a potential stray, as the following paragraph specifies that registered breeders are only exempt from the sterilization requirement, not anything else. (I didn’t feel there was a need to translate and include that paragraph exactly as it’s written as well.)

Moving further gets us to yet another issue:

“Art. 14
(1) Owning animals, dogs and cats, on private property is allowed under the following conditions:
a) Identification with a subcutaneous microchip.
b) Registration in the Administration for the Supervision of Stray Animals’ master database.
c) Existence of a health book, with up-to-date anti-rabic vaccines.
d) Sterilization, excepting animals less than 6 months old and those which are exempt from mandatory sterilization by the present decision.”

The new issue I mentioned is the first one listed, namely the microchip. Every animal will need to have one…
To put this into perspective, some two weeks ago we had the law requiring information about all e-mails, chats, SMS messages and telephone calls to be stored for six months and made available upon request, even without a warrant “if the prosecutor considers that waiting for a warrant to be released would harm the investigation”, come into effect. And very recently we got another thing, namely “biometric” passports, which include an RFID chip which stores all the information printed on the passport as well as the owner’s fingerprints.
So, within only a few weeks, we have had three “Big Brother” laws! Granted that this last one doesn’t apply to humans… Yet… But just give them time, they’re only waiting for enough people to be either frightened or disillusioned enough to accept it to be done to themselves as well.

Moving on to the last part:

“Art. 20
The following actions performed by natural or juristic persons constitute misdemeanors, unless they have been committed under such conditions as to be considered felonies according to criminal law:
a) Failure of the dog and cat owner to identify and register their pets in the Administration for the Supervision of Stray Animals’ master database and/or to sterilize individuals over 6 months old, starting 6 months after this present decision comes into effect.
b) Owning dogs or cats on private property, without documents to attest their sterilization, identification data, registration in the master database, health condition and annual anti-rabies vaccination.
c) Leaving animals owned within individual households or the grounds of businesses who declared themselves their owners unsupervised in public places.

Art.21
The actions listed under art. 20 are punished by fines as follows:
a) Actions listed under art. 20 points a), b) are punished by fines between 500 and 700 lei.
b) Actions listed under art. 20 point c) are punished by fines between 200 and 400 lei.”

What I want to point out here is that the penalty for having a pet without a microchip or one that is not sterilized without being a registered breeder is greater than the one for abandoning your pet. I’m saying that because leaving your pet unsupervised in public can be a way to say abandoning it. After all, abandoning something means you left it unsupervised for a long enough amount of time.
Technically, this law says that the actions which can directly increase the number of stray animals are less serious offenses than the failure to submit to the City Council’s desire for control!

I’m not sure how they deal with messages in English, but here are the e-mail addresses you might be able to write to, in case someone from abroad is reading this and wants to help:
– Mayor of Bucharest, Sorin Oprescu: primargeneral@bucuresti-primaria.ro
– Secretary General of Bucharest, Tudor Toma: tudor.toma@bucuresti-primaria.ro
The following two have signed the report this law was supposedly based on. Keep in mind that the report does not include any of the problems I mentioned above as being included in the law itself, so don’t be too hard on them if you decide to send something.
– Executive Manager of the Bucharest Environmental Protection and Eco-civics Education Department, Marius Capanu: marius.capanu@bucuresti-primaria.ro
– Manager of the Bucharest Administration for the Supervision of Stray Dogs, Dr. Simona Panaitescu: director@asa-bucuresti.ro

Two days ago I logged on to Yahoo! Messenger and saw her on! It’s pretty much exactly one year since I cracked when we last talked, since she had been pretty much ignoring me again for about a week at that point and then snapped at me when I sent her a harmless message, and I sent her that e-mail which obviously caused her to truly ignore me from then on…
No idea whether it even really was her on that account at that moment, and either way it could have been a bug which let me see her for a little while, perhaps even though I’m still on her ignore list. Or maybe she had reinstalled and something happened to her ignore list and by sending something I just reminded her to put me back on it. Who knows? But to say that I was shocked would be an understatement.

Actually, as soon as I logged on I had to log off and rush to the bathroom. Spent my time there trying to remember the whole process I once read happens between the moment you see something which produces a great shock and the moment your body decides to unload all, shall we say, excess weight. Luckily I did reach the bathroom in time…
Then I came back, took a deep breath, logged back on, sent her a hug and waited. Had to stop at the hug smiley because I knew I couldn’t actually say anything and not run immediately afterwards. Was really hard to manage to keep myself occupied enough to stick around even so, and some 20 minutes later I realized that’s about as much as I could handle, so I sent a message saying that and left, only to continue being worried sick afterwards, wondering if she ever replied or if it even was her, assuming my messages got through in the first place.

Eventually convinced myself to sign back on yesterday… And saw I had nothing from her, as expected. Also didn’t see her on anymore. So I guess it was either a bug or I actually did remind her to put me back on ignore if I had somehow ended up off that list.
So I guess this is pretty much it. Me getting really worked up over nothing again… But this “nothing” sure looked like a big “something” to me, just seeing that name lit up there… In case somebody’s reading this, don’t mind it. I guess I’m mainly writing to make sure I’ll remember the day.

Nothing’s going to change in what I feel… I’m just so frightened by what might have happened since I last heard from her, especially since this happened so soon after that dream I mentioned earlier…