Limited Liability Country

Warning: unusually high word content.  This picture takes some elaboration to be interesting.


In my travels, I have noticed some countries take a much more lax attitude toward personal safety and organizational/corporate liability than Ol' Uptight Amurrica the Litigious.  Probably the best example of this is Russia, where things like traffic laws and regulations about what you can do while drunk seem to be considered unbearably sissy. 

But Nepal had its moments too, and I mean that in a manner distinct from totally understandable resource limitations.  Take the Kathmandu zoo.  This picture is emblematic- the best way to feed a rhino, by all accounts a dangerous, aggressive, territorial, and unpredictable animal, is obviously to just stick a guy with a bucket in his habitat, one half-assed rhino-charge away.  Obviously.

But wait, you say, maybe that rhino was entirely predictable.  Maybe it had been there for decades and had never shown the slightest bit of aggression.  Maybe it was best friends with that bucket-wielder and they had lunch together every day.  Maybe it was a paraplegic and was hiding in the water because it was embarrassed about its condition, okay?  Back off, you insensitive jerk! 

And I will back off; I will grant you the paraplegic rhino.  But lets just say the "enclosures" here don't really enclose much.  A dozen kinds of springy antelope or deer-like species?  How about a ground level paddock with a fence about five feet high?  Wolves, bears, cougars, and all manner of predator-types?  How about some cages with bars easily hand-with apart?  Boyfriend, would you like to stick your hand in the Himalayan bear's cage and try to pet it?  Of course you would!  Little bite-size children, shall you do the same?  Why not?

You might take from the tone of the paragraphs that I condemn these policies and animal-retention designs, but you would be wrong.  Amused, yes.  But I rather like the responsibility for one's safety in this situation being on one's own shoulders.  Its up to me to assess the likelihood of that bear going berserk and biting my hand off.  Empowerment!