Intention

• A man was arrested at the OR Tambo International Airport in Johannesburg, South Africa, on 23 June 2023 with five lion carcasses in his luggage.
• He was about to board a flight to Vietnam, where the use of lion bones in traditional medicines is practised.

Why are lions being farmed?

• Lions have been intensively farmed for commercial purposes in South Africa since the 1990s.
• These wild animals are exploited as entertainment attractions for tourists, like cub petting and “walk with lions” experiences.

What does the lion farming industry look like?

• In contrast, the current wild population in the country is estimated to be about  3,500 lions.
• In addition, corruption and a lack of proper record-keeping make it difficult for authorities to manage the industry and ensure facilities comply with the law.

How is the industry regulated?

• At a national level, governance of this industry has fallen under a patchwork of legislation including the National Environmental Management: Biodiversity Act and regulations around threatened or protected species.
• With national and provincial concurrence, the regulation of the industry falls to the provincial nature conservation authorities.
• This results in grey areas that cloud the legality of the industry and its associated activities, contributing to confusion and noncompliance throughout.

Why is this industry a problem?

• The industry has been estimated by some to contribute up to R500 million (US$42 million) annually to the South African economy.
• The captive breeding and canned hunting of lions has continued.

What should be done about the industry?

• However, in late 2022, a ministerial task team was asked to “develop and implement a voluntary exit strategy for captive lion facilities”.
• This was the first time the word “voluntary” had been used in public government communications on this issue.
• It raised serious questions about whether the government was wavering in its stated intention to end commercial captive lion breeding.

Uncommon Courses is an occasional series from The Conversation U.S. highlighting unconventional approaches to teaching.

Title of course:

“Sociology of Guns”

What prompted the idea for the course?

• For the past 10-plus years I have been deeply immersed in American gun culture both professionally and personally.
• Wanting to convey this diversity to others prompted me to construct and teach this course for the first time in 2015.

What does the course explore?

• Rather than focusing exclusively on gun violence and politics, my course looks more broadly at guns in society.
• The class begins by literally putting firearms in students’ hands.
• Substantively, the course builds on the students’ firsthand experience of guns by exploring the multifaceted role they play in society.

Why is this course relevant now?

• It often feels as though the United States is being torn apart by cultural and political divisions over guns.
• These conversations should be built on a solid foundation of empirical knowledge about the role guns actually play in society - both positive and negative.

What’s a critical lesson from the course?

• The trip to the gun range stands out because it offers direct exposure to gunfire.
• In particular, those who were personally repulsed by guns prior to the field trip often come to see why guns can be attractive to others.
• And the few gun enthusiasts I get in my course do not just have their enthusiasm reinforced; they also understand why others see guns differently.

What materials does the course feature?

• “Gunfight: The Battle Over the Right to Bear Arms in America_,” – Adam Winkler’s magnificent book on the historical and legal context of guns.
• “Gun Culture 2.0: The Evolution and Contours of Defensive Gun Ownership in America” – my comprehensive summary of the history and development of gun culture in the United States.

What will the course prepare students to do?

• This knowledge then helps students better understand their own personal beliefs about and relationship to guns.
• Taken together, these lessons prepare students to make informed choices for the rest of their lives about being involved with guns – or not – as well as the place of guns in the communities in which they will live.

• Animation is not a genre.
• As one of the most acclaimed modern auteurs – and one who has announced his intention to stick with animation as his preferred medium – his acceptance speech reads like a plea directly to the academy.

Animated films at the Oscars

• By including animated films as a standalone category, the Oscars ended up segregating them: animation was treated as its own thing.
• Beauty and the Beast broke ground as the first-ever animated nominee for the Best Picture Oscar in 1992, but only two films have achieved such a feat since.
• If animated films have had difficulty breaking into the Oscars’ vision of a Best Picture, then voice talent has been outright bypassed for consideration in acting categories.
• Yet without the physical body to observe, the Oscars have ignored voice work in animated films.

Are things changing?

• This then hopefully attracts more audience eyeballs to an Oscars telecast where they are likely to have actually seen some of the nominees.
• Thematically, it reflects on the artistic value of the superhero genre, unpacking the Spider-Man lore across its many iterations.
• Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse is the kind of popular cinema that the academy is currently primed to take more seriously.
• But it is still well-positioned to break through the confines of the Best Animated Feature category.

• When Blinken left Washington, D.C., it wasn’t even clear if he would be able to meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping.
• Three weeks before Blinken and Xi sat down, a Chinese fighter jet came dangerously close to a U.S. surveillance plane over the South China sea.
• Not surprisingly, these two close interactions heightened tensions at a time when relations between the two countries were already strained.
• The U.S. routinely sails ships and flies planes in the disputed waters and airspace in the South China Sea to indicate the right of free transit mandated by international law.
• But China claims both areas as its own territorial waters and denounces U.S. activities in what China sees as its domestic domain.

The bar was fairly low

• Despite the continued economic connections between the two powers, political and security relations have soured dramatically.
• Both countries have repeatedly condemned each other for a variety of reasons, resulting in the current tensions.
• But in other ways, it was more symbolic and part of the tenuous, uncertain relationship between the world’s two most powerful countries.
• On their agendas will be issues ranging from concerns about imports and exports to avoiding armed conflict.

Growing list of issues

• I believe the diplomatic visit was a good step toward addressing a growing list of bilateral issues that need attention.
• But it will take more time and require much more communication before a clearer picture of the status of the U.S.-Chinese relationship appears.
• The Chinese government rarely publicizes foreign policy documents, and speeches by government officials tend to be deliberately ambiguous and nonspecific.

Issues at stake

The list of bilateral issues and disputes between the two countries is extensive:
The overarching point of contention for the U.S. is China’s implied intention to displace the U.S. and become the world’s most powerful country. The current U.S. national security strategy names China as the most significant security challenge to the U.S. in our time.

China’s superpower ambitions

• The U.S. views China as a direct threat to its position as the lone superpower, with China attempting to replace the U.S.-led world order.
• The key questions are whether China will displace the U.S., when, and whether peacefully or by military force.
• The speed of the Chinese military buildup over the past decade, both conventional and nuclear, is remarkable and daunting.
• This is the century of a U.S.-China rivalry, with tensions being the only certainty of the relationship.
• One visit by the U.S. secretary of state will not solve that problem.