Props to the Chinese for this.
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October 19th, 2004 at 2:53 pm
It’s interesting that the inscription (if we believe the translation) uses the word “devoted” to describe what the monkeys did with their lives for the benefit of SARS research. That’s recasting their wholesale slaughter in significantly more voluntary terms. But without that element, how could we honor them? If we’re trying to thank them, we have to thank them _for_ something, but in the end all they really did was exist conveniently enough to be forced under the knife for our public good. And who do we thank for THAT?
Can you imagine a monument reading: “To all who read this: There was a horrible disease outbreak, and we had to butcher a bunch of monkeys to figure that shit out. Think of them every once in a while.”
It just doesn’t flow.