What a crock

The free magazine that the union at my university puts out has been improving. It’s been shit for a long time but the last issue (that I incidentally had an article published in) gave me hope that things might be changing, albeit slowly. I’m moderately proud of having an article in a magazine that will be read by many of my fellow students. Unfortunately, one particular article within the mag taints that sentiment due to the idea of being in the same publication as it. This article both disgusted and enraged me.

The article was about the practice of “speeling”– that is to say, spearing eels. There are eels in the campus lakes, you understand. Most of us think they're creepy and kind of gross, but hey, they never harmed us.Select groups of individuals, however, make it their aim to torture these slippery creatures.

One would think that an article on this topic would be deriding this pastime but it actually provided a how-to guide for wannabe speelers.
Now, I’m far from being an animal activist. I like my steak, I hate the supposedly cute green tree frogs, I pulled my fair share of cats’ tails in my younger days, I have gone yabbying and I’ve been known to purposely step on insects.

However, I feel that this article takes things a step too far. Admittedly the story does refer to catching the eels with your hands and placing it somewhere else on campus, suggesting a harmless prank. However, there is also reference to the use of spearing devices and references to the eels’ death. I quote “Speelers adopt an official catch and release policy on water lizards. This is because they don’t deserve to die, unlike the evil eels.”

Apart from the dodgy content, the piece is also mediocre and filled with vulgarities and various college in-jokes . It is accompanied by photos of drunken guys (complete with tinnies in hand) attempting to spear, or having already speared the eels. Their faces have been blanked out. They know they could cop some flak for their extra-curricular activity.

I have a journalism lecturer who has been known to talk about how said magazine used to be a source of quality journalism and how he got a job after graduation off the back of his stint as editor. Sad to say, that’s not likely to happen anymore. As long as the magazine’s focus is articles like this one, I think it’s fair to say that it’s not a publication anybody’s going to respect.