There is a world somewhere between reality and fiction. Although ignored by many, it is very real and so are those living in it. This forum is about the natural world. Here, wild animals will be heard and respected. The forum offers a glimpse into an unknown world as well as a room with a view on the present and the future. Anyone able to speak on behalf of those living in the emerald forest and the deep blue sea is invited to join.
"In the greater scheme of things Cecil’s death is not that serious. As an aging dominant male he was probably at the end of his tenure. Ustad’s incarceration is more serious because tigers in the wild are down to 3000 (some say it’s closer to 1000). Ustad, having been removed, a younger male will take his territory and new genes will be injected.
So why are so many people so incensed? I believe these “named icons” are symbols of what we as human-beings are doing to planet earth. Instinctively we know we cannot continue on this destructive path. Climate change, human population growth, hamburger culture (use of land under cattle) and burning fossil fuels are far more important than Cecil the lion or Ustad the tiger. However, we can’t get to grips with them, they are too big and they are nameless.
I recently went to the city to buy my daughter a motor car. Naively I believed that I would have the pick of several makes of electrically powered, environmentally friendly cars. I was completely mistaken. Only Toyota had a Hybrid (runs on electrics and petrol), none were available in the country and the last one had sold 4 months ago. No other brands were even contemplating bringing environmentally cars into South Africa.
Now the burning of fossil fuels is far more important than Cecil the lion or Ustad the tiger, but we do nothing! We are paralysed.
Only when the public refuse to buy petrol and diesel cars will the motor companies produce environmentally friendly cars. Only when mass media and social media and people are protesting outside the motor companies, like they did outside Palmers dental practice, will the motor companies change. It’s never going to happen!
So we are like the frog happy in the warm water, gradually moving to boiling point.
In the political and financial magazines of the world, the people we admire most are the rich people. Forbes magazine is always listing the richest people in the world, the richest people in the USA. (I look for my name but it always seems to be missing). Therefore monetary wealth is the yardstick.
Countries too are listed. The wealthiest countries spend the most on the military. It seems a country that’s wealthy needs to spend an awful lot on protecting that wealth and protecting their supply of oil .
Have you ever seen a list of the most environmentally friendly countries, the least polluted countries and the cruelest free country and the most spiritual country. If so, please send it to me.
Have you ever seen a politician or head of state survive who puts the environment ahead of the economy? Therefore our global values are to create wealth. Not sustainable wealth, just wealth! The richer are getting richer and the poorer are getting poorer. Hardly a recipe for global peace.
Our ethics are disintegrating. We shoot male lions in enclosures where there is no chance of escape for large amounts of money (as the rand weakens, the canned lion industry will expand because it's paid in dollars).
We separate young elephants from their mothers and send them to China, the cruelest country in the world, to pay off debt.
We kill millions of sharks to satisfy the shark fin soup market which is a luxury for rich people.
We chase animals with beaters while wealthy “hunters” sit on raised deck chairs blasting away at the big, the small and the pregnant.
The list goes on and on. The laws of the countries are all written from a human perspective. Nowhere do they acknowledge the rights of animals to exist in a non cruel environment.
Except for Buddhism, none of our religions protect and acknowledge the rights of fellow species. Many of the religions in fact promote animal cruelty in their religious ceremonies.
Therefore our values don’t protect the earth and fellow species. Our laws don’t either, neither do our religions, and our leaders are in the business of gaining at much personal wealth while they are in power.
We are morally, ethically and environmentally bankrupt.
“The world is waiting
For a new direction
One based on
The laws of Nature”
Tread lightly on the Earth
JV"
He seems to change his tone on hunting or canned hunting
