If anyone were to conduct a survey on what constitutes the gravest danger to the survival of the rhinoceros in Africa the results, in all likelihood, would show that most people believe that it is the threat posed by poachers. The shocking truth, in my humble opinion, is that it is this perception which in […]
rhino
Posted inNews/Politics
Lynching black men
On March 1 we watched in disbelief and horror as a young Mozambican man, Mido Macia, was forcibly handcuffed to the back of a police van and dragged behind the vehicle as he cried out for them to stop. When the car eventually arrived at the police station eyewitnesses say he was further beaten by […]
Posted inGeneral
Have rifle, will shoot
Visiting Konopiste Castle — situated about 40km outside Prague — is historically informative and interesting on one level and nauseating on another. Bought by Archduke Franz Ferdinand in 1887 — yes, the same one whose assassination in Sarajevo in 1914 triggered World War I — the castle became far more than an occasional retreat for […]
Posted inGeneral
In praise of animals – our fellow creatures
Animals – and not just pets, all kinds of animals – do not enjoy the care and acknowledgement of being our veritable brothers and sisters, as living beings, that they should by right receive. This much is beyond debate. The obscene practice of killing rhino for the supposedly medicinal and/or aphrodisiac properties of their horns, […]
Posted inNews/Politics
Africa gets a new angle on the Chinese take-away
South Africa’s gold and platinum might be doing well, but it is the rhino index that is going stratospheric. With 11 rhinos a week biting the dust and the horn going at $55 000 a kilogram, a lot of pockets are being lined. Last week local activists publicly ruffled some feathers with an advert that asks […]
Posted inNews/Politics
Sticking a rhino horn to China’s Giant Panda
Developing nations don’t hold much truck with wildlife conservation for sentimental or scientific reasons. In places where human existence itself can be nasty, brutal and short, animals are butchered without compunction and often with thoughtless cruelty. They are clubbed, shot, stabbed, fished, or slaughtered with zero regard to the long term effects on species survival. […]