Page 35 - Mega Interact 0001

THE LAST SAY

THE IDEA IS WRONG

More than 1 300 rhinos were poached in Africa last year, a record
since 2008 when South Africa banned trade in rhino horns.
According to experts, there were between 19 000 and 21 000
white rhino in Africa last year and between 5 000 and 5 500 black
ones.

They say that the slaughter has been driven by the demand for
their horns in countries such as China and Vietnam, where they are
prized for their purported medicinal properties. Rhino horn has as
much medicinal value as your finger nails but these Asians choose
to believe that in it lies a cure for cancer and other diseases. People
are willing to pay over 60 000 Dollar a kilo on the black market,
making it more expensive than cocaine!

I have read about a man from the USA who paid 350 000 Dollar to
kill a rhino here in Africa and he said it is for conservation..... yes, for
conservation.

Just think of how we'd apply this concept to the other top black
market trades, of which rhino horn poaching is number four.
Human trafficking is number three. What if we auctioned off just
one child in to human trafficking and slavery... and used those
funds towards stopping human trafficking? We sacrifice only one
child to save many others. Or what if our government for just one
week or even one year went in to the heroin business, the number
one illegal trade. Our government hits the streets and peddles
heroin for just one year and with those millions of dollars then tries
to stop heroin trafficking. Or the illegal gun trade? We could sell
guns to the terrorists or whoever is paying top dollar and then use
that money to try and end terrorism. We could raise millions.

This rings wrong to me and fails to convince me that there will
actually be less slavery, narcotics or terrorism as a result.

My belief is that neither the medicine trade nor the hunting should
be blamed for the global wipe-out of these beautiful majestic
creatures. The reason why we don't have enough rhinos anymore
is because of this IDEA that all living beings are put on earth solely
to be products for man's use. And man has used so many, there are
few left. This is true of all wild animals, especially in Africa where
the slaughtering has been extreme.

This is not because of guns or men or countries, it is this IDEA that
we can TAKE whatever we want - that is the culprit, the reason
why we have less clean water, wetlands, leopard , rhinos, gorillas
and many more... is because we can just take what we want. There
is NO other reason.

And I suspect that the challenges will not change until we decide
to transmute that idea from "I take" to "I exchange" -- an old
African idea. I give you a chicken, you give me a blanket. As my
mother taught me, we don't "sell or overpower or persuade" -- we
"exchange." Everyone wins. And most important - if the other
person or city or state or country or forest has nothing left to give
us, we don't take from them, we only give to them.

That is what I am trying to do. I am attempting to give assistance to
the rhino, to the elephant, to the poor, to Mother Earth and very
personally to all the life God has entrusted in my hands.

Shooting one of Africa's last rhinos is not by definition giving, or
respecting or conserving in an AFRICAN, or for that matter ANY
equation. I can promise you that the heroic rangers who risk their
lives, and sometimes die, for every single one of these last rhino
will not feel a victory for conservation.

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