To our regional Governments ... There was a time

… a time when we were at peace and in harmony with the world we found ourselves in, as hard as it was.

We were one group of the species known as mammals that are social by nature, live in groups, communicate and take no more than is needed.  

Like all the other groups, we were in a struggle for survival, wanting no more, no less … than to be allowed to live in peace, raise our families and flourish.

On this score we were by no means dominant.
Physically we were no match for certain other mammals, such as the lion, the leopard, the crocodile, the buffalo and that magnificent giant, the elephant.

What is more we had the least resistance to the tiny mosquito that kept our numbers down to such an extent that only one of three of our babies ever survived.

Given these realities we were not infused with self-serving arrogance and disdain for other creatures or other humans.

Then something happened … something happened … something happened … that changed everything.

The White man arrived.
He arrived with a culture of dominance … dominance over all other creatures that our region was so blessed with … and dominance over us. 

Today we classify this attitude as arrogance … ignorant arrogance.
Ignorant, because it fails to accept that every living creature, including humans, are all part of a grand mosaic of nature, each with its own unique attributes and gifts, a full understanding of  which we have yet to attain.
Just as an example, we should know that, despite our big brain and ten fingers, we can never weave a nest that the tiny weaver bird weaves with its tiny brain and beak. We have no understanding how that same bird will forecast high rainfall and therefore build its nest higher.

The White man of that time was the oppressor and we were the oppressed.
And then the White man relinquished his dominance over us.
But, on doing so, he bestowed on us three incredible things –

a) Borders that gave us countries that we never had before.

b) Protection against the hitherto mighty mosquito.

c) A gun which reversed the physical disadvantage we previously suffered as against many other mammals.

d) Alas, what we also appear to have assimilated is the ignorant arrogance that the White man then had when he had us under subjugation and oppression.

So today many of us, not all, act out this ignorant arrogance.
Because of the advantages that we were given we are now claiming far more than we had … and grabbing more and more territory that used to be the habitat of the other mammals in our region.

We do this on a new-found attitude that other creatures have no rights; only us.

Ours is now a culture of self-serving dominance to the loss and prejudice of all others.

We don’t care that other mammals are social creatures, live in family groupings, communicate, have feelings and also experience being traumatized.

We don’t care that, like us, they are also in a struggle for survival.

Just as the proboscis of the tiny mosquito once made it “the boss”, the gun that we were given now makes us the boss … a selfish cruel boss.

We have become so ignorant that we are prepared to even allow other mammals to be killed “for fun” in terms of a deviant sport called “hunting”. 
We forget that our very own kith-and-kin the Khoisan were also once hunted and shot ...
just for fun".

We are so blinded by our arrogance that we cannot see that anybody who “enjoys” killing is a pervert.

But we do this for money … something else the White man introduced us to.

So we see how the oppressed become the oppressors.

Judge (Ret) Chris N Greenland.
[To know more about the writer go to https://www.youtube.com/user/chrisng53?reload=9]

Sudan … What now? … Freedom?

The news media is awash with footage of the ordinary people of Sudan demonstrating their demand to be free of oppression … of military rule … of Omar Al Bashir … to be free … at last.

The military is caught in a situation of organic ambivalence and embarrassment as it was/is very much part of the oppression but is also the Bashir removal agent.

The African Union is caught in a situation of organic hypocrisy as it has always supported African leaders, howsoever bad, but has to be seen to be doing “something” about these tumultuous events.

The future for Sudan is also caught in a situation of organic ambivalence as was Iraq and Libya (and Zimbabwe).

This is because human beings that have been oppressed and denied the opportunity to determine their own interests for many decades do not have the competence to govern, as has been proved in Iraq and Libya.

This incompetence also accrues to the oppressors themselves as appears to also apply to Zimbabwe.

It certainly will accrue to the military that have deposed Omar Al Bashir as they were 100% part of the oppression.

It has been politically correct to blame “the West” for the chaos and instability that exists in Iraq and Libya.
There are many who lament the removal of the despotic bloody tyrants, Saddam and Gaddafi.

Now who are they going to blame, as regards Sudan, for the chaos that is looming?

Their problem is that of naivety and low emotional intelligence.

They see the STABILITY of tyranny as preferable to the chaotic CHANCE at freedom. They have a low understanding of human rights.
President Thabo Mbeki was widely praised for keeping the tyrannical ZPF regime in power for the sake of "stability" using something called "quiet diplomacy".
History has proved what a diabolical betrayal of a whole people this was.

We should all understand that this era/period is but a moment in time … just a moment in the journey that humanity is making.

Yes … Yes … Yes … things can be chaotic after the removal of despots and tyranny.

However, in that chaos, reposes the CHANCE of FREEDOM that was absent before.
The chaotic moment in time will pass.

Despots and tyrants MUST be removed … and it matters not by whom they are removed.

This is the only way that human beings can be afforded the chance of freedom.

Cry Again The Beloved Country

Starting in 2011 I posted appeals to the whole of South Africa, pointing out that the racial reform model was inherently evil for being a “cut and paste” version of apartheid culture.

In the image below, we have "A" instead of "B".

I insisted that –
i) as much as it had been devised in “good faith”, given the horrors of apartheid, this was a case of “the road to hell indeed being paved with good intentions”;
ii) as putting a value on race … ethnicity and skin tone would inevitably induce the populace to associate advantage … disadvantage with these natural attributes;
iii) and, having made the association, would act this out almost as naturally as breathing;
iv) inducing a race/ethnic/colour-coded mentality;
v) that would divide the populace into silos of real and perceived groupings of power, influence and assets;
vi) in real and perceived competition on so many levels;
vii) resulting in a country at war with itself;
viii) instead of having a nation.

I distributed my stance across the social media board and to all the major media houses for a number of years thereafter.
It was treated with emphatic contempt and ignored on all fronts.

In fact, none other than Professor Pierre De Vos, a highly respected national public interest guru, dismissed it as “spam”.https://coginito.blogspot.com/…/dear-professor-pierre-de-vo…

In my appeal I predicted that “nothing good would come” of this racial reform model … only bad ... as, in part, the growing generation would be psychologically infused with the notion that “Black good, White bad, Coloured and others not too good/bad”.

It gives me no pleasure to point out that I was right … that my assessment was right … that I was right on the outcomes.

Today we do not have a nation. We have human beings in silos. Our people are in the same silos that they were under apartheid …
i) in the same silos that they were under apartheid ...
ii) that the whole world perceived and condemned as one of the most evil systems in history.

iii) All that has happened is that the dominant group is now “Black”, enjoys legitimacy under a very credible Constitution, espouses democratic policies … but has a populace in race … ethnic … colour coded camps psychologically and physically.

With elections looming the ANC and the EFF both brand the DA as a “White” Party, so as to leverage the stink that has been created about White people. The EFF lambasts the ANC as having “sold out” to Whites. Even our iconic Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela who still straddles the whole world posthumously is having his incredible name besmirched by vigorous campaigns that he “sold out to the Whites”.

The outcome of this “racial” model is that our people are still far from free.
There are many definitions of “freedom”. My definition is that – “freedom is achieved when a human being “feels free” … feels that he or she is able to realize his or her potential whether it be to be as a business tycoon or as a successful vegetable vendor”.

We do not have that in South Africa currently.
What we have is a “Black” majority “feeling aggrieved” … a White minority “feeling threatened”, with Coloured folk and others “feeling irrelevant”.
“Black” folk are “us”. White folk are “them”. Coloured and Asian folk are “others”.
The first two groups are in competition with each other and take each other seriously.
The third group is regarded and treated as irrelevant to that competition.
The three groups do not comprise a nation of a proud free people.

Proof of this is proved daily, beyond any doubt, on social media and interactive radio discourse.
Innumerable topics play out on race/ethnic/colour coded lines, be it about the “genocide” of White farmers to “land grabbing” and to who is racist and who is not.
Members of each grouping are routinely condemnatory of each other with increasing levels of intensity.

One of the most terrible statements I have ever heard was when a very senior "Black" lawyer responded to a presentation I had made to young "Black" lawyers by -"I cannot agree with Judge Greenland, as it would mean that a poor Black person would have to be treated the same as a poor White person".

The world was also treated to a "Black" Advocate, a Senior Counsel no less, breaking down in tears when, within a few minutes of the hearing, he had to accept that there was nothing "Racist" about the "Spear" painting depicting Jacob Zuma.
He should have actually bee referred for disciplinary action for being so emotionally invested in his client's case.

If we take the plight of Coloured folk as a litmus test it is blindingly clear that this racial model is the very definition of racist hypocrisy.https://coginito.blogspot.com/…/the-case-of-coloured-correc…

As morning breaks there is an interactive 702 Radio program about the ANC Youth League threatening to invade book stores and burn a book penned by a White journo about a “Black” ANC regime leader’s corrupt shenanigans.
Understand that burning books is a hallmark trait of regimes that become despotic.

The 1994 election, that supposedly delivered “freedom” to our people was decidedly non-racial in content. The buildup to the pending elections is being hit by racial trumpeting at any number of levels, with one political Party, in particular, indulging in racial point scoring at somewhat enthusiastic levels.

So that is the current situation … as I repeatedly predicted.

We don’t have a nation.
Our people are still in race/ethnic/colour codes silos … 25 years after Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela’s promise of “freedom for all” … a promise that he challenged an apartheid Court to hang him for rather than give it up.

The majority are still languishing in the legacy of apartheid-induced poverty … still disadvantaged … still disempowered …
while largely politically connected “Black“ members have traded on their claimed black skins to join the previously advantaged.

As predicted the “racial” reform model has induced the birth of its twin brothers “racist” and “xenophobia” as they are all the offspring of the same womb.

Because of the reality set out herein none other than President Cyril Ramaphosa made a speech about “foreigners” that inevitably was understood to be an incitement to subject our indigenous African brethren from Zimbabwe and Malawi, in particular, to depraved murderous attack. As said the driver of this barbaric treatment of our brethren is because the association of advantage/disadvantage with race is now embedded psychologically.

Sadly an online video link plays out in which the President of Ghana laments and condemns the repeated xenophobic pogroms as a betrayal of South Africa’s struggle objectives that the whole of African supported. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sr5eO5PySYM

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Note that the label "Black", that was not in existence when the ANC was formed and like the label "Kaffir" was configured to dehumanize and oppress, is retained from the days of oppression as it serves to unite our indigenous tribal groupings under one banner in the quest for race/ethnic/tribal dominance.
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As if to portend the bad future that this country is heading towards power goes off, on account of even more “load shedding” as I am typing this post at 5:17am, this 10 April 2019 … and stays off until 10am.

We have "A: instead of "B" as our reform model

As if to portend the bad future that this country is heading towards power goes off, on account of even more “load shedding” as I am typing this post at 5:17am, this 10 April 2019 … and stays off until 10am.

An Appeal To The Government of Botswana

Understand that it pains me deeply to have to do this as Botswana has always been close to my heart and to date, I have been a fierce supporter of this country. It is a country that has been very good to us as a family.
However, the decision by the government to reverse the Ian Khama ban on trophy hunting of animals must be objected to in the strongest terms.
The Minister’s explanation of why this has occurred smacks of artful deception using half-truths and convenient reasoning. It is unprincipled from start to finish.

1. “Conservation?”
He has trotted out the now standard lie that this course of action “Serves Conservation”.
This is the same thing as saying that animals do not have a right to life and must be made to pay for that right.
a) Surely such thinking is diabolical and, at the very least, morally, logically and ethically reprehensible and demeans us as a species??
b) In, any event, it is a downright lie. I am attaching pictures, that I took at Kasane, showing jam-packed photo-safari boats. There were 4 of these boats. For the week that I was at Kasane every one of them was jam-packed every day, even though, it was by no means cheap to be on one of these.
It is obvious that photo-safaris and other bush and wild-game experiences can be successfully configured so as to commercially exploit human love, fascination of, and interest in animals that does not involve killing them.

2. Bloodlust
Let us be clear … very, very clear ... I mean VERY CLEAR.
The whole hunting industry is predicated on the notion/culture that gratuitously taking the life of another creature is “enjoyable”. That is the fundamental premise that is being served.
It is diabolical, if not satanic.
Yes we do kill. But we do this out of necessity. We do this in order to eat. That is how nature, or God, structured the rules of survival.
However no normal human being “enjoys” killing. Only a pervert can enjoy killing. It is that simple.

There is nothing good, justifiable or commendable about gratuitously shooting a 76-year-old bull elephant in its prime, so that you can take pictures, posing on its body, in order to validate yourself as a human being. Only a pervert can imagine that this is good.

There is nothing good about shooting an astoundingly beautiful creature like a leopard, unmindful and uncaring of the fact that it may have cubs waiting for their mother in a den, cubs that will now die slowly and painfully.

Only a pervert can imagine that this is good.
These are the FACTS.
They cannot be denied or wished away.

3. Analogy … satanic reasoning.
The Minister’s argument is, with respect artful, hypocritical and mendacious as it has equal diabolical merit if applied to pedophilia.
Botswana could become an enormously rich country in no time at all if it were to make its young girls and boys available for the perverts that abound on this planet.
It could then advance the same argument that this is necessary so as to raise money to fund the education and development of the rest of its young girls and boys.
The same logic applies to both matters.

4. Dragging in tribal folk.
Claiming that this has the approval of the indigenous humans is perniciously artful. These desperate people are not being given any other or better option.
It is that simple.

Conclusion
Botswana is truly blessed. I first realized this in September 1975 when sitting in our camp at Savuti surrounded in every direction by animals of very description like we were in the Garden of Eden.
The one night the baboons started to bark, followed by monkeys screeching, with buffalo bellowing, elephants trumpeting and lions roaring in a cacophony of sound that made the ground vibrate.
I felt how insignificant I was in this wondrous scheme of things.

Botswana now has five times less animals than it had in 1975.
Its natural resources should be viewed as a sacred trust and not abused.
I assume that the government is acting in good faith. However, it is all too often the case that "the road to hell is indeed paved with good intentions".
Please join me in appealing to the government to review its decision and adopt a course of responsibility, love and caring for this wonderful country and its creatures.

Let us insist that Botswana needs to be an example to the rest of mankind not an accomplice in uncaring mindless cruelty in the service of perverts and at the altar of monetary gain.

Please share far and wide.

Note: I have read an extremely detailed paper on this issue by Joseph E. Mbaiwa of the University of Botswana and he concludes that hunting should be supported.
However, his paper simply omits the issues raised here that, to my mind, are fundamental.
I have emailed him and asked him to respond to my stance.
Two weeks later he has not done so.

Botswana … is man indeed a virus

In September 1975, I sat in a camp chair at Savuti, Botswana, and marveled at the world around me. There were animals of so many descriptions all around us, in great abundance; antelopes, buffalo, kudu, zebra, waterbuck, wart-hogs, elephants … and even the humble tortoise. Soon a pride of lion arrived. We were reassured by the game warden that they posed no threat as there was so much food available to them.
I was truly awestruck when I thought I saw an elephant trampling on a tortoise only to have the game warden show me that, with seeming compassion for another creature, it had turned the tortoise back right-side-up after the hyenas had turned it upside-down.
This was what the Garden of Eden must have been like.

That night I lay in my camp bed looking up at the stars. The sky was so clear that the stars were like lanterns within touching distance.
Then the baboons started to bark … followed by the screeching of monkeys … joined by the bellowing of buffalo and then the trumpeting of elephants with the roar of lions. The ground was vibrating with this crescendo of sound exhorting the power of nature.

Right there I changed as a human being. I felt my insignificance in the grand scheme of things. Man was just one piece, one tiny piece of a smörgåsbord … a truly grand mosaic … that is nature.
I had grown up in Rhodesia, with its culture of hunting. I had inculcated a disregard, disdain, contempt for animals.
Right here I changed. With every fiber in my body I became aware that I was no more important than any other creature on this planet.

Yesterday I posted an appeal on Facebook, imploring the Government of Botswana to reverse its decision to permit the gratuitous killing of animals as the fundamental premise that the whole hunting industry is predicated upon is that killing is something “enjoyable”.
There is no denying this fact … as much as it is obfuscated humongously.

For this I was set upon by some Tswana males … abused and insulted.
Common to their stance was that animals have no rights and are expendable at the wish, whim and convenience of man.
Nowhere in their comments of self-righteous aggression was there even a hint of empathy for the plight of animals. There was no recognition, that like us, these animals are social creatures that live in family groupings … communicate with each other and are traumatized just as we are when they are brutalized. Far be it that they even started to understand that , like us and all other creatures, their animals are in a fight for survival.

Their heartlessness astounded me.
But it does not surprise me.
Man is the most recent arrival on this planet, having arrived just 2 minutes ago calculated in terms of a 12-hour historical world existence clock.
However, since his arrival he has set about destroying the planet and the lives of all other creatures.
He does this with the self-righteous impunity as displayed by our Tswana male friends.

It astounds me especially as we are a grouping that experienced being treated as unworthy of having any meaningful rights. We too were considered as having some right to existence provided only that it did not impact, inconvenience or disturb the lives of our colonizers.
We were treated as sub-human. Some treated their animals with more regard than they treated us.
Our Khoisan brothers and sisters were actually subjected to extermination.

To be fair, our Tswana friends are not alone in this culture. It is now an international pandemic.
But, in reality, they have caught the virus.

What induces a heart-pang is that Botswana is truly blessed to have been accorded the privilege of custodianship of such an enthralling mix of animals.
Instead of providing leadership … imaginative, innovative leadership … as to how to make the planet better for all its inhabitants, it is succumbing to the avaricious, self-indulgent, mean-spirited mode and culture that now defines this virus that is man.

But I have hope.
The post has been shared over 75 times by those in support and the share-meter is still running.
God bless those that are doing this.