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]