Damn, I have a shitload of opinions. It’s tiring, and even if I am smart enough to be able to say reasonable things most of the time, the process underlying it has been compulsive and not healthy, not free.
Be that as it may, hundreds, perhaps thousands, perhaps tens of thousands of Africans–I assume this disease will not only affect Zimbabwe–will lose their sources of income because of the bans on hunting, the bans on transport of animal “trophies” by most major airlines, and the increased costs in bribes that increased government control of the hunting industry will necessitate. And enable.
Lions kill some 250 Africans annually. Some 30 Americans die from lightning every year (this number has been decreasing for a century. Here is what to me is an interesting article on it.)
How many Africans FEAR lions, though? Are you afraid of sharks? The US averages one shark attack fatality every two years. What would it be like worrying about a shark every time you are standing at the bus stop or walking to the market?
My point–and I am making it poorly, in part because I am not entirely disinclined to empathize and even support those who found Cecil’s murder quite troubling and even traumatic–is that many humans–men, women, and children–will suffer because of the outrage over the killing of a 13 year old carnivorous beast.
I think those Africans who believe that Americans care more about their wildlife than them are on quite solid ground. That is self evidently and obviously the case. But I think they fail to remember that Americans only think about what comes on the magic box they put on a shrine in every room of most of their homes. If it’s not on the magic box, it doesn’t exist. They don’t exist.
I have named this blog “Moderates United”. I really do retain a “passion for the middle”, and that is what I am pursuing here. I am not going to call the wailers wrong, nor deny the Africans the right to say their lives matter too.