Showing posts with label africa. Show all posts
Showing posts with label africa. Show all posts

Sunday, August 2, 2015

The World Mourns the Killing of #CecilTheLion

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The world is mourning the death of majestic Cecil the Lion of Zimbabwe, seen here in his prime:



This magnificent creature was slain by dentist Walter Palmer of Minnesota, who paid $50,000 to guides in Zimbabwe who lured Cecil out of a game preserve merely to shoot him and cut off his head for a trophy. When the guides realized the lion had been collared by an Oxford group doing research on lions, they dumped the collar and proceeded to behead and skin Cecil, but the Zimbabwe government seized what was left of the creature and did not allow Palmer to keep his kill.

From CNN
Palmer is in the public crosshairs after the Zimbabwe Conservation Task Force said Cecil the lion was lured out of an animal sanctuary in Zimbabwe and shot with a crossbow.
But his death wasn't immediate.
Cecil lived another 40 hours until the hunters tracked him down and shot him with a gun. He was then skinned and beheaded.
The hunters also tried to destroy the GPS collar that Cecil was wearing as part of research backed by Oxford University, the conservation group said.
. . . Above the menagerie of stuffed animals at the door, posters now cover the front facade of the practice.
One sign asked, "Dr. Palmer, why did you kill Cecil?" Another said, "Rot in hell." A third employed the hashtag #catlivesmatter.
The vitriol for Palmer even flowed from the governor's mansion.
"I'm just so disgusted with that man," said Gov. Mark Dayton. "Shoot any lion but lure a lion like that out of the preserve and shoot him, how could anybody think that's sport? Just appalling."

When word of this senseless death hit the news and social media, all hell broke loose for Mr. Palmer, as it should.








Palmer, left, poses with an earlier lion he killed.






Believe it or not, even though the hunt went completely wrong, Walter Palmer wanted to keep on hunting and asked to shoot an elephant next. Apparently he doesn't give a crap about the rare animals of Africa or the world in general. But now the world cares what happens to Palmer and would love to see his ass in jail.

IB Times
Walter Palmer, the U.S. dentist who killed the lion Cecil in Zimbabwe, wanted to shoot a “very large elephant,” his guide and professional hunter Theo Bronkhorst told the Daily Telegraph Thursday. Palmer has gone underground amid an international outcry over the illegal hunt of the "iconic" lion.
Bronkhorst told the Telegraph that after killing the lion in Hwange National Park, Palmer asked him if he could find an elephant whose tusk weighed at least 63 pounds. "I told him I would not be able to find one so big, so the client left the next day," he said.
Prosecutors charged Bronkhorst Wednesday for failing to prevent Palmer from unlawfully killing Cecil. However, they are yet to charge Honest Ndlovu -- a second suspect and farm owner -- who has been named as an accomplice. Ndlovu appeared in court Wednesday.
The Zimbabwe Conservation Task Force said Tuesday that Palmer -- who paid $50,000 to kill Cecil -- and his group tied a dead animal to their car to lure the lion. According to the Safari Operators Association of Zimbabwe, drawing in animals with a bait is unethical. The association, of which Bronkhorst is a member, has revoked his license.


Talk-show host Jimmy Kimmel highlighted the death of Cecil by asking for donations to the group studying the lion and his pride: Wildcru.org





Statement from famous naturalist Jane Goodall:
I was shocked and outraged to hear the story of Cecil, Zimbabwe’s much loved lion. Not only is it incomprehensible to me that anyone would want to kill an endangered animal (fewer than 20,000 wild lions in Africa today) but to lure Cecil from the safety of a national park and then to shoot him with a crossbow...? I have no words to express my repugnance. He was not even killed outright, but suffered for hours before finally being shot with a bullet. And his magnificent head severed from his wounded body. And this behaviour is described as a “sport." Only one good thing comes out of this – thousands of people have read the story and have also been shocked. Their eyes opened to the dark side of human nature. Surely they will now be more prepared to fight for the protection of wild animals and the wild places where they live. Therein lies the hope.
Jane Goodall, Ph.d., DBE
Founder, the Jane Goodall Institute &
UN Messenger of Peace







From the Born Free Foundation:
Following the tragic and reportedly illegal killing of Cecil the lion, Born Free Foundation and Born Free USA today called on the US Government and European Union to take urgent steps to end the import of lion trophies and for an international moratorium on lion hunting.
The global outcry following Cecil’s death has sent shock waves across the world and has further ignited the political and public debate on the plight of wild lions and the inhumane actions of sport hunters.
. . . President of the Born Free Foundation, Will Travers OBE, has publicly called on the hunters to lay down their weapons of mass destruction. “Cecil's story has sickened and saddened us all. We can no longer accept that hunting magnificent wild animals for ‘sport’ can be deemed acceptable. Cecil's death was brutal and it showed no respect for this iconic symbol of Africa. Trophy hunting is no sport; it is merely a disguise for killing to massage an ego.”
Born Free is calling on the United States Fish and Wildlife Service to release its Final Rule on the petition to list the lion as ‘endangered’ under the United States Endangered Species Act, first submitted by Born Free and others in March 2011. Listing under the ESA would prohibit wounding, harming, harassing, killing, or trading in lions, except under certain very limited conditions, and would add significant protection for lions across their range.
Further, Born Free is calling on US Government prosecutors to explore whether legal action against Mr Palmer is warranted under the Lacey Act, which prohibits transport of wildlife specimens if they were taken illegally in their place of origin.



Zimbabwe would like a few words with Dr. Palmer, as well as our own U.S. Fish and Game service.






























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Monday, October 6, 2014

Wingnuts Blame Obama for Ebola Virus Because "African"

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The Republicans - and even some far-left conspiracy nuts - just can't resist trying to connect President Obama and the Ebola Virus. After all, he is African, you know. Oh wait, he's African-American, maybe - have you checked his birth certificate lately? When will you lib-tards admit he's a totally black socialist Kenyan who eats bush meat and invented HIV and Ebola in his bid to destroy 'Merica? Doesn't that make perfect sense?


People shouldn't be so scared about this virus from Africa. He only has two more years of his presidency
~ Actor Steve Howley on a tweet he later deleted, reported by TMZ

I believe the failure to stop these planes from comin' into Sierra Leone, there could be politics involved in that too. Obama, familial connection with Africa - he has an enormous amount of, I think, core ties to the African continent. He's mindful of his own family history there.
~ Laura Ingraham on her talk show

I think very few people trust our government as being competent. Let's not kid ourselves. I mean with the five billion dollar website for Obamacare, which is still not working frankly and it's a disaster. And so many other things: Benghazi, wars... IRS.
. . . I mean we have virtually incompetent leadership. So why would anybody trust our government to handle this crisis? And to think that we're allowing people from West Africa to come in, and many of them are unchecked, come in and potentially cause a tremendous problem.
~ Donald Trump on Fox News




Ebola is a plot to kill the Military
and Benghazzzzzzzzziiiiii!!!

(Obama wants to send) 3,000 military into where they can get Ebola that they can bring back. The military is not trained to go catch Ebola and die. They’re trained to go in and kill the people that want to come back and kill us. The president’s priorities are all mixed up here.
~ Louie Gohmert R-Texas


Post by Naomi Wolf.









 Red State: Pestilence and Bush Meat

. . . we have a person in the United States who flew back from Africa with Ebola. The White House neither wants to stop flights to Africa nor does it want to more closely monitor people coming into the United States from Africa via other countries.
At least this administration is consistent. It will let every one and every thing, including pestilence, cross our border. I bet, if we are patient, the administration will even place Ebola with a nice family somewhere in Middle America and given it government benefits.
~ Erick Erickson, Fox News Pundit and Owner of Red State

Banning flights to a country where brown people live is RACIST to Barack Ebola.
~ ncfamilyman on Red State

We still have international ports of entry, passports and visa checks, shot records, the only problem is the Mexican boarder, we don't do squat there. Maybe that's how the mystery virus killing and crippling our kids came from ? Thanks Mr. president.
~ lerp on Red State

Here is one of the major problems. People from this part of the World love to bring in "Bush Meat" into the United States. Even though it is not allowed, an Officer must open up that suitcase and take it. That in itself may become problematic if people get fearful. It's just a fact. All suitcases should be emptied of any meat BEFORE it leaves an African airport, instead of bringing it here.
. . . Ebola is a animal related disease, mostly from eating bat meat. One person comes from Africa to with infected meat and feeds it to 10 family members, we now have 10 people with Ebola. The fact that this ONE man contracted Ebola before coming here is nothing compared to an infected bag of Bushmeat will be Major. The fact is, this is a more dangerous way to bring Ebola here.
~ Bobbyd12 on Red State


Free Republic: Obama Kills the Innocents

Ebola Is Obama's "Katrina", And He's More Worried About Africans Than Americans???
~ Headline on Free Republic

If Obama can heal the earth, and stop the oceans from rising...can’t he also stop Ebola?
Yes, of course he can...but he doesn’t want to.
~ Cowboy Bob on Free Republic

Obammy is visiting this ebola crap on innocents!!!
~ Joe B. on Free Republic

I wonder if 0bola is letting the US taxpayer foot the bill for flying Ebola affected countries citizens here.
~ Jane L. on Free Republic

easier than burning Christians on the lamp posts along pennsylvania ave.
~ knarf on Free Republic

I wonder if Obama is willing to take the Mooch and their two kids to Liberia on their next vacation on our dime, shake hands with the locals, and demonstrate to Americans that there is nothing to worry about? (sarc)
~ avid cougar on Free Republic

A good Ebola outbreak in the USofA would overwhelm the Health Insurance companies and the government could rescue the system with -TA_DA! Single Payer.
~ arthurus on Free Republic

People don’t feel better off than they were five years ago, and obviously whether it’s the GSA, the IRS, Syria, Ebola, the Secret Service, I means what’s going well in regard to this administration and those senators who have followed him in lockstep?
~ Reince Priebus, Republican Clown


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Wednesday, May 14, 2014

#BringBackOurGirls and the Hashtag Police

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Ann Coulter was the most obvious critic of Michelle Obama after she held up a sign with the hashtag #BringBackOurGirls in her weekly address ~ see my Previous Post:

Twitter Punks Ann Coulter After She Mocks Michelle Obama



Unfortunately, there are others on Twitter who fancy themselves the "Hashtag Police" - forever dissing any hashtag that they don't find important or worthwhile. Or they say because everyone isn't an "expert" in what the hashtag is about, then they are just "armchair activists." Thank you, Captain Obvious, but we can't all go to Nigeria and help the FBI and Special Forces hunt down Boko Haram.

Some people freaked out that President Obama dared to send help to Nigeria, alternating between despair that America hasn't helped much before, and anger that there might be 'boots on the ground" - the same argument we hear about Ukraine and Syria and lots of other places.

Others implied that the hashtag was useless because the members of Boko Haram wouldn't read our tweets anyway, while others pointed out that Boko Haram has killed other children in the past, so why worry about a mere 200 young girls? Just GIVE UP People!!!

So I guess because GOP members like Ted Cruz or Paul Ryan don't read our tweets, we should stop tweeting about them, too? And if there's an atrocity in the world, such as fracking or pollution or pushing animals to extinction, we should ignore it because the world is just evil and it's ARMCHAIR ACTIVISM!

And it's all Obama's fault anyway because he keeps doing things that Presidents do and all of that is evil so JUST GIVE UP, PEOPLE!!!

It's rather baffling that no one complained about the #BundyRanch hashtag for a month, but suddenly 200 girls go missing and they don't think #BringBackOurGirls is a helpful hashtag? It's a strange phenomena for sure.

I think this is an important debate, so I'm going to post both sides here, via Twitter.


















































































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Monday, December 23, 2013

Justine Sacco Tweet Heard Round the World

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The hashtag #HasJustineLandedYet took over Twitter this weekend as people followed the flight pattern of Justine Sacco to Africa after she posted a tasteless - and racist - tweet about AIDS.

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From the LA Times
Justine Sacco, a director of communications at Diller's IAC, whose holdings include television production company Electus, dating sites Match.com and OKCupid as well as the video site Vimeo, tweeted “Going to Africa. Hope I don’t get AIDS. Just kidding. I’m white!”

Then she boarded a flight from London to Africa and all heck broke loose on Twitter as her tweet circulated way beyond the few hundred followers she had and became news. IAC issued a statement condemning Sacco's tweet, calling it an "outrageous, offensive comment that does not reflect the views and values of IAC." She has subsequently been relieved of her duties.

. . . She became a trending topic on Twitter and a hashtag #HasJustineLandedYet spread like wildfire, with people berating her insensitivity and anticipating what life would be like for her after the plane landed.
This isn't the first time Sacco tweeted something that is inappropriate and questionable for someone working in such a high-profile position. Last year she tweeted about having a dream involving sex with someone with autism. Her account has now been shut down.



Response from IAC via ValleyWag:
"The offensive comment does not reflect the views and values of IAC. We take this issue very seriously, and we have parted ways with the employee in question.
There is no excuse for the hateful statements that have been made and we condemn them unequivocally. We hope, however, that time and action, and the forgiving human spirit, will not result in the wholesale condemnation of an individual who we have otherwise known to be a decent person at core."

Statement from Sacco after landing in Africa via ABC News
Words cannot express how sorry I am, and how necessary it is for me to apologize to the people of South Africa, who I have offended due to a needless and careless tweet," Sacco said. "There is an AIDS crisis taking place in this country, that we read about in America, but do not live with or face on a continuous basis. Unfortunately, it is terribly easy to be cavalier about an epidemic that one has never witnessed firsthand.
"For being insensitive to this crisis -- which does not discriminate by race, gender or sexual orientation, but which terrifies us all uniformly -- and to the millions of people living with the virus, I am ashamed.
"This is my father's country, and I was born here. I cherish my ties to South Africa and my frequent visits, but I am in anguish knowing that my remarks have caused pain to so many people here; my family, friends and fellow South Africans. I am very sorry for the pain I caused."

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