Progression of my tiger ink drawing in protest against exotic animals in private captivity
There are a lot of hot topics in SA such as the disastrous and devastating crisis at the top of Eskom’s leadership, the allegations of acting judges performing the most vulgar sexual acts on minors, and exotic wild animals in private “care.” Yes, we had another Bengal tiger on the loose!
As if we in South Africa have not had enough of life’s
curve balls – those that we bring about on ourselves. Not nature’s disasters or
what clever people refer to as “an Act of God.”! These are not “acts of God” –
wow, God is not to blame for these. These are manmade disasters.
Eskom’s man made “disasters” – those things that are
notoriously difficult “to prosecute” and to investigate, but that is discussed
in the marketplace although it is subject to load shedding. I have difficulties
understanding this thing called “load shedding” and in Afrikaans it is referred
to as “beurtkrag.”
Nobody sheds any loads – unless it is meant to mean
that the powers in “charge” of Eskom are shedding their responsibility onto its
consumers.
Another man made “disaster” is the Bengal tiger that
“escaped” its enclosure on the south-side of Johannesburg and on the media
reports, it happened because there was an intruder who cut the fences. If we
accept that premise, why did the tiger not attack that intruder and mauled
him/her? Of course, so the narrative should at least go, the tiger was asleep.
And then there were further reports of this tiger attacking a dog and a pig and
a person. Just that: “a person”; no more particularity about this incident. And
it got shot. No more details of that “person” – now, should I as a
long-standing lawyer accept that say so? No - a thousand times, no I do not
accept it.
It was shot because the tiger did what tigers do, not
because it was dangerous. The tiger did not know that it was dangerous. It was
us humans, that saw the tiger as being dangerous. Well, let me accept that
premise: it was dangerous. Why then did the owner keep it in private “care”? I
am absolutely positive that the owner knew it to be dangerous even in the face
of a “lovely cute photograph” of the tiger “cuddling” him from behind. Of so
cute! Such a lovable little cuddly creature!
Nonsense! An animal that was ripped out of its natural
habitat [or else bred in captivity which is even worse] in a “friendly” pose
with its human “carer”? All of these wonderful arguments, and more do not make
sense to me.
And to top it, another Bengal tiger, this time in
Edenvale, not far from me in Rivonia, got “out”. This time it was sedated and
brought back to its owner – so the story goes.
I wonder what the guys that are taking the
Johannesburg Zoo to the Court over elephants are saying about this lot? They
must be very upset and up in arms about this. And they are not the only ones.
And the powers in “charge” of these laws and by-laws are smug about it.
Now, in SA we are trained to think that the political
powers in charge of our destiny are corrupt and therefor in line with this
thinking processes we ask ourselves immediately the question why are these
powers so reluctant to interfere? My I put forward a suggestion, and I truly
and honestly hope that I am completely wrong and barking up the wrong tree, and
that suggestion is that money is exchanging hands – that is money from dirty
hands to dirty hands and that money keeps the animals on the loose, so to
speak. These are only some of my thoughts and once again, I hope to heavens
that I am wrong. Shall we wait, and see? And wait for another exotic to escape
and met some disastrous encounter with security officers with high powered guns
that are not trained hunters. Once again, I will further qualify the story
about being a trained hunter in SA. What do I mean by that? I mean that that
security officer carries that high powered gun to shoot human beings and not
tigers on the loose. That is what I mean – and the tiger stood no chance at
all. The burglar, who is a human being, stood a chance because he probably had
a gun in his pocket.
So what do we have here: a senior advocate who once
upon a time acted as a judge of the High Court, his very able assistant, tigers
on the loose, Eskom high-brass telling us a lot of utterly shocking “stories,
security guards with high-powered guns geared to shoot robbers, no on the loose
to shoot a tiger who, so the narrative goes, attack a “person” – oh my word, we
can go on and on and all those Tik-tok videos prophesying doom and gloom, and
Afrikaans speaking guys such as Kobus Van Der Merwe and a certain Breytenbach-guy who are in the very cheap lime light for having huge money making schemes with
diamonds and other stuff.
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