As for the past few years I concentrated on the slaughter of the rhino; I did not write much about the other animals that are also getting wiped out. On the Rhino sites I see so many comments, about the Chinese. Now, I am not saying that China has a huge responsibility in the business, but to be accurate, the Vietnamese are the forerunners in rhino horn trade.
When it comes to the slaughter of the elephants, China is taking a leading role, of that there is no doubt. In China and Hong Kong, ivory is seen as precious material and is used in ornaments and jewellery. I think there must be millions of Ivory Buddha statues in the world. Most will be found in Japan. The Buddhist religious leaders say little in defence of the elephant. Recently a few websites selling Ivory Buddha statues have popped up, the biggest client base? Britain.
Then we come to the other idols that are made from Ivory, they estimate about 30 % of the tusks poached are made into little Jesus and Mary statues. Ivory baby Jesuses and saints for Catholics in the Philippines mainly. That the Pope does not make a stand against this show he should re-read the book of Genesis, and think what God, to whom he claims a direct line, by the way, said about man being responsible for the well being of the animals.
National Geographic published the following:
“Monsignor Garcia is head of protocol for the archdiocese of Cebu, the largest in the Philippines, giving him a flock of nearly 4 million in a country of 75 million Roman Catholics, the world’s third largest Catholic population. The tradition of carving ivory into religious pieces in the Philippines is so deeply rooted that in Cebu the word for ivory, garing, also means “religious statue.”
“Christy reports that another prominent Filipino Catholic, Father Vicente Lina, Jr. (Father Jay), advises people to buy religious icons made of “new” ivory—”so the history of an image will start in you.” By “new” Father Jay means smuggled.”
Then, we have the Islamic prayer beads for Muslims, all over the world.
Religion is obviously no friend of the elephant.
THE MEXICAN HORSE THIEF
Of Interest:
Get quality back links. The Gravy Train
Niume seems to be the best microblogging platform available at present, why not give them a try?
Photographic Club 101
No comments:
Post a Comment