TIME OF BARBARITY: Can the real animals please stand up?
Remember the song by rapper Eminem, entitled The Real Slim Shady, in which he sings "may I have your attention please? Will the real Slim Shady please stand up?"
Eminem goes off in outrageous fashion on his critics, throwing in loads of pop culture/celebrity references along the way.
He sort of takes a jab at the world of pretence – a world of alter egos and where hypocrisy reigns freely.
One can rectify the chorus of the song and ask: can the real animals please stand up in a world of pretence?”.
Animals have been in the news lately.
First it was surfer Mick Fanning who fended off a shark attack while competing at the J-Bay Open in South Africa on July 19.
Fanning was then again chased from the water by a shark in his first swim back in Australia. It appears as if sharks do not like him!
Then it was the illegal killing of Cecil the lion that sparked a worldwide call for a trophy hunting ban.
The face of Cecil the lion was even projected onto the Empire State building recently, as one of many protest action movements sparked by the infamous trophy hunt by US dentist Walter Palmer, in Zimbabwe.
The shooting of Cecil has placed the plight of endangered animals right in the focus of conservationists throughout the world.
In the first story, man was attacked by an animal and, in the second story, man attacked the animal.
Yet, if we analyse the two attacks, you will find that right throughout history, and especially the last 50 years, man has more than ever acted more like an alpha animal trying to exert its dominance on the planet.
We, after all, slaughter, butcher and destroy at whim, far more cruelly than the ways the animal kingdom exerts dominance or defends its place in the food chain.
Look at shark finning, which is becoming one of the greatest trades in the world.
Every year tens of millions of sharks die a slow death because of finning, which is the inhumane practice of hacking off the shark’s fins and throwing its still living body back into the sea.
The sharks then either starve to death, are eaten alive by other fish, or drown (if they are not in constant movement their gills cannot extract oxygen from the water).
Shark fins are being “harvested” in ever greater numbers to feed the growing demand for shark fin soup, an Asian “delicacy”.
I then ask the question: can the real animal please stand up, because it is clearly not the shark, or the lion. Yes, man, despite his lofty values of intellect and reasoning, has indeed become a savage predator.
Sure, people talk about hunting as a means of conservation, but there is nothing noble or ethical about trophy hunting.
That is simply barbaric. And so the “animal” with a highly sophisticated weapon thinks he is the alpha when hunting the cornered king of the land animals.
Hunting is a well-known practice of our upright “animals”, but then we are not talking here just about hunting of animals but also fellow homo-sapiens.
Criminals rule the roost in this country of lawlessness, without any respect for life. After all, 53 police officers have been killed in the country so far this year – four in the last week alone (this included the death of an officer in Vosloorus).
President Jacob Zuma has entertained the suggestion that disarming the nation may be a long-term solution to the country’s cop killing spree.
Taking guns off the street is not going to solve the problem. Reality is, there are plenty of “animals” in this world who simply do not respect life, or the importance of upholding the dignity and integrity of mankind.
America, of course, sits with the same problem regarding excessive violence – only difference is that the cops are the ones gunning down the innocent!
Guns are not the issue Mr President. If you ban guns, then you might as well ban knives, then hammers, then rocks, then tree branches and then eventually tie people’s hands behind their backs to prevent them from doing harm.
Shark finning, hunting of lions and the rampant crime spree are just expressions of a growing moral sickness of mankind that continues to behave in an uncivilised manner, like animals.
We have to face the reality that we, as humans, are more vicious, more brutal, more barbaric and less “humane” than the animals that roam or swim this planet.
Barack Obama is now taking on the challenge of rectifying climate control – it is sadly too late because we have already caused extensive harm to this planet, destroying what we should have protected as the dominant species in the first place.
So, again, I ask, can the real animals please stand up.
