Editorial
When will the Bureau of Statistics release the Consumer Price Index figures for the first three months of 2008? It is clear that the data has been collected and collated and the numbers are on someone’s desk. So why the delay? This is activity paid for by taxpayers and which provides information that is vital to business and to the public.
It is criminal that these figures are being hidden.
Save our species
On April 15, a fifty-year-old man was attacked by a great white shark while swimming off the coast of Oregon; in the same week a Welsh farmer was savaged by a flock of sheep; a Brazilian miner was swallowed whole by a snake; a stable hand battered to death by a thoroughbred; a scuba diver raped by a school of dolphins. Closer to home a West Bank taxi driver was admitted to hospital with severe bee stings. And most disastrously we slid our car into a trench one night only to be attacked by a nest of red ants who almost made it to our nether regions.
The list goes on. Let’s not mention the recent dog attacks. Instead consider super bacteria sweeping through hospitals; even athlete’s foot is making a comeback. Homo sapiens is under siege.
For millions of years humans have had dominion over all living things. Sure, back in the Stone Age, you had to watch out for the occasional woolly mammoth, but we ruled, we were the top dog – the man, so to speak. Now the animal kingdom is getting very uppity.
Where has this sudden resurgence come from? What are its roots? We trace it, like all bad things, to the decline in family values.
We can all agree that the dogs of today are just not what they used to be. Back in the good old days and even into the 1980s they stayed in their own yards, doing useful stuff like taking their masters their slippers or newspapers, or being submissively abused for the entertainment of small children. They guarded the home and lived law-abiding, decent church-going lives. Then came rock and roll.
Yes, it was not just humans who were corrupted by the devil’s music.
Dogs became rebels with claws. Now the average canine does not give a damn about his or her owner. The slightest chance he or she gets they are out of the yard. Almost every night they can be seen wandering the streets, licking beer bottles, doing the passa passa, or just plain copulating in the middle of the road. It’s an outrage. In our day, if their owners had not arranged a suitable partner the most a dog could expect was a quickie behind a bush with the neighbourhood collie.
Not only does the modern dog or animal have zero respect for human authority they seem intent on fighting back. Suicidal cows dressed all in black casually walk into the middle of a dark road, so as to cause drastic crashes. These things are carefully planned. Egrets act as lookouts.
The thing is animals have none of the morals that we humans do. You don’t see African lions sparing some little antelope “cos it’s kinda cute”; anteaters practice genocide for breakfast. No conscience. And trust us, if dogs could fly they would be the first to pilot a plane into a skyscraper, just to strike at poor human beings. Why is it that us humans must be the only ones with a conscience? Why are we feeling so guilty? Why are we blaming ourselves for being set upon?
The terrifying truth
The horrible truth is that it’s all part of a very skillful 50-year public relations campaign; the animals have done a wonderful job of coming across as helpless creatures. By pushing into the public eye such poster children as pandas and koalas they have skillfully cultivated the rise of a whole “conservation industry” manned by sympathetic humans whose sole activity is to protect them – not us, not us poor humans set upon by marabuntas, sickened by malarial mosquitoes – but them!
Take the whale for example. Big lumbering and harmless…is how the conservationists would like you to think…wrong. Not only are they killers of the humble plankton, the tasty tuna…but they take up a huge amount of space. We have long called for their eradication if only to lower sea levels. Kill the whales, save the planet.
But what is most shocking is the hypocrisy of certain local animal apologists who write long letters to the newspapers about the ill treatment of dogs and horses that make us all feel really, really bad. Well ok, but…but… we don’t see them writing in sympathy for the victims of dog attacks. We don’t see them condemning the actions of these cold blooded killers. Instead the owner is blamed: “lack of training”, “pit bulls are normally gentle creatures”….yer right! Try saying that when one’s got his teeth in your groin. Well enough is enough!
The burden is on us to speak out and raise awareness of the dangers the animal kingdom is imposing on Guyanese. We are establishing a website www.animalwatch.com to post alerts and other precautionary information. For example it will indicate no-go zones in Queenstown where one should not venture on foot; a Wanted section with mug shots of errr…mugs; a new bee hive spotted in the Botanical Gardens, a report of a kicking mule; or birds seen dive bombing the seawall with guano.
Who will join us? Who will join The Guyana Society for the Protection of Humans (GSPH)? If you are interested please write to Save our Species (GPSH) c/o Stabroek News, 76 Robb St Georgetown, Guyana. And this Friday at 7 pm we will be holding a candlelight vigil in front of the GSPA offices in memory of all the victims of animal attacks, and to compel the association to condemn its members’ activities. Please join us. No pets allowed.
Editorial
When will the Bureau of Statistics release the Consumer Price Index figures for the first three months of 2008? It is clear that the data has been collected and collated and that the numbers are on someone’s desk. So why the delay? This is activity paid for by taxpayers and which provides information that is vital to business and to the public.
It is criminal that in this time of rising food prices, these figures are being hidden.
