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News & ArtsTuesday, May 18, 2010
Animals / Religion / International Megalomaniacal Dictators Bearing Arks
Posted by Grant Brissey on Tue, May 18, 2010 at 4:22 PM
Dear Mugabe and Kim Jong il, you're fucking crazy. This story first started making the rounds last Friday:
This today from CNN:
News reports last week said the animals, reportedly two of every species in Zimbabwe’s 14,600 square kilometer Hwange National Park, are to be a gift from Zimbawean President Robert Mugabe to his North Korean counterpart, Kim Jong il.
And last Friday from BBC:
[W]ild animals - such as baby elephants, giraffes, rhinos and zebras - were being secretly caught in pairs in the past two months in the Hwange National Park, western Zimbabwe.
[Johny Rodrigues, chairman of the Zimbabwe Conservation Task Force] said his organisation was alerted by one of the wardens in the park, who was concerned about the operation.
Mr Rodrigues also said witnesses had seen state parks vehicles towing cages in the area and the runway of the local airport being extended.
It is believed the animals are being kept in quarantine before being sent to North Korea.
Anyway, the 18-month-old elephants, who would normally continue to suckle from their mothers for 4 years, are not expected to survive in the climate in North Korea, and possibly even the trip there. Someone tell me this is somehow illegal and stoppable.
2
Mugabe is, arguably, not even the "legal" president of Zimbabwe, and we've had sanctions against them since 2001 for unrelated issues. I'm not sure what can really be done here, besides use this to associate animal cruelty with megalomaniacs.
7
No worries, Grant. Knowing Mugabe and Kim Jong-Il, I wouldn't be surprised if there was some sort of sex-slave trade occurring in the background anyway.
8
Man this is sad. But really? You hope the world is so bound up by US law that we can stop some animals from being sent from one nation to another nation? I mean I don't want them sent either - but isn't that a little bit out of our hands? And rightfully so?
11
@9, I was thinking something long, thin, and explosive (of course) but yours is much much better. Gaddafi might be jealous though. Maybe he could get the square-wire-frame-glasses-and-pompadour makeover.
12
we could hire somali pirates to intercept the ship on the high seas, then 'rescue' the ship and confiscate the contents - there's got to be a UN resolution against trade in exotic animals and/or animal parts, right?
someday, mugabe and kim will die. that day should be sooner rather than later.
someday, mugabe and kim will die. that day should be sooner rather than later.
13
How quickly can we get some Army Rangers and a couple of two-man zebra costumes down to that game preserve? This could be the opportunity we've been waiting for.
17
It could be that one lonely tyrant just has a better understanding of the other's needs... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xh_9QhRzJ…
18
@ 14, 16: I don't know what you are talking about. There are zero misspellings or grammatical errors here.
22
Illegal? Probably
Stoppable? HA! No freakin' way.
Besides, as sick as this is, this is a long shot from the worst thing these two have done.
Stoppable? HA! No freakin' way.
Besides, as sick as this is, this is a long shot from the worst thing these two have done.
24
You know, "baring" would have worked as a verb too. If one thinks of the world as an ark, then humans can be said to be "baring" it--- ie stripping it bare.
Yes? No? Shut up?
Yes? No? Shut up?
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