Mugabe's Latest Act of Terrorism

Mugabe's Operation Murambatsvina (sweep up the rubbish)

The tragic deaths of three people, including two children (a 4 year old and an 18 month old baby) during the forced destruction of dwellings at Porta Farm on the outskirts of Harare on the 30th June serves to confirm the ruthless nature of Operation Murambatsvina. To date at least eight deaths have been confirmed nationwide. Many more have been reported but cannot be confirmed. These are only the deaths caused, so far, by direct action of the government forces involved, and not other causes as outlined below.

Porta Farm was formed in 1991, when, in an operation much like the current one, hundreds of poor urban squatters were rounded up by police and dumped outside Harare in order to “cleanse” the city in preparation for a visit by Queen Elizabeth II. As now, government had made no arrangements for the care and support of these displaced people and it was left to NGOs and international agencies to provide emergency relief.

In 14 years Porta Farm has evolved into a stable community with clinics, primary and secondary schools, preschools and even an orphanage. This community was obliterated in the space of a day. In clear violation of the International Convention on the Rights of the Child, hundreds of orphans and vulnerable children, together with the families caring for them, have joined the thousands already deprived of shelter, education and health care by Operation Murambatsvina. Seven hundred primary school pupils, 150 of whom were about to write their Grade 7 examination, and 183 secondary school students have been forced to abandon their education, in addition to an estimated 300,000 children similarly affected countrywide.

Below are some of the current and predictable effects of Murambatsvina as outlined by the Zimbabwe Association of Doctors for Human Rights:

1. The likelihood of further deaths due to intentional physical trauma, as incurred this week in Porta Farm, as a result of the thoughtless violence of the demolition methods, 
2. Deaths due to exposure and hypothermia among already vulnerable children, chronically ill adults and the elderly, forced to live through nights in the open at the coldest time of the year,
3. The spread of infectious disease due to the lack of proper sanitation or water supply for hundreds of thousands of people,
4. The generation of ideal conditions for the spread of epidemic disease (eg cholera and typhoid) from those directly affected into the general population,
5. The increase in incidence of malnutrition due to the breakdown of food supplies as family income generation methods are destroyed, in a context in which basic foodstuffs are already at a premium,
6. The exacerbation of the HIV epidemic as community structures are fractured and dispersed and the vulnerability of women, adolescents and children to sexual exploitation is magnified,

The inevitable emergence of widespread drug-resistant HIV as treatment programs are disrupted.

After receiving condemnation from other nations the government of Zimbabwe has tried to say this destruction is just the first stage of “Operation Garikayi (good living)”. Supposedly, the plan is to build thousands of new homes to replace those that have been razed. This is obviously a ruse made up in the face of negative attention: 1) Zimbabwe is bankrupt, it has the fastest shrinking economy in the world ! 2) Zimbabwe’s credit has,rightfully, been cut off by the IMF and the World Bank, 3) nothing was said publicly of this plan prior to Operation Murambatsvina, 4) the Police Commissioner in Harare said on July 3rd, “'We must clean the country of the crawling mass of maggots.”

It has been estimated that nearly 1.5 million people have been made homeless by governmental action in Zimbabwe nation wide, including Operation Murambatsvina. Cotrast this with the tsunami that hit Southeast Asia this year, where just under a million were left homeless, and then compare the reactions: In the case of the tsunami western nations showed how truly humanitarian they can be when they wish to be. People and resources from around the world were mobilized nearly overnight, the situation was stabilized and reconstruction has already begun. In stark contrast is the ongoing willful death and destruction in Zimbabwe. Not an act of nature, but a deliberate act of evil perpetrated by a tyrannical regime. Totally preventable before hand, and stoppable now, and where is the public outcry?

(In the 1980’s, when the apartheid regime of South Africa did the same thing to shanty towns near Johannesburg, millions of people throughout the world demonstrated in protest to bring about change, and they helped to make a great difference. Where are those protestors now? They seem to only care if white men are killing black Africans. If a black regime is killing blacks or white Africans, they don’t care. Unfortunately, the people who helped bring about change only wanted change, they don’t seem to care if the African people are prosperous after that change.)

African Forest Elephants Face Near Extinction in 10 Years

 

Elephants killed in Africa for ivory tusks

Sophisticated gangs of criminals are poaching elephants to extinction. Up to 30,000 elephants are killed in Africa each year for their ivory tusks, and the situation is getting worse with each passing year.
Unless we take decisive action now, we're facing a future without elephants.

Congress controls funding for USAID Biodiversity programs that help combat poaching and save elephants. But the funding faces a severe 40% cut from this year's budget, right when elephants need it the most.
Tell your members of Congress to support conservation programs that elephants depend on... before it's too late.

It was the worst mass slaughter since international ivory trade was banned in 1989. If the poaching continues, African forest elephants face near extinction in 10 years, with East Africa’s savannah elephants not far behind. The reasons: inadequate protection for elephants, insufficient efforts to halt ivory trafficking, and skyrocketing demand for ivory. Rising East Asian consumer wealth fuels the demand; organized crime cartels control the traffic.

Ivory trade is murder
WCS is leading the charge to counter the slaughter. For decades we have stemmed poaching where we work, protected habitat, and helped elephant populations recover. But rising demand for ivory requires new efforts to ensure their future.

WCS and our partners work to stop criminals from slaughtering elephants in some of their largest habitats in Central and Eastern Africa. Together with governments and local communities, we recruit, equip, train, and deploy ecoguards. We use local intelligence networks and aerial surveillance to focus enforcement, and ensure patrols get the backup they need from the police, army, and courts.

These methods work: forest elephant densities are seven times higher where they are protected. But pressure is mounting. In four landscapes of Gabon, Democratic Republic of Congo, Tanzania, and Mozambique where we have recently launched elephant protection programs, 44,000 elephants are at immediate risk. We need to redouble our efforts.

Stop the Trafficking

WCS aids governments in detecting smuggled ivory at key ports and airports along the trade chain in Africa and Asia. Our sniffer dogs root out ivory in transit. In addition, we support police, customs, and judicial authorities to prosecute traffickers.

With WCS support, CITES (the Convention on Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora) has mandated DNA testing of all large-scale seizures of ivory to determine its origin, a critical step in tracing the supply chain. Finally, WCS is working with countries identified by CITES as the eight worst in anti-trafficking to devise and implement action plans that will close trade routes.

Stop the Demand

Seventy percent of illegal ivory ends up as trinkets and carvings for consumers in China. Most do not know that their actions are illegal and lead to elephant killing in Africa

To reduce the demand in China, WCS is harnessing the most powerful platform for cultural change and public participation: social media. This strategy will deliver compelling information about elephants and the real cost of ivory using diverse online channels and a network of Chinese partner institutions. Our goal is to work in the background and catalyze change, to increase awareness so that Chinese citizens themselves will demand public action.

Learn more about this crisis:
Watch National Geographic Television’s Battle for the Elephants >>

TAKE ACTION!>  https://secure3.convio.net/wcs/site/Advocacy?cmd=display&page=UserAction&id=559

International Animal Rescue Foundation World Action South Africa

This mother and her calf where the joys of many a tourist that left Africa feeling overjoyed.

Sadly both mother and calf have now been poached. The tourists that have such fond memories of these magnificent beasts now have to cope with pictures such as these. Hardly a good image for Africa!

We say no more other than - What a Bloody Post Card this is. Edna Molewa the world is aware of what is happening and this is not going down well with many.

Whilst we would like to vent certain other points here we will leave that for another day.

We are watching - Very, Very Closely - Animal Abusers directly or indirectly involved in abuse or allowing abuse to continue via any means.

This filth and that is exactly what it is will stop.

Our patience is wearing thin.

We would like to add more to this post however we will as explained leave it at that. 

Like The Facebook Page for International Animal Rescue Foundation World Action South Africa

Elephants in Zimbabwe dying from cyanide poisoning?

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By Agence France-Presse
Friday, September 20, 2013 14:15 EDT

Zimbabwean wildlife authorities will dispatch a team of experts to the country’s largest game park Saturday to investigate the poisoning deaths of 64 elephants, an official said.

“Experts drawn from seven ministries will travel to Hwange National Park tomorrow (Saturday) to make findings on the disaster at the park where 64 elephants have died from cyanide poisoning,” the director general of the parks and wildlife authority,
 

"There are fears that there could be more deaths but we need chemists to determine whether the danger is still there." Edson Chidziya, said.

The elephants reportedly died in separate incidents after drinking poisoned water. The state-owned Herald newspaper gave the number of elephants killed as 69.

Nine people were arrested on suspicion of poisoning watering halls in the game park to kill the elephants for their tusks and were due to appear in court in Tsholotsho.

Chidziya dismissed reports linking the poachers to a South African businessman.
“We just heard about those reports but from our side we don’t know about that link yet,” he said.
Two years ago nine elephants, five lions and two buffalo died from cyanide poisoning in Hwange national park.

Environment minister Saviour Kasukuwere has called for stiff penalties for poachers.

Sumatran elephants found dead, poisoning suspected

Two critically endangered Sumatran elephants were found dead in an Indonesian national park and it is believed they were poisoned, the WWF environmental group said Monday.

It takes to three the number of the elephants found dead in Tesso Nilo National Park on Sumatra island in the last month.

The carcasses of a male aged around five and a young female were found on Friday about a kilometre (0.6 miles) apart, said WWF spokeswoman Syamsidar, who goes by one name.

"We believe that the elephants were poisoned as the carcasses were quite close to each other," she said, adding that autopsies needed to be conducted before the cause of death could be confirmed.
A Sumatran elephant was discovered dead in the park early last month, also from suspected poisoning, she added.

Fifteen Sumatran elephants were found dead last year in Riau province, where the national park is located, with around half them found to have been poisoned, Syamsidar said.

Fewer than 3,000 Sumatran elephants remain in the wild, according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature.

Rampant expansion of palm oil and paper plantations and the mining industry have destroyed nearly 70 percent of the elephant's forest habitat over 25 years, according to the WWF, and the animals have been targeted by poachers.

In January 14 Borneo pygmy elephants were found dead of suspected poisoning in the Malaysian state of Sabah. Three-month-old orphaned calf Joe made headlines around the world when he was pictured trying to rouse his dead mother. 

Ten Ways to approach a Woman

List of 10 ways to talk to women:

1. Circle her closely but ignore her. Sounds like a waste of time? If she is drawn to you, let her make the first move. The first one to talk gives up power. Her curiosity will make you handsomer.
2. Do not reveal anything important in your first 20 dates. Stay mysterious! It works.
3. Have two or three two line jokes memorized. They don't have to be great. Do not apologize before telling the jokes. Just do it.
4. Tip well after a meal.
5. Even if you hate your mother, show respect when talking about her. She is a woman after all. If you worship your mother, stop talking about her like she is a goddess.
6. DO NOT WEAR TONS OF COLOGNE! Spray your stuff into the air and let it fall on you. Women have sensitive noses, you only need a suggestive smell. Do not spray cologne to last the night, that won't make you smell better. Opposite in fact.
7. You don't have to be the alpha male. Just be the guy she can trust. Bullshitting someone will only get you more bullshit in your own life.
8. Be friendly. You aren't talking with her to get laid, she can smell that coming a mile away. Refer to rule #7.
9. Listen. Listening requires remembering what she actually said. Then find the connection in your own life but do not stay on the subject. Note the coincidence then move on. If she comes back to it, you got closer to her.
10. Be more like Batman in the beginning and Superman after you get to know her.

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