Remember this: We don't really own anything. That is the illusion.
I was scrolling through articles on the internet when I came to one that said the Maasai are being evicted by a Dubai based hunting company called Ortello Business Corporation for conservation purposes.
The articles I perused stated the Ortello Business Corporation was standing behind the term conservation. Other articles I read stated the Maasai were being burnt out of their homes and unnumbered women were being raped. I wondered at this. I guess you don't have to be Caucasian anymore to land grab, or force people out of an area; just have a lot of money, covet material physicality, time, opportunity and determination. Funny how that works itself out, but all paths lead to the grave.
This troubled me as a person-who-hunts. The reason this bothered me is: unique cultures and ways of life being trampled by those that do not hold that sort of thing in regard. I thought of my hunting. I believe it is my ancestral right, but if someone else does not share that belief, then it could be negated if opportunity showed itself.
It sucks feeling like an obstacle that someone has to remove.
This scenario reminded me of a section in the movie "Excalibur". There is a part where Uther decides he wants the wife of the Duke of Cornwall so Uther has Merlin cast a spell to trick Igrayne into his bed. By dirty tricks, Uther does naughty things, but gets his.
Evil little men always get their comeuppance.
One could believe that coveting is the cause of all lucrative deals. Someone sees value and wants what another has, even if they have to kill for it.
Maybe it is because if its not their heritage, way of life or culture, why should they care? The offending group is not there for the good of all, just themselves. You can probably note throughout history cultures being completely wiped out because there was no reverence for the way of life for another.
Everything is expendable.
I turned my third eye to Charles Darwin's book, The Origin of Species in terms of the way we see things through our eyes, off our retinas into our brains and thus translated to 'something'.
"It is scarcely possible to avoid comparing the eye to a telescope. We know that this instrument has been perfected by the long-continued efforts of the highest human intellects; and we naturally infer that the eye has been formed by a somewhat analogous process. but may not this inference be presumptuous? Have we any right to assume that the Creator works by intellectual powers like those of man? If we must compare the eye to an optical instrument, we ought in imagination to take a thick layer of transparent tissue, with a nerve sensitive to light beneath, and then suppose every part of this layer to be continually changing slowly in density, so as to separate into layers of different densities and thicknesses, placed at different distances from each other, and with the surfaces of each layer slowly changing in form. Further we must suppose that there is a power always intently watching each slight accidental alteration in the transparent layers; and carefully selecting each alteration which, under varied circumstances, may in any way, or in any degree, tend to produce a distincter image. We must suppose each new state of the instrument to be multiplied by the millions; and each to be preserved till a better be produced, and then the old ones to be destroyed." (Darwin 157-58)
That's right....let it sink in.
In our progress to become better through industry, business, and tourism the things that have survived for years are being smothered to be replaced by the bright and shiny. When that bright and shiny dulls it has to be replaced by something even more extravagant because human nature has now been distorted into the belief of instant gratification.
I then thought there must also be a note to 'lack of trust' here for this Maasai topic because if they have existed in this place for a long time but now someone came along and did not trust them to manage their existence on the land then where did this thought come from? Why can't the Maasai be trusted to raise there cattle? Why can the Maasai not be trusted now after all these years to exist in general? Has conservation become the enemy of the Maasai? Or is it tourism?
I sat outside looking up at the stars and imagined my existence in the spot I was sitting. It has long been my realization that existence is the Wonder. Humans beat it up and make it their slave because somewhere in time humans yoked themselves with commerce because of the lack of sharing in a another human or their greed. The ancestral human at times chained themselves but at times freed themselves to wonder and be free. We are not free in any sense of the word. We are not free when we are the supposed 'self-less' because that is annihilating. If all we are programmed for is survival then deep down that could mean we will destroy to live even if that means to destroy another. Is that what we really want? Is that the imaginary deal we make with a devil that ancient man did not know exist until they were informed?
Moving on to Ancestry.
Ancestry is given the symbol of a tree. I fancy gourd vines myself. A tree that starts off small and becomes over time a massive unmovable living thing with deep roots. Depending on how strong the roots are, or how healthy the tree; it lives.
The ancestral tree can keep going even with the sole help of one breedible person. Ancestry history defines us, uplifts us, or at times makes people question our need to become a better ethnic group or become as a unified collective. Thinking in terms of ancestry, I believe we all have a history that is written through our relatives' trials and tribulations. Ancestors crossed oceans time after time for a better life. Ancestors stood on lonely shores in welcoming fashion to only die. Some were murder, saved, lost, or sold. Now people only google them on Ancestry.com and hope for a green leaf. I then thought in terms of Ancestral Land or hunting rights.When you are born into this world aside from the fact that you are only chained down by government because you were born into the idea of it, you have an inherent right. What are people going to do? Toss you off the planet? Put you to death? Good questions.
I wondered on poverty and starvation in this topic because it seems almost like its the general idea that unless you work to the point of killing yourself, you have no right to food, life, living space or anything else. Why must you exist anyway? You then have to ask yourself the question: Whose right is it anyway to judge others based on their current predicament?
Mother Nature did not ever define who could and could not utilize something on the land, in the water, the sky, or even existence. Man did that.
Man has for many centuries fought over territory much like a wild animal. The only difference is they became more savvy at the fact land ownership had to be agreed upon by a system that allowed order. Order is good but not when it is abused and manipulated. This type of order was suppose to protect people from such things as land grabs where lawless people just walked up to point a gun or kill you then drag your body off to a corner to proclaim dirt theirs.
Back on the Maasai.
The Maasai are born into a community that has existed a long time. Someone else is coming in to completely remove them. This process has been a slow one. Abruptness would only point out the brazen-like attitude in the endeavors. If this is the case any person with money can walk into an area to buy it, and remove whoever they please. Nothing is sacred to greedy men. Only the money and what it can buy.
We do not own wildlife. They come and go as they please. Yet we daily corral people.
I took a look at the Maasai. This group of people have been known for eons to act almost like a cultural heirloom.
There was a couple of things of note. One was how businesses were concerned with the sustainability of their business, but not necessarily with conservation as this seemed to be a tool per say. It also states that the money and desire is coming from the UAE royals.
Is it right for a business to use Conservation as a blanket term to privatize land? Was this the case here? If this could be done, this same type of thing could exist anywhere in the world and happen to anyone. I thought of American public lands and the issue of privatization.
As a hunter, I thought of the old belief in not telling someone where your hunting spot was. Other people would defecate under your stand, pee on the ground, spray perfume, or leave entrails not to mention those that would try to steal the spot right out from under you through land rent business deals done in the shade.
I thought if hunting is an ancestral right, then anyone that decides it is time for them to take over your ancestral right could march in and remove you from it. I see on Hunting Pages, the administrators tout the terms it is our heritage, hunting forever, and long live our hunting tradition. I hope someone doesn't show up with a checkbook backed by a lot of zeros to buy that great place you have now advertised to make it their own for conservation sake. If they are so worried about conservation, I am sure they have a country in need of it.
I would think that whomever these businesses are would have an ambassador to include the Maasai in the conservation effort. This would give them ownership as well as a vested interested in their land. Undoubtedly, the Maasai care for the place they live and do not want to leave it. Why not include, instead of exclude?
In essence, I will be reading up on this topic. It can be applied to anyone living in the world, whether they hunt or not. If my eyes can be a telescope as Darwin said, my instrument discovers many unsettling things that are happening now, and to come. In regard to Darwin's comment of 'we suppose that there is a power always intently watching each slight accidental alteration in the transparent layers" (Darwin 158), as hunters we should always keep abreast of what is going on around us. A pebble in the water can cause a wake felt around the world when it has no boundaries.
Written by W Harley Bloodworth
~Courtesy of the AOFH~
Literature sited:
Darwin, Charles.The Origins of Species. New York, NY: Bantam Books, 1999. Print.
Articles to peruse:
http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Africa/2013/0405/Maasai-face-eviction-from-ancestral-lands-to-make-way-for-Dubai-hunting-firm?nav=639071-csm_article-editorsPicks
http://letstalklandtanzania.com/s/tag/ortello-business-corporation/
http://blog.africageographic.com/safari-blog/conservation/think-about-the-people-before-the-money/ .
