Source: West can go to hell: Chimanikire | The Herald July 28, 2016
Lloyd Gumbo Senior Reporter
MDC-T Member of Parliament for Southerton Mr Gift Chaminikire has taken a swipe at Western countries for interfering in Zimbabwe’s internal affairs. Mr Chimanikire said this while debating a motion by his party colleague, Dr Tapiwa Mashakada (Hatfield), calling for de-dollarisation and adoption of the rand as the anchor currency, and addressing the fundamental structural causes of the financial and economic crisis facing the country.
Mr Chimanikire said it was high time Zimbabwe withdrew from some protocols that it has signed that did not benefit the country such as the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES).
“We agree not to export our own rhino horns and elephant tusks,” he said. “We are very foolish. Sorry to say Mr Speaker. They do not have elephants in London, America and China. They are here but we are paralysed and we cannot even sell what we have.
“We have to burn what we have simply because we want to satisfy those colonial powers. Are we forgetting that they are imperialists? What is wrong with us? That is why in my presentation, time and again I said we must be mad.”
Mr Chimanikire added that it was high time Zimbabwe withdrew from protocols that did not benefit the country.
“We should withdraw from CITES and start selling our ivory. Can we be labelled a poor country when we have in excess of 8 000 elephants in the Hwange Game Reserve? We are sitting and selling four of them to China. When we do that, there are news headlines to say why you are selling four young elephants to China. Who are they to tell us that?
“That is why at some stage, I once said the Americans can go to hell when it comes to selling our diamonds,” said Mr Chimanikire.
COMMENTS
You are already in hell you imbecile, like everything you people cant do anything in moderation so once there are no elephants you will be happy. You have already destroyed so much for future generations
Chimanikire has a valid point. When the Americans rip up their millions of acres of corn, and hand some space back to the American bison – which they have virtually exterminated – will be the time for them to dictate to Africa how much space to reserve for elephants. They actually want the rest of the world to be their playground. It’s called hypocrisy, but most of them are too arrogant to know it I’m referring here, of course, to the handful of knowledgeable Americans who know in which direction Africa is to be found once you sail out past the statue of liberty (sorry, I forgot the capitals).
Actually there is a lot of preserved land with visions and animal control is a science. Our animals are being wiped out. We need to develop an animal management system without corruption. As it stands only a few benefit from the animals being slaughtered and killed with cyanide. By banning sales in African animals we should learn to manage animal population.
Good governance means do the right thing for all. This government does not take advice at all thus the belligerent attitude. Why? This regime is still fighting the Chimurenga . Reasons being there will always be an enemy to blame. The Western world also is to blame for this . Instead of acting as saints in the world ( which they are not ) their example of invading other countries has set the precedent for regimes like ours to do the same. The only difference being that this regime is brutalising its own people in the guise that the Western countries are against us.
I actually agree with Chimanikire, except some of his figure are wrong which could be a press typo error. There are actually 54000 elephant in Whange Park, 16000 in Gaonarezhou and aprox 95000 in the country, by independent aerial survey . Cities has now become a hot bed of green radicals who rule by emotion rather than sense and you have US Fish & wild life who make decisions without looking at the facts and then you have the international press that bombard their gullible readers with sensationalism like the Cecil drama which was taken straight out of context and was in fact a legal lion hunt and Palmer will be getting Cecil’s trophy. I saw an article by Ron Thompson who also says we should leave Cities and gave some good reasons and I am for that too. Too many people who know nothing about wildlife and the industry have too much to say about it. By banning the hunting of certain animals does not actually save them and only makes it worse as your independent security teams get diminished and they become easy game for poachers. Think about it!
Chimanikire has a point, sooner or later an elephant dies.
Burning confiscated ivory is a waste, why not process it through African Art shops providing meaningfull jobs, attracting tourism and earning hard currency.
Talking of CITES – they have paphiopedilum orchid species on their APPENDIX 1 – international trade totally banned without a CITES permit which has incredibly demanding requirements for APPENDIX 1. These orchids are indigenous to S E Asia, but are commercially grown in USA in large numbers. So CITES – largely US controlled – actually bans the export from the USA of plants which are not even indigenous to the USA. It’s a combination of the American ignorance and arrogance which unfortunately drives and fuels screwed up organisations like IS.
Shame, now no beautiful elephants left. Just when you think that it cannot get much worse.