Cecil taught us a great deal.
Cecil is the unfortunate lion from Zimbabwe finally gunned down 40 hours after being shot by a crossbow-wielding Walter Palmer, a dentist and trophy hunter from Minnesota. Why waste valuable space? Everybody already knows all about Cecil, every jot-and-tittle of his jungle saga, and that's part of the point.
Different things that go on in the world make different kinds of noise. The holocaust against Christians in the Middle East, complete with beheadings, mass murder, church burnings and entire Christian communities put to flight – all that makes noise. The threats of tyrants who deny there ever was a Holocaust against the Jews but fervently desire another one also make noise. And so did the slaughter of Cecil. The difference is, the hue and cry let loose in reaction to Cecil's fate was a thunderclap. The noise over persecution of Middle East Christians and threats against Israel is more akin to a butterfly's belch.
Nobody's suggesting Americans care more about one lion than about adherents of the world's largest religion and the world's only Jewish state, even if we throw in Cecil's six cubs, who without special protection will likely also die, and Cecil's brother Jericho, who's said to have also been targeted by poachers. Still, the disparity in the volume levels of the above disasters – real and threatened – does more to raise eyebrows than to spread comfort. I'd be preaching over my whiskey if I mentioned Zimbabwe only in connection with the Cecil sensation. All commentators who claim a genuine desire to make the world better owe us a word or two about Zimbabwe now and then, because the story of how the former Rhodesia has been fundamentally transformed from "the breadbasket of Africa" to a basket-case is such a huge geopolitical heartbreak.
Under good democratic leadership this landlocked physical paradise in southern Africa would be a paradise every which-a-way. The landscape is aggressively beautiful with its untouched wildlife and scenic wonders. At Victoria Falls the mighty Zambezi River makes a thundering drop longer than a football field into the narrow Batoka Gorge. Then we have the Eastern Highlands, Chilojo Cliffs, Balancing Rocks – all of which sit atop riches in gold, chromium ore, nickel, copper, bauxite, iron ore, vanadium, coal and platinum group metals. But Zimbabwean strongman Robert Mugabe has done a most stupendous job of running his potentially wealthy country headlong into the ground. Mugabe's leadership is disgusting and discouraging. His anti-white hysteria and murderous land grabs have endeared him to the wacko wing of the population who've apparently forgotten that the British Empire long ago devolved into independent countries in the British Commonwealth, which tend to be more successful the more they are democratic.
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Mugabe, who attacks "white safaris" and ate a baby elephant at his 91st birthday party, has presided over the most spectacular currency hyperinflation in history. You may recall the story of the frugal German worker after World War I whose life savings were eaten away so badly by inflation that his banker had to explain to him that all he could now afford was a postage stamp! Compared to the inflation victims of Zimbabwe, that unfortunate German looks like Donald Trump! Until Zimbabwe gave up on its currency in 2009 and switched to the American dollar, Zimbabwean paper money denominated not in one dollar, not in two dollars, but in bills denominated in 6 billion Zimbabwean dollars remained un-picked-up in the gutter because they didn't come anywhere near paying for a cup of coffee! Go to Google under "Zimbabwe inflation" and you can buy a 100 trillion dollar bill for $21.99. While you're there, you'll note that one American dollar equals 35 quadrillion Zimbabwe dollars.
At the time of the switchover to the U.S. dollar, anyone with $175,000,000,000,000,000 (175 quadrillion Zimbabwean dollars) in the bank received five American dollars!
One wonders why the late Nelson Mandela, Mugabe's neighbor-in-power in South Africa, didn't do more to try to nudge Mugabe toward democracy, or at least a more decent brand of authoritarian strongman-ism. If Mandela did indeed try, then history owes us an account of that effort, so the legacy of Mandela need not rest so heavily on political correctness.
Alas, the true flavor of Zimbabwe might reside in the story of the Zimbabwean bus driver who stopped for drinks at an illegal bar. Upon returning to his bus he discovered that the 20 mental patients he was supposed to be transporting from Harare to Bulawayo had escaped. Not wanting to admit his incompetence, the bus driver went to a nearby bus stop and offered everyone waiting there a free ride. He then drove pedal-to-the-metal and delivered the passengers to the mental hospital, telling the staff there that the patients were very excitable and prone to bizarre fantasies. The deception wasn't discovered for three days!
Poor Cecil ought to be remembered, even for just enabling the general public to learn something about Zimbabwe.
Media wishing to interview Barry Farber, please contact [email protected].
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