Baraza

A Shark Named Shiva

Category: Amazing facts | Date: Apr 30 2008 | By: admin

In a world of Information, Communications and Technology overdrive, it is very rare that a unique concept can survive for very long without being adopted, or adapted, replicated or cloned and in some cases corrupted. This imaginary space that so many of us have learnt to exist within and become incapable of living without has like everything else the ability to create and destroy. The embodiment of opposites is one of the oldest concepts known to humankind. Shiva is one such deity worshipped by millions in India and elsewhere as destroyer and benefactor. Despite him being considered a God, I can’t imagine anything more human.

In the same space, there is a thin and transparent line between what is real and what is not. Phantasmagoria - a concept invented in the 18th Century to project images on to a wall using a lantern which give you the illusion of a non-existent reality.

“The TV screen makes you feel small…no life at all…”

Picture this:

This is not a shark…

It’s a shark in captivity (for somebody’s pleasure).

And Picture this:

This is not a snake…

It’s a snake in captivity (for somebody’s survival).

And finally picture this:

These are not gorillas…

They are dead gorillas (for…)

FOR WHAT?

We are blasted with images like this all the time. Starving children, bombed villages, dead wildlife, dead people. In Kenya, we have recently become very complacent about the latter compliments of our politicians.

And then there are the living (or once were living) creatures behind those pictures, behind that image that is splashed across your screen. There is life there - tucked away in the matrix of atoms that blasts our sensories. This is the space which the blogger inhabits and the space which I truly believe WildlifeDirect is manifested itself through the vision of Emmanuel de Merode and Richard Leakey.

There are 72 million blogs and more coming each minute that passes by. Just about each one of those little cubicles below has a humanbeing reaching out to connect to some other living creature. We stumble upon one another and stumble upon something we care about and reach out in any way we can to touch that particular thing we care about.

What do you see below?

Yes, there’s a giraffe in the background and the silouette of a person in front. That is the person on the other end of the keyboard desperately trying to upload their blog before the electricity goes or crossing their legs in anxiety hoping the connection does not drop before the post is uploaded. These are the people that the vision of WildlifeDirect is built upon - rangers who get beaten, stoned, and often murdered. It’s in the line of duty - so nothing to be too sensationalist about but there is something just below the surface that deserves a mention; these are also people that have had shadows cast upon them by a brand just like so many in the west to have lost their identity to the corporate cogwheel of capitalism.

I bid you farewell from this particular word document editor but happy and proud to know that I am now also one of those 72 million bloggers…

Where the Wild Things Grow (not!)

Category: Uncategorized | Date: Apr 11 2008 | By: admin

“Whore of the Orient, Paris of the East; city of quick riches, ill-gotten gains and fortunes lost on the tumble of the dice; the domain of adventurers, swindlers, gamblers, drug runners, tycoons, missionaries, gangsters and backstreet pimps; the city that plots revolution and dances as the revolution shoots its way into town - Shanghai was a dark memory…”

Thus wrote the Lonely Planet Guide to Shanghai. Sounded just like the kinda place for a family of three from the ostensible sleepy suburbs of Nairobi where the wild things grow…so off we went in search of quick riches, adventures and a real revolution! Alas…

And with our superduper new camera, we could just make out the cavity on King Kong’s molars:

But we wanted to get away from all that. Better go down town, try the local cuisine…if I can read the map (they don’t call me Confucious for nothing…)