Archive for the ‘Feature’ Category
by Amanda on Mar 15th, 2013
Julian Rademeyer, author of Killing for Profit: Exposing the Illegal Rhino Horn Trade, has written an article for the Mail & Guardian about comments that Do Quang Tung, the head of Vietnam’s Cites Management Authority, made at the recent Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (Cites).
Do denied allegations that Vietnam is the driving force behind the illegal rhino horn trade and “claimed that Vietnamese intelligence agencies had identified China as the destination for ’99% of the horn that goes through Vietnam’”. Rademeyer outlines the evidence that contradicts Do’s denials and looks at Vietnam’s history of not acting against rhino horn smuggling:
The head of Vietnam’s wildlife trade authority has angrily dismissed accusations that his country is the driving force behind the illicit trade in rhino horn, describing them as “bullshit”. He went on to blame China for the slaughter.
In a rare interview during the triennial conference of parties to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (Cites), Do Quang Tung, who is the acting head of Vietnam’s Cites Management Authority, lashed out at critics who have identified the country as a “rapacious” consumer of rhino horn.
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by Amanda on Jan 17th, 2013
Reuters has looked back on a “bloody year” for rhino poaching, noting that 633 rhinos were killed for their horns in South Africa by mid-December 2012.
In the following video, Simon Hanna interviews Julian Rademeyer, author of Killing for Profit: Exposing the Illegal Rhino Horn Trade, who says that the demand for rhino horns seems to be growing exponentially.
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by Amanda on Jan 10th, 2013
Julian Radememyer, author of Killing for Profit: Exposing the Illegal Rhino Horn Trade, joined a discussion on the illegal wildlife trade on The Stream, hosted by Lisa Fletcher on Al Jazeera.
The discussion looked at how the anonymity of the internet has fuelled unprecedented levels of trafficking, with traders using misspellings and codes to sell their illegal goods on mainstream bidding sites.
Please note that this video does include some disturbing footage:
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by Amanda on Dec 20th, 2012
Rhishja Cota-Larson from Behind the Schemes interviewed Julian Rademeyer about his book, Killing for Profit: Exposing the Illegal Rhino Horn Trade.
Rademeyer spoke about how his work as an investigative journalist led him to writing the book, saying that the reports in the media about poaching gave very little context and didn’t explain the “who and why” of the issue. He said that he was completely gripped by the extent of the poaching and how the poachers had managed to stay one step ahead of the authorities. Rademeyer commented that this was the strangest story he has ever covered as a journalist.
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by Amanda on Jan 23rd, 2012
The New York Times‘ Michael Sokolove interviewed South African athlete Oscar Pistorius, who is bound to make sporting history if he qualifies for the 2012 London Olympics this summer. Pistorius is a double-amputee who, despite having prosthetic legs, is one of the top-ranked 400-meter runners in the world.
Having travelled to South Africa to speak to the athlete, Sokolove says that Pistorius’ triumph over disability “raises all kinds of philosophical questions having to do with how we come into this world”. The New York Times piece is accompanied by photographs by renowned South African photographer, Pieter Hugo:
Oscar Pistorius trains inside a converted garage at the home of his personal trainer, a former professional rugby player. Iron pull-up bars and a variety of ropes and pulleys are bolted to brick walls. Free weights are lined up on the floor, along with hammered-together wooden boxes that serve as platforms for step-ups and standing jumps. Some of the equipment is clamped to an exterior wall of the garage, opposite an uncovered patio; when it rains, athletes just carry on and get soaked. “It’s old-school,” Pistorius said as we drove up to the place early one morning. “Some of the guys who train here, they bang it so hard, they often get sick in the garden. Nobody judges them.”
I visited with Pistorius last month in Pretoria, South Africa, where he was born 25 years ago without a fibula in either of his legs. (The fibula runs between the knee and ankle, beside the tibia.) His parents yielded to doctors’ recommendations that his lower legs should be amputated, and at 11 months, they were cut off just below the knee. At 13 months, he was fitted with prostheses. At 17 months, he was walking. Now he is among the top-ranked 400-meter runners in the world and a favorite to qualify for the 2012 London Olympics this summer. If he achieves this goal, he will be the first person without intact biological legs to compete in an Olympic running event. If he runs for South Africa in the 4-by-400-meter relay — and if Usain Bolt, the world-record holder in the 100- and 200-meter dashes does the same for Jamaica, as he hopes to — the finals of that event could be the marquee moment of the Summer Games.
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Photos courtesy New York Times
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by Amanda on Aug 26th, 2011
Oscar Pistorius, otherwise known as the “blade runner”, has defied all expectations by being selected to compete in this month’s IAAF World Championships.
The amputee will be representing South Africa in Daegu, South Korea, along with Caster Semenya, who will defend her title in the women’s 800m race. IAAF president, Lamine Diack, says that Pistorius may run in the relay provided he runs in the last leg, “to avoid danger to other athletes.” The Daegu 2011 World Championships take place from the 27th of August to the 4th September:
Oscar Pistorius must run the first leg for South Africa if he is to take part in the 4x400m relay at the world championships, the IAAF has confirmed.
“This person is a particular case,” the IAAF president, Lamine Diack, said of the athlete who runs with carbon fibre prosthetic blades in place of his lower legs, which were amputated before he was a year old due to a congenital condition.
Both Caster Semenya and Oscar Pistorius are no strangers to controversy, as both have been accused of having unfair advantage. For Semenya, it was her physical condition that led some to claim she had an unfair advantage over other female racers. For Pistorius, it is his carbon fibre prosthetic blades. This is not the first time Oscar has been in the centre of speculation – earlier this month Pistorius set tongues wagging after qualifying for the 2012 Olympics.
While Andy Bull says people see Pistorius as “too abled” rather than disabled, athlete Martyn Rooney disagrees: “It is the people who are worried about being beaten by him who are the ones who complain. If they’re not running quick enough they’re worried. If you’re running quick enough you shouldn’t have to worry.” Bull says Pistorius’ appearance at the World Championships challenges our understanding of what constitutes “abled” and “disabled”:
People call Oscar Pistorius all kinds of things: disabled, differently abled, an inspiration, an egotist, even a cheat. One label they never give him is the one he wants most of all: a runner, just like any other. At the World Athletics Championships in Daegu, Pistorius will take his place on the blocks for the heats of the 400m. There will be 45 men in the field, some tall, some short, some squat, some slender, some from the first world, some from the third. And yet Pistorius is the one who will be singled out as “different”, physically and athletically.
Whatever transpires when he takes to the track Pistorius must hope that this event scotches some of the myths that surround him. He is sick of restating his case, particularly since the night of 19 July when he ran 45.07sec over 400m, making him the 18th fastest man over one lap of track this year. It gave him the “A” qualifying standard for the world championships and meant that, all of a sudden, some people saw him not as “disabled” but “too-abled” because of the blades he wears.
Despite the naysayers, Pistorius, who has written about the challenges and triumphs in Blade Runner, is optimistic: “It is an honour to be representing my country at such a prestigious event and I hope to do my best at the competition for South Africa. I am training hard in preparation for the event and I am looking forward to the championships immensely.
“It will be a great day for me when I set out on the track in Daegu and I hope to do my country proud. This will be the highest-profile and most prestigious able-bodied event which I have ever competed in and I will face the highest-calibre of athletes from across the planet.
“If I manage to make it through the heats, I would be thrilled. A good performance for me would be to be consistent through the heats. If I ran anywhere close to my PB [personal best], I would be delighted.”
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Photo courtesy the Guardian
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by Amanda on Jun 8th, 2011
A lovely piece of writing from humorist Gus Silber – complete with a moral of the story – which comes out of his recent stopover in Ladismith, in the Karoo:
The lady behind the counter looked up and greeted me with a tra-la-la of the purest Afrikaans I had heard in a long time. “Vriendelike welkom, Meneer,” she said, sticking prices on goods with slim, elegant fingers, “en hoe gaan dit met U vandag?”
I was taken aback for a moment, because the default in-store greeting in the city where I come from is an icy glare and a thin-lipped nod that lets you know you’ve just been profiled as a potential shoplifter. Then I regained my composure and answered the lady in the purest Afrikaans I could muster.
“Nee, dit gaan baie goed, dankie, Mevrou, en met U?”
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by Amanda on May 26th, 2011
Archbishop Desmond Tutu is no stranger to controversy. From racism and social injustice, to the threat of AIDS, the continuing crisis in the Middle East and the importance today of “ubuntu” (the concept of shared humanity), the Archbishop expresses his views powerfully and honestly, showing how faith and politics are inextricably linked. A forceful opponent of apartheid and later a compelling leader of the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission, he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1984 and has remained a leading campaigner for human rights ever since. In 2009, he was awarded the highest civilian award in the United States, the Presidential Medal, by Barack Obama.
God is not a Christian brings together some of the Archbishop’s key speeches, sermons, lectures and exchanges from the past three decades, charting the trajectory of his extraordinary career and showing why he remains one of the world’s best-loved and most outspoken religious figures. Edited by John Allen, a journalist and former aide of the Archbishop, God is Not a Christian reveals Archbishop Desmond Tutu in his own words.
About the editor
Working first as a journalist in South Africa, and then as Tutu’s Press Secretary, John Allen was invited to join the Truth and Reconciliation Commission as Director of Communications in 1995. Next he was aide to Tutu when the Archbishop taught in Atlanta for two years. He lives in South Africa.
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by Amanda on Feb 14th, 2011
Maverick conservationist John Varty is a hunter, poet, musician, as well as a game ranger. Varty talks to 702 Talk Radio’s Jenny Crwys Williams about his latest book, Nine Lives: Memories of a Maverick Conservationist, and his journey from hunter to filmmaker, to conservationist:
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Photo courtesy RandomHouseStruik
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by Amanda on Feb 7th, 2011
1980s South Africa – the Republic is ablaze. Zukiswa Nonkosi’s half-brother returns as a freedom fighter. Fifteen kilometres away but a world apart, François de Koninck leaves to fight on the border, while his brother musters dreams of becoming an artist. In a mansion on the other side of town, Bertie Diepenaar is reading Marx.
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