Help Save the Elephants and Fight African Terrorism at the Same Time!

.

.

.

Hat-tip to frequent OJ commenter Even Steven, who urges us to pass along this powerful short film from Kathryn Bigelow (Hurt Locker, Zero-Dark-Thirty) on how the worldwide IVORY market is not only driving elephants quickly to extinction but funding the most vicious terrorism in Africa.  Check it out.

I was made aware of one possible error in the film – it’s not entirely documented or probable that the ivory trade actually funds al-Shabaab in far-from-elephants East-African Somalia, as Raw Story points out in a pretty hair-splitting article. But the Lord’s Resistance Army? The Janjaweed Militia? BOKO HARAM? That’s enough terrorism for me!

And it remains uncontested that at the current rate of poaching, the great Pachyderm species could easily be EXTINCT in 11 years.

Raw Story also points out that it would be better if this video were redone in the Southeast Asian languages of the nations where people are buying most of these ivory trinkets funding this. Well, yes. Bigelow should do that, and she probably will. But for now, the least you can do is see how you can help on her website, The Last Days of Ivory.com.

About Admin

"Admin" is just editors Vern Nelson, Greg Diamond, or Ryan Cantor sharing something that they mostly didn't write themselves, but think you should see. Before December 2010, "Admin" may have been former blog owner Art Pedroza.