The Humane Economy by Wayne Pacelle

Author:Wayne Pacelle
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780062389664
Publisher: HarperCollins
Published: 2016-03-21T04:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER SEVEN

Global Growth Stocks: Elephants, Lions, Great Apes, Whales, Sharks, and Other Living Capital

“Can he who has discovered only some of the values of whalebone and whale oil be said to have discovered the true use of the whale? Can he who slays the elephant for his ivory be said to have ‘seen the elephant’? These are petty and accidental uses; just as if a stronger race were to kill us in order to make buttons and flageolets of our bones; for everything may serve a lower as well as a higher use. Every creature is better alive than dead, men and moose and pine-trees, and he who understands it aright will rather preserve its life than destroy it.”

—HENRY DAVID THOREAU, The Maine Woods

Saving the Giants of the African Economy

When I saw Simon Belcher in 2014, he was just regaining the feeling in his arm, but he had already been back in the bush leading wildlife safaris. Belcher and his wife Amanda operate African Royal Safaris, taking high-end customers on trips into some of the wildest areas in all of Africa. But Belcher didn’t sustain an injury from an angry Cape buffalo or a lion; he sustained his injury on his first-ever visit to the Westgate Mall in Nairobi, in September 2013.

Simon and Amanda, both Kenyan citizens, planned to see a movie and get a bite at a Japanese restaurant. Just after walking into the shopping area from the top level of the garage, they heard what sounded like firecrackers. “I thought it might have been an Indian wedding,” Simon explained. Then people started running.

Simon and Amanda fled back to where they had come from—the top level of the garage where they’d parked. Two Somali men with AK-47s were walking up the ramp, shooting people and positioning themselves to prevent anyone from escaping, since there was only one way out of the garage. Hiding until help arrived was the only option. Simon took cover underneath a Land Rover, along with a boy and his nanny, and Amanda placed herself next to two men under a Toyota.

“I turned my cell phone off, but others near me had theirs on, and that’s what drew the al-Shabaab attackers to us,” Simon told me. “One of the men saw me, and then himself took cover behind a car. Only later did I realize he had thrown a grenade just five feet from me, but it didn’t explode. He realized it hadn’t gone off, looked at me again, and that’s when he shot me. I was hit in the arm and the chest. I played dead so he wouldn’t shoot me again.”

Hours passed without any intervention by Nairobi police or the Kenyan military. The first help came in the form of a private group of Indian sharpshooters who got into the garage area and directed the victims to a safer area that they could defend. Simon said that a former Irish Army Ranger also guided people to safety—he and the Indian sharpshooters putting their lives at risk to help others.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.