The Truth about Nature: Environmentalism in the Era of Post-truth Politics and Platform Capitalism by Bram Büscher

Author:Bram Büscher
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: University of California Press

FIGURE 7. Nadav Ossendryver receives award for “passing 1,000,000 subscribers.” Credit: Latest Sightings.

Nadav Ossendryver is one of those teenagers you just hope your child is going to be like. Part techno-boffin, part drummer, big part tennis player, A-grade Matric scholar! He was just 15 years old when he established Latest Sightings and never imagined that it would be a fulltime business before he even finished school. He also couldn’t have imagined that it would lead him to meeting Barack Obama or Kingsley Holgate, or gracing the boardrooms of Microsoft and Nokia. Despite his profile he remains a conservationist and the bush is definitely his place to be. He’s far more at home in a tent and next to the campfire than at his desk studying for his next maths distinction! He gets his biggest kicks from spotting wild dogs or meeting community members to chat about what they have seen!76

Never mind the failed attempt to balance idolatry and modesty, with Nadav’s rapidly changing fortunes, his rhetoric also changed. In an interview from October 2014 he elaborates again on the Kruger beginnings: “People go and they hate it because they see nothing and they think it’s so boring. I got a friend who went just from the gate to the camp and saw nothing and he left that day, he couldn’t handle it. And I hated that. I hated listening to people because when I go, you know, we always have a latest sighting that I am thinking I wish if these people just saw a lion . . . they would enjoy it. That is one of the reasons why I created Latest sightings, to make people enjoy the Kruger; to create a love for wildlife.”77

Once just a boy frustrated about not seeing wildlife, Nadav now aims to help people “create a love for wildlife.” This idea was developed further over time, leading the company to proclaim in 2018 that they “educate its followers about wildlife, nature and its behavior” and “that rangers and vets can now attend to injured animals that would have otherwise gone unnoticed like they did before the Latest Sightings community.”78 All of this is meant to stimulate “safari tourism” and help develop a (new) sense of appreciation for Kruger’s natures. This new sense, then, is clearly different from simply driving around the park and enjoying whatever comes one’s way. Through new media, people are able to not only share sightings but also “chase” sightings by others; the company boasts that they “help people maximize their safari by helping app-users see more animals through members sharing their wildlife sightings in real-time.”79 This can change dynamics in parks considerably, as I have noticed myself while using Latest Sightings on several research trips to the KNP between 2014 and 2017. The types of spectacular sightings (of lions, cheetahs, etc.) seemed to attract more people more quickly than before, something that many have been complaining about, including SANParks Forum members.80 Complaints noted often were that it leads to speeding to catch

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