Two weeks ago on January 4th
2013, the Hong Kong Customs seized 779 Ivory Tusks hidden in a container from
Africa. They are headed for markets in the Far East where it is a prized
possession!
In May of 2012, the Sri Lankan customs
seized and confiscated 359 Ivory tusks hidden in a container enroute from Kenya
to Dubai via Colombo, and have now decided to distribute it to temples around
the Country. See link below:
So what about it? there is a huge ivory
trade where African Elephants who usually all have tusks are killed and tusks
sawn off and transported illegally through their ports headed for the markets
of the buyers. This is a big business due to the demand for ivory amongst an
increasingly affluent clientele in China and the Far East and poor Africans in
the end receive only a fraction of the value of these tusks, for killing and
selling it to the first buyer in the whole chain of transactions.
In effect it is tainted with the blood of
elephants. Elephants are revered in Sri Lanka, though we kill our tuskers also
for money. So what is the logic in giving these to adorn temple functions, and
halls. To think the animal from whom this was taken was killed for the tusks,
must make every dutiful, Buddhist cringe at the thought that somehow it ends up
in a place of reverence!!
Is that the real reason, or is it so that
another bunch of local crooks using the Temples as a disguise, or ruse are
using this excuse to get hold of these tusks, and quietly spirit them to where
there is a market for them, either locally or overseas, where MONEY changes
hands. In short an illegal activity.
I am afraid I seriously believe that
choosing whom to give a tusk and the related bribes, favors and return of
favors is enough to convince any believer that it is better to crush the Ivory
and burn it or in some other way destroy all of this, rather than be permitted
to be distributed in a very suspicious manner, where I am willing to bet that in
12 months there will be no accounting for the whereabouts of any of these
tusks, thereby confirming one’s worst suspicions.
I therefore plead with authorities, that
ill gotten gains, whether seized, confiscated or impounded be destroyed in a
public show in full media glow with maximum publicity, so that such activity is
stopped, prevented and abhorred by the public.
1 comment:
If nothing else you can count on the monks to sell the tusks to dubious buyers to line their own pockets.
Sri Lanka is going to hell. Why are we all deciding to go down with the ship?
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