It rained and rained and they were happy. We were happy for them. South Africa has been caught in a four year drought. There was a cyclone up in Mozambique and the spin off from that was making it rain in Thula Thula. But even with the rain the rivers weren’t flowing yet. The ground was absorbing it all. The wet roads did limit our driving tours of the preserve, however. The preserve was the private grounds of Zulu King Shaka about one hundred years ago. Today it is a private 500,000 acre endeavor to care for African animals, some endangered, particularly rhinos. The Thula Rhino Orphanage has been caring for young rhinos whose parents are poached for their horns by filthy rich Chinese who think that the rhino horns have some magic sexual power…idiots. But with 25% unemployment in South Africa the Chinese have plenty of people who are willing to risk their lives to poach for them. The last night we were there two poachers attacked the Orphanage and killed to baby rhinos for their one inch horns. There was a world outrage and now the Orphanage is guarded by US Marines. Thula Thula has a wide variety of animals: elephants, rhino, gazelle, zebra, antelope, wildebeest, giraffe, velvet monkeys, nyala, impala, steenbok, leopard, crocodile, Cape buffalo and various other animals. We didn’t get to see them all; two days to cover 500,000 acres isn’t adequate. The acquisition of elephants at Thula Thula is documented in the book The Elephant Whisperer, by Lawrence Anthony. Nanna the matriarch of the elephants who was the first elephant at Thula is still there. Her “bargaining” with Anthony is a great tale. You will notice that some of the elephants have a crook in their tales…these are offspring of Nanna who also has the crook in her tale.
Evan and Muzi were our guides both for our morning walks and afternoon drives.
Governor John Kasich of Ohio has been getting a lot attention recently from the newspapers of New Hampshire; six of the seven dailies in New Hampshire are endorsing the governor for the GOP nomination. The Boston Globe also has thrown its pages in Kasich’s direction and yesterday, The New York Times joined that band of supporters. Does it matter? Do papers carry the same sway they used to, if they ever did? One thing in the gov’s favor is that newspapers don’t have to respond instantly to every new utterance from a candidate to make a comment or an endorsement. Papers have the luxury of thinking about what they say before they say it. Editorial boards sit around and have discussions about the merits of the various candidates before announcing their support for a particular candidate. Kasich has had the good fortune of coming out on top of those discussions. The voters don’t get their news from the papers as they once did and TV and radio stations aren’t known for endorsing candidates in primaries, not that they don’t tilt the news in one direction or another. When voters actually take the time to do some reflective thinking like newspaper editors, will they bend toward Kasich? We will soon see.
Last week I was having dinner with my son and his boyfriend, Craig when, amazingly, our discussion turned to politics. Craig, an avid Hillary supporter and knowing my heart belongs to Bernie, began making light of and belittling Bernie’s campaign and particularly attacking his hand gestures. Naturally, I took umbrage. Yesterday, my friend Joe and I went to see Bernie in Peterborough, NH, just ten miles down the road. Sitting in the front row we had a clear view of the man and his gestures. Successful politicians often have unique and identifiable gestures: Bill Clinton always laid his thumb in his index finger to make a point, JFK often stuck his hand in his suit coat pocket with the thumb sticking out. Some of these gestures look like they came from campaign consultants rather than a natural inclination of the candidate. Bernie often talks with his hands. While at first one might find his hand motions an interesting trait, one soon realizes that this is Bernie. His hands punctuate his passion about his ideas. No one can question Bernie’s passion about his ideas: income inequality, equal pay for equal work, campaign finance reform, free tuition at public colleges, living wages, addressing climate destruction, medicare for all, healthcare reform, reforming Wall Street…
Mike Munhall Photos 