If only people were worth as much as Rhinos.

I'm watching Last Chance to See with Stephen Fry and Mark Carwardine. For those of you who don't know what it is it was a BBC series based on the book written by Mark and Douglas Adams in 1990. The book (which like all Douglas Adams' work I adored) was an account of the trip the two took looking for endangered species. It was fascinating, touching and is one of the few books that I can honestly say changed my life. The series takes Mark Carwardine and Douglas Adams' close friend and awesome human being Stephen Fry to visit some of the same animals profiled in the book and see how the efforts are going. I am currently half way through episode two and while I love it so far something just happened that made me stop trying to thread my new sewing machine (if anyone can tell me how to wind a bobbin on a singer machine without it being all loose and tangly I'd love you forever) and write this.

Mark and Stephen had to call off a search for the Northern White Rhino because the civil war in the Democratic Republic of Congo has come too close to the possibly 4 remaining animals. Stephen asked whether it was really worth trying to save these animals which are practically indistinguishable from the thriving Southern White Rhino. Mark's answer was that deciding which population of the Rhino to save was playing god, and that with the loss of the Rhino there would be no reason for the Garamba National Park to be protected.

These are excellent reasons however it brings up something that has annoyed me for years. Did you know that one of the only times ANY voice of protest was raised about the genocide in Rwanda was when the violence encroached on the Gorilla population? Meanwhile around 1 Million people, including children, were hacked to death with machetes while the world watched. While the UN, the US and the entire global community did nothing, while the French sold weapons actively helped the genocidaires escape. We as a society are fine with africans killing each other as long as they don't hurt the animals.

The war in the DRC has been going on pretty much since the end of the Rwandan war, and is actually being run by some of the main leaders in the Rwandan genocide, the conflict that has lasted since 1994 has killed millions of people and left many more displaced. There have been reports of people hunted for food, hundreds of thousands of women have been raped.

In the series Mark & Stephen visit a park just on the other side of the boarder where armed guards protect the wildlife. The elephants have apparently learned the boundries of the area where they are safe and stay on the Kenyan side of the boarder. This made me think of the children at the Ecole Technique Officielle in Rwanda who hid assuming they would be safe in the presence of UNAMIR soldiers. They were massacred after the soldiers protecting them were ordered to retreat.

I am not saying that the animals are not worth protecting. The Northern White Rhino is now probably extinct and that is genuinely sad. I think efforts to protect animals are important and honestly a sign that the human race is not completely horrible. I believe that these and all animals are worth protecting, I believe that the environment is in serious danger and humans have to change the way we do things if we want to continue to live on this planet and not go extinct ourselves but isn't protecting the civilians, the children that get caught up in conflicts just as important as protecting gorillas, elephants, rhinos and any other animal that gets caught up in conflict?

I am really interested in your comments on this post. Or you can email me.
Here's an interesting op-ed about the conflict.