At what price our humanity?

Logging onto Facebook this morning, I was greeted with a post on my newsfeed which filled me with disgust. 

The post, reported by SOUTH AFRICA TODAY, is accompanied by the text:

"HAWKS SHOOT KRUGER RHINO POACHERSJohannesburg - The Hawks on Sunday shot dead an alleged rhino poacher and injured another during a shootout in the Kruger National Park. Captain Paul Ramoloka said the Hawks, in partnership with the special anti-poaching task force, received information about the alleged poachers who were spotted near the Sabi Sands private game reserve in Skukuza at around 14:00. "When our team confronted the four men, they opened fire on the police who returned fire. One of the poachers was killed, another is in hospital while the other two were arrested," he said. Police confiscated a hunting rifle, axe, saw and sedan used by the alleged poachers. Ramoloka said the three men would be charged with attempted murder and being in possession of dangerous weapons. "We are still trying to link the suspects with some of the rhino poaching which have taken place in the KNP over the past week." According to SA National Parks (SANParks) the country had lost 528 rhinos since the beginning of 2012 and 320 of them were killed in the KNP.- SAPA"

I was disgusted not by the arrest of poachers, or the death of one, but instead disgusted by the massive swathe of reactions posted. 

Now, yes, rhino poaching is a serious issue in South Africa and across the world. As of 16 October 2012, 455 rhinos have been illegally killed for their horns, a figure which has reportedly (as seen in the above) risen to 528, with some reports putting the figure at 776. According to the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) approximately 75% of the world's rhinos live in South Africa, and here, the practice of rhino poaching has risen 3000% since 2011.

And for good reason, too.

According to South Africa’s National Prosecuting Authority (NPA), the rhino horn is valued at approximately ZAR 12, 000/kg, with Asian market prices going up with regards to how rare each rhino is. This is not a valid measure of black market prices.

But that - the moral indignation that these poachers are killing defenceless, docile beasts - is not what got me.
What was more horrifying, were the comments on the post.

At the time of viewing the post, there were 2325 likes, 1771 shares,  and 649 comments and quickly climbing with each second (not counting, of course, the myriad comments on each of the near 1700 shares). 

I decided to pick out the ones that hit me hardest. Remember that this is but a small, small sample. The full awful picture can be seen here.

Some of the worst examples

• "Kill them all"
• "Take no prisoners kill them all"
• "Chop off there [sic] arms"
• "kill them don't give them a second chance to do it again"
• "Cut their noses off and leave them in a veld
• "Death sentence for murderers - lets string them up in the village square and hang them"
• "one down" 
• "Kill the bastards!!!"
• "Shoot the bastards the poachers must be killed !!!" 
• "Don't spare the lead!" 
• "Good I hope they hang the bastard!" 
• "wonderful shoot to kill poachers every time"
• "Saw their balls off plus a leg or two and leave them to die or be eaten by any animal roaming the Kruger National Park"
• "One HUGE mistake..... one should have not been taken to hospital and the other two arrested!!!!!! All should have been killed and all 4 taken to the morgue!!!!!!!"
• "burn them alive"
• "don't waste time with arrests"
• "kill the whole fucking lot of them"
• "Next time kill all of them [sic] assasination style, nobody will question it, just say they died in the gunfight."
• "What happens in the bush, stays in the bush. Cut their throats and leave them to gargle in a pool of blood. The vultures and jackals will do the cleaning up."
• "They should shoot them all on site !! Or at least capture them, torture the information out of them and then shoot them"

Most, if not all, the comments suggest 'bush law' as a viable option to deal with these "scum of the earth": no witness, no court, no judge.

And worst of all, there are those who are pleased  by this hatred: "Fantastic, amazing how much hate there is for these guys, they should be tortured".

Word count

Doing a little investigative work, I came by the following stats concerning the number of instances of a word appearing in this comment board. Remember that this doesn't include the reactions in the 1700-odd shares.

The fact that "justice", "court and "jail" rank much, much lower than "kill", "shoot" or "cut" (as in "their horns/noses/penises - yes, you read correctly - off") speaks volumes - very concerning volumes, at that.

A worrying trend

Hard numbers:

"well done": 84

"kill": 64

"shoot": 58

"cut": 43

"bastard": 35

"die": 31

"good work" 18

"dead": 18

"hang": 15

"death": 13

"justice": 13

"deserve": 10

"fantastic": 10

"brilliant": 10

"jail": 6

"court": 5

On closer inspection...

Now, one thing that should be addressed is the idea that race is somehow intertwined (there was a lot of anger on my wall when I shared the post, with some pulling the race card). In the comments board (not counting profile pictures of animals/flowers/bikes/things that aren't people) there were 7 people who weren't white or Afrikaans, but even these two were equally pleased at the reported death: "LOL" and "burn them alive" were two responses.

Now, I'm not saying that there's a racial link between white people caring too much about rhinos or black people not caring enough about rhinos - that's a pretty popular card to play in South Africa, we can all admit. We can also admit that we're pretty fucking sick of it by now.

However, we have to look at the facts. 

With everything in life - crime included - there is a story behind the story. Given this country's shocking statistics that cover health, HIV infection rates, education, poverty, and the Living Standards Measure (SA has reportedly the widest gap between rich and poor in the world, with a GINI index score beating even that of Brazil, the previous heavyweight champion of 

inequality), it's shameful that we can be so brazenly outspoken against these issues when there are far, far more serious issues right in our back yard. Why is there not similar outcry at the terrible levels of service delivered in schools across the country? Where was the vehemence when news was released that a local orphanage here in Grahamstown was going to be closed?

Statistically speaking, white people are better off. And the luxury that comes with not having to worry about so-called 'third-world problems' like water, food, and so on, is that we can start worrying about more 'first-world problems'. It's not rocket science - it's Maslow. 

Now the people that don't fit this group - those who are in the bottom of the GINI index - where are they? Well, statistically, they're black, poverty-stricken, and coping with the daily human rights abuses perpetuated at the uncaring hands of government (note, I categorically state statistics, and in no way imply any connection between colour and crime).

We have to come to terms with the idea that, if someone struggles with daily basics, and is offered or told about the chance to get some horn by just killing an animal (R12 000/kg), then we have to accept that the thought that, as unsettling as you may think it:

It's just an animal

Even if they only get a percentage of the cut for doing the dirty work while their bosses sit back in Jo'burg/wherever, that's still more money than they could dream of getting. How can someone value so arbitrary and vague a concept as 'animal rights' or 'conservation' when he or she cannot even met their daily needs?

More worrying of all was clicking on several of the profile pictures. Many that I did further investigation on (who had public profile information) unashamedly boasted "Christian" in their 'religious view' field. Jesus was pretty clear on the whole "love they neighbour" stuff. Maybe God forgot the 1st amendment to the Ten: "... unless they poach rhinos"?
Christians: killing is wrong. Hell, I know that, and it's not because an old book told me so. Don't post "kill all of them, send a message" and then go to church and ask for forgiveness. That's not how it works.

South Africa (Dark red) sticks out like a sore, unequal thumb.

A misplaced hatred

The saddest thing of all is that this outburst of hatred, this welling of fury at these "bastards" and "c*#ts", is that it's a wasted fury. The bosses behind these atrocities, and the demand for rhino horn, are not affected by the death of this poor man, who will probably die without anyone ever knowing his name or why he did what he did. In fact, with security measures now gaining widespread popularity as rhino become more and more threatened, the demand for rhino horn should only increase  as supply dwindles and dries up. Killing the soldier does nothing: it's the head of the snake that should be cut off, and this is down to what our government does on an international trade level, as well as with wider intelligence operations and stings (times like this I wish the Scorpions were still around). 

Out of the huge array of comments, very few touched on this idea - 7 of them. That's less than one percent of the total posted.

• "We need to shoot the people who are hiring them to kill the rhino. That's not going to happen though as they are in their mansions in Sandton sipping on whiskey and smoking cigars."
• "Unfortunately the poachers are just the workers who are paid very little to do this. It's the big boys at the top that should be found and arrested.
• "They should get the Kingpins as well!!!"
• "...it is the big guys that need to be caught."
• "Get after the king-pins behind this despicable trade."
• "Yes, lots of poachers, would like to see some stronger government intervention at international level to sort out the syndicates driving this!!!"
• "They get paid nothing to do the dirty work and the ringleaders get all the money without getting caught"

Of the 700-or-so comments, only a mere three emulated my reaction:

• "I cannot be glad that someone's life ended. The killing needs to stop. Like others have already stated, killing the poachers is a temporary solution. Need to find who has employed them.
• "... Its completely wrong and disgusting what they do to those poor innocent rhinos, but I think its also morally wrong that everyone is so supportive of them being killed."
• "no one, despite their wrong doings DESERVES to be killed."

This country has fought hard for a justice system that treats us all fairly, and gives us the right to a fair trial. How can we even talk, even in anger, about sacrificing all that work, all that sacrifice? By denying a part of the Constitution, you deny all of the Constitution. And yes, I can hear your retort that the justice system does not deal these crimes effectively, but to you I reply: so we should just mete out justice on the spot? Line up every criminal and shoot them in the back of the head? (haaha, we'd barely have a government left ;) )

Only one comment questioned this: 

"Can't see the killing of poachers very constitutional?"

Killing in the name of...?

I will admit that I believe that (if the reports are correct) the shooting of the poacher in the article is justified. Simply put, it's self-defence. No race tangents, no politics.  

However, this is just a fact: a cold, legal point that says its okay to defend your life if it is in danger. It does not extend to gloating, or feeling a sick sense of pride that a human being has taken another human being's life. I think back to the news blown all across the world that Osama bin Laden had been killed, and I remember the roaring crowds that gathered in America to celebrate the fact - a sight that I understood, but could not help but feel sickened by. Yes, I lost my farm and much more in the crippling land reform program in Zim (many more lost even more than that), but if Mugabe were to push up daisies today, I don't think i'd flock to Facebook and cry "THANK GOD UR DEAD U PRIK BASTARD U DESERV IT".

I have to reiterate that the law should never extend to calls to kill poachers on sight, or indeed to bring back the death penalty. Think of Bheki Cele, and the damage he did with his desire to turn the police force into a 'shoot to kill' organisation (probably from watching too much Die Hard 2 on SABC3)?

In Section 11 of Chapter 2 of the South African Bill of Rights, it makes the following statement:

"The right to life, which has been held to prohibit capital punishment"

No amendments. No little clauses. No grey area.

But what can be done?

A brilliant article here points out the weaknesses, strengths and costs of each strategy. I won't go into specifics here - that isn't the point of this article.

What we can do is keep worrying: rhinos need their saviour, and ignoring one cause at the peril of another is no way to go about it. We shouldn't have to choose between the lesser of two evils. 

However, what I think we can do is be more considerate of the politics behind such a story. By calling for blood and a vague, immeasurable sense of justice meted out on the spot, we lose our humanity. These are people too. Yes, they're criminals and poachers, but what if it were your brother there, or your father, or your cousin? Would you still call for summary execution?

We cannot - I repeat, cannot - demean the value of even a single human life, whether we are Christian, Atheist, black or white. By doing that, we're no more than murderers ourselves.

Instead of just lashing out, baying for blood and hollering for heads, we should consider why it is that someone would want to kill an animal to harvest a medically-useless horn in the first place. 

And then direct all our fucking fury there.