Page 16 THE VILLADOM TIMES II • March 13, 2013 become the villains to friends of the elephants, though not to many Africans, who see poaching and smuggling ivory as a lucrative trade -- much like the Anglo-American trade in opium to China 150 years ago. History is a double-edged sword. What the Chinese ivory trade is doing to the elephant population is awful. Elephants are not dumb brutes. The females take great care of the young, and elephants seem to mourn their dead. These are not animals that should ever be wantonly slaughtered, even though the Chinese want the ivory and the Chinese ivory carvers and African poachers and smugglers make great money. What the British opium trade did to China was also awful, and what the Arab-European slave trade did to Africa was certainly the worst of all. There may be a certain self-righteousness attached to making villains of Asians and Africans for murdering animals while the European proclivity for murdering or subtly poisoning people is not entirely forgotten either in Asia or Africa. A similar campaign operates to save marine mammals from the Japanese and, it might be added, from the Koreans and Russians, who do the same thing but are not remembered for Pearl Harbor. Whales and dolphins may look like fish, which is a great incentive to rationalization, but the marine mammals have a comparatively full range of affections and emotions. These creatures should also be spared in every way possible. The two Anglo-Saxon guys in the National Geographic special were brave men. They were risking their necks with some of the investigative stunts they pulled off with hidden TV cameras showing how easy it was to buy illegal ivory in rural Africa. They made a couple of worthwhile points. One of them got a saleswoman to claim a beautifully carved piece of ivory came from a mammoth. Then she giggled. On the whole, the two Anglo-Saxon guys were a bit obtuse in their understanding of other cultures. One Chinese Buddhist in the ivory carving business was photographed saying: “Elephants are our friends. We believe that the elephants should be happy and joyful because they left their tusks to us.” The reporter considered this rank hypocrisy. In fact, it typifies the view of life and death often found in Buddhist cultures, and not just in China. Ever read some of the letters sent home by kamikaze pilots? Once free of Marxism or violent nationalism, most Buddhists in a harsh world see the afterlife, with proper preparation, as an absolute and desirable reality and the temporal world as an unpleasant prelude or possible obstacle. Many Muslims also feel that way. This misunderstanding on our part has caused some real problems for our foreign policy. The ultimate reach, however, was when one of the elephant-savers, wishing to show how bad the Chinese were, showed a magazine photograph of the Chinese ambassador to Tanzania squatting and grinning over a dead crocodile. How awful – and I mean how awful in terms of hypocrisy! Does anybody have any idea how many African and Asian children are eaten by crocodiles every year? Nobody keeps records, but the Japanese Army lost 800 soldiers to crocodiles in Burma and Thailand during three years of World War II, so the number of native children and adults pulled under, drowned, and eaten must number in the thousands. Europeans and Americans want to save the tigers, while Asian farmers want to save their cattle -- and their kids. Elephants, whales, and dolphins are not homicidal except when wounded, so they should be saved if at all possible. China will not falter and fall if the world endorses a total ban on the ivory trade. The Chinese may ignore the ban, but they will not falter and fall. The Japanese and the Russians eat whale meat, but they can live without it. Why do we Americans and British animal-lovers not show them how serious we are about compassion for animals by offering a deal? If you give up killing whales for food and dolphins as food competitors, we will give up eating beef. The Japanese were horrified when Commodore Perry arrived in 1853, contrary to their wishes, and demanded oxen for beef for his crew. The Japanese grudgingly complied with guns pointed in their faces, but then built shrines to the murdered oxen. To the Japanese of 1853, an ox was somewhere between a family dog and a horse. The idea of eating an ox was appalling. Since those days, some Japanese people have begun eating steak, but many are still uneasy about it. If we eliminated beef from the American diet, and encouraged other peoples to do the same, we could not only reduce the incidence of heart disease but we could also reduce the chopping of the rain forests that produce so much of the world’s oxygen, but are now being eradicated to make room for cattle pastures. Even better, we should eliminate the cultivation of tobacco and the export of cigarettes to gullible people who want to be like Americans. Maybe we could then convince people of other cultures that we have matured beyond finger-pointing just as we have matured beyond finger-painting. Both should end with literacy. The other night, I took mental notes while I checked out another clash in culture: the story of how the Chinese desire for carved ivory is endangering African elephants. Ivory is much desired in China, where it is a symbol of wealth and a superb Chinese artistic tradition that goes back at least 2,000 years. Some of the art objects shown on a National Geographic Special on PBS, “Battle for the Elephants,” retail for a cool $1 million and it is not hard to see why. What is hard to see is the prelude to the artistry: gun-shy elephants flapping their ears and weeping in fear every time they see a truck, because they know their lives are at risk, even in nature preserves where they were once safe to amuse and delight the tourists. The sight of tusks taken from dead elephants which are less than a foot long is also immensely sad. A total ban on the ivory trade in the 1980s gave the elephant population a chance to rebound. People stopped shooting the elephants unless they endangered crops. The elephant population of Africa in 1800 has been estimated at 26 million, and the elephants had no natural enemies, except for the Pygmies, whom National Geographic left out. Pygmies, the smallest of people, trapped elephants, the largest of mammals, as a meat staple to their largely vegetable diet, which was otherwise quiet poor in protein. They needed to kill an elephant once in awhile and they made no real dent in the elephant population. When Europeans arrived, they sometimes enslaved the Pygmies to force them to hunt for ivory, which caused a cruel decimation of the Pygmies and the elephants alike. The elephant guns that were introduced were so powerful that, during World War I, they were pressed into emergency service as anti-tank guns. They could literally pierce steel plates that would bounce a rifle bullet. By 1900, the wild elephant population had been reduced to an estimated 10 million so Great White Hunters could say they shot one at a safe distance. The Pygmies worked close and took their chances, and were very much at risk. Europeans used elephant ivory for combs, billiard balls, and piano keys, all status objects at a certain level of society. Then something great and terrible happened: After years of colonial exploitation and even worse years of Maoist economics, China finally rehabilitated itself and became a player in the world economy, and the demand for elephant ivory skyrocketed. The estimated elephant population fell to 1.7 million in 1979 and almost crashed at 600,000 in 1989, when a ban on the world ivory trade was finally promulgated. “China is the world’s villain in the ivory trade,” said one researcher featured on the National Geographic special. He had a British accent. While I am not Chinese, I could have pointed out that the ivory villain of the previous century was Belgium, whose colonialists murdered an estimated two million Bantu and Pygmy Africans in the ivory and rubber trades, only to become the Anglo-Saxon world’s favorite victim due to World War I British propaganda. Today, the Chinese have Saving whales, elephants, and ourselves The West Side Oratorio Choir and Orchestra, along with The North Jersey Home Schoolers Association Chorale, will present Mozart’s “Requiem” on Sunday, March 17, at 4 p.m. at the West Side Presbyterian Church, 6 South Monroe Street in Ridgewood. The oratorio will take place under the baton of Minister of Music Joanne Harris Rodland, assisted by Associate Minister of Music Deborah Holden-Holloway. Soloists are Casandra LaMotte, soprano; Suzanne Solomon, mezzo-soprano; Ivan Rivera, tenor; and David Langan, bass-baritone. The North Jersey Home Schoolers Association Chorale is directed by Beth Prins. Written in 1791 when Mozart was 35, “Requiem,” was unfinished when the composer died. The piece was later completed from existing drafts. This last composition became one of Mozart’s most impressive and famous works. “One of the challenges is to find a very good quartet which is integral to the piece, and I believe we have done that this time,” Rodland said. LaMotte is district winner and regional finalist in the prestigious Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions. Solomon has made Mozart’s operatic and oratorio roles her specialty and has performed with prestigious opera companies around the country. Rivera, has performed key roles in “The Marriage of Figaro,” “The Magic Flute,” “La Clemenza di Tito,” and “Don Giovanni.” Langan, who currently resides in Ridgewood, has sung the roles of Sarastro and Sprecher in “The Magic Flute,” and is a veteran of nearly 1,000 performances with well-known opera companies in the United States and Canada. He has also appeared on the PBS Great Performance series. For the past 37 years, the West Side Oratorio Choir and Orchestra have performed masterworks from the choral repertoire. The North Jersey Home Schoolers Association Chorale is an auditioned choir of 30 high school voices. Silver medalists at the 2012 World Choir Games, the Home Schoolers have performed in New York, Chicago, and Mozart’s ‘Requiem’ to be presented Paris. In April 2013, they will sing the Mozart “Requiem” at Carnegie Hall under the direction of conductor John Nelson. This is the fourth of five concerts to be presented this season as part of the West Side Concert Series. The 37th season of the West Side Concert Series brings to a conclusion the centennial celebration of the West Side Presbyterian Church. All concerts in the series are free and open to the public. The church provides care for pre-school children, and there is ample parking at the church. No tickets are required; however, a free-will offering will be taken. For more information about this concert or others in the series, visit www.westsideconcerts.org or contact Lisa Stitt at (201) 652-1966, extension 39.