I haven’t seen the video and I don’t plan to. But I’m outraged that Go Daddy‘s Bob Parsons even thought of
creating one glorifying his recent shooting of an elephant in Zimbabwe.
The arguments he and others like him use to justify this act are old and well worn.
Ditto the arguments the Zimbabwean officials use.
There was so much hope, so much promise in the newly independent Zimbabwe. Instead, it has been saddled with a government that for more than 30 years has been sucking the life out of it. All the economic indicators have fallen and continue to do so. In 2009, when hyperinflation had so devalued its currency, it was forced to stop using it in favor of the South African Rand, UK Pound or the US Dollar.
To use an African saying, “When two elephants fight, the grass suffers.”
Unfortunately, the elephants are now caught in the fight between people, like Parsons, who have deep pockets and corrupt government officials, like the ones in Zimbabwe, that’ll do just about anything to line their own pockets.
It is against this backdrop that Parson has seen fit to pose, wrapped in his suit of arrogance and sense of entitlement, his foot atop the carcass of the elephant he just slaughtered.
That arrogance, that sense of entitlement bothers me because that’s what drive men like Parsons to kill elephants and other animals.
It is that same arrogance, sense of entitlement and unbridled greed that drive Mugabe, and men of his ilk, and cause their own people to suffer needlessly.
Sadly, between the two of them, the elephants won’t have a change. They will continue to be slaughtered.
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Related Articles
- GoDaddy CEO, Bob Parsons Kills For Fun (harlemworldblog.wordpress.com)
- GoDaddy.com CEO Kills Wild Elephants: two actions (ourcompass.wordpress.com)
Hi Marcia
Elephants are such beautiful animals with strong family bonds.
Check out this website about the E family which researchers have been observing for nearly 40 years http://www.bbc.co.uk/nature/characters/37
Unfortunately, due to their size, and pressure from encroaching human population, parks in Africa receive money from wealthy people to pretend they are big game hunters and kill elephants, to keep the population down. The elephants uproot trees and destroy large areas in their search for food. In some areas the elephants are going hungry.
I wish it wasn’t so.
I’ve not seen the video and like you, have no intention of doing so. You’ll have to excuse my ignorance, I take it GoDaddy is a big business in the US?
It’s a company that registers your internet domain and does web hosting. Yes, it is a big business here in the US.
One of my friends who went game watching with us saw it and said it made her sick to watch.
Thanks Narelle, I’ll check out the article.
In Zimbabwe’s case, maybe if Mugabe and his cronies returned some of the money they have stolen and work on restoring their economy, they wouldn’t need to bring in wealthy people. If we follow the argument that they need to feed their people, what happens when they’ve killed the last elephant – what then?
I took those photos in Zimbabwe’s Hwange National Park last year. The elephants there are protected (at least, that’s what we were told). When we arrived at the Vic Falls Airport, we also saw men with guns who clearly were going hunting. Not sure what. Within the park, we did see lots of uprooted and destroyed trees. Yes, elephants are large and need space and people need to eat but there’s got to be another way to handle this.
I believe strongly that what drives this, especially in Zimbabwe is not the need to feed people – Mugabe doesn’t give a flying fig about them unless they are his supporters or are useful to him — but pure greed.
I will never understand how anyone can share the same space with a magnificent creature like that and shoot it or intend to do harm to it. It’s just plain ignorance. A knowledgeable person would know that these animals are social, have families, and have greater intelligence than anyone will ever really understand. Certainly more intelligence than these neanderthals who do this for sport. Well, you know what they say about “shortcomings”, right? 🙂
Hahahahaha, ohhh, you’re funny. Yes, I do!
Believe me, I was never what you’d call an animal person. But after reading about elephants, seeing them and understanding how intelligent and social they are, I really cannot understand how people hunt them or any animal.
We really have our priorities a little off, haven’t we?