Dear Organlearners,
Bruce Jones <brucej@nwths.com> writes:
>Thank you for a most enlightening letter. You have
>given me an insight into a culture and circumstance
>I have not had the privilege of experiencing.
Greetings Bruce,
Yes, the purpose between the lines of my contribution was
"Learning by Touring in Dialogues".
>You have also given me food for thought.
>As an Educational/Instructional Technologist the
>statement about chalk boards without chalk shows
>the need for parallel development of technology.
Yes, I have created many metaphors into that contribution as Leo
Minnigh has noted.
I tried to show how incredibly difficult it is for the local people to
create chalk because they do not have NATURAL deposits containing
calcium carbonate or calcium sulphate. This clue you have taken up
perfectly by writing:
>I think it may also be symbolic of the plight of LO's,
>and education as a whole, in both developing and
>"established" countries. We are developing methods and
>means to improve and implement new paradigms of each
>without developing a natural "technology" at the same time;
>the human being.
Yes, yes, yes. What we need is people with lots of diverse
experiences. They are our "natural resources". Without these "lots of
diverse experiences" they become like the vast stretches of sand which
cover much of these countries. On this san sand thrive rich fuana and
flora, but in a delicate balance exactly like in the Amazon. This
"rich fuana and flora" and not the sand is the natural resource. Its
symbolical meaning is people with rich experiences in family and
community life. But once they have moved into an industrialised
metropolis, they become like the bare sand of a desert.
>I would also like to ask about the increase of AIDS
>and TB among the predatory fauna of Kruger National
>Park. I can see where refugees crossing the plains of
>a natural wildlife reserve become just another herd
>animal for them but I have not heard of the cross species
>contamination before. Please send me the reference for
>this study.
Bruce, I will try to find some scientific documentation for you as
soon as I have some time available.
In the meantime. TB in the Kruger National Park (KNP) is a subject in
our one local newspaper Beeld the last few days, to the agony of
conservation officials. Several hundred (a few herds) of Buffalo have
been kiled the past few weeks after having been identified that they
might have TB. (You can imagine how the "nature-pity-ers" jumped on
this news!) The theory of the officials were that since the buffaloes
are extremely social animals living closely togther while frequently
rubbing against each other, and since TB is spreaded mainly by breath
and since buffaloes are carriers of many dangerous diseases, many of
them ought to have had TB. Autopsies revealed that only one had TB.
(You can imagine how the "nature-pity-ers" jumped on this news also!)
The reason why officers did it, is because a couple of lion families
(33 individuals) had to be killed recently because the whole families
were in a seriously ill. Autopsies revealed that 32 of them had TB in
an advance stage. Ok, this might be expected because lions are also
very social animals. But where did SOME of them orginally got it?
Well, when lions make a kill, the first thing they go for is the
"pudding" (the soft liver and lungs). Eating raw lungs will certainly
leave the TB patogen in the mouth and hence airways. Thus enters the
"buffalo as TB carriers" theory as a plausible one, a theory which now
seems to be false.
The buffalo theory should never have been proposed in the first place.
The last couple of months we had some wierd behaviours and attacks on
humans by weakened leopards. Leopards, unlike lions, are among the
most "unsociable" of all animals. They are solitary animals, except
for the couple of hours when they have to mate. Furthermore, although
one of the Big Five of hunters (elephant, rhinoceros, buffalo, lion
and leopard), leopards will kill only very young buffalo calves (which
is the least infected). So how did the leopards got infected in the
first place?
About the AIDS infection, it is best that I say nothing because what I
know, were said in confidence to me by colleagues in the zoology
deparment as well as conservation officials. I will have tro try and
find you some scientific publications on it.
How did humans get infected by AIDS in the first place? The same virus
was identified among some species of apes in Central Africa, but which
did not seem seemed to paralyze the immunology system of the apes. So
enters the "infection by bestial sex" theory. Rubbish. Sources of
protein become scarcer and scarcer by the year in Central Africa.
Eventually a state of "if it moves, then it is food" has been reached.
Insects, reptiles, birds, fish, mammals, just name the species.
Scorpions, yes. Apes, sadly, yes. Like most people elsewhere, all
these animals are eaten rare (or even raw) rather than medium or
overdone. I have seen myself on this tour while wandering through a
large "market" in a "butchery" (I will rather not describe it) the
carcas of a monkey hanging on a pole.
Eat raw or underdone meat and every possible virus or bacteria will
enter your own body. If the mouth has sores in it (which happens with
a vit C deficiency, something which I have observed uncountably many
times during this tour), infection by haemapathological virussses
(like AIDS and hepatitis) cannot be prevented. Eat raw or soft cooked
eggs and salmonella or even cholera is your future.
As a last point, do not think that AIDS was something which happened
recently because it was discovered recently by science. In the
ideological fight between countries and continents, the theory of a
conspiracy to use AIDS to wipe out the "other side" is often flung
around. It is nothing of the sort.
About ten years ago I met a man (Afrikaner like me) with the name Don
Pretorius. He was brought up in Tanzania by his grandparents. When he
became "of age" (1950), his grandfather instructed him about the
"facts of life". His grandfather took him around and showed him people
having various sexually transmitted diseases like hepatitis, syphilis,
etc. He grandfather also showed him the "uitteer siekte" ("atrophy
disease") and its symtoms and cross effects, mentioning that no
medical book decribes it. (The early missionaries were not such fools
as many of us would like to think.) His grandfather showed him the
ruins of villages of which the people had been wiped out by it,
villages which on his former visist were full of life. His grandfather
even reminded him that the Bible decribes a similar disease in Deut
38. The date 1950 is very important because it is before the
decolonisation of Africa with "uhuru" as the aftermath. At that date
there was no reason for any conspiracy, nor the bio-technological
knowledge to engineer something like AIDS.
I am very sure about Don's testimony. Why? Because of a spontaneous
DIALOGUE. He came to deliver crusher sand at my nursery with his
lorry. I have never met him before. After having finished, he pointed
to a plant and said he knows it. Well, the plant which he pointed at,
was Adenia globosa. It grows in Kenia with a small second distribution
in Tanzania. I could have hurt him by saying: "(You fool.) It is the
only one of two growing in South Africa. You are probably confusing it
with one of our three local species."
But I said "That is interesting. Tell me more about it." Then he said:
"I saw a few of them in Tanzania at .......". I showed him other
plants from Tanzania which I have grown from seed over the years. And
it each case he began to desribe their flowers or fruit, their
locality, habitat, etc. Don's ability to observe things and to
remember his observations after so many years (he had to flee Tanzania
because of uhuru, but his grandparents were not so lucky) was
incredible. We talked until late after dark. How could I not believe
him.
Best wishes
--At de Lange <amdelange@gold.up.ac.za> Snailmail: A M de Lange Gold Fields Computer Centre Faculty of Science - University of Pretoria Pretoria 0001 - Rep of South Africa
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