THE RETURN OF THE BUSH MEAT

http://www.voicesofyouth.org/en/posts/the-return-of-the-bush-meat
written by Cadmus Atake-Enade

It’s been some few months after the dreaded Ebola Virus was excommunicated out of Nigeria by a greater divine force, greater than the doctors and scientists we have In Nigeria. The virus caused a high level scare in the minds of the fearless average Nigerian but despite that, God saw us through.

It gave me the courage and boldness to beat my chest once again and identify with my fellow countrymen.

A lot of things began to occur during the period when the scare of Ebola Virus (EV) was high. Institutions that have never thought of personal hygiene developed one, schools, banks, offices etc developed hand washing hygiene as part of their safety measures and people stopped the habit of exchanging pleasantries through handshakes. The one thing that baffled me most was the disappearance of the once popular bush meat spots and palm wine bars along major express ways across the nation.

I wondered, are these really our highways where we used to see countless numbers of bush meat hung on poles along the roads for travelers to stop to purchase food? I was glad to see this development, mostly that these rare species of animals are being kept alive again. However, more recently, while on a transit, I observed the resurgence of bush meats again.

I was kind of surprised that these fearless Nigerians are back in the forests to hunt for bush meat despite the warnings that these bush meats serve as a major host to the dreaded EV, which to me I don’t believe it’s the cause of the virus but at least I was happy it worked for a while to protect, preserve and conserve our wild and rare animals species.

Lost in thought I realized that it takes a dreaded occurrence to convince us that we must protect and conserve our wild which is not suppose to be.

Our environment is our life and so is our responsibility to protect and keep it safe.

A comrade once said ‘‘if you want to destroy a people destroy their environment’’ and that is exactly what we are doing to our wildlife, destroying their existence and driving them into extinction.

Let's not fail in our duties to our environment to keep it safe at all times, we owe nature that because nature has the same rights to live just as we humans do.

Voice Of Nature

culled from http://www.voicesofyouth.org/en/posts/voice-of-nature   

written by Imen Al-Nighaoui

Today I will be the voice of nature.Today I will be the reflection of the sky and the extent of the ground.

Today I will be the green lands and the growing flowers. I will be the falling leafs and the infinite ocean.

I am the blue you see and the air your breathe. Today I will speak for them, I will fight for them and as they don't have a voice besides mine. I will ask you to close your eyes and to imagine yourself standing next to a giant tree that witnessed the rise of men and the fall of nature, a tree that is old enough to tell the story of this earth.

Now look around you, the lands are covered with red and yellow flowers, the smell of this bliss reminds you of silent mornings and exotic evenings. Just few miles away, you can clearly see a hill, a green one, where you can watch a troop of deer and flying birds embracing their home in a great bless.

Now turn around and admire the blue space that is laying before your eyes, see how pure and beautiful it is! You can even hear the rhymed sound of the waves when it embrace the shores.

As we are coming to an end I will ask you for the last time to look at the sky and to behold yourself in the floating clouds. The dream was beautiful but reality is crueler than you can imagine.

Everyday the world is witnessing a new tragedy, the increasing rate of pollution is damaging the earth. As we build more factories we paint the sky black, as we chop more trees we make more species without shelters and as we pour more chemicals into the ocean we intoxicate the whole underwater world.

The human's greed for power is harshly destroying the life of other creatures. As we think only about gaining more money we implicitly bringing about our own downfall.

Global Warming and the Ozone Layer are true issues and they are getting more real as we are witnessing a major climate changes, since more recently we cannot know when it is going to rain or to shine, or whether it is cold or warm. The melting ice lands in the northern zone is going to cover our cities and more dramatically, it will cover our countries, archipelagos and islands as the sea level is increasing sharply.

Millions of species vanished with the awaken of the modern life style and more are going to disappear if we don't stop this unfortunate changes.

The earth is our home, let's start today and let's make the change needed. Let's be our own heroes and let's help ourselves to survive the pollution.

Be the change you want and speak up for nature. If you are looking for solutions go back to yourself and yourself only.

We started this tragedy and only us are able to end it.