I haven’t been reading much from the avalanche of articles pertaining to Cecil the Lion. I know enough to conclude that this is another case of America losing its collective mind over yet another trivial matter which the media has been pounding into our heads, causing many to fall into a zombie-like state of consciousness, growling and salivating for human flesh. It’s the perfect distraction from the Planned Parenthood story as well as other much more important news that directly affects the public.
So it’s amusing to find out that while America is caught up this week in despising the existence of a dentist in Minnesota, people in the country where the lion supposedly served as its unofficial but beloved ambassador are asking, “Who the hell is Cecil?”
Via Reuters:
As social media exploded with outrage this week at the killing of Cecil the lion, the untimely passing of the celebrated predator at the hands of an American dentist went largely unnoticed in the animal’s native Zimbabwe.
“What lion?” acting information minister Prisca Mupfumira asked in response to a request for comment about Cecil, who was at that moment topping global news bulletins and generating reams of abuse for his killer on websites in the United States and Europe.
The government has still given no formal response, and on Thursday the papers that chose to run the latest twist in the Cecil saga tucked it away on inside pages.
One title had to rely on foreign news agency copy because it failed to send a reporter to the court appearance of two locals involved.
Obviously, Zimbabwe journalists have their priorities mixed up. A lion was murdered, you idiots! In cold blood! If only Philip Seymour Hoffman was still alive to write a book about it!
In contrast, the previous evening 200 people stood in protest outside the suburban Minneapolis dental practice of 55-year-old Walter Palmer, calling for him to be extradited to Zimbabwe to face charges of taking part in an illegal hunt.
Local police are also investigating death threats against Palmer, whose location is not known. Because many of the threats were online, police are having difficulty determining their origins and credibility.
Palmer’s gone into hiding for his life, it appears. Congratulations to Mia Farrow. The mean man will never fix people’s cavities ever again, most likely. She must be quite pleased with herself.
For most people in the southern African nation, where unemployment tops 80 percent and the economy continues to feel the after-effects of billion percent hyperinflation a decade ago, the uproar had all the hallmarks of a ‘First World Problem’.
“Are you saying that all this noise is about a dead lion? Lions are killed all the time in this country,” said Tryphina Kaseke, a used-clothes hawker on the streets of Harare. “What is so special about this one?”
The lion had a name. It was Cecil! We all died a little that day we were told that the lion most of us hadn’t known before that day we were told he was shot dead that he was shot dead. Cecil is worthy of us taking vengeance upon his killer. Cecil would be so heartened to know of all the love that the world has shown for him. Though we only just learned of you, we will always miss you, Cecil!
“Why are the Americans more concerned than us?” said Joseph Mabuwa, a 33-year-old father-of-two cleaning his car in the center of the capital. “We never hear them speak out when villagers are killed by lions and elephants in Hwange.”
Bah! Those people didn’t have names. Who cares?
Oh, Cecil. May your big, sharp fangs forever gleam in kitty heaven and you get to frolic with all the tigers and the tabbies and the calicoes and the Siameses and the meerkats. We will never forget you.
Cecil (2002-2015) … RIP
(Note: may not be actual photo of Cecil the Lion)
