Why is it that authorities and individuals come up with solutions to problems which actually accept the legitimacy of the problem?
When women are being attacked by a serial rapist in an area they are urged not to walk alone at night. This turns the victim into the person responsible for the crime and its only one step from there to it being said that ‘she only has herself to blame’! Wrong! Wrong! WRONG!
I’ve just read an article about illegal bird trapping on Cyprus much of which takes place on British Bases. The practice has been illegal for decades but a leading bird protection society is urging the base (and other areas of the island) to remove acacia scrub which is used as cover by the trappers. Now it could be that acacia is an invasive species that should be eradicated… but the fact that it attracts millions of tired migrants is not the issue. The issue is that organised crime are trapping birds which are later sold for consumption by selfish idiots who can only buy them illegally or which are illegally served in restaurants.
The problem are the consumers, traffickers and trappers!
Imagine if East African countries were urged to remove forest to stop poachers hiding there when they want to shoot elephants! The problem that needs to be tackled are the selfish idiots who want to buy ivory carvings, the commercial buyers of illegal ivory and the poachers not the forest!
Blaming the forest for hiding the elephants would be seen by most as completely bonkers… yet women are cleared from the streets and acacia scrub cleared from Cyprus rather than the authorities given more resources to catch criminals and the rest of us urged to re-think out attitudes.
I think the branch is about to break as I seem to be so far out on a limb all the time!
