Friday, December 30, 2011

I.T. - 1-11 - A New Model of the Universe



Dear Homo Sapiens of Earth:

The part cannot understand itself without understanding the whole and its place in this whole. Therefore, to fully answer the question "What am I?", one must first understand the Universe, and his place in this Universe.

Human civilization has evolved from the original diverse religious cosmologies to the one astrophysical-scientific cosmology, not without serious cruelty and pain. The time has come for your species to build a new model of the Universe, an OMNIscientific Cosmology, one that includes not only the physical sciences, but the biological and sociological sciences as well, since the person asking the question is a biological organism of a sociological entity, and he as well as his society are integral parts of the Universe.


"The OMNSCIENTIFIC COSMOLOGY, perfect!" he enthused, without knowing what he was so enthused about.

"Be forewarned, that to know this Omniscientific Cosmology is to know meaning and purpose, which are dangerous states of mind in a world driven by lust and greed, dangerous especially to yourself."


Hypatia, who was stripped naked and flayed to death with tile shards and abalone shells by a religious mob in 415AD, appeared in his mind, then Giordano Bruno, who was burnt at the stake in 1600 after eight years of imprisonment and torture, both for espousing scientific cosmologies under the tyranny of religious cosmologies.


"But, in the case of the Omniscientific Cosmology, why would anyone wish me harm?"

"Because it is the most quintessential philosophy, and you will be their most quintessential enemy."

"And who are 'they'?"

"The Earth destroyers."

"That would include Big Oil, Big Meat, Big Bucks, Big Drugs and Big Guns, just to name to top few. And you are launching me against them?"

"In a matter of speaking."

"It'd be like striking a rock with an egg."

"Great analogy."

"Great suicide, more like."

"Not necessarily."

"How not?"

"By the egg becoming a child, one who can use a hammer, better yet, also a chisel."


I am Raminothna,
the Fortunate and Called Upon,
at your service.




Anthony Marr, Founder and President
Heal Our Planet Earth (HOPE)
Global Anti-Hunting Coalition (GAHC)
Anthony-Marr@HOPE-CARE.org
www.HOPE-CARE.org
www.facebook.com/Anthony.Marr.001
www.facebook.com/Global_Anti-Hunting_Coalition
www.myspace.com/AnthonyMarr
www.youtube.com/AnthonyMarr
www.HomoSapiensSaveYourEarth.blogspot.com
www.DearHomoSapiens.blogspot.com
www.HOPE-GEO.blogspot.com
www.ARConference.org

Thursday, December 29, 2011

A.M. on [Hunters Now The Hunted]

The following article depicts the killing of three poachers in the Kaziranga Nation Park, Assam, India, and no doubt, there will be those who bemoan placing animals over humans.

I've been to the Serengeti National Park in Tanzania, Africa, in its hey days (1979), and worked at the Bandhavgarh, Kanha and Ranthambhore National Parks in India, Asia, and have personally experienced the tragic poaching loss at Bandhavgarh NP of the tigress Sita and her cubs whom I had observed for two seasons (1997-1998). My own conclusion is that using lethal force is the last line of defence for saving the endangered species in both countries, and numerous others.

Rhinos of all species, and tigers for that matter, are critically endangered, to protect which we have to address 3 sides: medicinal use, poaching and trophy hunting. All three must be addressed. Rhino horn in medicinal use we have pretty much beaten to death, while rhino trophy hunting is practically ignored. This article addresses poaching, which is so rampant it is hot news. Where the protection of endangered species is concerned, we have indeed withdrawn to this last line of defense.

To those still saying that rhinos are "mere animals" and the poachers are humans, I ask them what they would say about how to deal with armed bank robbers, especially those who have already fired shots. If they say that it is justifiable for lethal force to be used by police, then, they are putting money over human lives, the robbers being humans?

In the same analogy, national parks are like banks of wildlife, and poachers are armed bank robbers.

Some will still say that under no circumstance is it justified to take human lives, except in war. I say that where saving endangered species is concerned, we are at war.

Anthony Marr




http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/features/hunters-now-the-hunted/story-e6frg6z6-1226232815327

Hunters now the hunted
BY: SIAN POWELL
From: The Australian
December 30, 2011 12:00AM

IT was after midnight when the patrolling forest guards first saw them. Five poachers crouching in the jungle, tense and braced for trouble, ready to slaughter a rhino in one of India's premier national parks. They had crept in from the north as the monsoon floodwaters ebbed, willing to risk death for the rhino's precious horn.

The guards lifted their rifles and the night exploded in a hail of bullets. Two of the poachers were killed outright; two escaped, running into the night. The remaining survivor was gravely injured, shot in the leg and in the shoulder. He fled alone, crashing through the dense vegetation, leaving a blood trail like a wounded beast.

It seems he had no shoes, or maybe he lost them somewhere in the jungle, but he ran for at least an hour, the guards close behind him. When they caught up with him, they shot him dead. Photographs of his corpse show a lean and muscular young man with a pleasant face, wearing a T-shirt and pale blue jeans.

He and two of his companions paid the ultimate price for hunting protected animals. Killed in late September in Kaziranga National Park in the northeast state of Assam, their bodies have yet to be claimed.


A remote state in a region sandwiched between China, Burma, Bhutan and Bangladesh, Assam is a bloody battleground in the world's poaching wars.

Last year, the officers working in the state's protected forests, including Kaziranga, were given immunity from prosecution if they killed suspected poachers inside park boundaries.

"They come to kill and they get killed," one guide says with satisfaction.

Forest ranger Atiqur Rahman led the team that gunned down the three poachers. He insists the poaching gang started that particular fight, spotting the guards and firing a single shot. Rahman has been in the job for two years or so, and last year he led another patrol into the central range and four poachers were shot dead. He says rangers mostly have no choice about firing. It is difficult for them to know how many guns poachers are carrying and how willing they are to use them. But no one can remember a forest guard being killed by a poacher.

The young man they shot as he tried to flee may have been armed, Rahman says, with a shrug. "My staff didn't know, but after they shot him, then they knew he had no gun."

Kaziranga is home to a thriving population of rare one-horned rhinos, animals smaller than the African rhino, but very aggressive, and happy to chase Jeeps and headbutt them, bite rangers and charge almost anyone or anything. Rhinos aren't afraid of much and the poachers use their aggression against them.

A noise or a disturbance will catch the attention of a targeted rhino, which will lower its head, ready to charge. The poacher will then shoot it through the skull. The poaching gang will then race to hack off the beast's horn with an axe. If the shot has been heard, the poachers usually have only about 15 minutes. They often take an ear, or a toenail, as well, as proof that the horn is genuine. Occasionally the shot is botched and the beast survives, hornless, for a short while before dying.

More than 2200 endangered one-horned rhinos live in Kaziranga's lush grasslands, grazing amicably with water buffalo, deer and wild elephants. Rhino calves are sometimes killed by the park's tigers, but the most threatening predator for the one-horned rhino is a man with a rifle.

Sold mostly to Chinese buyers, the horn is a valuable commodity. Wealthy Chinese consumers believe it has unique health-giving properties. Poachers can earn thousands of dollars for a few days' work. Assam is one of the poorer Indian states, with an average per capita income of about 30,000 rupees a year, less than $560. A rhino horn represents enormous, impossibly tempting wealth.

The divisional forest officer in charge of Kaziranga, D. D. Gogoi, is in charge of the battle against poachers, and he is annoyed by the suggestion they should be given more of a chance to surrender before being shot dead. Sitting in his office in the Assamese town of Bokakhat, he wants to make it clear that rangers and forest guards who shoot at poachers are entirely within their rights.

"Here officers use arms when performing their duties," he says. "The arms are provided by law. When there's a shoot-out, we are performing our duty. Sometimes that kind of encounter is wrongly interpreted. If someone is there to experience the situation, it's quite difficult, you know; it's a do-or-die situation."

Anyway, he adds, many poachers are not killed but detained, pointing out 14 were arrested last year. He declines to produce statistics of poacher deaths.

When Assam's Forest Minister Rockybul Hussain arrived to open the park in late October, Gogoi was in anxious attendance. Hussain, too, says there is no problem killing poachers --it is entirely legal. This is a widely held point of view around Kaziranga, where rhinos are popular with the wealthy tourists whose presence in Assam is a blessing for many in the local economy.

Poachers have been feeling the pressure. In a formal ceremony in October, 25-year-old Jogendra Sahro handed over a Lee Enfield .303 rifle to Kaziranga's forest guards, declaring he wouldn't hunt rhinos again. A member of the Mishing tribe, who mostly earn a living by fishing and labouring, Sahro lives in a leaf-thatched hut just outside the park.

As the trumpeting of wild elephants fills the air he admits to killing one rhino (the reality, apparently, is more like five). With his friend, 30-year-old Sukdeo Kutum, also a Mishing man, he negotiated a complicated deal years ago with some Naga hunters from Nagaland, an Indian state on the Burmese border. He was given the rifle but failed to produce any rhino horn, and he says that he was eventually held hostage by the Naga for six days while Kutum brought a rifle -- a sort of ransom -- to Nagaland. The Naga are fierce warriors and hunters (and, last century, headhunters). Many of the poachers killed in Kaziranga are thought to be Naga, including two of the three killed in September. The third, who ran away before being killed, was probably a low-caste Assamese hired as a guide.

Some Assamese say the Naga will kill anything that moves, which is why there is nothing much left to hunt in their own state, "Nothing, no birds, nothing," one guide says angrily.

The poachers who frequent Kaziranga are almost without exception hunting for rhinos, although the park is also home to a thriving population of Bengal tigers, and tiger bones are also valuable on the blackmarket.

Sahro shrugs. "We are facing a lot of troubles," he says. "The Naga are after us. But we are totally cut off from them."

He explains that when a horn is taken, the profits are split 50-50, half for the Naga, half for the guides. The horn, he says, could be sold for "five lakhs", 500,000 rupees, more than $9000. But some suggest this is wishful thinking, that guides would be paid by the day, perhaps about 50,000 rupees, more than $900.

Neither Sahro nor Kutum have any idea of why the horn is so valuable, nor what it is used for. They don't really care. Neither can read or write and they are mostly concerned about how to to feed themselves and their families.

Kutum has three children, and a cloud of gloom descends on him as he talks about the future.

"I started poaching five years ago; I was 25 when I started," he says. "I did it because of money. My family's background is very poor. I have two daughters and a son. I don't have paddy land for cultivation; sometimes I fish in the river, but it's very tough to earn a living."

He pauses, seemingly reluctant to confess his crimes to a stranger. "Then, two years ago I went into the national park to kill a rhino. The rhino charged us. We shot it, and then we had five to 10 minutes to cut the horn off."

He won't admit to more rhino killings, but he says he was always worried about being shot dead by forest guards.

"I'm scared of the forest department staff, not the animals. We are very familiar with wild animals. But I know people who have been killed by forest guards. Naren Pegu, he was my brother-in-law. He was a wanted man."

Pegu, apparently a gang leader and poacher, was shot dead by Kaziranga forest guards in December last year. His companion was shot in the hip and apparently "died of his wounds".

Uttam Saikia is one local who disapproves of shooting poachers dead. A television journalist and honorary warden of Kaziranga, he loves the park and works hard to protect the district's spectacular range of birds and animals. But rather than killing poachers, he says, they should be rehabilitated. Saikia is the voice of reason.

"Actually I'm working for anti-poaching activities," he says. "We are making a network to bring the poacher back to the mainstream."

Saikia says he has so far convinced 17 poachers, including Sahro and Kutum, to mend their ways. He isn't paid for the hours he puts in and it can be a risky business. One Mishing man told him, with weighty innuendo, that he kept a pistol to kill informers.

The forest department relies on a network of these locals who are willing to inform on poachers if the price is right. Saikia says they are paid more if their information leads to an arrest, the capture of a .303 rifle or the killing of a poacher. They get less if their lead points merely to a home-made gun.

As well as working on locals to give up poaching, Saikia has kept a wary eye on the poaching gangs of Nagaland. He speaks of men such as Bijoy Thapa, originally from Nepal; a Naga man known as Hoho; and others, all trading in protected species.

"There's numbers of gangs sitting there," Saikia says. "They are not only responsible for killing rhino, they collect the animal parts of the northeast, tiger parts, deer; they send all to the China market."

He regularly protests when he thinks people have been hastily shot dead in the park. He went to see the place where the wounded poacher was killed in September. "I'm always protesting about this kind of killing," Saikia says. "He was sheltering in a small bush. I went to the spot and saw it. It happened in the very early morning, maybe 3am. They just shot him. They should say: 'Hands up, hands up.' Why not?"


............. What rhino-killing is NOT addressed in this article - TROPHY HUNTING, and it is legal - in at least 6 African countries, including those where poaching is already rampant and rhino deaths already high, e.g. S. Africa.

Anthony Marr, Founder and President
Heal Our Planet Earth (HOPE)
Global Anti-Hunting Coalition (GAHC)
Anthony-Marr@HOPE-CARE.org
www.HOPE-CARE.org
www.facebook.com/Anthony.Marr.001
www.facebook.com/Global_Anti-Hunting_Coalition
www.myspace.com/AnthonyMarr
www.youtube.com/AnthonyMarr
www.HomoSapiensSaveYourEarth.blogspot.com
www.DearHomoSapiens.blogspot.com
www.HOPE-GEO.blogspot.com
www.ARConference.org

Wednesday, December 28, 2011

I.T. - 1-10 - To Conceive the Inconceivable



Dear Homo Sapiens of Earth:

Another book that he has in his jeep was the Tao Teh Ching, 6th Century BC, by Lao Tzu. This copy was of Ching Dynasty vintage, in Chinese, and bore some water damage. It was also dog-eared. And on one of the dog-eared pages, there was a quatrain which he underscore in red. It said:

"Man accords his way to the Earth,
the Earth accords its way to the Sky,
the Sky accords its way to the Tao,
and the Tao simply is, according to its own Nature."

The Tao is the "Way of the Cosmos" in Western lingo.

On the margin, in his own hand, he had written: "Therefore, if we could understand what this Tao is, we should know the optimal Way of Man!"

"Where's this book from?" I asked him.

"Long story."

"Are you in a hurry?"

We were at Lake Natron, which was pink with flamingos. There was a commotion earlier when a lone hyena came charging out of the bush and grabbed a chick. The pink rose up to the sky momentarily, then resettled, minus one chick. Nonetheless, peace was restored, and it felt timeless.

"Well, it happened when I was 5 years old. My father was a high level intellectual who was sought by the Communist government in China where I was born. If he got caught, it would be summary execution of the entire family - to eliminate any chance of revenge. My family escaped by boat down the Pearl River by moonlight. By dawn, we reached Cherng Jou, an offshore island of the British Crown Colony of Hong Kong. It was then it happened."

"It was then what happened?"

"The boatman gave my father this very book."


"Yes, but it doesn't quite add up," I said, though I knew the answer.

"What doesn't it add up to?"

"Your emotional state."

"What state is that?"

"You think about it more than philosophically, but as if it has something to do with your very own personal fate."

"It just might."

"In what way?"

"In such a way as to make my life a total failure."

"Explain."

"Well, the old man had a talk with my father on the boat, which my father told me about when I left Hong Kong for Canada at age 20 by plane. It has haunted me since then, and I've been failing them, so far."

"How have you been failing them?"

"By having failed to conceive the Inconceivable."

"The Inconceivable?"

"This Tao."

"Why is it inconceivable?"

"Read the very first sentence of the book."

"It says: 'The Tao that can be told is not the true Tao.'"

"This pretty much slams the door on me, doesn't it?"

"Apparently."

"Plus, one of Lao Tzu's followers said, 'If one asks what the Tao is, and another answers, neither know it.' This is a rock cast into the well after I had fallen into it."

"This explains why the subsequent Taoists had maintained a certain silence, as if they knew it."

"Well put, Raminothna, and thus the degeneration of Taoism from a school of philosophy into a house of sorcery, writing incantations and telling fortune."

"So the boatman asked your father to tell you to conceive the Tao?"

"That's right."

"Didn't he know that it was considered inconceivable?"

"He gave my father the key to solve the riddle."

"And your father gave this key to you at the Hong Kong Kai Tak airport?"

"Exactly."

"So, where is this key?"

He pointed where, only days ago, he pointed his gun. Of course I could see it clearly in his brain, but I wanted to draw it out of him. "Tell me about it," I said.

"Well, the boatman, who was a Taoistic priest by the way, said that the key was in the quatrain itself."

"Tell me this quatrain again."

"Man accords his way to the Earth,
the Earth accords its way to the Sky,
the Sky accords its way to the Tao,
and the Tao simply is, according to its own Nature."

"Before we get into it, what do you think of the current Way of Man?"

"Destructive."

"How?"

"Our current trajectory leads directly to severe damage to the Biosphere, possibly to the extent of driving hundreds of thousands of known species to extinction, and perhaps millions of species still unknown. The tropical rainforest will turn to desert, and the ocean will be acidified to the point of losing 95% of its species, including all the marine mammals, major fish species and all corals. Need I say more?"

"So, this key. What form does it take?"

"Logic, I guess.'

"How so?"

"The boatman told my father that the key word in the quatrain is 'Nature', 'that to which the Tao itself accords,' he said to my father."

"Logical."

"And that the study of Nature is Science - all the sciences to be exact: Anthropology, Astronomy, Biology, Chemistry, Ecology, Geology, Physics, Psychology, Sociology..., to cover every aspect of Nature. He even coined a name for it."

"Which is?"

"OMNI-SCIENCE, 'Omni' meaning 'all-in-one'."

"Spelled the same way as "omniscience" in the religious sense, except for the hyphon."

"I have noticed."

"Carry on."

"Well, I have studied all the sciences, which explains why it took me five years, including summer school, to earn my B.Sc. But still, I've gone nowhere in this quest for the Tao. I have no idea what it is. In fact, I've long begun to doubt if it really even exists."

"It exists."

"How do you know? How can you be sure?"

"Because I know what it is."

"You do?! Then pray tell!"

"I will. To help you conceive this Inconceivable Tao, then tell it to the world, is in large measure why I'm here. For this I have borne you a gift of peace, a book. The world can read all about what The Tao is, thus the optimal Way of Man."

"Great, thank you! So where is this book? I want to read it."

"It has yet to be written."

"When is it going to be written?"

"As soon as YOU have written it."

As if sharing his shock, the flamingos rose into the sky again. While he watched in awe, a tear fell from his eyes.

"Why are you crying?" I asked him.

"I was just thinking of the boatman. I have wronged him for doubting him. Especially given the way he died."

"How did he die?"

"Something my father has been sad about ever since. The boatman was going back to China. After he had dropped us off in Cherng Jou, he was about to set sail back the way he came, when my father asked him to please not tell anyone where we had gone. He said to my father to not be concerned, that the future of the world would rest on my discovery of the Tao, and that he would never jeopardize it by endangering me. It was then my father said something he had regretted saying for the rest of his life."

"What did he say?"

"He said, 'They can make anyone talk. Please be careful.'"

"And?"

"And the boatman said to not worry. He would give a guarantee that he would never talk. Just please get the kid to conceive the Inconceivable, for the sake of Man and the world."

"What kind of a guarantee?"

"He sailed the boat out a few hundred yards, then scuttled it."




Anthony Marr, Founder and President
Heal Our Planet Earth (HOPE)
Global Anti-Hunting Coalition (GAHC)
Anthony-Marr@HOPE-CARE.org
www.HOPE-CARE.org
www.facebook.com/Anthony.Marr.001
www.facebook.com/Global_Anti-Hunting_Coalition
www.myspace.com/AnthonyMarr
www.youtube.com/AnthonyMarr
www.HomoSapiensSaveYourEarth.blogspot.com
www.DearHomoSapiens.blogspot.com
www.HOPE-GEO.blogspot.com
www.ARConference.org

Tuesday, December 27, 2011

I.T. - 1-09 - The City of Illusion



09 - The City of Illusion

Dear Homo Sapiens of Earth:

In a dream from which he awoke this morning, he was walking in a flat and vast desert towards a volcano to the south. As he reached the north foot of the volcano, he came upon the ruins of an ancient city.

It was square shaped, set to the four points of the compass, with high external walls over ten feet thick and a mile long per side. I entered through its north gate, the one facing away from the volcano. While passing beneath the huge archway, I looked up, and saw the name of the city, carved in stone: THE CITY OF TRUTH.

Within the city, the avenues were all east-west in orientation. The blocks were of odd lengths, ranging from as few as one house to more than ten houses per block. There were no straight north-south streets to speak of. Unlike the conventional back-to-back twin-rows of houses in the normal city block, these blocks comprised single rows of houses, with their fronts facing the volcano.

The houses were built of precisely cut and fitted blocks of stone, so the ruins were in excellent condition. The walls of the houses bore carvings of verses which were well preserved, such as:
- "Animals were created for only one reason - for the use of humans as they see fit."
- "Humans are created for only one purpose - to go to Heaven."
- "Animals have no souls."
- "Animals have no rights."
- "Humans are not animals."
- "The Universe, thus the Earth and everything on it, were created in six days some four thousand years ago, and animals and humans were created only one day apart."
- "The animals include the dinosaurs, which once co-existed with the humans."
- "It is perfectly acceptable for humans to drive species to extinction; the creator can always create more."
- "It is perfectly acceptable for humans to trash the Earth, since the Creator can easily put it right, or else create another Earth."
- "Humans were created in the image of the Creator; therefore they are the be all and end all of creation.
Etc, etc.

Of special interest was the oft repeated: "Thou shalt not climb the Mountain of Illusion. The penalty is death of the body by fire, and eternal damnation of the soul."

Thus he paced the ruins, like a tiger in a cage, while his desire to climb the volcano grew ever stronger as the days crept excruciatingly by.

Finally, one day, with drying sweat and heaving breath, he found himself on the summit of the volcano, there to look down upon the city on the plain.

The scenery being breath-taking notwithstanding, the ruins began to reveal itself to him in the form of an open page, with every house a letter and every block a word. And the City of Truth read:

"Beware of the writings on the wall. The Universe is over 13 billion years old, and the Earth over 4 billion. The animals have existed in various forms for over a billion years BEFORE the first emergence of humans on Earth from the apes; they exist for their own sake. The humans are just a new branch out of the millions of branches in the evolutionary Tree of Life. They belong to the Animal Kingdom. If they have souls, then so do other animals. For the human purpose and destiny, see the OMNISCIENTIFIC COSMOLOGY. May the Tao with with you!"


I am Raminothna,
the Fortunate and Called Upon,
at your service.




Anthony Marr, Founder and President
Heal Our Planet Earth (HOPE)
Global Anti-Hunting Coalition (GAHC)
Anthony-Marr@HOPE-CARE.org
www.HOPE-CARE.org
www.facebook.com/Anthony.Marr.001
www.facebook.com/Global_Anti-Hunting_Coalition
www.myspace.com/AnthonyMarr
www.youtube.com/AnthonyMarr
www.HomoSapiensSaveYourEarth.blogspot.com
www.DearHomoSapiens.blogspot.com
www.HOPE-GEO.blogspot.com
www.ARConference.org

Sunday, December 25, 2011

I.T. - 1-08 - The Truth Seeker




09 – The Truth Seeker

Dear Homo Sapiens of Earth:

The question "What am I?" has been haunting him since he first asked me what I was.

His first answer was, "Go ask an anthropologist." Anthropology being the study of the species Homo Sapiens, albeit by Homo Sapiens, of course it makes sense.

But not total sense. Because there are also extra-terrestrial anthropologists, who however would regard Homo Sapiens as Homo Sapiens regards a dolphin, or an eagle, or a lion. In other words, the attitude of an E.T. anthropologist is more akin to that of a human biologist than of a human anthropologist.

Anthropology, especially physical anthropology, is indispensable for human self-understanding, especially in regards to their origin. Cultural anthropology studies human sociality. But does knowing origin and sociality lead to knowing fate and destiny? Not each on its own.


Speaking of anthropology, we had the Leakeys at Olduvai Gorge half way between Kilimanjaro and the Serengeti, and that is where his jeep went.

But when he first stepped out of his jeep, the first thing he saw was a ten-foot-diameter circular patches of ground denuded of grass, with a small cylindrical earth mound in the center and a crater-like hole out of which emerged an ant with a grain of sand in its jaw, which it dumped on to the sloping side of the mound.


“The Leakey's do terrific work, and Australopithecus is wonderful and important. But a creature as humble as an ant can tell you something important about your species.”

“What do you mean?”

“Tell me. When an ant digs a hole in the ground what is it digging for?”

“An ant builds subterranean nests. So when it digs, it digs for shelter.”

“Shelter from what?”

“The elements, and above ground predators, such as birds and lizards and such, although, with moles prowling the subterranean world for prey, including ants, there is really no place the ants could call safe.

“So, when a mole digs a hole into the ground, what is it digging for?”

“A mole is a subterranean hunter and dweller. So when it digs, it digs for food, and for shelter.”

“Back in Canada, you yourself have dug holes in the ground. What were you digging for?”

“Gold. But I've quit.”

“And now, we see these humans here in Olduvai Gorge, digs holes in the ground. What are they digging for?”


“They are digging for fossils and artifacts.”

“And what are these fossils and artifacts good for?”

“They tell us about where we have come from - the truth of our origin.”


“Therefore, this should tell the anthropologists themselves something of immense importance about their species of interest.”

“Namely?”

“That it is a species in possession of a certain godly quality.”

“And that is?”

“Homo Sapiens is a species that digs for truth.”

............. Olduvai Gorge bird


Anthony Marr, Founder and President
Heal Our Planet Earth (HOPE)
Global Anti-Hunting Coalition (GAHC)
Anthony-Marr@HOPE-CARE.org
www.HOPE-CARE.org
www.facebook.com/Anthony.Marr.001
www.facebook.com/Global_Anti-Hunting_Coalition
www.myspace.com/AnthonyMarr
www.youtube.com/AnthonyMarr
www.HomoSapiensSaveYourEarth.blogspot.com
www.DearHomoSapiens.blogspot.com
www.HOPE-GEO.blogspot.com
www.ARConference.org

Saturday, December 24, 2011

Itinerary of Anthony Marr's End The World Tour 2012



Itinerary

BC - Victoria - 05-03
BC - Vancouver - 05-05
BC - Kelowna - 05-07
BC - Kamloops - 05-08

AB - Edmonton - 05-10
AB - Fort McMurray - 05-12
AB - Calgary - 05-14

MT - Helena - 05-16
MT - Missoula - 05-17

ID - Idaho Falls - 05-19

UT - Salt Lake City - 05-20

WY - Cheyenne - 05-22

CO - Fort Collins - 05-23
CO - Denver - 05-25
CO - Boulder - 05-26

KS - Topeka - 05-28

MO - Kansas City - 05-29
MO - St. Louis - 05-31

IL - Springfield - 06-01

WI - Madison - 06-03
WI - Janesville - 06-05
WI - Milwaukee - 06-07

IL - Chicago - 06-08

MI - Lansing - 06-10
MI - Detroit - 06-11

IN - Indianapolis - 06-13

OH - Cincinnati - 06-14
OH - Dayton - 06-16
OH - Columbus - 06-17
OH - Cleveland - 06-19

PA - Pittsburgh - 06-20

NY - Buffalo - 06-22
NY - Rochester - 06-23
NY - Syracuse - 06-25
NY - Albany / Troy - 06-26

VT - Hartford - 06-28

MH - Concord - 06-30

ME - Portland - 07-02

MA - Boston - 07-04

RI - Providence - 07-06

CT - New Haven - 07-08
CT - Greenwich - 07-09

NY - NYC - 07-11

NJ - Freehold - 07-25
NJ - Trenton - 07-26

PA - Allentown - 07-28
PA - Philadelphia - 07-29

MD - Baltimore - 07-31

DC - Washington - 08-02 - 08-06

VA - Richmond - 08-07
VA - Virginia Beach - 08-08

NC - Outer Banks - 08-10
NC - Raleigh - 08-12
NC - Greensboro - 08-13
NC - Charlotte - 08-15
NC - Asheville - 08-16

TN - Knoxville - 08-18
TN - Nashville - 08-19
TN - Memphis - 08-21

AR - Little Rock - 08-22

TX - Dallas - 08-24
TX - Houston - 08-25
TX - Aunstin - 08-27
TX - San Antonio - 08-28
TX - El Paso - 08-30

AZ - Tucson - 09-02
AZ - Phoenix - 09-05

CA - San Diego - 09-07
CA - Los Angeles - 09-08
CA - Monterey - 09-10
CA - Berkeley/ Oakland - 09-11
CA - San Francisco - 09-12
CA - Sacramento - 09-13

NV - Reno - 09-14

OR - Ashland - 09-17
OR - Bend - 09-18
OR - Eugene - 09-20
OR - Portland - 09-21

WA - Olympia - 09-23
WA - Seattle - 09-24

BC - Vancouver - 09-25




Anthony Marr, Founder and President
Heal Our Planet Earth (HOPE)
Global Anti-Hunting Coalition (GAHC)
Anthony-Marr@HOPE-CARE.org
www.HOPE-CARE.org
www.facebook.com/Anthony.Marr.001
www.facebook.com/Global_Anti-Hunting_Coalition
www.myspace.com/AnthonyMarr
www.youtube.com/AnthonyMarr
www.HomoSapiensSaveYourEarth.blogspot.com
www.DearHomoSapiens.blogspot.com
www.HOPE-GEO.blogspot.com
www.ARConference.org

Friday, December 23, 2011

We have a creature in our garden that could make people scream



On the lighter side of life, Shannon and I have a "wildlife problem".


It is not exactly a surprise. I've thought that having a bird feeder would attract wild creatures of all kinds. In this we are not disappointed.


We've had birds of at least a half dozen species visit our yard, including sparrows, chickadees, juncos, towhees, crows, blue jays, and a couple of others we're not expert enough to identify, and not fast enough to capture on camera, by all of which we are thrilled.


Not just birds. Sooner or later, the mammals would come in. No, not the bigger kinds, like coyotes, raccoons and skunks, but the kind that could make people scream.


One day, just after dusk, we saw one of them, by flash light, taking over from what the birds had left off. We both love animals of all kinds, but this little animal really plucked at Shannon's heart string. I just watched him, fascinated. He is every bit as cute as the birds.


But then, a few days later, a whole family showed up, with a big mama and three littler ones. And further, they seemed to have taken domicile under the eves of the house. We watched them gathering the seeds, making trips back to their nest every so often. We thought that they were stashing for the winter. We then began to take it seriously.


We have no problem cohabiting with wildlife. Personally, I love the feeling to be living amongst wild creatures. But our neighbors may not take to it quite so kindly. We began to wonder whether, given the birdseeds, the rats, yes, that's what they are, would swarm. One thing we did not want to do is to stop feeding the birds.


Another thing we do not want is to harm the rats, or even traumatize them, and we certainly do not want to involve any exterminator service. So, we devised a plan where by we would trap them in a large live-trap, one that I would have to build or modify from something else, then deliver them to the huge urban forest nearby called the Pacific Spirit Park, which stretches from 16th Ave to 50th. Easier said than done.


First, we need a trap that could take the entire family. The commercially available ones can trap only one animal at a time. So I looked into Kijiji and Craigs List for a cage of some kind. Recalling my invention the Deer Auto-Assembler (DAA - please see another one of my blogs on the subject), I decided to use a one-way gate through which the rats could enter the cage, but not exit.


After some looking, I found a very nice bi-level cage with two doors, one in front, the other on top. It is the top door that I have converted into a drop-down trap door, which would return to the closed position after a rat has fallen through. On the trap door I have smear some peanut butter - the recommended rat attractant. This I have placed in the garden, today, along the low concrete wall used by the rats to move from nest to garden and back. Well, so far, not yet. They are still dining out in the garden. A little time will tell.


In the event that we did catch them, we'll drive them to the forest, take the cage to a certain depth in the forest, and let them loose. Because we'd have taken them away from their seed-stash, we'd give them a scoop of seeds to get them started, and some peanut butter. After that, they'd be on their own.


In our previous forest walks we've found different kinds of mushrooms and lichens. Hopefully, the rat have the instinct to survive. After all, this used to be their home before we took over.


I'll update you on these very cute creatures over the next few days. Have a wonderful holiday, everyone!



Anthony Marr, Founder and President
Heal Our Planet Earth (HOPE)
Global Anti-Hunting Coalition (GAHC)
Anthony-Marr@HOPE-CARE.org
www.HOPE-CARE.org
www.facebook.com/Anthony.Marr.001
www.facebook.com/Global_Anti-Hunting_Coalition
www.myspace.com/AnthonyMarr
www.youtube.com/AnthonyMarr
www.HomoSapiensSaveYourEarth.blogspot.com
www.DearHomoSapiens.blogspot.com
www.HOPE-GEO.blogspot.com
www.ARConference.org

Anthony Marr wins the 2010 Henry Spira Grassroots AR Activist Award

In the face of ongoing and indiscriminate Chinese-bashing, here is something that all Chinese AR activists can be proud of:

http://youtu.be/DIB64Bn7MSY


In the 2010 Animal Rights National Conference (attendance about 1000), Chinese Canadian animal rights activist Anthony Marr was honored with the prestigious [Henry Spira Grassroots AR Activist Award]. (Henry Spira is generally acknowledged as a key founding father of the Animal Rights movement.)



Thanks again to Dr. Alex Hershaft of FARM and the Animal Rights National Conference (www.ARConference.com).

I hope that some of the Chinese activists will attend AR2012 in Washington DC.

For all who want to support Chinese AR activism, how about sponsoring a Chinese activist to attend the conference?



Anthony Marr, Founder and President
Heal Our Planet Earth (HOPE)
Global Anti-Hunting Coalition (GAHC)
Anthony-Marr@HOPE-CARE.org
www.HOPE-CARE.org
www.facebook.com/Anthony.Marr.001
www.facebook.com/Global_Anti-Hunting_Coalition
www.myspace.com/AnthonyMarr
www.youtube.com/AnthonyMarr
www.HomoSapiensSaveYourEarth.blogspot.com
www.DearHomoSapiens.blogspot.com
www.HOPE-GEO.blogspot.com
www.ARConference.org

Thursday, December 22, 2011

I.T. - 1-07 - The Heaviest Thing



Dear Homo Sapiens of Earth:

Though not yet the ultimate, your species has produced some fine philosophers, one of whose works happened to be in a cardboard box in the back of his jeep, in which a sentence, underscored by his own hand, reads:

"What is the heaviest thing, that I may take it upon me and rejoice in my strength!"

This was uttered by "the Weight Bearing Spirit" which, like a camel, bears the weight of his load willingly and even eagerly into the desert. The book was [Thus Spoke Zarathustra] by Friedrich Nietzsche.

And he was at the moment sitting on a rock, thinking aloud this very line. "Raminothna, what indeed is this heaviest thing, that I may take it upon me and rejoice in my strength?"

I have to admit, my name coming from him is music to my ears. So, I decided to give him the very heaviest thing that he could hope to carry. "This heaviest thing is such that once you have taken its full weight upon your hands, your feet will simultaneously rise 6 feet off the ground, bearing no weight at all."

"No kidding. Come on, you can do better than that."

"Nope. That's it."

"Let me make sure that I understand what you're saying. You're saying that the heaviest thing is such that once I have taken its full weight upon my hands, my feet will simultaneously rise 6 feet off the ground, bearing no weight at all."

"That was word for word what I just said."

"Then, I have to say that it is impossible."

"The 'I' word again? You're the Miracle Worker, remember?"

"This violates every physical law I know."

"Thus, miraculous, especially its abstract manifestations."

"I have no idea what you're talking about."

"You will. In fact, you have been carrying it for some time. Thus at times, you feel overwhelmed and crushed. But now, you have me."

He carried this heavy thought into dreamland, and had a dream of levitation in ways that really could not work. It was when he was doing his morning exercises that he found his answer.

He was doing a handstand, when his feet did rise off the ground, bearing no weight at all, while he had the Heaviest Thing in the palm of his hands.



Anthony Marr, Founder and President
Heal Our Planet Earth (HOPE)
Global Anti-Hunting Coalition (GAHC)
Anthony-Marr@HOPE-CARE.org
www.HOPE-CARE.org
www.facebook.com/Anthony.Marr.001
www.facebook.com/Global_Anti-Hunting_Coalition
www.myspace.com/AnthonyMarr
www.youtube.com/AnthonyMarr
www.HomoSapiensSaveYourEarth.blogspot.com
www.DearHomoSapiens.blogspot.com
www.HOPE-GEO.blogspot.com
www.ARConference.org

"The concept of peace is alien to Asians," so says a non-Asian

china ming fleet Pictures, Images and Photos

The Chinese culture is the most misunderstood and maligned culture in the world bar none, especially in the AR movement. And I, a Chinese Canadian ARA, am in the unfortunate and unenviable position of having to deal with it.


It is taking me away from my main AR work, but as long as the Chinese-bashing persists in AR, as long as the movement espousing anti-speciesism is rife with racism, I have no choice but to do this battle.


This is not about defending China or the Chinese people, though it is a motivator. It is about facts, truth, fairness and justice, and against ignorance, arrogance, prejudice and bigotry.


Some weeks ago, when China launched a new satellite, somebody wrote that China was a threat to world peace, saying, "The concept of peace is alien to Asian cultures." Really?


In 1405-1433, China, then the Ming Dynasty, sent a 200-300-ship fleet of 5-10-masted vessels down the Indian Ocean all the way to the eastern coast of Africa, 7 times. Its mission was to establish diplomatic and trade relations with the South Asian, Middle Eastern and East African kingdoms. At no point did the Chinese pillage and plunder and conquer and occupy.


The same cannot be said about the preceding and subsequent exploits of non-Chinese cultures. Cases in point: the Roman empire, the Crusade, the Spanish conquest and occupation of Central and South America, the British Empire "where the sun never sets", the British and French conquest and occupation of North America, the Arab, British, Dutch and German occupation of Africa, the Arab slave trade in and around Africa, the European and American slave trade sourcing from Africa, WW1 in Europe, WW2 in Europe and the Japanese invasion of China, etc, etc. Need I say more?


Speaking of wars, I would also suggest comparing the number of wars in Western Europe and Eastern Asia over the last 2 millennia, and seeing that the former out-number the latter easily 10 to 1.

............. The Chinese Great Wall - a DEFENSIVE measure.

So, the concept of peace is alien to Asians? Spoken by a non-Asian, of course.

.......... Ming Admiral Zheng Ho.


Anthony Marr, Founder and President
Heal Our Planet Earth (HOPE)
Global Anti-Hunting Coalition (GAHC)
Anthony-Marr@HOPE-CARE.org
www.HOPE-CARE.org
www.facebook.com/Anthony.Marr.001
www.facebook.com/Global_Anti-Hunting_Coalition
www.myspace.com/AnthonyMarr
www.youtube.com/AnthonyMarr
www.HomoSapiensSaveYourEarth.blogspot.com
www.DearHomoSapiens.blogspot.com
www.HOPE-GEO.blogspot.com
www.ARConference.org

Wednesday, December 21, 2011

I.T. - 1-06 - Earth Messiah



06 – Why am I here?

Dear Homo Sapiens of Earth:

He was reading the Sci fi Dune Messiah when he could have asked me, "Where are you from?"

“The Cosmos,” I said.

“What planet exactly?”

“I am bound by no planet.”

"Where were you born?"

"'Born' is a concept applicable to bodies."

"So, what are you?"

"'What am I?' is one of the most profound questions one could ask. If you could answer this question about yourself, you will have my answer."

"I am a human being."

"What is a human being?"

"Ask any anthropologist."

"Anthropologist can answer a part of this question, but not all of it."

"Ask any priest then."

"Even less."

"What are they missing?"

"Meaning, purpose, destiny."

"So, what is the meaning, purpose and destiny to be human?"

"Only a human can answer this."

He pondered. "I'm a human, and I can't."

"Not yet."

“Alright, how about this then: By what means did you come to this planet?”

“There are at least four general means for visiting a planet, by at least one of which have I come."

“I’m listening.”

“The first and most obvious is of course technology, involving space ships, hyperspace-craft, teleportation, creative genetics, robotics, artificial high-intelligence, time machines, and their like, of which the limitations are far exceeded by the possibilities, which, however, are often considered, by the technologically less advanced at least, to be impossible. The second, in certain circumstances a special case of the first, certain imagined forms of which being indeed impossible, is telepathy – close encounters of the fourth kind, as it were, where the visitor experiences the planet through a chosen native creature, by seeing through its eyes, walking on its feet, feeling through its heart, thinking through its mind, and working through hands – or whatever other manipulative appendages it may possess. The third is what you hinted at – to be born as a native creature of the planet, naturally, to visit the planet for one lifetime. The fourth, at times indistinguishable from the first and second, and always possible, is imagination – that of a certain highly imaginative native creature, that is, who imagines such fourth-kind encounters with such vividness as to lend credence, in its own mind at least, to the reality of such visitors as myself. And finally, the fifth, is already to have the planet within oneself."

"I know that mine is the third. Which one is yours?"

"The first, second, fourth or fifth."

"Which?"

"That is for you to find out."

"When?"

"May be tomorrow, maybe next year, maybe never. Also up to you."

"Why are you here then?"

"Ah, finally."

"Well?"

“Regardless of means, for the duration of a beamed landing, or a telepathic communion, or a pipe dream, or a lifetime, or an inward journey, as pauper or prince, for good or evil, to give or to take, in war or peace..., we are all fellow visitors of this planet at this time."

"And for what purpose?"

"We do all share one question in common: What am I here for? Some come as tourists, others as naturalists. Some come as pillagers, plunderers and destroyers, others come as protectors, preservers and saviours. Some come to propagate and perpetuate lies, others to seek and speak truth. Some come to experience the flesh, others to purify the soul. Some come to learn, some to teach and some to merely sleep. While some come to Earth to read and re-read Dune, others come back from Dune to live and deliver Earth. And while some come all this way to find Earth filled with cruelty, injustice, hypocrisy and pain, others, who feel fortunate and called upon in spite of all, hold that for every visit, regardless of circumstances, there is a joyful and meaningful purpose, or an array of joyful and meaningful purposes, from which the visitor may choose one, or more, or, alas, less. Even for those who see their sojourn on Earth as agonizing, pointless and futile, they still have the purpose to leave."

"To leave? You mean..."


“There are several means by which one can leave a planet, amongst which one of the easiest and least irreversible is to escape back to Dune. Or conversely, as we both know, to die. But for those who can stand its sheer intensity and unrelenting realism, most of all, its uncompromising truth, there is nothing on Earth to compare with Earth Messiah. My dear fellow Earth visitor, I wish you purposeful living, and joyful deliverance.”


I am Raminothna,
the Fortunate and Called upon,
at your service.




Anthony Marr, Founder and President
Heal Our Planet Earth (HOPE)
Global Anti-Hunting Coalition (GAHC)
Anthony-Marr@HOPE-CARE.org
www.HOPE-CARE.org
www.facebook.com/Anthony.Marr.001
www.facebook.com/Global_Anti-Hunting_Coalition
www.myspace.com/AnthonyMarr
www.youtube.com/AnthonyMarr
www.HomoSapiensSaveYourEarth.blogspot.com
www.DearHomoSapiens.blogspot.com
www.HOPE-GEO.blogspot.com
www.ARConference.org