In Zimbabwe, it is a widely shared view that we are continually sinking into an abyss with no hope of rescue because the people entrusted with running the country choose to focus on non-issues that take their attention away from real issues.
It is still unclear whether their failure to deal with important issues that beg their attention is some strategic political ploy meant to divert people's attention from real problems, or just mere incompetence.
In typical Zimbabwe government repressive style, Environment, Water and Climate minister Oppah Muchinguri-Kashiri decided to hog the limelight last week, announcing a ban on quail (chihuta) farming in the country.
The purported ban came as a blow to many entrepreneurial Zimbabweans that had, in a desperate bid to eke out a living in the very harsh economic environment, invested heavily in quail farming -- an economic venture that has taken the country by storm, buoyed by aggressive marketing that convinced many of the birds' numerous health benefits -- from treating chronic diseases like hypertension, cancer, diabetes and even HIV and Aids when consumed, to the birds' droppings said to perform wonders for the skin when applied in copious amounts.
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| Forget About Quails Minister, Focus On Poachers |
As if quail farming is an out-of-this-world, unheard of practice, Muchinguri-Kashiri -- working hand in glove with the Zimbabwe Parks and Wildlife Authority -- decided to kill people's dreams by announcing the ban, later announcing anyone that wanted to undertake that venture had to part with $1 000 in order to get licensed -- a fortune for many a Zimbabwean.
It would then seem that the ban was not after all so much about protecting the birds "that belong in the wild", but rather another attempt by authorities to milk an already financially-burdened people.
Muchinguri-Kashiri's overzealous attempt at portraying herself as an Environment minister that actually cares what happens to the country's wildlife would have been believable if the country wasn't continually losing large amounts of wildlife to poachers.
After poachers penetrated Hwange National Park -- the country's biggest wildlife reserve -- and managed to kill hundreds of elephants through cyanide poisoning and plucking out their tusks, it was clear for everyone to see the amount of danger the country's wildlife was in.
Even the wide international reportage the cyanide killing story received was not enough to move the poachers. They continued to strike and became even more organised, in some instances managing to bribe some underpaid game rangers into working with them.
So bad has the situation become that the country's wildlife is in danger even from those that are supposed to safeguard them.
Add to that, there have been whispers that some people in high offices, working in cahoots with some Chinese nationals, are part of the poaching syndicates.
Such a theory would explain why even when it is clear that a lot of planning and funding is going into the poaching activities, it is only small-time poachers, mostly poor villagers, that ever get arrested --in the few times that anyone has ever been caught.
As if poaching was not enough of a problem, the country has also had to contend with reports of baby elephants being continually sold to China, often being transported under very harsh conditions and reportedly facing even harsher and more unnatural conditions when they land in the Asian country.
