ESMOND BRADLEY-MARTIN
Passage
Born: April 17, 1941, New York City, NY
Died: February 4, 2018, Nairobi, Kenya
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Kristin Davis and Elephanticide Redux: “Ivory Crush” June 19, 2015
Kristin Davis and Elephanticide Redux: “Ivory Crush” June 19, 2015
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Mass extinction of biological species has occurred several times in the history of our planet. How significant these extinctions have been is illustrated by the fact that well over 99.9% of the living species to have ever inhabited the Earth are now extinct.”- ucsd.edu
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It is a fairly well known fact that the ultimate status symbol for the ultra-wealthy Chinese citizen nowadays is not so much his Rolls or her Italian haute couture but rather their ultra-selfish flourish that is another more brash display of conspicuous, often nouveau, wealth. The fashionable substance is the powder-essence of erstwhile wild and living animals. At the top of the list of pulverized animal matter that is intended for both ostentatious display as well as various methods of ingestion is what was once Nature’s magnificent totem. Displayed proudly for thousands of years by Her topmost of the wild mammalian species and, universally recognized by young and old the world-over: tusk of elephant.
Wresting such a prize from a live multi-ton, formidably powerful subject is nearly impossible unless some careful, semi-intelligent approach towards the beast is taken with the aid and employment of copious amounts of temporary sedative. For the hungry Chinese, however, who are willing and able to pay a top-dollar price exceeding $3,000.00 USD per ounce of the powder there is no reason why a profit-hungry, money-grubbing, environmental thug shouldn’t simply dispatch the intelligent animal (the elephant) and immediately exact the precious substance with the aid of some steel-sharp tooth of a minor marvel of portable modern technology. Thus for the bonfire that is the vanity of wealth and ignorance another noble beast of the dense jungle or the sparse plains is dispatched in a momentary hail of bullets and a swell of overwhelming hominid bestiality. Elephanticide.
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Ars Longa Vita Brevis- Art is long, Life is short
In one of the most renowned capitals of dedicated, florid, celebration for the arts and culture, New York City, a conspicuous demonstration, clearly intended to warrant the attention of the various media, took place in Times Square, Manhattan. On June 19th with the able assistance of the gracious and lovely actress and philanthropist Davis, the otherwise uninitiated were fed the very bad news of the plight of the elephant, as an industrial conveyor-belt was fed the finely etched ivory remains of what amounted to the representative equivalent of a vast herd of pachyderms. At the business-end of the conveyor was the metal maw of a rock crusher.
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“Who would want to collect a chipped piece of art? The person with the chip.”- Timothy Brown
It is hopefully an accurate assumption, that the bulk of the art destroyed in Times Square on Friday June 19th originated from the sordid labors of elephant killers. The macabre Midtown Manhattan spectacle, which begot the expected media attention might too have begged a profound question as to not so much the provenance of the substance of the art but rather its destiny.
The valuable art, all formed of the tusk-ivory was publicly turned into the very substance too often derived of more clandestine pulverization at the tainted hand of the criminal. Such powder end-product intended for the sole and perverted consumption of a wealthy “user”.
Might there have been a better way to preserve the inherent value of the art while still striking at the very heart of the bloody beast that dispatches the animal? Could there not have been a more cerebral approach to the just denial to the elephant-abuser-end-user of such ingestible, murdered, manna as well?
With the advent of technology and the power of moderate intellect there has come to the fore a continuum of answers to near every societal question possibly divined through history. Could there not have been such a response to the tragic conundrum that is “elephanticide” without the defilement and destruction of the still beautiful and only earthly remnants of the noble beast?
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“The evil that men do lives after them; The good is oft interrèd with their bones.”- Wm. Shakespeare Julius Caesar
With the dollar value of the art destroyed in that one day in Times Square in June in the continuing effort to eradicate the poachers and their terrible trade, an endowment in perpetuity might well have been established with ease. With the advent of technology and the vast acceptance of its insinuation into everyday life, legitimate collectors around the world would likely subscribe to having title to a piece of Nature’s own art, albeit derived by abject misfortune but largely intact in its intrinsic and ornamented beauty…
With a computer “chip” imbedded, in only the art regulated and paid for in the pursuit of underwriting the eradication of poachers and their perverted clientele, a strict regime of self-funded regulation of the “trade” might immediately exist. “Inventory” would be in the hands of only those who are legitimate in their pursuit of art. Trade would be with surtax to perpetuate the fund. The ivory “regulators” would have a free hand in the inspection of items that are offered for trade whether or not provenance is even remotely questionable.
The potential putative existence of a profit motive to support an illicit industry of falsification of “art-chips” would be hard pressed to be actually spawned. Moreover, without an imbedded, readable “chip” the art or the raw essence of the elephant would be wholly unreliable as any form of collectable. There would cease to be a market for un-”chipped” product: no demand, no market.
Unfortunately, the only market that might be left for the consumption of the un-”chipped” elephant tusk would be…for the pulverized product. Ironic.
Posted 8th July 2015 by DILULIUS, King of Troy