Yeah I know. Tax evaders are evil - they are withholding money from the state that could be used to finance our wars in Iraq!
Personally I feel that any american that is paying tax is just as guilty as Bush for the war in Iraq. If you do not like the war, stop paying tax (pay it into a trust until they stop).
That is not my biggest problem. Have you seen the warranty pages of some of the laptops (which you only get to see *after* you bought the laptop).
Take for example Fujitsu-Siemens. You can not buy the laptop without a copy of Windows (yeah, you have to fork out $50 even if you don't want windows).
The following stands in the warranty pages:
The Fujitsu-Siemens Computers Standard Warranty is void where:
- Original Operating System, Software and Applications have been reconfigured or corrupted.
- Devices and Device settings have been re-configured.
Now that is just bullshit. I bet their MS overlord pays them well for those lines in the warranty.
The movie Blood Diamond is extreme bullshit. It places an attack on Van Der Kaap, which is a veiled attack on De Beers. But to put things into perspective - most of De Beersâ(TM) operations is owned by African country governments (Debswana, Namdeb, etcâ¦). So this is utter bullshit.
"Anytime a material of value is found in Africa, the locals die in pain and in great number."
Bear in mind that it is usually Africans who fight over natural resources. Take for example the Zimbabwean armiesâ(TM) fun trip in the DRC.
To be honest, most multinational mining companies would like to see stability in any country they operate. Setting up a large mining operation takes significant amounts of capital â" and it can be years before a company turns a profit.
Mining is one of the industries that are vital for Africaâ(TM)s development â" since it can earn a significant amount of foreign exchange. But unfortunately it seems that Africans would rather fight about mines than develop it.
I want to differ with you. I like confidentiality between me and my doctor and me and my lawyer. I do not see why the relationship should be any different than with your banker. Is confidentiality an outdated concept?
I simply hate the new laws in my country (under the banner of fighting money laundering â" even when the head of the police is a known mobster and fckall is done). Why should the bank give the government my municipal bill each 6 months? Why should my banker tell the government where I live? Why should the bank give all the details of my account to the government if I make a deposit or withdrawal of more than R10,000 ($1000)? Why must a bank and the government have the ability to freeze my bank account indefinitely for no good reason (without any charge or complaint)? That last situation happened to me and it fucked me over good. I had to borrow money because the bank decided to freeze my account without informing me (they did it twice).
I think I would prefer a world where the relationship between me and my wife, doctor, librarian, lawyer, banker, etc⦠have nothing to do with the government.
Not really. There are too many banking laws that stand in the way of making such decisions (e.g. Reserve Bank lawsâ¦). You will also be taxed (income tax) if you buy something with gold (since it will be converted to dollars/ Rands etc⦠and the difference between the buying price and the selling price seen as an âoeincomeâ).
Also bear in mind that most people do not live in countries where there is a real freedom to determine the exchange
wire your Euros, etc.)
Some countries (such as mine) places limits on the amount of foreign exchange you may have.
you end up with something like DeBeers.
DeBeers bashing became extremely popular after the inaccurate film (âoeBlood Diamondâ). They sell less than 40% of the worldâ(TM)s diamonds. You should bear in mind that most of DeBeers endeavors are co-operations with countries â" for example in Debswana, half of it is owned by the Botswana government (i.e. basically like Qatar petroleum or whateverâ¦).
You only pay a tax on the CAPITAL GAIN you make if you sell at a profit.
I have a problem with capital gains tax. Letâ(TM)s say that you own a fixed asset. The dollar weakens (because of inflation). When you sell it, you will get a higher price â" and you will have to pay capital gains tax. But that does not make any sense â" the asset is worth just as much as when you bought it, it is the buying power of the dollar that declined (i.e. there was no capital gain). That is just B.S.
Under a gold standard money is managed by international mining cartels and speculators. This is better, how?
There is at least some competition between cartels. If a government dictates a legal tender you do not have any say in it. It can use the money system for its own gain (e.g. social engineering, etcâ¦) and again you are marginalized. Take for example the massive inflation in Zimbabwe â" that is just because the reserve bank of Zimbabwe prints money like crazy with no foreign reserves. And the government has the power to confiscate any foreign currency since it is illegal. The people in that country would have been better off if they were free to choose their currency (e.g. using the Rand or Dollar).
Why, praytell, have so many otherwise intelligent people been lured onto the gold bandwagon lately?
I only want the freedom to choose the medium of exchange. If you want to trade in dollars that is fine â" but allow people choice.
You raise a valid point. I beg to differ - if you count things such as body bags, a lot more people were killed by the USA. I mean if you compare two unnecessary wars the US instigated (Vietnam + Iraq) you begin to see that the US is not the most blameless country (in Iraq a million people died - that is an enormous amount).
Most Americans would point to Apartheid South Africa as an evil nation. Yet you killed more people (e.g. Iraq) and you incarcerate 6 times the number of black people (incarceration rate, statistics+sources discussed in another post on the same thread) than South Africa did during apartheid. This high incarceration rate of a minority points to a seriously dysfunctional society.
At some point America have too look itself in the mirror and decide - hey Iâ(TM)m fucking up big time and I have to stop it.
South African white people voted overwhelmingly in a referendum to stop racial segregation (more than two thirds). The party that stood for racial segregation does not even exist any more (even after it changed its policies). Yet the party that started the Vietnam War still exists. The party that started the Iraq war still exists (and was even voted in directly after it started the war). Of all the coups that America funded and instigated no-one was punished - Kissinger still walk the streets.
The statistics for the incarceration rate for black people from the US is from www.prisonsucks.com. It lists the incarceration rate as follows:
South Africa under apartheid (1993), Black males: 851 per 100,000
U.S. under George Bush (2006), Black males: 4,789 per 100,000
It is 5.6 times (or if you round up, six). So this appears not to be a straw man, the United States incarcerates a hell of a lot of black people. Note that it is incarceration rate - not total number of people imprisoned (hence I do not know why you talk of the relative size of the two countries). Now I donâ(TM)t care for what reason they are incarcerated - if such a high amount of people are incarcerated there is surely something dysfunctional in American society.
As for the number of people that dies daily in Iraq, it is from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iraq_War. See all violent deaths column. Calculate the number of days passed from the start till August 2007 and divide (the total given until August 2007 is 1,033,000). Btw. I calculated it extremely conservatively (using some of the lowest possible numbers). Calculating based on this number result in over 500 people killed a day â" an even higher rate.
No one forced him; it was solely his choice. Why? He seems to feel that there is a much better chance for him here in America, in the Deep South part of America, than back where he came from...
Well a lot of South Africans (both black and white) feel that they have better opportunities abroad in first world countries. That is why there are over a million South Africans of all races, creeds and colours in the U.K.
But it is still funny for me that black people born in the United States has an extremely high incarceration rate. There is still a huge income inequality between black people born in the United States and white people. Why?
(btw. foreign black people in the USA are usually fairly highly educated (to get greencard, etcâ¦) That is probably one of the reasons why they do not suffer the same fate as black people born in American.
If *anyone* here is guilty of "grossly incorrect statements", that would be YOU.
Show me a single factually incorrect statement please (with a citation).
is in fact a prime example of bigotry against Americans.
I do not like individual Americans, but I dislike your âoesystemâ. Just like Apartheid should have been dismantled, your system should also be dismantled. You have a system in which you can attack sovereign nations without just cause and kill a million people. How can that be just and right? My only problem is that you then try to take the moral high ground. That is just silly of you.
Not that I care, but you might.
Trying to paint anyone as a racist who dares to show your hypocrisy is getting kinda old.
and the reactionary riots in South Africa which were quite monstrous for their part.
It was not really that large. One of the largest riots in which people was killed was the Sharpeville riots. In this (when some 20 young policemen with no riot training fucked up hugely), 69 people died. In modern day South Africa over 40 people are killed daily because of crime related violence. In the recent Xenophobic attacks on foreigners more than that died and a greater number of people where displaced.
Between March 2003 and August 2007, 350 people died daily (average) in Iraq. If you compare this to the numbers above you will see that it is a bit larger â" and this occurred each and every day. This also occurred in a population that is only 65% as large as South Africaâ(TM)s.
Also bear in mind that your incarceration rate for black people in the US today is 6 times higher than that of black people in South Africa during racial segregation. Why do you imprison generations of black people?
since I don't want to end up writing a bloody dissertation about everything from the Siege of Stalingrad (which was about Nazi oil)
Fair enough â" but then donâ(TM)t make grossly incorrect statements. At least preface such statements with I know we âMericans are the prime evil force in the world. And I know it would be wrong for me to judge less evil countries, but here it goesâ¦
You are right in that coal liquefication (CTL) is a viable technology. Gas to liquid fuels (GTL) is however more viable than CTL. Sasol (the âoeevilâ South African company) built a fairly large GTL plant in Qatar (in association with Chevron). It is interesting to note that the price of coal have also risen significantly in the past few years.
Best of all, it's a mature technology. It was used to power the entire Nazi war machine in WWII, and South Africans under apartheid. Not because evil countries have an affinity for it, but because they were cut off from the world's oil supplies.
Love it how you simplify complex geopolitical situations into evil and not evil. I bet that you can add the USA to the front of that list (at least 3rd behind USSR) of yours if we include body count, foreign governments overthrown, foreign invasions (e.g. Iraq if you forgot) or torture. Now you only need a CTL plant!
South African electricity is (was?) probably the cheapest in the world. To the consumer it is sold at about 44 cents per kWh (that is about 5 American cents per KwH).
Neigbouring countries (including Zimbabwe) paid about 13 cents per kWh (about 1.5 'merican sents per kWh). This helped those countries f*ck-all (the are still 3rd world).
The surname Obasanjo sounded kinda Nigerian, and I checked his background (for interest sake). This guy is the son of the president/military ruler of Nigeria. Soo cool!
Good thing to see that his dad put that stolen oil and government funds to good use - his son's education.
Why do I need government permission to be a cop? I can pull over anyone I want, and by telling me that I can't, the government is making me unable to sustain my life through the labor of my choosing.
Straw man. A cop works through coercion and his authority is bestowed upon him by the state. This is not a business transaction between two consenting adults.
It depends. What you (Americans) should get mad about is the fact that international editions sell cheaper than North American editions. This is nonsense â" why should you pay more for the same book?
My biggest problem with textbooks is that it is bulky - next year when I go abroad I can not take all my textbooks with me:( But reading on a computer screen sucks â" hand held readers (such as the Kindle) should be more prevalent (as soon as I stop being poor I am going to invest in one).
A lot of these kits are on the expensive side (for standard components). Why not try an electronics shop for components? You can assemble the same for cheaper. In the end a person would probably spend more on books.
A good book (maybe not a first book) is The Art of Electronics. Users not in the United States or Britain can get a new copy for as little as $15.
Someone playing with electronics would probably want to play with microcontrollers also - check out first before you buy! PICâ(TM)s are fairly popular, and descent C compilers exist for some of them.
This may be off topic. I think that an auto-zoom telescope would be cool â" when you look at something far of, your scope focuses until the object it clear.
My optometrist does something similar â" he asks you to focus at an object while he changes the lenses. He does this automatically by looking at how much the muscles in my eyes strain. If you could do that automatically with a little pattern recognition magic you will hit pay dirt!
There are quite a few journals that are exclusively online. Some journals are also available for free online (e.g. Journal of Machine Learning Research).
You can stockpile, but trade in ivory is illegal. A lot of countries are trying to destroy the market for ivory.
Of course everyone would benefit if the ban on trade in ivory was lifted. Right now the Kruger National Park has too much elephants. The moratorium on culling has finally been lifted (only after extreme damage to the environment was done). If there was a way in which elephants could be moneterized the culling may not be necessary â" commercial farmers would invest a lot more in elephants (setting up a game farm for elephants are fairly expensive. You also need a fairly large space.)
Where there is a demand, someone will supply, and a market will spring up.
You know that some elephants are not endangered by far (e.g. the African elephant)? Do you know that elephants are being culled because there are too many of them and they fuck up the environment?
I suspect that this moratorium on ivory has nothing to do with conservation â" just like the ban on whaling has nothing to do with conservation (btw there are almost 200,000 minke whales â" they are by far not endangered, and sustainable use is possible).
This ban on ivory (and other products based on elephants) has a lot more to do with an agenda that certain âoeGreensâ push.
Slashdot Mirror
I agree with you that the IRS uses extreme coercion (and with your comparison to a mugging).
But sometimes you have to stand up for what you believe in (you may only lose your house, but a million guys in Iraq lost their lives).
At least if you disagree with the policies of war in Iraq, you have to agree that taxation is morally reprehensible (at least during the Bush term).
The one thing I can't *stand* is tax evaders!
Yeah I know. Tax evaders are evil - they are withholding money from the state that could be used to finance our wars in Iraq!
Personally I feel that any american that is paying tax is just as guilty as Bush for the war in Iraq. If you do not like the war, stop paying tax (pay it into a trust until they stop).
That is not my biggest problem. Have you seen the warranty pages of some of the laptops (which you only get to see *after* you bought the laptop).
Take for example Fujitsu-Siemens. You can not buy the laptop without a copy of Windows (yeah, you have to fork out $50 even if you don't want windows).
The following stands in the warranty pages:
The Fujitsu-Siemens Computers Standard Warranty is void where:
- Original Operating System, Software and Applications have been reconfigured or corrupted.
- Devices and Device settings have been re-configured.
Now that is just bullshit. I bet their MS overlord pays them well for those lines in the warranty.
The movie Blood Diamond is extreme bullshit. It places an attack on Van Der Kaap, which is a veiled attack on De Beers. But to put things into perspective - most of De Beersâ(TM) operations is owned by African country governments (Debswana, Namdeb, etcâ¦). So this is utter bullshit.
"Anytime a material of value is found in Africa, the locals die in pain and in great number."
Bear in mind that it is usually Africans who fight over natural resources. Take for example the Zimbabwean armiesâ(TM) fun trip in the DRC.
To be honest, most multinational mining companies would like to see stability in any country they operate. Setting up a large mining operation takes significant amounts of capital â" and it can be years before a company turns a profit.
Mining is one of the industries that are vital for Africaâ(TM)s development â" since it can earn a significant amount of foreign exchange. But unfortunately it seems that Africans would rather fight about mines than develop it.
you're not laundering money or evading taxes
I want to differ with you. I like confidentiality between me and my doctor and me and my lawyer. I do not see why the relationship should be any different than with your banker. Is confidentiality an outdated concept?
I simply hate the new laws in my country (under the banner of fighting money laundering â" even when the head of the police is a known mobster and fckall is done). Why should the bank give the government my municipal bill each 6 months? Why should my banker tell the government where I live? Why should the bank give all the details of my account to the government if I make a deposit or withdrawal of more than R10,000 ($1000)? Why must a bank and the government have the ability to freeze my bank account indefinitely for no good reason (without any charge or complaint)? That last situation happened to me and it fucked me over good. I had to borrow money because the bank decided to freeze my account without informing me (they did it twice).
I think I would prefer a world where the relationship between me and my wife, doctor, librarian, lawyer, banker, etc⦠have nothing to do with the government.
You've already got it
Not really. There are too many banking laws that stand in the way of making such decisions (e.g. Reserve Bank lawsâ¦). You will also be taxed (income tax) if you buy something with gold (since it will be converted to dollars/ Rands etc⦠and the difference between the buying price and the selling price seen as an âoeincomeâ).
Also bear in mind that most people do not live in countries where there is a real freedom to determine the exchange
wire your Euros, etc.)
Some countries (such as mine) places limits on the amount of foreign exchange you may have.
you end up with something like DeBeers.
DeBeers bashing became extremely popular after the inaccurate film (âoeBlood Diamondâ). They sell less than 40% of the worldâ(TM)s diamonds. You should bear in mind that most of DeBeers endeavors are co-operations with countries â" for example in Debswana, half of it is owned by the Botswana government (i.e. basically like Qatar petroleum or whateverâ¦).
You only pay a tax on the CAPITAL GAIN you make if you sell at a profit.
I have a problem with capital gains tax. Letâ(TM)s say that you own a fixed asset. The dollar weakens (because of inflation). When you sell it, you will get a higher price â" and you will have to pay capital gains tax. But that does not make any sense â" the asset is worth just as much as when you bought it, it is the buying power of the dollar that declined (i.e. there was no capital gain). That is just B.S.
Under a gold standard money is managed by international mining cartels and speculators. This is better, how? There is at least some competition between cartels. If a government dictates a legal tender you do not have any say in it. It can use the money system for its own gain (e.g. social engineering, etcâ¦) and again you are marginalized. Take for example the massive inflation in Zimbabwe â" that is just because the reserve bank of Zimbabwe prints money like crazy with no foreign reserves. And the government has the power to confiscate any foreign currency since it is illegal. The people in that country would have been better off if they were free to choose their currency (e.g. using the Rand or Dollar).
Why, praytell, have so many otherwise intelligent people been lured onto the gold bandwagon lately?
I only want the freedom to choose the medium of exchange. If you want to trade in dollars that is fine â" but allow people choice.
No edit facility. "I do not like individual Americans" should read "I do not dislike individual Americans".
You raise a valid point. I beg to differ - if you count things such as body bags, a lot more people were killed by the USA. I mean if you compare two unnecessary wars the US instigated (Vietnam + Iraq) you begin to see that the US is not the most blameless country (in Iraq a million people died - that is an enormous amount).
Most Americans would point to Apartheid South Africa as an evil nation. Yet you killed more people (e.g. Iraq) and you incarcerate 6 times the number of black people (incarceration rate, statistics+sources discussed in another post on the same thread) than South Africa did during apartheid. This high incarceration rate of a minority points to a seriously dysfunctional society.
At some point America have too look itself in the mirror and decide - hey Iâ(TM)m fucking up big time and I have to stop it.
South African white people voted overwhelmingly in a referendum to stop racial segregation (more than two thirds). The party that stood for racial segregation does not even exist any more (even after it changed its policies). Yet the party that started the Vietnam War still exists. The party that started the Iraq war still exists (and was even voted in directly after it started the war). Of all the coups that America funded and instigated no-one was punished - Kissinger still walk the streets.
The statistics for the incarceration rate for black people from the US is from www.prisonsucks.com. It lists the incarceration rate as follows:
South Africa under apartheid (1993), Black males: 851 per 100,000
U.S. under George Bush (2006), Black males: 4,789 per 100,000
It is 5.6 times (or if you round up, six). So this appears not to be a straw man, the United States incarcerates a hell of a lot of black people. Note that it is incarceration rate - not total number of people imprisoned (hence I do not know why you talk of the relative size of the two countries). Now I donâ(TM)t care for what reason they are incarcerated - if such a high amount of people are incarcerated there is surely something dysfunctional in American society.
As for the number of people that dies daily in Iraq, it is from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iraq_War. See all violent deaths column. Calculate the number of days passed from the start till August 2007 and divide (the total given until August 2007 is 1,033,000). Btw. I calculated it extremely conservatively (using some of the lowest possible numbers). Calculating based on this number result in over 500 people killed a day â" an even higher rate.
No one forced him; it was solely his choice. Why? He seems to feel that there is a much better chance for him here in America, in the Deep South part of America, than back where he came from...
Well a lot of South Africans (both black and white) feel that they have better opportunities abroad in first world countries. That is why there are over a million South Africans of all races, creeds and colours in the U.K.
But it is still funny for me that black people born in the United States has an extremely high incarceration rate. There is still a huge income inequality between black people born in the United States and white people. Why?
(btw. foreign black people in the USA are usually fairly highly educated (to get greencard, etcâ¦) That is probably one of the reasons why they do not suffer the same fate as black people born in American.
If *anyone* here is guilty of "grossly incorrect statements", that would be YOU.
Show me a single factually incorrect statement please (with a citation).
is in fact a prime example of bigotry against Americans.
I do not like individual Americans, but I dislike your âoesystemâ. Just like Apartheid should have been dismantled, your system should also be dismantled. You have a system in which you can attack sovereign nations without just cause and kill a million people. How can that be just and right? My only problem is that you then try to take the moral high ground. That is just silly of you.
Not that I care, but you might.
Trying to paint anyone as a racist who dares to show your hypocrisy is getting kinda old.
and the reactionary riots in South Africa which were quite monstrous for their part.
It was not really that large. One of the largest riots in which people was killed was the Sharpeville riots. In this (when some 20 young policemen with no riot training fucked up hugely), 69 people died. In modern day South Africa over 40 people are killed daily because of crime related violence. In the recent Xenophobic attacks on foreigners more than that died and a greater number of people where displaced.
Between March 2003 and August 2007, 350 people died daily (average) in Iraq. If you compare this to the numbers above you will see that it is a bit larger â" and this occurred each and every day. This also occurred in a population that is only 65% as large as South Africaâ(TM)s.
Also bear in mind that your incarceration rate for black people in the US today is 6 times higher than that of black people in South Africa during racial segregation. Why do you imprison generations of black people?
since I don't want to end up writing a bloody dissertation about everything from the Siege of Stalingrad (which was about Nazi oil)
Fair enough â" but then donâ(TM)t make grossly incorrect statements. At least preface such statements with I know we âMericans are the prime evil force in the world. And I know it would be wrong for me to judge less evil countries, but here it goesâ¦
You are right in that coal liquefication (CTL) is a viable technology. Gas to liquid fuels (GTL) is however more viable than CTL. Sasol (the âoeevilâ South African company) built a fairly large GTL plant in Qatar (in association with Chevron). It is interesting to note that the price of coal have also risen significantly in the past few years.
Best of all, it's a mature technology. It was used to power the entire Nazi war machine in WWII, and South Africans under apartheid. Not because evil countries have an affinity for it, but because they were cut off from the world's oil supplies.
Love it how you simplify complex geopolitical situations into evil and not evil. I bet that you can add the USA to the front of that list (at least 3rd behind USSR) of yours if we include body count, foreign governments overthrown, foreign invasions (e.g. Iraq if you forgot) or torture. Now you only need a CTL plant!
South African electricity is (was?) probably the cheapest in the world. To the consumer it is sold at about 44 cents per kWh (that is about 5 American cents per KwH).
Neigbouring countries (including Zimbabwe) paid about 13 cents per kWh (about 1.5 'merican sents per kWh). This helped those countries f*ck-all (the are still 3rd world).
The surname Obasanjo sounded kinda Nigerian, and I checked his background (for interest sake). This guy is the son of the president/military ruler of Nigeria. Soo cool!
Good thing to see that his dad put that stolen oil and government funds to good use - his son's education.
Why do I need government permission to be a cop? I can pull over anyone I want, and by telling me that I can't, the government is making me unable to sustain my life through the labor of my choosing.
Straw man. A cop works through coercion and his authority is bestowed upon him by the state. This is not a business transaction between two consenting adults.
It depends. What you (Americans) should get mad about is the fact that international editions sell cheaper than North American editions. This is nonsense â" why should you pay more for the same book?
:( But reading on a computer screen sucks â" hand held readers (such as the Kindle) should be more prevalent (as soon as I stop being poor I am going to invest in one).
My biggest problem with textbooks is that it is bulky - next year when I go abroad I can not take all my textbooks with me
A lot of people don't leave their lights on during the day.
A lot of these kits are on the expensive side (for standard components). Why not try an electronics shop for components? You can assemble the same for cheaper. In the end a person would probably spend more on books.
A good book (maybe not a first book) is The Art of Electronics. Users not in the United States or Britain can get a new copy for as little as $15.
Someone playing with electronics would probably want to play with microcontrollers also - check out first before you buy! PICâ(TM)s are fairly popular, and descent C compilers exist for some of them.
This may be off topic. I think that an auto-zoom telescope would be cool â" when you look at something far of, your scope focuses until the object it clear.
My optometrist does something similar â" he asks you to focus at an object while he changes the lenses. He does this automatically by looking at how much the muscles in my eyes strain. If you could do that automatically with a little pattern recognition magic you will hit pay dirt!
Asking the insurgents nicely to go home?
In Iraq, most of the insurgents are in their home. It is the US forces that are not in their home (or their home country).
Basically you want all the insurgents to stand in formation the sand in full uniform waiting for the USA to bomb them into oblivion?
So, by your requirements, the French resistance during WW2 was wrong (since they did not wear uniforms and hide in the general population)?
Where does the ethanol come from?
You have a moma ethanol and a papa ethanol that loves each other.
There are quite a few journals that are exclusively online. Some journals are also available for free online (e.g. Journal of Machine Learning Research).
You can stockpile, but trade in ivory is illegal. A lot of countries are trying to destroy the market for ivory. Of course everyone would benefit if the ban on trade in ivory was lifted. Right now the Kruger National Park has too much elephants. The moratorium on culling has finally been lifted (only after extreme damage to the environment was done). If there was a way in which elephants could be moneterized the culling may not be necessary â" commercial farmers would invest a lot more in elephants (setting up a game farm for elephants are fairly expensive. You also need a fairly large space.)
Where there is a demand, someone will supply, and a market will spring up.
You know that some elephants are not endangered by far (e.g. the African elephant)? Do you know that elephants are being culled because there are too many of them and they fuck up the environment?
I suspect that this moratorium on ivory has nothing to do with conservation â" just like the ban on whaling has nothing to do with conservation (btw there are almost 200,000 minke whales â" they are by far not endangered, and sustainable use is possible).
This ban on ivory (and other products based on elephants) has a lot more to do with an agenda that certain âoeGreensâ push.
"double blind test."
No don't go bringing blind people into this.