Cmments

Mana Pools: Yet another fee. $10 per person per day. Such a ripoff on top of all the other fees they introduced.

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How many of us are just sitting back, relieved that Parks has scrapped the restrictions – at a cost, of course. To put this in perspective, take, just as an example I’m familiar with, Kenya’s Ft Jesus museum in Mombasa. A foreign adult visitor pays KS500 (US$5). A Kenyan adult pays KS100 (US$1). A Kenyan child pays KS50 (US$0.50). Firstly, their national heritage is affordable in realistic terms for both visitors and especially locals. Secondly, they have a realistic idea of what the US dollar is worth, which is probably why they still have their own currency.

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Morning Mike ,WE had a break-in last night they stole the car batteries  our Neighbor also confirmed that their truck batteries was also stolen.

Please be aware in the Belvedere area .

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Can you warn everyone that there is a blue/black Mercedes registration number AAR 8355 which is going around acting suspiciously and is believed to be connected to car breakins.  Please be on the lookout for this vehicle

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I too am absolutely sickened by this story – I have not been able to stop thinking about those baby elephants and the life of misery they will now be subjected to. Elephants are highly intelligent, very socially interactive and they form extremely deep family bonds. To take these babies away from their mothers and their herds and send them off to a Chinese Zoo is not only appalling and despicable, it is nothing short of criminal.   What can we as Zimbabweans do to stop this from happening again? There must be some way of putting pressure on the powers that be?! Your readers may be interested in the website below -

http://www.elephantvoices.org/about-elephantvoices.html Sad and Sickened

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No visit to one of our game parks is complete without seeing or at least hearing lions.  It will be a sad day when that no longer happens. Karen

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The elephant saga is really distressing, I feel the pain all these elephants involved are going through. It breaks my heart. My question is, what can we do to stop this? There has to be something? 

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In general as a species we are despicable, greedy, cruel, self gratifying creatures - the planet would be better served with out "the human" blight on it. I wish there were no lions, tiger's, elephants etc etc at all - for then we would not have the hart ach over their treatment and imminent demise at our hands. We certainly have a lot to answer for one day.

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I'm curious why these lion farms raise lions? Do they release them into the wild? Is there evidence of this? They would need to release hundreds a year in order for lions in to equal lions out. Most viable areas can't cope with more than 3-4 prides anyway because there just aren't the prey animals to sustain them.  I struggle to feed my 5 dogs so their food and wage  bill has to be interesting. Antelope Park have a great system where foreigners are duped into paying to work but I'm sure it doesn't quite cover the bills. 

As despicable as the concept of canned lion hunting is, it's somehow more acceptable than a hunter shooting a wild  male lion and condemning his progeny to certain death. That almost puts hunting into perspective.  I'm still only just an advocate of quota hunting as a means of sustainability, by the way, unfortunately the areas where this works in Africa can be counted on one hand. It requires skilled, educated, unbribeable, (as you read this the word impossible has to spring to mind!) people to set the quotas and enforce them. All my PH friends continue to bury their heads and claim it's the only way forward. Within the next 5-10 years, instead of that old poster with the train going over the bridge and the engineers scratching their heads and proclaiming "Oh S" there will be a picture of the Professional Hunters Association at their AGM saying the same.
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While still on the subject of Carte Blanche, I wonder if the bee keepers all over Zimbabwe, the flower, vegetable, fruit, crops and all the rest, growers, are aware of the disease that has struck the bees far and wide in the Cape area.   They said it had come from China, I think.  Not many understand why they are not to bring honey in across the border.  I would guess a lot comes in all the time. I doubt there is an irradiation process in Zimbabwe.  It said it destroys the goodness. Rosemary

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Antelope Park has over 100 lions in captivity. They have "released" 9 (of which 2 were removed, so 7 left) into a small open area where they are free to hunt the game that is put in there. The area is completely fenced so the game have no chance of survival. In fact, the lions often kill their prey on the fence line. The 7 released lions have given birth to 5 cubs. The lions have been in that site for over 6 years. Antelope Park are yet to release ANY lions back into the wild, yet they still continue to breed lions for tourists to walk with who are then put into enclosures when they are too old to walk with. There are up to 7 male lions in one small enclosure. This is not conservation. They may not sell the lions off for canned hunting, as they have repeatedly told us, but what they are doing is not ethical and it is not conservation. They should stop breeding lions until they prove that they can successfully release them completely back into the wild. They have been breeding lions for this for the last 10 years, and now the lions are too habituated or too old to be released. These lions will live and die in an enclosure.  - Anonymous 

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Accident - Poor chap,   I do hope he is not seriously injured.  I have noticed that many drivers do not give way to approaching bicycles at intersections/giveways etc. It is part of the Highway Code & rules of the road.  Regards LB

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Editors Comment: Please note that all of these comments have been sent into me from bambazonke subscribers. They do not, necessarily agree with what I think and are just sent out so that interested parties can find out what locals think about the issue. Mike G.