Sunday 18 May 2014

Slave Ape

When the rising moon calls to his soul
      he cannot answer,
he cannot follow Her shadow’s path weaving through the magic of twilit trees
   as She glides so lightly through the sky,
perhaps he catches a glimpse of Her against the smog and city pollution
     through a dirty window as Night slowly creeps by

He is trapped in this cage until his keeper comes tomorrow,
when he is wheeled out for his part in the show,
      degraded to being dressed as a human and playing drums,
and the idiot crowd laughs and thinks this is good,
    and that this is fun


He cannot express his urge to swing or call,
and instead of tree bark he has cold steel,
    he cannot feel the gentle breeze rocking him to sleep in a branch,
just the city’s noisy stories makes up the sadness of his real
  
His very nature eats away at him,
    because you cannot trap the wind as it dances through the trees
and you cannot cage a wild creature that is meant to be free

He cannot BE his truth,
so he bashes his head against the bars in frustration,
    until that pain somehow eases something in his screaming heart

When the eagle calls so far away in his Africa - it echoes in his soul
though he cannot see it’s shadow flicker against the clouds,
   he feels it, as he feels the trees falling,
forests being felled for man’s greed,
    his heart is crying out because they are one,
and our souls are dying
because we do not want to know
    that we too are all one.
The trees are our roots and our lungs
    and he is our brother

He MUST return to his Africa - we cannot leave him there
enslaved, and one day, to die alone
so far, so very far, from home

Christine Jordaan
May 2014


African leaders – please call for DNA testing of the #slaveapes currently in China, Armenia, amongst other countries.  And then ask CITES to invoke Article VIII to bring them home!!  



© 2017


Research here



Trapped



© 2017

He is a wild spirit
      trapped in someone else’s idea for his life

Imagine his despair of life in a cage,
the pure frustration of wanting to swing free in trees
and interact with his own kind,
feel another furry body,
      touch another wild mind
 
   Feel his fear of the beatings
when he hasn’t learnt to play his role correctly,
          as designated by Mankind the Civilised,
in this degrading parody of entertainment,
dressed in an absurd guise of our shameful society,
        served up to the mindless crowd
that either do not know or simply do not care,
         that once he lived in a forest and was happy there

And when the hordes leave
at the end of the day,
the lights dim,
       and the music fades away,
he is led back to the empty silence
    where time tick tocks away

What passes through his mind
in the long hours before its show time again?
  does he remember the warmth of the African sunlight
       and the veil of the soft forest rain?
where do his thoughts dwell while outside the city falls asleep?
  if I could peep into his cage at night
would I see this ape weep?

I wonder if his forest is still there
or are his trees now tables in some smart city house
do they hold an echo of the birdsong they once carried
      or the magic of the dreaming moonlight?

He was free,
      wild-born
but here he sits a million miles away
    caged,
 alone,
     and forlorn
staring out through the bars
    of man’s domination over Nature

and there is something in his eyes
that reaches across the divide of space and form
it whispers to my heart
     in utter despair and rage
and I recognise the panic of living and dying
trapped inside this cage

Please world, He must be bought home to Africa!!

© 2017

Stop the trafficking!  Slave Ape

Send the #slaveapes home to Africa!

                                      Photo credit:  Shigzeo



Thursday 15 May 2014

Call to Action: PROJECT TO END GREAT APE SLAVERY - PEGAS

Photo credit:  Karl Ammann

Beautiful people….

I was honoured recently to be contacted by Karl Ammann (www.karlammann.com), a wildlife warrior of note (named Hero of the Environment, and SAB Environmental Journalist of the Year).  He asked me to help raise awareness of the plight of the #slaveapes  as he had seen the world roaring out for our beloved lions.   Together with Dr Dan Stiles (danstiles.org), Nick Cockayne (http://www.apeactionafrica.org/index) and a specialised team they have created PEGAS.

And so world - I am afraid I need some more tears from you, I’m so sorry.   

After the lion march, I seriously wondered if I had any more tears left in my heart or had I cried them all out…  I worried that I had become one of those hard people you see that just don’t cry anymore…  but I’m afraid my heart has been broken again…  actually as I sit here now I wonder at what point one’s heart says “enough pain, stop beating”….   

Until we get to that point, however, we just have to carry on one battle at a time in our war for our beloved animals… whether they’re dressed in fur or scales or feathers…  whether they have four legs or no legs, whether they roar or croak…  we love them all, and we will never stop fighting for them.  To sink into despair is to abandon the animals in hell, and so somehow we have to soldier on with all our tears and heartbreak.

So! We have wept together for the fallen gentle giants – the elephants, victims of the heart-breaking poaching crisis.  We have roared out for those waiting to die – the lions in the horrific canned hunting industry, and all those slaughtered in the killing machine of trophy hunting.

Now I need you to cry with me for the slave apes.

I need your tears to break hearts wide open again so that we can fix this.

I ask you to close your eyes and still your minds…
feel a hot steaming jungle around you,
the sweat stinging your eyes ,
vines itching and scratching at your legs,
a cacophony of birds chirping and whistling out their own glorious songs,

let your heart sense a family of playful chimps …   
and then a heavier presence of the big apes,
    just an ordinary day in the sunlit forest…

until a baby elephant runs squealing through a clearing,
  birds squawk in a panic up to the canopy,
   and utter chaos erupts,
harsh voices shouting,
gunfire, blood, and death.

     Whole families murdered - shot, or hacked to death,
 whilst trying to defend their babies,
infant apes shoved into rough canvas sacks for their journey through Hell…

  many die en route to the transit cities,  packed in between other illicit products, they suffocate, starve to death, or their little throats dry up whilst calling for help which never arrives…

   a journey through hell….
        to slavery…
  to a life behind bars…
 a life sentence for a crime which they have never committed…

We cannot do anything about those that have died, except cry for them and try to learn lessons from their deaths to stop further suffering…

But we can help those still enslaved far, far away from their native sunlight…
   who must have just one prayer in their little hearts…   
“Please, Bring Us Home”

World – shall we do it… shall we do our absolute best to get CITES to send them home to Africa?
And to stop all trafficking of our beloved wild animals?  
   
Karl, Dan, Nick, and their dedicated team will call on CITES for justice.  

Please join me in supporting them by raising awareness, and through activism in cyberspace and the physical world.

We need to end Ape Slavery!! 

Animals are not ours to rip from their families and send off to zoos, safari parks, and private collections for human entertainment. 

So together let us now tackle the horror of the #slaveapes and by raising awareness of this evil… we will bring to the world’s attention what we activists all know – Captivity Kills.  

There should be NO trade in animals.  Animals should have the right to live out their lives according to their own destinies and have fair access to the natural resources they require to do so.  We are occupying this planet as brutal dictators consuming all – we have literally waged war on all other species – and it’s time to STOP!  

Wildlife trade is horrific and unacceptable... their broken, beaten little bodies... their souls and hearts just waiting for us to realise that we are all one...  that they feel pain as we do... hunger and thirst as we do...  cold, frightened, and lonely as we do...  just imagine their utter bewilderment at being stolen away... from the sounds and smells of the forests to the pollution of the city... 

We have taken everything from them - their families, their freedom... and we're destroying their habitat.
Our planet is dying... we're losing our animals... our souls...  lets take a stand!  Make THIS the generation that woke up in time and made it right... opened our hearts to a better vision... a kinder, gentler world where all life is held as sacred.  And this culture of greed dedicated to a God of Things and Money... reborn into a culture of love.

Please world – help us bring the #slaveapes home to where they belong – appropriate sanctuaries in Africa – if their own countries cannot shelter them – there are willing ones.  
Karl and Dan have the problem clearly outlined and solutions ready to offer… but they need us to add our voice to theirs to show CITES that the world is outraged and this needs to be fixed, NOW!

So - let’s get cracking, rescue the #slaveapes, and stop the trafficking – let us END APE SLAVERY!!
The official campaign website will be up and running shortly.  

In the meantime, please visit us on:


and sign and share this petition:


Thankyou!!!!  

Lots of love as always,

Christine