Khama in United States for Conservation Award

STAFF WRITER
From Mmegi Online
June 8, 2011

President Ian Khama is in Washington D.C United States of America to receive the prestigious International Conservation Caucus Foundation's (ICCF) Teddy Roosevelt Conservation Award.



He left Monday evening and is expected to return on Saturday the 11th of June 2011.A statement from the Office of the President says the Congressional award recognizes "innovative leadership in the field of conservation by a government leader." Recent awardees include UK Prime minister Tony Blair, Philippines President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, Prince Albert II of Monaco and International Wildlife Emeritus Russell Train.

While in Washington the president is also expected to hold discussions with members of the American Executive and Congressional leadership.� The president will also travel to New York City, where he will attend the 2011 Board Meeting of Conservation International, the statement says. Conservation International is a non-profit organization that seeks to empower societies to responsibly and sustainably care for nature for the well-being of humanity. The board of directors, to which Khama has been a member for over a decade, meets annually to carry out the mandate of the organization.�

The President is also expected to undertake a number of additional engagements with media and important stakeholders, while in the USA. Vice President,Mompati Merafhe is Acting President.

Here's hoping the folks at DSC get a moment of his time.

Apparently the ICCF doesn't know very much about Khama (or TR).

That wind from Long Island is Teddy spinning in his grave.

Dean

quote:

Originally posted by maki:
That wind from Long Island is Teddy spinning in his grave.

Dean

Especially over being called "Teddy." He disliked being called that.

Bill Quimby

Some days just keep getting worse. Even when you're dead. Would Theo be better?

Dean

Botswana, where they used to have hunting and used to have wildlife. Kenya, here we come!

isn't this the same guy who has pretty much shut down hunting in Bot. except on private game ranches and elephants on government concessions? makes me damn glad i hunted there in 2005 BEFORE he got so conservation minded. look at Kenya and see a preview of Botswana in a few years. thanks a lot mr. president

Could we swap that award and make it an enema?

I wonder what kind of 'award' he is going to get for his genocidal policies against the Bushman in Botswana.



Botswana's President Khama accuses Bushmen of living a ‘life of backwardness'

In an astonishing outburst, Botswana’s president has today described the Kalahari Bushmen as ‘primeval’, ‘primitive’ and ‘backward’.

Speaking at the country’s largest diamond mine, President Khama accused the Bushmen of living a ‘life of backwardness’ ‘a primitive life of deprivation co-existing alongside wild animals’, and ‘a primeval life of a bye [sic] gone era of hardship and indignity’.

Khama also accused Survival of ‘embarking upon a campaign of lies and misinformation’, calling the tribal rights organization ‘modern day highway robbers’. His comments came in response to Survival’s call for a boycott of Botswana tourism and diamonds over the government’s treatment of the Bushmen. President Khama is a board member of US organization Conservation International.

In 2002, while Khama was vice-president, the Botswana government forcibly evicted the Bushmen from their ancestral lands; an act that was later declared unlawful and unconstitutional by Botswana’s High Court, which also ruled that the Bushmen have the right to live on their lands.

Despite the ruling, Khama’s government has continued to prevent the Bushmen from living on their lands. It has banned them from accessing a well, which they rely on for water, and from hunting for food. At the same time, it has drilled new wells for wildlife and allowed Wilderness Safaris to erect a luxury tourist lodge with swimming pool on Bushman land. Over 25,000 people across the world have signed Survival’s petition calling on Wilderness Safaris to move its lodge off Bushman land.

While the Bushmen have turned to litigation to gain access to their well, the government is in negotiations with Gem Diamonds to construct a diamond mine on Bushman land.

Khama has previously referred to the Bushmen as ‘an archaic fantasy’, a view that has been echoed by members of his cabinet. Last month, speaking to the BBC, Botswana’s minister of environment, wildlife and tourism said he didn’t believe ‘you would want to see your own kind living in the dark ages in the middle of nowhere as a choice, when you know that the world has moved forward and has become so technological’. The vice-president has also been quoted as questioning why the Bushmen must ‘continue to commune with the flora and fauna’ when they could ‘enjoy the better things in life, like driving Cadillacs’.

Survival’s director Stephen Corry said today, ‘Many countries have laws to stop people insulting other peoples and their ways of life. There are sinister echoes here of racial superiority which should have no place in any modern democracy. It’s this thinking which is ‘backward’, not the Bushmen.’

Classic case of both parties being wrong-

SSR

you have to realize the Bushmen people are not considered Bantu/Negroid and therefore are looked down upon by the various Bantu tribes( which are the majority in Bots.) also you have to realize that Wilderness Safaris are the largest and most upscale photo tourism company in Bots.( and throughout much of southern Africa). interestingly enough the company was founded and is owned by several ex-PH's( who I think are from Zim but now live in Bots). they decided 7-8 or more years ago they could make more money in the high end photo business than in the hunting business and headed in that direction. met them at a restuarant near the Maun Airport and had lunch with them and my PH. asked them both if they missed hunting and both said yes- but that they were making a lot more money in the upscale photo business. needless to say when my PH and i visited 2 of their camps in the Moremi/Okavango later, we didn't mention hunting to the guests. if you check out Wilderness Safaris website you can get a good idea of costs involved and why it is more profitable to run 15-20 tourists through a day @ $1200-1500 than to charge 1 or 2 clients $1500-2000/day. FOLLOW THE MONEY- IT IS WHAT DRIVES AFRICA- AND THE REST OF THE WORLD.

What an insult.
It just shows that everything is politics.
Who are ICCF anyway?

Khama's

He is a "Conservation" award winner only to preservationist......if he were a "conservationist", he would be telling tourist orgs to go to hell, BOTS MUST cull thousands of Eles!!!

I got a RSA eastern Kalhari Bushman story but I dont think I will share it----forced govt housing, 75% not speaking their own language, the Chief in his 20 or so year old brown suit he put on to greet us trying to separate the fight amongst the young men who showed little respect while he tried to allocate the meat....not a good experience...