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Daily Maverick
2 days ago
- General
- Daily Maverick
Dozens of rhinos rescued and relocated from SA reach Rwanda after two-day journey
The Johannesburg-based African Parks non-profit conservation group said the move was part of a strategic 10-year plan to rewild rhinos to safe, suitable and well-managed protected areas of Africa. After a two-day journey by air and truck, 70 captive-bred rhinos from South Africa have entered new territory in Rwanda's Akagera National Park. The translocation is part of the Rhino Rewild operation to rescue and relocate nearly 2,000 captive-bred white rhinos purchased by the African Parks group in 2023 from erstwhile Krugersdorp rhino baron John Hume. They are the first animals from Hume's captive-bred population to be relocated outside South Africa, after more than 160 other rhinos were moved to the Munywana private game reserve in KwaZulu-Natal, several private reserves adjoining Kruger National Park and the Dinokeng Game Reserve outside Pretoria. The latest destination may raise some eyebrows, considering that Rwanda has one of the highest human population densities in mainland Africa and also because similar rhino translocations to several other nations on the continent in previous decades ended with their local extinction due to rampant horn poaching. During 2018, at least four black rhinos died after being moved from South Africa to the Zakouma National Park in Chad, apparently because they failed to adapt to the plant diet in their new environment. However, the Johannesburg-based African Parks non-profit conservation group said the latest move was part of a strategic 10-year plan to rewild rhinos to safe, suitable and well-managed protected areas of Africa. African Parks, which manages 23 protected wildlife areas in 13 countries covering more than 20 million hectares, said wildlife and veterinary experts had conducted detailed risk assessments before the latest move. More significantly, African Parks moved 30 other white rhinos to Akagera National Park four years ago. This initial population has grown to 41 animals. 'Building on this success, the additional 70 animals will now play a crucial role in ensuring the presence of meta-populations across the continent, presenting opportunities for future range expansion,' said African Parks in a media statement on 10 June. As an additional measure to improve their ability to adapt to their new home, the captive-bred rhinos were initially moved within South Africa to the Munywana Conservancy. 'This preliminary stage of rewilding exposed the rhino to naturally occurring diseases such as trypanosomiasis and climatic conditions similar to Akagera,' said African Parks. The final phase of the 3,400km journey involved the rhinos being transported by truck in steel crates to King Shaka International Airport in Durban. From there, they were flown to Kigali International Airport in a Boeing 747 and finally transported to Akagera National Park by road. Complex operation 'The entire journey from Munywana to Akagera took approximately two days for each of the two groups of rhino, with continuous monitoring of their wellbeing by veterinary teams. 'Translocations are highly complex operations that demand months of meticulous planning and thorough risk assessments by world-renowned translocation and veterinary experts prior to implementation,' said African Parks. The rhinos' health and behaviour will be monitored by a dedicated veterinary team for several weeks to ensure that they adapt to their new environment and recover from any stress associated with the move. The 112,000ha Akagera National Park (established in 1934) is slightly bigger than the 96,000ha Hluhluwe-iMfolozi Park in KwaZulu-Natal, from where all the world's remaining southern white rhinos originate. Following the Rwandan Civil War and genocide of the Tutsi population, nearly 60% of Akagera was deproclaimed when large areas of the park were reallocated as farmland for returning refugees. Akagera's wildlife was heavily affected by rampant poaching, with lions being eradicated by returning pastoralists protecting their cattle. Since 2010, African Parks says it has overhauled law enforcement efforts and dramatically curbed poaching in the park. Though Rwanda's best-known wildlife attractions are the gorillas in the Virunga Mountains, made famous by Dian Fossey's 'Gorillas in the Mist', Akagera, which lies at the extreme west of the country's border with Tanzania (close to Lake Victoria), has been described as 'the last remaining refuge for savannah-adapted animals and plants in Rwanda'. Peter Fearnhead, the CEO of African Parks, said, 'We greatly appreciate the Rwanda government's partnership and visionary conservation efforts, along with the invaluable support from the Howard G Buffett Foundation, in making this translocation a reality. 'There are numerous risks that still remain, but with the safe arrival of all 70 animals, and with a dedicated Akagera park management team, they have a real opportunity to thrive. The coming months of intensive monitoring will be critical to ensuring the long-term adaptation of these rhino to their new home.' DM
Belfast Telegraph
02-05-2025
- Politics
- Belfast Telegraph
More than a year before Hume quit as SDLP leader, ‘shocked' British Ambassador found him incoherent
Political giant's declining health was set out in highly confidential diplomatic cable sent to London by Britain's ambassador in Dublin More than a year before John Hume stepped down as SDLP leader, the British Ambassador to Dublin was 'shocked' to see how incapable he had become of political discussion, he said in a confidential cable. Hume died in 2020 after a lengthy battle with dementia, which gradually undid what had been a first rate intellect, capable of debating with local rivals as well as presidents and prime ministers.
Irish Times
29-04-2025
- Politics
- Irish Times
The Southern Establishment's attitudes to unification must be challenged
Sixty one years ago, The Irish Times published a radical challenge to the Establishment consensus on the future of Ireland from John Hume , the man who would later go on to lead the SDLP . His 1964 articles in this paper drew on his experience as a young teacher from Derry , a pivotal figure in the early credit union movement and someone for whom poverty, homelessness and need were core motivators. Over the last number of years, the New Ireland Commission run by the SDLP has been engaging with communities across the island and the full spectrum of attitudes to the future of our shared island. That work has made it starkly clear to me that Southern establishment views on partition, the nature of reconciliation and the need to finally wage war on poverty and want, particularly in the North, require a new and radical challenge again. READ MORE [ Shared Island: Cross-border co-operation should be expanded, ESRI report concludes Opens in new window ] Foyle MP Colum Eastwood at a New Ireland Commission event. Photograph: Kelvin Boyes/Press Eye The atrophied attitudes to life, community relations and the urgent need for change in Northern Ireland have become a barrier to a real national conversation about the future. It has become comfortable to substitute slogans for the serious work required to fundamentally address the social and economic challenges that plague communities across Ireland. Challenges which, I believe, can only be resolved through the transformative impact of a New Ireland. In particular, the creeping normalisation of the demand that reconciliation be a prerequisite for constitutional change needs to be addressed. Not least of all because that ask, which has come from a limited number of academics and an increasing number of political figures, is never mentioned as a precondition for maintaining the union. It is too easy to wave away the legitimate demands of a generation of citizens in the North by requiring that we achieve the undefined conditions of reconciliation which have been asked of no one else. More than that, it is offensive to say to my generation and others that we should be satisfied with peace but be denied a decent economy, better jobs, public services and opportunities because we have not achieved reconciliation. Especially when so many of us live all-island lives where we can see the benefits and the opportunities that our friends and neighbours a few miles away enjoy. The hard truth that those establishment voices need to hear and to understand is that while reconciliation is a moral imperative for our society, it's hard for people to prioritise holding hands with their neighbours if they cannot feed their kids. John Hume and Seamus Mallon shake hands at the end of the elections of Ministers to the Northern Ireland Assembly at Stormont. Photograph: Alan Betson In those circumstances, which are real for working class communities across the North, it is an abdication of responsibility to tell people that change is on hold indefinitely. Tackling poverty is an act of reconciliation. Addressing decades-long imbalances in investment and opportunity is an act of reconciliation. Showing people that a New Ireland is about raising living standards, transforming public services and improving the lives of everyone who shares this island is the most fundamental act of reconciliation that many of us could contribute to the future. Shying away from the reality of life, living conditions and politics in Northern Ireland for a comfortable campaign of sloganeering is a failure to take the challenge of bringing people together in their substantial common interests seriously. To that end there has, over the last number of years, been a trend of other people never involved in the SDLP telling us what the giants of our movement John Hume and Seamus Mallon thought about the future. I do not think any rise to the level of taking their names in vain but I know they would have had a wry smile and a raised eyebrow at least at some of the commentary. Take it from me – neither believed that the unity of our people was at odds with the unity of our country. Neither is a hostage to the other – they are complimentary. The Good Friday Agreement, easily and falsely interpreted as a full stop in conversations about the future, was in fact the beginning of the next paragraph in our island's story. John and Seamus did not create institutions to contain or diminish the campaign to unite Ireland, they created them as a mechanism to advance our ambitions. Those of us who believe in a new future together should not lose sight of that. We all have a responsibility to act in the interests of bringing people and communities together. My firm view is that the job of uniting our island and building a new Ireland can be a process of reconciliation. It gives us the opportunity to set aside the enmity and mistrust of the past and to genuinely work together to build a new future. That's the challenge and it's one that everyone in a position of leadership should be prepared to take on. Colum Eastwood, MP for Foyle, was leader of the SDLP from 2015 to 2024
Irish Times
27-04-2025
- Politics
- Irish Times
For a united Ireland to work messy compromises will be needed, but we can't gift Irish identity to the far-right
Do you 'cherish all the children of the nation equally' or pledge to 'stand by one another in defending for ourselves and our children our cherished position of equal citizenship'? What's the difference, you may fairly ask. Well, the former are well known words from the 1916 Proclamation, but you may not know that the latter words are contained in the Ulster Solemn League and Covenant. These two documents are often considered the sacred texts of two opposing traditions on this island, but perhaps the values underlying them are more similar than their staunch adherents would care to admit. If so, perhaps we on both sides of the Border are more similar than some of us believe. Consider the above exercise something of a North-South constitutional blind taste test. You may have undertaken a similar taste test with Tayto crisps or Dairy Milk chocolate from North and South of the Border, probably at the insistence of a gastronomic partisan who militantly maintains that their chosen foodstuff is superior in one of the two jurisdictions. Regardless of the outcome, the premise is that the two are different and one must prevail. Answering that you detect little difference but are pleased to have two treats to eat rather than one seems as though you are not being a good sport. Waistlines aside, such taste tests are a harmless exercise in themselves, but they illustrate a wider phenomenon: that we spend too much time on this island fixating upon our differences, far too little on identifying our similarities. Lisa McGee captured this through the famous scene in Derry Girls where the students are asked to write on a blackboard the similarities and differences between the two communities in Northern Ireland . Tellingly, it was the blackboard describing the many differences that became iconic and has since been displayed in the Ulster Museum. Reimagining Irish identity would allow us to reclaim this concept and provide a convincing answer to the far right. It is patriotic work If we are to create an Ireland where all on this island feel comfortable describing themselves as Irish, we must begin the work of identifying what we have in common. This work must involve looking beyond the superficial and symbolic to find the shared values and ideas that are strong enough to hold us together. I believe that if we succeed in this work Ireland can become a nation founded on shared values, rather than history or ethnicity: an enlightened republic. READ MORE I use the word 'enlightened' as the idea of founding national identity on shared values can be traced back to the political outworkings of the Enlightenment in the late 18th century, where both the United States of America and France emerged in their modern form as nations founded upon a set of values held to be self-evident among their citizens. On returning from a trip to the United States , the late John Hume reportedly quipped that the thing that impressed him most about it was that it is one country. By this he was expressing his admiration for the strength of the country's founding ideals, encapsulated in the shorthand of the American dream, which held together a nation far more diverse than Ireland. As for France , Charles de Gaulle famously despaired that a country with 246 different types of cheese was ungovernable (imagine the taste tests there ...) yet its founding creed of liberté, égalité and fraternité has remained a unifying rallying cry through multiple wars and constitutional revisions. A cynic may fairly argue that the present conditions of the United States and France show that establishing a nation on shared values is no guarantee of patriotic harmony. That is true, but I would contend that much of the polarisation that characterises those nations today is a product of having departed from their founding ideals and embraced a nationalism defined along ethnocultural lines. This temptation will always be present, for humans are hard-wired to embrace tribalism and it is far easier to define the tribe through tangible cultural markers than intangible shared values: the price of an enlightened republic is eternal vigilance. So if we were to create an enlightened republic in Ireland, what values might we found it upon? The excerpts I have drawn from the 1916 Proclamation and the Ulster Covenant suggest a commitment to equality across both of the main traditions on this island, although both traditions can fairly be accused of failing to honour that commitment in practice. Establishing equality as a founding ideal of an enlightened republic may leave less space for quietly resiling from such commitments in future. The Air Corps perform a fly-past during a ceremony to mark the anniversary of the 1916 Easter Rising at the GPO on O'Connell Street, Dublin, earlier this month. Photograph: Brian Lawless/PA Wire There is also a deep and distinctive commitment to community across this island. The young person who makes the weekly journey from Belfast to band practice at their local Orange Lodge and their counterpart in Dublin who makes the journey back to their parish GAA club for training may appear to be engaging in divergent cultural practices. Yet at heart both are performing rituals laced with a love of community, heritage and place. Ireland is also an island of innovators. Tractors, the Titanic and the ejector seat are testaments to Northern industrial heft. Hypodermic syringes, stethoscopes and colour photography are testaments to Ireland's place at the cutting edge of pharmaceutical and technological development. And yes, flavoured crisps belong on the list of Irish innovations too. So you might say that the blind taste test itself is an Irish invention. Immigrants may also play a role in identifying our shared values, as they may be better able to recognise what makes Ireland distinctive I offer the above values by way of example, and I hope that reading this essay prompts you to think of more. For the identification of shared values must be a democratic process in the hands of citizens as much as political leaders. Moreover, it can be an iterative process: our shared values can evolve as we are exposed to new ideas and encounters; we should not be afraid, as in the WB Yeats poem, to hear the call of Plato's ghost and ask 'what then?'. Those who comfortably call themselves Irish today may ask why all this work matters. Yet I believe it is vital to confront three of the defining challenges facing Ireland in the 21st century: the possibility of a Border poll; integrating immigrants ; and overcoming the far right. The results of the recent ARINS/Irish Times survey show that a clear majority of voters in both jurisdictions favour making preparations for the possibility of Irish unity regardless of whether it comes about. Much of this preparation focuses on accommodating cultural differences, asking what each tradition is prepared to sacrifice or compromise upon. The more that national identity is defined by shared values, the less that both sides will need to dilute the cultural aspects of their traditions in order to find a shared identity. A myriad of cultural traditions can sit under the banner of an Irishness defined by shared values. This is no panacea – messy compromises will be required to make a united Ireland work – but such compromises may be easier to achieve if there is a reservoir of shared values to draw upon. Members of the Defence Forces earlier this month. Photograph: Alan Betson Tying any future unity project to the reshaping of Irish identity can also make it both more inspiring to the agnostic and less threatening to its opponents. The many on both sides of the Border who are quietly comfortable with the status quo may rightly ask what is in it for them. The opportunity to build an entirely new conception of Irishness offers a more inspiring vision than tired nationalist cliches dressed in slick marketing. Similarly, unionists who have so far boycotted Border poll preparations need not shy away from this work: developing shared values across this island can encourage mutual understanding and ensure that any future Border poll is conducted in a healthier atmosphere without making unity more likely. Even if a Border poll never comes, rapid immigration over recent decades means that Ireland today is an island of many national and ethnic minorities. An Ireland whose identity is defined by history, culture or language may be one in which they cannot feel they fully belong. An Ireland where Irishness in defined by values may prove much easier to integrate into. The United States' erstwhile success in integrating immigrants stemmed from its ability to create 'hyphenated Americans' who could maintain aspects of their own culture while pursuing the American dream. We should aspire to a nation of 'hyphenated Irish' who subscribe to Irish values but still bring their distinctive culture to the rich tapestry of Irish identity. Immigrants may also play a role in identifying our shared values, as they may be better able to recognise what makes Ireland distinctive than those of us who have always called this island home. [ Emotional response to outcomes of possible referendums on unity ranges from pride to hate Opens in new window ] A failure to engage with the meaning of Irishness today also risks placing the future of Irish identity in the hands of malign actors. Many far-right groups in Ireland now appropriate traditional symbols of Irishness and present themselves as guardians of a 'pure' Irish nation. Those in the centre ground of western democracies have become squeamish about expressing patriotism in recent years, but national identity remains a source of pride and inspiration to many people. Reimagining Irish identity would allow us to reclaim this concept and provide a convincing answer to the far right. It is patriotic work. [ Irish and British futures are codependent and entangled Opens in new window ] I will conclude with one more constitutional blind taste test: 'I undertake to faithfully observe the laws of the State and to respect its democratic values'. These vanilla words form the substantial part of the declaration of fidelity to the Irish nation that is sworn by new Irish citizens, but their very sparseness betrays a nation that does not truly know what it stands for. If we are ambitious about what Ireland can achieve in the 21st century, and wish to harness the energies and talents of all on this island towards the fulfilment of those ambitions, we must begin the work of unearthing the shared values that bring us together and spur us on. If we commit ourselves to such work, Irish citizens – both old and new – may one day say that we live in an enlightened republic. Ross Neill is a solicitor from Belfast practising in Dublin
Irish Times
22-04-2025
- Politics
- Irish Times
Messy compromises will be needed to make a united Ireland work but we can't risk placing the future of Irish identity in the hands of malign actors
Do you 'cherish all the children of the nation equally' or pledge to 'stand by one another in defending for ourselves and our children our cherished position of equal citizenship'? What's the difference, you may fairly ask. Well, the former are well known words from the 1916 Proclamation, but you may not know that the latter words are contained in the Ulster Solemn League and Covenant. These two documents are often considered the sacred texts of two opposing traditions on this island, but perhaps the values underlying them are more similar than their staunch adherents would care to admit. If so, perhaps we on both sides of the Border are more similar than some of us believe. Consider the above exercise something of a North-South constitutional blind taste test. You may have undertaken a similar taste test with Tayto crisps or Dairy Milk chocolate from North and South of the Border, probably at the insistence of a gastronomic partisan who militantly maintains that their chosen foodstuff is superior in one of the two jurisdictions. Regardless of the outcome, the premise is that the two are different and one must prevail. Answering that you detect little difference but are pleased to have two treats to eat rather than one seems as though you are not being a good sport. Waistlines aside, such taste tests are a harmless exercise in themselves, but they illustrate a wider phenomenon: that we spend too much time on this island fixating upon our differences, far too little on identifying our similarities. Lisa McGee captured this through the famous scene in Derry Girls where the students are asked to write on a blackboard the similarities and differences between the two communities in Northern Ireland . Tellingly, it was the blackboard describing the many differences that became iconic and has since been displayed in the Ulster Museum. Reimagining Irish identity would allow us to reclaim this concept and provide a convincing answer to the far right. It is patriotic work If we are to create an Ireland where all on this island feel comfortable describing themselves as Irish, we must begin the work of identifying what we have in common. This work must involve looking beyond the superficial and symbolic to find the shared values and ideas that are strong enough to hold us together. I believe that if we succeed in this work Ireland can become a nation founded on shared values, rather than history or ethnicity: an enlightened republic. READ MORE I use the word 'enlightened' as the idea of founding national identity on shared values can be traced back to the political outworkings of the Enlightenment in the late 18th century, where both the United States of America and France emerged in their modern form as nations founded upon a set of values held to be self-evident among their citizens. On returning from a trip to the United States , the late John Hume reportedly quipped that the thing that impressed him most about it was that it is one country. By this he was expressing his admiration for the strength of the country's founding ideals, encapsulated in the shorthand of the American dream, which held together a nation far more diverse than Ireland. As for France , Charles de Gaulle famously despaired that a country with 246 different types of cheese was ungovernable (imagine the taste tests there ...) yet its founding creed of liberté, égalité and fraternité has remained a unifying rallying cry through multiple wars and constitutional revisions. The Air Corps perform a fly-past during a ceremony to mark the anniversary of the 1916 Easter Rising at the GPO on O'Connell Street, Dublin, earlier this month. Photograph: Brian Lawless/PA Wire A cynic may fairly argue that the present conditions of the United States and France show that establishing a nation on shared values is no guarantee of patriotic harmony. That is true, but I would contend that much of the polarisation that characterises those nations today is a product of having departed from their founding ideals and embraced a nationalism defined along ethnocultural lines. This temptation will always be present, for humans are hard-wired to embrace tribalism and it is far easier to define the tribe through tangible cultural markers than intangible shared values: the price of an enlightened republic is eternal vigilance. So if we were to create an enlightened republic in Ireland, what values might we found it upon? The excerpts I have drawn from the 1916 Proclamation and the Ulster Covenant suggest a commitment to equality across both of the main traditions on this island, although both traditions can fairly be accused of failing to honour that commitment in practice. Establishing equality as a founding ideal of an enlightened republic may leave less space for quietly resiling from such commitments in future. There is also a deep and distinctive commitment to community across this island. The young person who makes the weekly journey from Belfast to band practice at their local Orange Lodge and their counterpart in Dublin who makes the journey back to their parish GAA club for training may appear to be engaging in divergent cultural practices. Yet at heart both are performing rituals laced with a love of community, heritage and place. Ireland is also an island of innovators. Tractors, the Titanic and the ejector seat are testaments to Northern industrial heft. Hypodermic syringes, stethoscopes and colour photography are testaments to Ireland's place at the cutting edge of pharmaceutical and technological development. And yes, flavoured crisps belong on the list of Irish innovations too. So you might say that the blind taste test itself is an Irish invention. Immigrants may also play a role in identifying our shared values, as they may be better able to recognise what makes Ireland distinctive I offer the above values by way of example, and I hope that reading this essay prompts you to think of more. For the identification of shared values must be a democratic process in the hands of citizens as much as political leaders. Moreover, it can be an iterative process: our shared values can evolve as we are exposed to new ideas and encounters; we should not be afraid, as in the WB Yeats poem, to hear the call of Plato's ghost and ask 'what then?'. Those who comfortably call themselves Irish today may ask why all this work matters. Yet I believe it is vital to confront three of the defining challenges facing Ireland in the 21st century: the possibility of a Border poll; integrating immigrants ; and overcoming the far right. The results of the recent ARINS/Irish Times survey show that a clear majority of voters in both jurisdictions favour making preparations for the possibility of Irish unity regardless of whether it comes about. Much of this preparation focuses on accommodating cultural differences, asking what each tradition is prepared to sacrifice or compromise upon. The more that national identity is defined by shared values, the less that both sides will need to dilute the cultural aspects of their traditions in order to find a shared identity. A myriad of cultural traditions can sit under the banner of an Irishness defined by shared values. This is no panacea – messy compromises will be required to make a united Ireland work – but such compromises may be easier to achieve if there is a reservoir of shared values to draw upon. Members of the Defence Forces earlier this month. Photograph: Alan Betson Tying any future unity project to the reshaping of Irish identity can also make it both more inspiring to the agnostic and less threatening to its opponents. The many on both sides of the Border who are quietly comfortable with the status quo may rightly ask what is in it for them. The opportunity to build an entirely new conception of Irishness offers a more inspiring vision than tired nationalist cliches dressed in slick marketing. Similarly, unionists who have so far boycotted Border poll preparations need not shy away from this work: developing shared values across this island can encourage mutual understanding and ensure that any future Border poll is conducted in a healthier atmosphere without making unity more likely. [ Emotional response to outcomes of possible referendums on unity ranges from pride to hate Opens in new window ] Even if a Border poll never comes, rapid immigration over recent decades means that Ireland today is an island of many national and ethnic minorities. An Ireland whose identity is defined by history, culture or language may be one in which they cannot feel they fully belong. An Ireland where Irishness in defined by values may prove much easier to integrate into. The United States' erstwhile success in integrating immigrants stemmed from its ability to create 'hyphenated Americans' who could maintain aspects of their own culture while pursuing the American dream. We should aspire to a nation of 'hyphenated Irish' who subscribe to Irish values but still bring their distinctive culture to the rich tapestry of Irish identity. Immigrants may also play a role in identifying our shared values, as they may be better able to recognise what makes Ireland distinctive than those of us who have always called this island home. A failure to engage with the meaning of Irishness today also risks placing the future of Irish identity in the hands of malign actors. Many far-right groups in Ireland now appropriate traditional symbols of Irishness and present themselves as guardians of a 'pure' Irish nation. Those in the centre ground of western democracies have become squeamish about expressing patriotism in recent years, but national identity remains a source of pride and inspiration to many people. Reimagining Irish identity would allow us to reclaim this concept and provide a convincing answer to the far right. It is patriotic work. I will conclude with one more constitutional blind taste test: 'I undertake to faithfully observe the laws of the State and to respect its democratic values'. These vanilla words form the substantial part of the declaration of fidelity to the Irish nation that is sworn by new Irish citizens, but their very sparseness betrays a nation that does not truly know what it stands for. If we are ambitious about what Ireland can achieve in the 21st century, and wish to harness the energies and talents of all on this island towards the fulfilment of those ambitions, we must begin the work of unearthing the shared values that bring us together and spur us on. If we commit ourselves to such work, Irish citizens – both old and new – may one day say that we live in an enlightened republic. Ross Neill is a solicitor from Belfast practising in Dublin
