Diplomatic tiff between Botswana and Germany: the magnificent ELEPHANT

The president of Botswana was not angry per se. He should never be angry if he is aware of the global positioning of states: which country is at the top of the other: who is the big brother and what are the criteria? Who is calling the shots from the top going down to the bottom. These hierarchal settings of nations are historical and colonial. Circumstances leading to the tiff between Germany and Botswana are very little to do with President Masisi, but much about the new world order. We are exiting a unipolar world, to a multi-polar: countries in the global south are saying, enough of the so-called democratic values that to some extent not democratic, selective human rights and dollar hegemony, animal rights, etc. It is my humble observation that globalization does not know the colour of the skin: neoliberal in its actions, very undermining, brazenly brutal, and insensitive at best.

What has globalization to do with a gift of 20,000 elephants free of charge from Bots to Germany: a one-off gift of elephants with strict laid out conditions, how those elephants must be maintained by the recipient country, Germany. (Operational Manual) President Masisi is throwing the mustard back at Germany with a tinge of anger. Gone are the days when African countries were lectured about the importance of animals. The global north value African animals and their diversity more than humans, it appears so. Touristic, according to citizens of global north means going all out on wild safari, seeing these multiple herds of elephants in their natural habitats alongside with human beings – making a unit: touristic pure.

It is good: touristic can boost the economy of a country that has rich animal diversities with foreign revenues. The unchecked number of animal kingdom must not, however, conflict with human eco-systems. The Green-Party Minister may have said that elephant populations in Botswana must be preserved. No trophy hunting of elephants' imports into Germany and other EU countries. This message landed into President Masisi' ears more as a command. It is exactly that, that made President Masisi lash out at the German Green Madam Minister Comrade Steffi Lemke.

Gone are the days when Africans were told to jump high up. Africans never for once asked, why jumping, instead they asked how high I should jump. African governments were told that animal right must be preserved, if not they will not get AID. Aid to some African governments was always attached to something that the global north wanted maintained according to their defined standards and one of many is animal rights. The other one currently doing rounds is the LGPT+Q movement that qualifies their criteria if an African country is eligible for AID.

Botswana is resisting German's suggestions about how animal rights should be handled in a country that has an overpopulation of elephants. Elephants, goodlooking as they may be, in very large numbers are destructive and deadly to human beings.

President Masisi should really calm down: he should take this tiff as a storm in a teacup. Here in Germany, we have a Green Party that has become insensitive in global situations that, otherwise, demand greater maturity and in-depth knowledge of diplomatic astuteness. Even German Green voters are flabbergasted and tongue-tied about the Green's political brass: Their economic multiple mistakes have distanced the common man. Coupled with the war in Ukraine, the geopolitical situation is defining who is the boss and who are subservient in the larger scheme of things, the hierarchy I talked about earlier on. It is my slender opinion that the German government, especially the Green Party adheres to USA orders, tells them how to handle geo-political matters. Today Germany is like a vassal state of USA. USA has destroyed the economy of Germany: nobody knows how far this destruction can go. Because the Green Party obeys orders from the Deep State in USA, Ms. Lemke expects Botswana's President Masisi to do the same without challenge!

Before the invasion of Ukraine, The German Chancellor Scholz was in Washington when President Joe Biden made a press conference telling the world at large that if Russia Putin invaded Ukraine, then the Nord-Stream pipelines, somehow or other will not be functional. Indeed, the Nord-Streat pipeline was blown in a movie style even the film Industry became green with envy.  We saw in news media reads how our chancellor stood frozen near the big brother Biden. These North-Stream pipelines are civilian infrastructure and not military.  For all the decades of German economic boom, it is thanks to the cheap Russian LNG energy, and Germany becoming the economy leader in the euro-zone. (I would call it economic sabotage) to destroy the civil infrastructure. Germany is unparalleled in terms of economic developments.

It is unspoken why Germany must go all its way to please USA at the detriment of its own national security. Energy resources are intertwined together with national security issues. How long is Germany paying back its dues to USA for losing the WW2 and must pay by being on the side of USA in all its geo-political conflicts? I will be excused if I said Germany has no sovereignty to speak about, it is subordinate to USA at the detriment of its own economic development. However, Botswana in its hierarchical position to Germany, is saying no to big brother Germany! Elephants in Botswana are too many and therefore the number must be brought down or even culling them to accepted levels.

No ground-breaking enquiries were done to establish who exactly blew up such an important civil infrastructure, North-Stream pipeline, the most important vein of German economy. The German government feared even to utter suspicions related to USA as the culprit. It does not have the courage to stand up to the big brother and tell USA that the German economy is regressing, inflation is high, very soon we shall be talking about recession. Germany needs Russian NLG coming from one existing Nord-Stream pipeline that is still functional. German corporate industries are relocating to America where they are promised industrial incentives to boost their industrial outputs, provide jobs to millions of Americans. All is happening today, in our lifetime. This is how weak our current German coalition government has become under Scholz's administration: (Red, Green, Yellow).  

The fracking LNG gas imported by Germany from USA is environmental unfriendly. It is a dirty energy product that needs refining in Germany, not USA. Now here comes the double standards: the German government approves import of fracking LNG from USA out of fear of USA. Again, this fracking LNG is 3 to 4 times more expensive than the cheap, cleaner LNG from Russia. How crazy can life still go? The Green Party Minister, Steffi Lemke should have started by condemning the environmental hazards caused by imports of "dirty gas" coming from USA, a "master green party policy" enshrined in their constitution. (The Green Party is forever lecturing us about clean and safe energy) Somehow it is easy to tell a small country like Botswana to preserve animal rights.
Immediately after the invasion of Ukraine, our economic Minister, Haberk went to some Arab countries begging for oil: here is the contradiction: theses Arab oil exporting countries are not democratic, but autocratic, worse than Russia's Putin who is an Orthodox Christian. Again, the Minister did not get the LNG he wanted. The world has gone multi polar. BRICKS is the new game in town. Somehow the German government can overlook human rights crisis in these Arab countries if it is pursuing its own interest and that of USA. Steffi Lemke should know that President Masisi cannot afford the constant cost of human life caused by the large presence of wildlife seeking larger habitation in human eco-systems. Ms. Lemke somehow affords to tell President Masisi to shape up about animal rights, above genuine concerns  regarding  the danger of large populations of elephants to human populations affected by uncontrolled expanding of animal eco-systems.

"It is very easy to sit in Berlin and have an opinion about our affairs in Botswana. We are paying the price for preserving these animals for the world, and even for Lemke's party," he said. "This is not a joke," the president told the newspaper. Germans should "live together with the animals, in the way you are trying to tell us to." "We would like to offer such a gift to Germany," Masisi declared, adding that he would "not take no for an answer". 20,000 elephants as gift to Germany is not bad at all, Comrade Steffi Lemke must take this offer of a lifetime. President Masisi conjures a situation where these magnificent animals will roam around the famous Kurfürstendamm, see how Kaufhaus Des Westens looks like from an animal perspective, mingling with Berliner residents; pass by Berliner Beer Gardens, pass by the Berlin Zoologischer Garden, and pay their condolences to caged elephants in the Zoo. Masisi's prescription about how elephants coming from Botswana as a gift will be kept is very different from those in the Berliner Zoo. These elephants will be left free to wonder around in the streets of Berlin, will be free to live along side with Berliner residents.

I hasten to say that this crop of politicians we have in Germany is one of its kind. There has never been such political vacuum, gross incompetence of political astuteness in Germany since 1947. Most previous government managed to put the security of the German nation first, amid pressure from USA that wanted Germany to be an Agra economy and never beyond. Helmut Schmidt, Helmut Kohl, Willy Brandt, Rita Sussmann, Gerhard Schröder, Barbara Jon, Angela Merkel, just to mention those few; those that have passed on, must be turning in their graves about how Germany has become. The sterling leadership qualities are light years apart from what we have today as (Ample coalition) politicians. Back then, there was not a single German politician from all political divides, who would lecture President Masisi what to do with the fast-growing number of elephants.

Certainly not Germans but other Caucasian nations, yes. German people have permanent scars of two world wars WW1 & 2 and are overly sensitive to foreign engagements and their language use, diplomatically. Ms. Steffi Lemke's pressure valve in the vein-running process must have inadvertently given in because of the geo-political pressures from the USA. To casually talk about the rights of animals that should be preserved may have lacked adequate explanation to satisfy President Masisi. Therefore, it can be safely said it's a diplomatic tiff; will never upset good diplomatic relations that two countries have enjoyed for decades.

Yes, the animal kingdom in African settings lived alongside with human populations. Wild animals were the source of food securities. The grain culture came later in their evolution. The culling of large animal kingdoms happened naturally and kept the animal populations in check. Colonialization made it impossible to hunt to subsist in that way controlling animal populations in their habitat naturally. The colonial administrations punished Africans if they killed an elephant. During colonial times, there were laws that clearly stipulated which wild animals were to be hunted by Africans and which ones were not, that included elephants.

I suspect, this must have touched the raw mammalian nerve of President Masisi who must have overreacted from an external pressure telling him what to do with uncontrolled growth of elephant populations. However, President Masisi should also give Ms. Steffi Lemke some Operational Manual of keeping elephants freely among German residents in a town like Berlin. If not, it means property damage, destruction of crops and trampling residents to death will be the order of the day: the same challenges that Batswanas live with on daily basis. Otherwise, the offer will be inadequate without elaborating the downside of living freely with elephants in a city like Berlin.