A flock of 60 eagles in flight must be a majestic sight; a magnificent bird at the peak of its evolutionary cycle; a species millions of years in the making. Such a spectacle was about to grace our shores. Itwas not to be as these birds were shot at, maimed and decimated by ignorance.
Bird hunting in Malta is glorified as culture or even as tradition. To a degree, this is true but not for the reasons one might expect. The history of Malta, as that of all other countries, is a dismal tale of conflict, conquest and killing.
The human race has the dubious honour of being the most destructive and murderous species on this planet. In a way, we can, therefore, say that slaughter is part of our culture and tradition.
We consider ourselves to be civilised and outside of nature and have set up all sorts of institutions and belief systems to justify and support such a deluded thesis.
We continue to destroy species after species, driving each to extinction, never to be seen again. If you are not human, your days are numbered.
Millions upon millions of years of evolution and creative force brought to nought.
What we do to other species we do to each other. We are driven by dominance. Every nation, without exception, has been built on the genocide of its predecessors. To say that we have blood on our hands would be an understatement. We are covered in the blood of our collective ancestors and increasing numbers of extinct species.
This sad and horrendous state of affairs should be obvious to everybody as it is historical fact. It is not. Why? There is no conspiracy at work here. We simply appear to be unable to learn from history and totally incapable of perceiving any consequence arising from our actions that is further away than the tip of our nose.
What we do to other species we do to each other
Far and large, people have little or no knowledge of what has brought about the nations, culture and various economic systems that exist today and control our lives.
We blindly follow organised religion, governments and social norms.
On the one hand, one should take off one’s hat to religious organisations that have survived and thrived for 2,500, 2,000 or 1,500 years, just to name three.
On the other hand, one must surmise that in all these centuries religions have never been sensitive to environmental degradation or the wilful killing of any creature that is not human.
Religions teach tolerance and selflessness. Well, look around you or look up the very history of all major religions. I rest my case.
Governments do not have any philosophical underpinning to redeem them.
Politicians, and the governments they run, are held at ransom by votes.
Even if we assume that they are honest and competent, their hands are tied. Their actions are motivated by survival strategies.
One is not really going to find any moral compass here.
All this happens while the rest of us plod on day after day, week after week, month after month and year after year living with blinkers on, as if in a vacuum, clueless about the past or the future.
You would be right to think that we should have learnt something better than this over the 200,000 years that we have trodden this planet upright on two legs.
It is not too late to take responsibility for our life, the earth and the countless species that coexist with us on this blue planet.
Let us stop now destroying our children’s world.