Tag COVID_19

5 May

DISTRACTIONS ASIDE, CONSERVATION NEEDS RADICAL CHANGE

The realities are uncomfortable. We cannot continue to allow wildlife trade because of the potential public health risks and because it contributes to the degradation of nature. And those who will be most negatively impacted by a degraded planet are the very same impoverished communities that wildlife trade proponents seek to benefit.

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27 Apr

“Sometimes it Falls Upon a Generation to be Great” Nelson Mandela

Freedom Day is a public or Bank Holiday in South Africa and commemorates the first democratic post-apartheid non-racial elections that were held on April 27th 1994, which saw Nelson Mandela elected as President. The EMS Foundation assisted three hundred families with food security in Ocean View in celebration of Freedom Day 2020.

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18 Apr

EMS FOUNDATION APPEALS FOR MORATORIUM ON THE LION BONE INDUSTRY

Until there is more information available about the risks of the captive breeding of lions and other big cats and the lion bone trade, both in terms of human health and to the survival of lions, a risk-averse and cautious approach requires that a moratorium is placed on the industry as outlined in the submission.

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4 Apr

I CHOOSE TO BE HERE – THE ART OF GIVING DURING THE GLOBAL COVID_19 PANDEMIC

The EMS Foundation's key purpose is to alleviate and end suffering, and provide dignity to the most vulnerable groups of people in South Africa. In keeping with our purpose we made the decision to assist the community leaders that we have aligned ourselves with. Food security for their people has become a priority to these community leaders

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27 Mar

LOVE AND THE ART OF GIVING DURING THE TIME OF THE COVID_19 GLOBAL PANDEMIC

"A fundamental concern for others in our individual and community lives would go a long way in making the world the better place we so passionately dreamt of" Nelson Mandela

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25 Mar

A LOOMING CRISIS – THE CAPTIVE BIG CAT INDUSTRY, COVID_19 AND GOVERNMENT CULPABILITY

Since at least as far back as the late 1990s, various NGOs have warned your department about the harmful and negative effects of breeding lions (and other big cats) in captivity. Yet, the South African government has done nothing to slow the growth of the captive lion breeding industry, nor has it given any indication of wanting to do so. This letter lays bare the facts and calls for immediate action. First, it details the risks embedded in captive lion (and other big cat) breeding and why the industry should be terminated.

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21 Mar

The South African Captive Bred Lion Industry and Associated Global Health Risks

As a consequence of the extensive evidence presented against the captive big-cat breeding industry and its abhorrent offshoots such as canned hunting and the unregulated lion bone trade, Parliament instructed the Minister of Environmental Affairs (at the time) and her Department – in December 2019 – to shut down the industry, which is a major ethical, legal and administrative embarrassment for South Africa. 

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26 Feb

IS SOUTH AFRICA’S LION BONE TRADE CREATING HEALTH RISKS FOR WORKERS AND CONSUMERS COVID_19?

In the wake of the coronavirus outbreak, likely attributable to the consumption of pangolin meat at a ‘wet’ wildlife meat market in Wuhan, China, the Chinese state has imposed a ban on the sale of wildlife and wildlife products. Even though this move is motivated by a desire to mitigate contagion risk, it is in keeping with China’s desire to portray itself as an ‘ecological civilisation’. An ecologically minded civilisation does not promote the domestication of wildlife to be farmed as mere consumables. South Africa could learn a lesson here.

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