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John Corona, Niles
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An African perspective on lions
Coming to Cecil the Lion’s defense is every “expert” who has never lived in Africa under constant threat of being attacked by a “man eating” lion that is programmed to hunt, kill, and consume anything it considers as potential prey. They confuse Cecil with Simba in the animated movie the “Lion King.”
But what does the average Zimbabwean think about the controversy? I read an op-ed by a native of Zimbabwe, Goodwell Nzou, where he expressed bewilderment. “Did all those Americans signing petitions understand that lions actually kill people?,” he wrote in the New York Times. “In my village in Zimbabwe, surrounded by wildlife conservation areas, no lion has ever been beloved, or granted an affectionate nickname. They are objects of terror. When I was nine years old, a solitary lion prowled villages near my home. After it killed a few chickens, some goats and finally a cow, we were warned to walk to school in groups and stop playing outside.”
“When the lion was finally killed,” he said “no one cared whether its murderer was a local person or a white trophy hunter, whether it was poached or killed legally. We danced and sang about the vanquishing of the fearsome beast and our escape from serious harm.”
Nzou lost his right leg to snakebite when he was 11. Nature isn’t some abstraction to him. Lions are not your friends. They’re wild animals. If a lion was in the room with you right now and it was hungry, it would kill you and eat you. Not because it’s evil or bad, but because it’s a predator. This comes straight from the lion’s mouth.
Ray Cziczo, Galena MO
Iran should go solar, not nuclear
Sharon Peters, Elmhurst
