The Elephant Story

One More Invasion of Laos

Jun 10, 2019 | 0 comments

The author first went to Luang Prabang, Laos in 1969 and encountered a number of unwanted North Vietnamese tanks some nine miles north of the capital. There was a continuous debate as to whether the North Vietnamese would actually invade the capital where we had a facility to fuel CIA-backed Hmong fighters and their aircraft. The belief was the Vietnamese would not capture Luang Prabang as it would jeopardize the relationship with the Lao people given their close association with King Savang Vatthana. That argument was a bit weak in that the North Vietnamese showed no restraint in capturing the...

The Market for Elephant Exotics is Exploding in China and Vietnam

Jun 18, 2018 | 0 comments

Scientists at the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute (SCBI) have found that poaching is an emerging crisis for Asian elephants in Myanmar. Previously, female Asian elephants were generally protected from slaughter in the wild as illegal demand was only for the ivory of the males. By accident, researchers became aware of the crisis as they were conducting an unrelated telemetry study in which they fitted nineteen Asian elephants with satellite GPS collars to better understand elephant movements and reduce human-elephant conflict. At the time, it was believed that such conflict situations represented the greatest threat to the wild elephant population though...

The Chinese Flame of Freedom is Finally Extinguished

Oct 02, 2017 | 0 comments

Liu Xiaobo, China's foremost political dissident and recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize recently passed away from liver cancer which likely could have been prevented had there been any desire on the part of the authorities to save him. In fact, it took less than two days for the Chinese to cremate and scatter Liu's ashes which, as a result, solved a prolonged problem of the Politburo.Liu became a thorn in the side of China when he emerged as a prominent figure in the pro-democracy movement 28 years ago that resulted in the wanton deaths in Tiananmen Square. In fact,...