VietNamNet Bridge would like to introduce a letter to Vietnam from a reader, Thomas Mac Innes, from South Africa.



I am writing to you from South Africa, a country with a turbulent history. Yours is also a country with a turbulent and painful past. Yours is a country that knows all too well what it feels like to be invaded, and your country, people, wildlife to be destroyed. Could you ever imagine that Vietnam might do the same one day?

Every nation, including South Africa, has its unscrupulous citizens who would never shy away from making a profit regardless of the consequences. They are a shameful example of human greed. South African and Vietnamese greed is responsible for rhino poaching in our land and bringing unimaginable pain and suffering to an innocent and unsuspecting species.

Rhinos have no means of defending themselves from humans. They rely on humans for protection and for their continued existence on this planet. Yet humans seem ill bent on eradicating the rhino for his horn. Your country knows all too well the failure that one feels when a species such as the rhino is eradicated from your land. And yet due to Asian consumer demand our rhinos in South Africa are been slaughtered.

Are the good and honest people of Vietnam even aware of what is happening in a faraway country? Demand for rhino horn is leading to an invasion of a foreign country and pain and destruction is been visited upon that country. Help us good people of Vietnam.

In the year 2012 can we really afford to believe that rhino horn cures cancer? Your scientists will tell you that it is impossible. Please - help us save the rhino. Look deep in your heart and as human beings lets feel responsible for this world. Let our actions define us and make a difference to this world.
 
Thomas Mac Innes
Johannesburg
South Africa

* The Worldwide Fund for Nature (WWF) in late 2011 announced that one-horn rhino (rhinoceros sondaicus) in Vietnam is extinct after a rhino, which was considered the last one in Vietnam, was shot dead. However, Vietnamese scientists still believe that one-horn rhinos still can be found at the Cat Tien National Park.