Go out, see animals before they die out

We are an exceptional country of great privilege.

But given all our constant murmuring and complaining, we have convinced ourselves we are the worst country with nothing good coming out of it.

Yet we are the same country that has been abundantly blessed with all forms of wildlife, even playing host to the last two female northern white rhinos.

Thousands of tourists come from all over the world to visit the majestic Maasai Mara and other wildlife parks just to catch a glimpse of the Big Five, albeit with great difficulty of seeing a rhino.

The fact that a non-resident tourist pays up to eight times the entry fee compared with a local resident is no deterrent to them.

The rare sight of the wildebeest migration is worth every dollar. So why don’t we take advantage of this great privilege?

With global warming and the concern of the earth’s sustainability, we cannot guarantee the wildlife will be here for long.

With temperatures rising, riverbeds drying up and pastures becoming scarce, who knows, wildlife may start dying, much to the delight of the predators.

On the other hand, with too much rainfall comes soil erosion and waterlogging, still leading to scarcity of the much-needed pastures for the animals.

It doesn’t help matters that we have a rapidly growing population and with that comes the increased encroachment on conservation areas, as we are witnessing in the Mau complex.

Perhaps the increasing risks to wildlife explains the emergence of “misery tourism”. Heard of it?

Misery tourism involves going on an excursion to poverty-stricken areas such as the slums. Why? What the media feeds you is what piques your interest and what you end up looking for.

I’d also like to believe that there is an element of the white saviour complex – believing they are doing good and bettering the lives of the youth they pay excursion fees to.

And so, while others have chosen to diversify and define our tourism to include the “poverty” segment, why don’t we reclaim this narrative by visiting our own parks and sharing our tourism story?

Although tourism has been depicted as exclusively for non-residents, no one ever said citizens are excluded from the party.

I understand that we have not been the target audience for the tourism message, but it is our country and, as we like to remind everyone else, we can go anywhere we want. So why not do it then?

Tourism is not defined as and limited to going abroad. Being a local tourist is just as good.

If you don’t find this to be value for your money, think of those travelling thousands of kilometres just to see what you’ve always had.

I wish I had seen Sudan, the last male northern white rhino on earth, before it died last year.

Admittedly, I regret that out of billions of people I had the best chance of seeing Sudan at a nominal cost and I wasted it.

Before the big game hunters get to the giraffes and the lions, or before the earth goes haywire and becomes uninhabitable, consider visiting our parks.