Sunday September 8, 2013

I've Been Thinking:

This bird's name was Menes. Last week Menes was captured and arrested in Egypt. Today Menes is dead.

The story has become commonplace. Only this time, it ended horribly.

Last week a stork named Menes was arrested by the Egyptians. The stork was arrested as a spy. The bird was placed in its own cell in a police station and an investigation ensued. There was a GPS tracking system on its back and a tag on its leg. They charge was espionage.

In the end it was confirmed that the bird was simply a bird. It was confirmed that the devices were not spy equipment but ornithological tools that help track migrating birds from Africa to Europe and back.

Menes was finally released into a nature preserve. It flew to an island in the Nile. But a day or so later the stork was hunted down, killed and eaten - by human Egyptian predators, not animal predators.

These stories repeat themselves and at a certain point they are no longer funny. They are simply sad. And not just mean for Menes and the other birds.

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