stop using ivory for religious icons!

Cristians and Buddist and the massacre of elephants.

The elephants massacre. Here's how the Church and Buddists supports the illegal traffic of ivory.

During a two-years journey from Western Africa to the Southeast Asia, stopping over the luxury shops of Vatican city, Bryan Christy, 47 years old, an american journalist and former lawyer in Washington, specialized in environmental histories, has certified that behind the african elephants genocide – 25 thousands has been killed in 2011, this is the approximate valuation – there is the heavy hand of the Roman church, and also a surprising areligious connection between Muslim labour, Catholic importers and Buddhist sellers. “Business is business”, says the reporter from Washington, “this is what a Filipino priest explain to me”.

“Blood and ivory” is the National Geographic cover of October. It's a 32 pages inquiry in which Brent Stirton photos illustrate a story that explains how a large part of legal and illegal traffic of ivory supports religious devotion, above all the Christian one but als Buddist.

 Christy explains: “Modern society has
done without ivory in its ordinary usage objects such as billiard balls and
piano keys. Instead, the religious market is still broad.” Coptic Crosses,
Muslim rosaries, Catholic icons and Buddhist amulets all come from the massacre
of thousands of elephants and from the bloody removal of the tusks. Each tusk
is an estimated 5 thousand euro in the region of Tsavo (Kenya).
The bloody ivory comes from Africa and passes through Philippine Islands to
reach Thailand, Hong Kong, and then China, the new worldwide wholesale dealer
that keeps the prices high and imports illegally. “Ivory industry in China is
intended to rise”, Christy says, “the government authorized the opening of at
least 25 factories and 130 stores, and it finances university carver courses”.
The number of killed elephants is intended to increase as a consequence.
Monsignor Cristobal Garcia is one of the most household name and powerful
prelate in the Philippine Islands. He is the President of the Commission for
the religious cult of Cebu’s archdiocese, with 4 million believers in a country
that is third in the world for Catholic inhabitants. There is a crucifix with
an ivory Christ in his office. He explained to Christy how to carry an ivory
Holy Niño from the Philippine Islands to the United States by fooling the
customs, “Roll it up in a pair of old and dirty underwear, and spill some
ketchup on it. It will seem like it is shit and blood stained”. Christy
describes, “He pointed out to me an artisan who was agreeable to declare that
the specific piece was a fake, and that was also able to modify its date to
prove that it was previous to ivory date banning. He promised me he would have
blessed the statue.”
Ivory remains an essential component of the sacred objects “and it has a great
symbolic value, in politics too.” Christy reminds us that last year Michel
Suleiman, the Lebanon President, had given a gold and ivory thurible to the
Pope Benedetto XVI.
In 2007 Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, the Philippine Islands President, had given
an ivory Holy Niño, the icon of the country, to Ratzinger. There, in the
Galleria Savelli, that gives onto S. Pietro square, ivory is offered in every
shop window. The Vatican subscribed to the international agreements against
drug dealing, terrorism and organized crime but it never signed Washington
Convention that protects animal species in danger. “Talking of ivory selling in
Vatican city”, Christy says, “ I think that the most important thing is not if
the works are legal or illegal, but we should  ask ourselves if it is right to
sell it. Many elephants and rangers have been brutally killed to have that
ivory, we feed a worldwide corruption”.   “So” he says ”Roman Church
and Buddist leaders have an opportunity to make a difference. Few words are enough: stop to
religious icons made of ivory.