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Courtesy and tolerance.

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Ladies and Gentlemen.

I have just come out of hospital and my better half goes in on Monday.

Bluntly I am both distressed at the lack of courtesy, abuse and offensive content of some posts. Rapace, is an excellent moderator and he merits respect.

Rest assured as a former Royal Marine in the ranks I am well used to foul language and abuse. However this forum is not the place for such behaviour. Perpetrators let themselves down and besmirch the foundation of the forum.

I shall return to forum shortly and hope by then that behaviour will have improved.

Chas.
 

Rapace

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Thanks for those words of wisdom and the ‘kudos’, although I'm certainly not after them as a moderator, neither are my ‘colleagues’. I've seen a number of ‘cyber fighting’ in the past 15+ years I've been around. No big deal at all. Having said that, I'm now just going out to enjoy the Sicilian sun... :)
 
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176607Mick

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Chas: if that was a dig at my response to the unwarranted words from Rapace, I truly do not care. He has no right to make such assumptions and I will not standby and allow him to speak to me in such a tone. Many agree with me on here he didn't need to comment in the way he did.
I've asked once again for my account to be deleted. I only came back to post details of work that some former legionnaires may be interested in. I've since been told that the forum is not the place for this. Therefore my membership of this is irrelevant. So, this will be my last post. I have no time for petty squabbles and I have certainly no time to play insult tennis.
 

sig2340

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Chas, I hope both you and the better half recover fully and swiftly.
 

dusaboss

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Ladies and Gentlemen.

I have just come out of hospital and my better half goes in on Monday.

Bluntly I am both distressed at the lack of courtesy, abuse and offensive content of some posts. Rapace, is an excellent moderator and he merits respect.

Rest assured as a former Royal Marine in the ranks I am well used to foul language and abuse. However this forum is not the place for such behaviour. Perpetrators let themselves down and besmirch the foundation of the forum.

I shall return to forum shortly and hope by then that behaviour will have improved.

Chas.

Be well fest, old chap!
 

dusaboss

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Anyway, can we get little bit more positive on board?

[video=youtube;aObhKcGb8S8]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aObhKcGb8S8[/video]

Yep, your dog will remember you even when you come back from FFL.

Cat won't. They love you only until you feed them. :)
 

Tammerfors

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No, it makes it twice as hard to give your dog away while serving. Stupid first world problem.
 

dusaboss

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No, it makes it twice as hard to give your dog away while serving. Stupid first world problem.

O yes, Tammerfors have a dog. :)

How's that first world problem? Do you think some southern Chinese guy doesn't suffer for his dog right before he put him in oven? :) "Hot dog" have different meaning in different parts of world.

But don't worry. As I already told you there's many dogs in legion and plenty of joyful game "Kick The Dog Over Log". Dogs love it! From constantly flying around Dogs in legion trippin balls so much that they stop barking. Instead they make hawk-like sounds. :)
 

Tammerfors

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Well it is a first world problem. The problem is me being too soft and sensitive about it. It kind of feels like an insult to all those guys who actually have real problems they need to solve before they can travel to France. I just need to toughen up and kick that hairy-ass-mofo to a new home and not cry about it. if I lived in Botswana I propably wouldn't give two thoughts about this matter. (No offense to Botswanians)
 

dusaboss

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I don't know how much do money and development influence people's affection towards pets, but you may be onto something there. Urban and developed areas almost certainly reducing people's affection to each other. So, it's possible that we (you, I'm not in first world country :)) looking for substitute in pets.

I would send you a pic of my neighbor's dog. As "dog lover" you gonna really like it. ;)
 

Cernunnos

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I don't know how much do money and development influence people's affection towards pets, but you may be onto something there. Urban and developed areas almost certainly reducing people's affection to each other. So, it's possible that we (you, I'm not in first world country :)) looking for substitute in pets.

I would send you a pic of my neighbor's dog. As "dog lover" you gonna really like it. ;)

Nah, Canines and Humans have a symbiotic relationship.
It's not a matter of "evil" civilisation driving a wedge between us.
Way back when the Romans were still strutting their stuff we were using Canines as Guards, friends and in the arts of hunting and warfare.

An interesting story about how important Dogs are to Man is shown in the story of Yudhishthira (yes, I had to look it up to get the spelling right).
In the Epic of Mahabharata, on reaching the top, Indra asked him (Yudhishthira ) to abandon the dog before entering the Heaven. But Yudhishthira refused to do so, citing the dog's unflinching loyalty as a reason. It turned out that the dog was his god-father Dharma in disguise.

And who could forget Homer's Odyssey?
"Eumaeus, what a noble hound that is over yonder on the manure heap: his build is splendid; is he as fine a fellow as he looks, or is he only one of those dogs that come begging about a table, and are kept merely for show?" "This dog," answered Eumaeus, "belonged to him who has died in a far country. If he were what he was when Odysseus left for Troy, he would soon show you what he could do. There was not a wild beast in the forest that could get away from him when he was once on its tracks. But now he has fallen on evil times, for his master is dead and gone, and the women take no care of him." Unable to greet his beloved dog, as this would betray who he really was, Odysseus passed by (but not without shedding a tear)...

For the people who understand French, or can use google, "Il semble que la nature ait donné le chien à l'homme pour sa défense et pour son plaisir. C'est de tous les animaux le plus fidèle : c'est le meilleur ami que puisse avoir l'homme."
 

voltigeur

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There is no question as to the loyalty of a dog.
Put your dog and your wife in the trunk/boot of you car for a few hours and then see who is happy to see you after letting them out.
 

SnafuSmite

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Well it is a first world problem. The problem is me being too soft and sensitive about it. It kind of feels like an insult to all those guys who actually have real problems they need to solve before they can travel to France. I just need to toughen up and kick that hairy-ass-mofo to a new home and not cry about it. if I lived in Botswana I propably wouldn't give two thoughts about this matter. (No offense to Botswanians)
Not just first world problems mate! We love our pets even in deepest darkest Africa! On an irrelevant side note Botswana's care for their wildlife is insanely good... Their defence force is 75% geared towards anti poaching and they have done a sterling job! Poaching is virtually non existent and if a poacher is caught well they hope the Rangers and/or soldiers would just shoot them instead of going to jail, I think the minimum sentecing for poaching is the same as murder.
 

Tammerfors

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Well that's good news from Botswana. I admit that I don't know much about that country, was just first one that popped in my head. Would like to visit there sometime though, looks beautiful in the pictures.
 

Joseph Cosgrove

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Not just first world problems mate! We love our pets even in deepest darkest Africa! On an irrelevant side note Botswana's care for there wildlife is insanely good...their defence force is 75% geared towards anti poaching and they have done a sterling job! Poaching is virtually non existent and if a poacher is caught well they hope the Rangers and/or soldiers would just shoot them instead of going to jail, I think the minimum sentecing for poaching is the same as murder.

Here's a copy of an article I read a couple of days ago about Brit army sent to help train the anti-poachers in Malawi:

Under a scorching sun, a team of British soldiers and Malawian rangers sheltered under a tree ready to pounce on their prey: poachers.
The combined force, armed with rifles and handcuffs, did not encounter any poachers as it patrolled the 530 square kilometre (240 square mile) Liwonde national park in Malawi's south.
But the presence of the highly-trained and well-equipped British forces was reassuring for the rangers who routinely confront gangs of poachers armed with Kalashnikovs.
Liwonde, which borders Mozambique, is Malawi's leading game reserve and is home to the southern African country's largest elephant and rhino populations.
The seven British soldiers are there to train 35 of Malawi's anti-poaching rangers.
Prince Harry is the public face of the project that began in 2016 and earlier this year he visited the park to oversee the relocation of over 300 elephants to the Nkhotakota game park in central Malawi.
'A poaching crisis'
"We were in a poaching crisis in 2015 in this park... but the situation has now been contained," said Bright Kumchedwa, the director of Malawi's parks and wildlife department.

And although the fight against the illicit wildlife trade is far from over -- poaching halved the country's elephant population from 4,000 in the 1980s to 2,000 in 2015 -- gains are being made.
"The good news is that we have had only one case of a rhino being poached in two years in this park," Kumchedwa told AFP.
"(British forces) are transferring military skills to Malawian rangers to use in conservation... the soldiers are adding value to the training of rangers."
Michael Geldard, the British army colonel in charge of the training, described the campaign against poachers as "a game of cat and mouse with danger".
"We are here to train rangers how to protect themselves from wild animals and not necessarily to shoot poachers," said Geldard, who is also Britain's defence attache to several African countries.
"We are training them how to track down poachers and defend themselves from animals."
Kingsley Kachoka, a Malawian who is a sergeant in the British army, told AFP he was delighted to be home "to help my country to deal with poachers".
"I hope there will be a change because we are covering more ground in counter-poaching skills."
'Winning the war'
*
Malawian ranger Edward Makupiza said that in the past he feared being shot by heavily armed Mozambican poachers who carry assault rifles when they cross the border in to Malawi in pursuit of elephants.
"But now after training with the British army, I know how to protect myself and others from danger."
Craig Reid runs African Parks, a conservation organisation that manages several game parks under a deal with Lilongwe, and said his team had pioneered the use of cyber-trackers and drones to tackle poaching.

"The landscape has changed and we have become much more professional in dealing with poaching," he said.
The park also owns a helicopter used to help track poachers.
"It's an expensive asset -- but it pays to use it," Reid said.
"Poaching is declining dramatically," he said, with officers having seized 27,000 wire snares, 43 kilograms of ivory and 56 rounds of illegal ammunition from poachers between from August 2015 and October 2017 according to African Parks.
Patrols at the park have led to the arrest of 130 poachers, most of whom have been sentenced to jail terms of at least six years following a move by the government to stiffen penalties. The maximum sentence is now 30 years.
"We are winning the war against poaching," Kumchedwa said.
 

Rapace

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Not really the original subject of the thread, but since people have started talking about this, poaching is a real scourge in Africa. Most wild species are in danger of extinction, elephants of course, but also apes (gorillas, chimps, etc.) and animals you wouldn't imagine like pangolins, pythons, etc. Unfortunately only a few countries take poaching seriously and since corruption is so rife, many poachers/traffickers can easily get away with it. And the worst in this area are the Chinese mafias...
 

Cernunnos

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Not really the original subject of the thread, but since people have started talking about this, poaching is a real scourge in Africa. Most wild species are in danger of extinction, elephants of course, but also apes (gorillas, chimps, etc.) and animals you wouldn't imagine like pangolins, pythons, etc. Unfortunately only a few countries take poaching seriously and since corruption is so rife, many poachers/traffickers can easily get away with it. And the worst in this area are the Chinese mafias...
If the other nations aren't paying enough attention, then why don't they just pay some guns-for-hire to “dealâ€￾ with the poachers?
Do they not have enough money to do so?
 

Hansenmann

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If the other nations aren't paying enough attention then why don't they just pay some guns-for-hire to "deal" with the poachers?
Do they not have enough money to do so?

I imagine corruption and in some cases poverty are reasons for it.
 

Rapace

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If the other nations aren't paying enough attention, then why don't they just pay some guns-for-hire to “dealâ€￾ with the poachers? (...)
Why? I said it, corruption. A number of officials in African countries (and not only in Africa) are taking bribes from the animals traffickers to turn a blind eye on their ‘business’. With these kind of people, if you take the money and don't ‘deliver’, you may run into serious trouble. Let alone the fact that for those officials it's a financial resource that they don't want to see disappearing. What they don't understand is that, well... It will disappear when there are no more animals to poach, but this is the lesser of their concerns.
Exactly the same problem goes with illegal wood cutting. Illegal deforestation is another plague of the African continent and here also, the Chinese are ‘leading the game’...
 
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