A foreward by Dr Ian Player
In the Greek story about Pandora’s box, Pandora is overcome with curiosity despite being warned not to open the box. She does so and all the evils in the world fly out to plague mankind. Only one bee is left and it is the bee of hope.
Carole Knight’s book brings our attention to all the problems of “blackness and despair” that prevail in the 21st Century. We ignore them at our peril but we must hold onto the bee of hope. Carole Knight deals with both and in bringing information from a huge field of research; the book makes us ponder about the fate of the earth and all its inhabitants including ourselves. This is a book that all people can profitably read – both scientists and lay people alike.
Ecology has always been the central science and in the materialistic haste of the Western world we have shut our eyes to the long trail of disaster that has followed in the wake of what can only be described as the greed of modern man. With a critical and analytical approach Carole Knight highlights our successive failures in not coming to grips with ecological thinking. She writes in an easy to understand style but chooses her words carefully. The stupidity of our species is plain to see for those who care about the earth and our future.
Doom and gloom has become the stock in trade of the modern environment and with good reason. The decline of the world fisheries alone is more than enough to send us into the slough of despond. I recall how after returning from the 2nd World War at the age of 19 and with no skills I went to the North Coast of KwaZulu-Natal and earned my living catching fish with rod and line. Today 56 years later, I would starve to death. It is a story repeated worldwide on a massive scale. But Carole Knight’s book does not dwell on the dismal. It reminds us of our potential to tackle problems and solve them in new ways. She brings a balanced perspective and after reading about all the problems she provides an antidote to the tendency to sink into negativity. Again I am reminded of my own experience in the late 1950’s when we faced the challenge of the White Rhino becoming extinct. We overcame the technical and political problems and from a small number of 437 White Rhino in 1953, there are now 12 000 in the world. A small team of dedicated people made the difference.
Given a chance and a rest Nature responds with amazing rapidity and this is the central message of this fine book. Listen to Nature, work with her and she will respond. The bee of hope in Pandora’s box is brought to life by Carole Knight and becomes a beacon of light and a clarion call to the collective unconscious of mankind, to wake up and do what Nature expects us to do. Work towards a better understanding of where we have come from and how bright a future awaits us if we put our minds, hearts and souls into our work for the Earth.
Ian Player D.M.S.
January 27th, 2005 at 8:28 am
One of the greatest challenges facing a writer is to create a work of sufficient merit for a person of stature to be willing to endorse it in terms of a Foreword. In respect of “Miracles of Hope: Surviving and Thriving in the 21st Century” there could have been no person of greater stature than Dr Ian Player, one of the world’s leading conservationists and I am so grateful that Dr Player consented to lend weight to my words with his carefully considered prologue.
With more than 51 years of dedicated service to conservation, Dr Player is a man who has always been ahead of his time. A deeply thoughtful man, Dr Player was one of the first thought leaders to recognize the importance of wilderness to the human soul, pioneering trails through the South African wilderness for children of all races, colours and creeds at a time when South Africa’s apartheid policies were making it a political pariah in most of the world. A dedicated Jungian; he is a “doer” also pioneering the Duzi Canoe Marathon, which in time has become one of the most important events on the South African canoeing calendar.
Dr Player believes that the establishment of wilderness as a philosophical concept and practical reality is a most important conservation milestone. He believes that “without a combination of the spiritual and the scientific understanding of nature, we will be unable to live in a sense of harmony with this planet, either personally or collectively, and wilderness is the key to this understanding because it enables us to get to learn about our inner natures, our inscapes, to find a way to the path of living with the world”.
As the most beloved and respected environmental leader in southern Africa Dr Player has a great many demands on his time, however he graciously found space in his busy schedule to invite me to breakfast with him on a cold Johannesburg winter morning in order for us to meet and get to know each other as a preamble to the possibility of him writing a Foreword for my book. He was a most genial and considerate host instantly putting me at ease. Dr Player took the task of writing the Foreword very seriously, carefully reading through the manuscript. He is not a man to suffer fools gladly and when he consented to write the Foreword I felt that I had achieved my own important milestone in the creation of this book.
Thank you Dr Player for leading the way.