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When I was at primary school, my teacher defined a human being as "the most perfect creature in the world, who can think and reason." The lesson wasn’t lost on us. Like most people, as far as I can see, we came to think of ourselves as above the rest, a creature who was always looking down on the rest of the world’s creatures. On the other hand, during our history lessons, we were taught that the human being is the most ruthless and efficient killer of all. It was as if no one even realised our confusion over these two apparent contradictions. The most perfect creature and yet the best killer!
If there have been enough wars and massacres in history to prove that human talent for killing, there have also been enough destroyed landscapes and extinct animals and plants to prove that human beings consider themselves superior to all the rest.
In everything, human self interest comes first. If it is a question of a wetland or a holiday resort, the wetland will be drained and filled with concrete. If it is a question of a forest or a road, the trees will soon be falling before the bulldozers. Many people don’t even mutter a word in protest. Why? Because it has been drummed into them since they were little boys and girls: "Human beings come first." In other words, if the factory or the road or the tourist village isn’t built, "people won’t find work" and "people won’t benefit."
The idea that such investors might work together with concerned citizens to produce a development plan that will not destroy the environment hardly even crosses peoples’ minds. Why? Because there is no need. If people benefit, what else is there to think about?
The village I was born in is an old Armenian settlement. Garmirik (nowadays it is known by some other name but it’s still Garmirik to me), was built on a hill over the river Çoruh, and because all of its houses were built on rocks, all the surrounding farmland was preserved. Now I live in Foça. Foça is one of the 12 Ionian cities (ancient Phokaia). Ionians, Persians, Romans, Greeks and many other peoples have lived in the city. Greeks and Turks, they lived together for ages, until 1922 tore them apart. All of these nations (including the Turks) protected the town’s farmlands, its nature and archaeological heritage. But after 1984 the town’s historical sites and natural environment were pillaged. Archaeological sites were opened for construction. Secondary houses were built where age-old olive trees used to live.
The question is, is the human urge to destroy an illness or a result of human egotism?
I have met a lot of hunters who have hunted a lot of animals. Because they are not all the same, I distinguish them as destroyers and hunters. Destroyers act in a hostile manner to both themselves and their surroundings without even being aware of what they are doing. With the gun they own they spend their ammunition indiscriminately, seeing almost everything that comes in their way as a target – including traffic signs. It doesn’t matter whether the target is a youngster or pregnant or whether she is suckling her pups. The important thing is to shoot and, if they can manage it, to kill the target. Maybe most of them don’t even realise that they are cutting the branch they are sitting on. Somehow there must be a way of letting these people know that it’s impossible to live in a world without these natural beauties and living things.
Think of all the animals that are simply thrown away because they do not have any economic value. For example, the purse seiners are catching very young anchovies, sardines and other fish without giving them the chance to lay even their first eggs. But because they can’t find any profitable market for their catch, most of these fish are thrown away or are sent to the fish-flour factories or are used as bait. Undersized breams are caught and sold to stock fish farms because they fetch a good price. In many places, fish farms are stealing their supply from nature instead of producing their own fish.
Here in Foça, there is a protected area for monk seals, where fishing with seines, trawls and trata gear is forbidden. Despite this prohibition, some people continue to fish here illegally. Although it is banned, divers are also night-fishing with harpoons. Tourists, especially people from ClubMed, go diving near the seal caves, and some daily tour boats also invade the area.
The people of Foça, the fishermen and most of the tour boat operators, support the protected area, but trouble is caused by a few greedy individuals who have come to realise that the legal sanctions are not effective. As a result, they don’t take them seriously. SAD-AFAG and the Fishermen’s Co-operative are struggling to prevent these kinds of illegal activities, but effective guarding and legal sanctions are essential if the protection of this area is to be successful. Perhaps the real solution is through education, but that is a long-term occupation.
With the seas and the earth and the air being ruined all around us, and with technology out of anyone’s control, and with people still grasping for the same things that are causing all this destruction, it is hard to think of the teachers who are still fooling the children with the idea that we are "the most perfect creature on earth, who can think and reason."
There is a question in my mind which gives me a headache whenever I think about it. How to explain the behaviour of those who cruelly destroy nature? I guess the basic problem is a lack of love – people who are incapable of loving their fellow humans and fellow creatures, even of loving themselves and their own children. But I believe the most powerful weapon we have is love. With love we can overcome our egoism, with love we can learn how to share and with love we can build up a world without hunger and wars. We do not have any other choice. The only ecosystem we can live in is this one. There is no other world.
Sevki Avci, a fisherman from Foça, Turkey.
October 2000
Copyright © 2000 Sevki Avci, The Monachus Guardian. All Rights Reserved