Not convinced you hated to take another swipe!
I'm ambivalent. Yeah, I don't mind getting that Ethiopian business off my chest. I think what old J.R.--or one of his employees--wrote was pretty low. It could also have got somebody ruined or killed. On the other hand, the movers and shakers of the world--especially politicians and industrial magnates--are oftentimes cut from a different cloth than I approve of. Donald Trump, for example, married a beautiful much younger woman. Now, as a man I can certainly understand wanting and even marrying such a beauty. But if I had done such a thing, I would have done it in Outer Slobovia in the middle of the night. Trump made it a huge gala affair--a great white wedding and invited the wealthy and privileged of the world to attend. He BELIEVES in advertising and he believes in himself.
I think it was like that for J.R. "Hilary's Swabia" is a case in point. He advertised big and he was not embarrassed. I was embarrassed for him but he definitely wasn't embarrassed for himself. J.R. was a mover and shaker. I am not. J.R. transformed international hunting. I have not. J.R. could afford to hunt those 20-30 wild sheep--at least I think he could. I might be wrong about what he could actually afford but the J.R.s of the world try to leave the impression that they are very high rollers. They roll the dice and they win or lose big.
I believe that SCI is a J.R. organization that especially appeals to the J.R.s of the hunting world. Many hunters are entirely satisfied to slip quietly through the forest in hopes of a nice common baldebok. Any recognition they get will be from other hunters around the fire or perhaps from his 'woman'. "Got that baldebok, yet?" "Sure did, Honey Bunny. Hanging from the pole." Others, however, want to be publicly recognized for their accomplishment. It's not that one type of person is better than the other but the one type of person is certainly different than the other.
Many people really do want to get their names in that book. They'll do what they have to do and spend what they have to spend to accomplish it. This fact has injected a lot of money into hunting all over the world. To a certain extent this has been highly inflationary but in other cases increased competition by PHs and ranchers has held prices down and has also increased opportunities for all of us. Farms, for example, in South Africa and Texas have gone over entirely to game. Private lands previously closed to hunting are now advertising for hunters. In some cases this phenomenon has taken on an unnatural life of its own which is probably bad [game sale auctions of mutant color phases and 'hunts' for highly bred and inbred whitetails and manipulated red deer] but up until now the trend has been good for trophy hunting. At one time, an African safari was only for the rich and famous. Now, a hunt for a good impala, wildebeest, whitetail deer, caribou, black bear is in the reach of most of us….BUT….as I look at pricing I'm worried. Hunting 'safari' prices seem, overall, to be inflating faster than general inflation rates. Supply and Demand.
