My Homework Assignment 3/31/2009

The National Geographic did a digital media story called Ivory Wars: Last Stand in Zakoama. The story takes place in Zakoama National Park in Chad, Africa. This park is an open refuge and home for many of Africa’s animals, in particular, elephants. The park is guarded during the day by armed horsemen. But in the night, the park is ravaged by ivory hunters. The beginning of the story literally “moves”. The stills that were taken showcase many animals, in amazing photography. Many of the shots were extremely unique, causing one to awe at how beautiful the creation’s of Mother Earth truly are. Photographers from National Geographic spend several months inside the park, documenting thousands of elephants that gather in the park, daily. But not all is well within the park. This park is one of the last places on earth where over 1,000 elephants can be seen at one time. And because of that, poachers are drawn to the area. It was believed that the ivory market was down, however, but only moved underground. Many of the stills shown were of many elephant carcasses, all without their tusks. One of the thoughts from one of the photographers was that every poacher that he has ever seen, are still all poor. So it makes you wonder why such ruthless people would continue to commit such atrocious acts when they are not benefitting from their work. The greatest part of the entire story was of course the photography. But the pictures were backed by the natural sound of the African jungles, which truly did make one believe that they were in the jungle. Another great thing was the use of the African music, instead of morose music. At the very beginning of the piece, pictures and text were set to the beat of the music. One of the other cool things that was included, was an interactive map, put on by Google Earth, for viewers to play around with and search through the Zakoama National Park. All in all, any non-animal-lover who may watch this piece, and STILL not care for animals, doesn’t have a heart. And without a heart, you are not human.