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With international affairs dominating the information for the primary half of the yr, now interrupted by incessant protection of the self-inflicted native difficulties going through the UK authorities, the doctrine of ‘Communicate softly and carry an enormous stick’ had many an airing. That has all the time been my motto when strolling previous teams of habituated or feral monkeys which have the fame of typically attacking passers by or stealing meals from their baggage or fingers. I’ve puzzled previously if the dictum arose in part of the world that needed to take care of monkeys in addition to with evil people of one other primate species.
After I regarded it up, I discovered that its famous adopter and promoter, Theodore Roosevelt, President of the USA from 1901 till 1909 as properly a eager and really well-read newbie zoologist and pure historian, had certainly recognized the proverb as having originated in West Africa:
I’ve all the time been keen on the West African proverb: “Communicate softly and carry an enormous stick; you’ll go far.”
The final time I had the chance of Roosevelt’s dictum was strolling within the New Territories of Hong Kong the place massive bands of macaques (the origins of which I’ve mentioned beforehand right here) collect to await picnickers, walkers and joggers. Initially and finish of a well-liked stroll alongside a water catchment the place monkeys have a tendency to collect near and on the trail, there are piles of sticks gathered from the bushes and shrubs, picked up after which discarded by walkers and joggers.
The next brief video is of a big troupe of monkeys—round 50 people—on a well-liked path alongside a water catchment close to the Jubilee Reservoir within the New Territories of Hong Kong in December 2017. After we first noticed them they had been descending a steep hill, coated in concrete at decrease ranges, to achieve the trail. They needed to paddle via the trickle of water within the catchment and fairly clearly didn’t like getting their ft moist. Later, they lined the trail for about 100 yards. I had the perfect implement for the day—a strolling pole was my large stick.
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