Sunday, December 14, 2014

African Elephant




The African Elephant Weighing up to 6000 kg (6.6 tons) and measuring up to 3.3 m (10 ft.). The worlds largest land Animal I think that it is relevant because there were an estimated 1.3 million African elephants. 10 years later It is estimated that between 434,000 and 684,000 African elephants now remain. These numbers are not 100%, but I found them on http://www.bloodyivory.org/stop-the-ivory-trade 


I think that the Ivory trade is something that a lot of people overlooked at one point, but it almost made a whole species extinct because people thought this was an easy way to get rich. The tusk on African Elephant is made of Ivory, “a hard creamy-white substance composing the main part of the tusks of an elephant, walrus, or narwhal, often (especially formerly) used to make ornaments and other articles.” These are worth a lot of money.





Some steps that have been taken to help prevent the extinction of this Animal are having consumers do the research about where Ivory comes from, which is dead Elephants it is said that many people believed that Ivory fell of of these elephants like teeth fall out. That is wrong it is a much more violent process and the Elephants must died when they are taking their Ivory off of them. In 1989, a worldwide ban on ivory trade was approved by CITES. This is helping further the existence of these rare Animals

Rumble In The Jungle

  • The Rumble in The Jungle

The Rumble in the Jungle was a boxing match between Muhammed Ali and George Foreman. This fight was held in Kinshasa, Zaire [now the Democratic Republic of the Congo]. The fight was held here because the promoter Don King, didn’t have enough money to have it in the states so he talked to President Mobutu [of Zaire] and got the fight moved to Africa. The president was okay with this because he wanted to create publicity for his country and maybe turn it into a tourist resort. 


  •  The Fight


The fight was dubbed by some the greatest sporting event ever. I am not sure about this, but it was bigger then about sports this was just four years after Ali was reinstated back to boxing because he didn’t join the military which is a fascinating story. Foreman was suppose to win Ali was 32 years old and Foreman was 24. Ali played possum and let Foreman exert all of his energy trying to knock out Ali and by the 8th round he finally knocked out Ali. This fight was very important to the African people because they had never seen stars that looked like them at this level with the whole world watching them.

Monday, December 8, 2014

Hakeem Olajuwon


I enjoy the NBA and all of sports really, but I wanted my first Blog to be about Hakeem "The Dream" Olajuwon; who is one of the greatest players to ever play in the NBA.  Olajuwon was Born on January 21, 1963, in Lagos, Nigeria. He is the best player ever born in Africa to play in the NBA. You can tell by the way that most people play in the NBA today that he was one of the most influential people in the history of Basketball. In Africa the main sport is soccer and this is what Olajuwon played until he was 15, which is when he started playing basketball. Olajuwon eventually moved on to bigger and better things, but watch for yourself he was truly amazing.
http://streetball.com/photo/hakeem-olajuwon-nigeria


Even today in 2014 Olajuwon chosen as the NBA's ambassador to Africa by the league this honor is something that Olajuwon said that he is going to cherish. He is going to work to provide young African basketball players an opportunity to improve their lives. This is the main thing that I respect about him, of course he was an amazing basketball player his heart and compassion is what separates him from everyone else. Olajuwon had class and he truly cared about his teammates and he never forgot where he came from I think that is an important lesson that anyone can take accept.