Shooting Rhinos

(click here for larger version)

With the G-8 Summit coming up next week, Tony Blair has expended a lot of energy and political capital to make Africa a major focus of the meeting.  Of course, Bush has cobbled together enough token gestures (including a package of debt relief and malaria funding) to smooth-talk himself out of more serious scrutiny.  (Now we just have to see how he finesses the global warming issue.)

At the same time, Bob Geldorf (of Live Aid fame) is putting the finishing touches on a world-wide series of concerts this weekend to raise money consciousness for Africa, as well as ratchet up the pressure on the G-8 leaders to make a more lasting commitment. 

With all the politics and drama in mind, I was interested in this double page ad for Morgan Stanley that has been running widely for a few weeks now.  (The right half is above, and the left is below.)  It shows tourists on top of a jeep hunting rhinos with cameras. 

Here's the copy:

"Current moral dilemma:  Spend it all?  Or leave it to the kids?  Yes, we love them.  Yes, they need the money.  No we can't sit around and not have fun.  After all, giving them money will only keep them from learning how to earn it.  Right?  But everything costs so much more these days.  Maybe there's a way to do both."

Right now, it seems the text could apply as easily to the African policy debate as it does to trust fund kids. (I belief a remarkable percentage of the population in Africa is under the age of twenty.)  For all we know, these words (well, maybe not the three syllable ones) could have come straight from the mouth of Dubya -- at least, before Cheney told him that 'the more you give those heathens, the more it ends up lining some general's pocket.' 

Of course, there is the "tough-love" argument (much of it quite legitimate, I should add) that African countries need to learn how to run more honest, effective governments and economies.  At the same time, the Geldorf/Pitt/Jolie machine has generated controversy (Celebrities' Embrace of Africa Has Critics - link) for the tendency to pity the Africans, and push these one-time, celebrity-laden "feel good" extravaganzas which may or may not have that substantive an effect on real, long term structural problems. 

Because the BAG's focus in these matters is ultimately a semiotic one, I wonder how much this ad speaks both to Bush's patronization of Africa as well as the more gratuitous side of the Geldorf effort.  I recently set up a new category called "Unnaturally Geographic" to keep an eye on the voyeuristic tendency in the West to reduce primitive life and profound neglect into art, eye candy, travelog or charity case.  With this ad, I can't help thinking we've got some incriminating evidence. 

(Of course, the rhinos are stage left at the moment.  But, I'm sure those nomads, savages and refugees will be right back.)

To me, the separation of the ad into two halves is quite telling, setting up a dichotomy of "us" and "them."  With our technology and our metal beasts, we remain safely apart and distinct -- although still casting the long shadows.  We can look as freely and as closely as we desire without being seen or asking for permission.  (In fact, with only animals to contend with, we really have free reign.)  We can access their space, while they remain contained.  And, we can operate in cleared space while they remain under the big trees, idyllically untouched by modernity. 

...Which reminds me, I still haven't been to Madagascar.

Comments

[Salam Adil]

The BAG wrote: "At the same time, Bob Geldorf (of Live Aid fame) is putting the finishing touches on a world-wide series of concerts this weekend to raise money for Africa, as well as ratchet up the pressure on the G-8 leaders to make a more lasting commitment."

A correction. Live8 is nothing to do with charity and everything to do with politics. While I have problems with the whole message of Live 8 it is a world apart from raising money. I'll end my comment here for fear of leaving the semiotic focus of this blog.

[Dennis Quaranta]

I've never seen a jeep with two spare tires. That's certainly suggests caution! And the otherness of the rhinos, which are horny creatures, suggests the loss of sexuality, especially in the evening of one's years.

Metatheme: You've borne the heat of the day; in fact you've been more than prudent. How long has it been since you did something you actually enjoyed?

There's something interesting about the shadows, too. The jeep's shadow is very long, but the figures on top of the jeep don't cast a shadow. Also, the shadow of the rhino closest to the tree casts a shadow right beneath him, as though the sun were immediately overhead.

Metatheme: Death is approaching. One of you will be left with memories of the other.

[George Myers]

In the study of the evolution of the state, various terms have come to mean different things at different times in social sciences. The "client" is a well known one, a metaphor almost, for patron/client relations. which stretch from DaVinci to the "wedge" one needs to get in the door in Portugal (cunha). "An Army of One" which promises you can "Be All That You Can Be" also appears to assure a "client" one at a time. The least the Pent-a-gone and put "taxus taxus" shrubs around itself can do is offer more money for its troops who serve in foreign "surfin' safaris" (expeditionary forces as did General Schwartzkopf's father did in Iran, putting the first Shah in power) is to pay them more for their risk. People should remember there was a movement to unionize US troops in Vietnam that had strong voices behind it. Anyway, that's what I see in the Rhino-rorschach this ad seems to be, having been taken apart by "market-makers" myself one "?" at a time. (Of course, them rhino horns have been ground up for claims of aphrodisia too, and should be saved from hunting with guns as the ad on the surface implies).

[Hubris.Sonic]

Michael,
Why did you present the ad this way? why not present them together as they are in the magazine. are you saying something?

[The BAG]

SA, Thanks for the correction.

Sonic, Good point. I initially broke the image in two because, with a 400 pixel width limit, the image was hard to see. I forgot my own convention however, which is to link to a larger version.

Dennis, the tires and the shadows are great points. The doctoring of the photo and the extra spare parts only emphasize the heavy hand of modernity.

[Hubris.Sonic]

the guy on top doesnt seem to be "aiming" at the rhino's, the rhino's seem to close.

clearly the imagery is one of a hunt. is morgan stanley the hunter and we are the prey? the white elephant?

[Hubris.Sonic]

whoops, i meant white rhino.
speaking of the heavy hand of modernity, i cant shake the feeling that the rifle was photoshopped out and the camera shopped in. I mean, come on, you cant tell me people still wear pith helmets!

[Annoying Old Guy]

It's certainly very ironic to have some one professing real concern for the state of Africa while running advertisements from "Americans for Fair Trade". The one thing that would do the most to improve the situation in Africa would be for the West to open up its markets to African products. Semiotically, what the image says to me is that African have to export tourism, because we won't let them export anything else.

[PTate in Mn]

I appreciate Dennis Quaranta's insights into the meta-themes of death, memory and prudence. It primes a lot of death anxiety.

My supporting comments:
--the white rhinos are nearly extinct.
--To get shadows that long, the sun has to be setting.

Death, death, death.

While the image may suggest that "...we can operate in cleared space while they remain under the big trees, idyllically untouched by modernity," the shadow cast by the jeep, that "metal beast," suggests to me that modernity is about to obliterate the rhinos. See it now or it will be gone forever.

I agree that this is a incriminating exhibit for your eye-candy, travelog, charity case category.

"Current moral dilemma: Spend it all? Or leave it to the kids?" Yeah, sure. And be sure to take photos so others can see what has been lost.

[Diane]

This is a vacant, souless image. Nothing here about the reality (people or animals) of Africa, only about Americans having a top "lifestyle experience". The Americans: self-centered, over-dressed (Gee, I must look good in this fancy safari costume) doing something they imagine to be romantic and interesting. Actual wording regarding ambivalance about what you leave your children (or the world's children) says it all about a certain class/mind set in the US. Morgan Stanley is even telling us what to decide (spend on yourself).

Many Americans don't want reality, and easily justifiy their greed and ignorance.
Why did this picture make me so mad?