As so often, Patric is being way too karmic.
Yes some consider him the devil incarnate, this probably alongside yours truly; but the truth is that in countless behind-the-scenes conversations following
this first blog post 3 years ago (and check out
this - and it's only a fraction!), I've come to know him to be passionate, brilliantly analytical and
lateral thinking - and yes, at times refreshingly machiavellian, too! But also, and often to my utter frustration, I've seen him plagued by political correctness and fatally committed to his personal tenets of karmic decency and compassion.
Did I hear some incredulous snickering by his perceived victims ?
And yet it is true - trust me, it could have been
much, much worse! :)
Case in point:
his latest blog post.
It touches upon the ignominious slander campaign against Mark Thorpe and the general framework within which these things are regularly happening.
Well, I'm not so inclined.
I am European and political correctness and beating around the bushes is just not the way I tick - nor however is it to stab people in the back and even less so, to do so anonymously! Did I hear,
and how about your alias? Right... if you haven't noticed, lemme give you a hint: this is the blog of
Beqa Adventure Divers - and if you have been living under a Shark blogging rock and feel the urge to
unmask me, or whatever, listen to the podcast in the previous post!
But I'm digressing as usual.
Believe it or (probably!) not, I have the utmost respect and am profoundly grateful for the thousands of people who have thankfully embraced the cause of Shark conservation over the last few years. But at the same time, I remain profoundly disturbed by what I consider to be the lunatic whacko fringe and the
utter rubbish the continue to spew. This I hope is but a small minority, but being both fanatical and vocal, they continue to poison the discourse and to completely undermine our credibility and as a consequence, the success of our efforts. Be it the self promoting perceived
messiahs or the
sesselfurzende self promoting experts, they are simply toxic and a never ending source of utter frustration and concern.
And what about
those pathetic people who have infiltrated the Shark-related social media and discussion groups.
I have decided from the outset never to be part of any of those but despite of my best efforts, I still get regularly copied on some of the worst ejaculations - and lemme tell 'ya, I cannot even begin to tell you how utterly
small and outright disgusting I find all of it! When it comes to the males, the common denominator seems to be anonymity, a big macho mouth and
smallness, the latter probably in every sense of the word. About the harpies, lemme say this: the French are obsessed with women and have consequently coined the appropriate
terminus technicus, as far as I know uniquely so.
The attribute is
mal baisée - and I trust that at this point, the French readers are smiling and the Americans are simply outraged!
Think I'm digressing as always?
No, far from it! This is now the second time that I see good people being slandered and ostracized in this same underhanded way. The first was
Alex the Sharkman who was ignominiously demoted from the discussion group he worked hard to build. Thankfully, he continues to be fully committed to the cause, albeit in a much less public way - which considering his personal experience is probably a good thing, both for the Sharks but above all, for him!
And now, it appears, it's the turn of
Mark.
Its all about to get very interesting has indeed proven to be prophetic, and this very much in the
proverbial Chinese sense! This is once again a good man with a big heart for Sharks who
took it onto himself to provide several platforms for Shark lovers after the
CITES vote.
He did so with no money whatsoever to spare, by investing scarce and hard earned funds and above all, countless man hours into his undertaking. Yes
iDiveSharks and the app were designed to become a commercial venture, which is perfectly legitimate. But I can assure you that they have never even remotely come close to breaking even, especially considering the man hours invested - and yet and despite of the hardship and misgivings, the man perseveres and continues to donate his time, passion and energy to keeping it running.
The conservation group?
Simply disgusting! Not surprisingly, I've heard very little indeed. But what I read and the few snippets I've picked up through the usual sad and slanderous pipeline of Chinese whispers just wanna make me puke - and no, I absolutely do not want to either hear the pathetic
truth in all its grimy details, nor will I allow anybody to post them on this blog or on our our Facebook page! Every story has two sides and I'm sure this one does, too - but I know the man and will follow my instinct, as I always do. He is a warrior and faced with the hazing, sycophancy, gossip and backstabbing, he did the right thing, put a lid on it and walked away.
Good on him.
Long story short?
Patric is right: we have lost a leader.
He is one of many and no, I'm not gonna bother to list them for the newcomers. It's a hemorrhage of brainpower and passion, and the movement shows it. Let there be never a doubt that tens of thousands of Facebook
likes are merely the consequence of excellent networking, investments of money and IT skills - as Mark has painfully experienced at his own cost (!), they mean
nothing and save no Sharks unless good committed people physically step up and get things done. Mark is one of them and I hope that like in the case of Alex, he will continue to be there for the Sharks he loves.
And the Facebook page and coalition, or whatever?
It will undoubtedly re-surface under a new name. Let's see how many genuine
likes it will attract now that it is deprived of Mark's money and of his technical skills. Anyway, it is completely irrelevant. It will be one of dozens and like so many, achieve
nothing for Sharks. But it will provide for some form of solace and sense of self importance and direction to some people, which in itself is not a bad thing - that is, provided that
those folks don't ever succeed in owning the global conversation!
Indeed Mark, Sharks
DO risk becoming the next Dolphin!
Thankfully, right now, it matters not.
The movement is progressing in leaps and bounds and achieving heaps
- despite of the clamoring!
Fingers crossed that it remains that way!
Could it be that I have made myself a few new friends - again?
Take a wild guess as to whether I care! :)
