The Fear of Monkeys - The Best E-Zine on the Web for Politically Conscious WritingWhite-Throated Guenon - Issue Forty-Two
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White-throated Guenon  from Christiano Artuso The White-Throated Guenon, also known as the red-bellied monkey and the red-bellied guenon, is a diurnal primate that lives on trees of rainforests or tropical areas of Nigeria and Benin. They are usually frugivores but insects, leaves, and crops are also in their diet. They usually live in small groups of four to five individual monkeys however, there have been groups of 30 discovered, and in cases, some males wander alone. They are arboreal, living in moist tropical forest and the wettest parts of dry tropical forest, however they can also be found in secondary bush and old farmland. Males weigh from 3.5-4.5 kg and females weigh 2-4 kg. Females give birth to one offspring, which is a factor of decreasing population. They were once considered extinct due to constant hunting for the fur of their unique red belly and white front legs, but a small group was subsequently found near the Niger River in 1988. They are still considered an endangered species due to their decreasing population. They are present within Nigerian forest reserves and sacred groves in Benin, but hunting and logging restrictions are difficult to enforce or nonexistent. They are one of the species that live in the Guinean Forests of the West Africa Biodiversity Hotspot.

   


The Buffet

by

Iftekhar Sayeed

 

" . . . it is thought that the excess mortality resulting from the 1974 famine may have been near 1.5 million. In demographic terms it was quite as stunning a disaster as the war of 1971.

By the end of the year, the Bangladesh government stood exposed as inept, indifferent and heartless. All its political credit had vanished. Seventy distinguished Bangladeshi economists, lawyers and writers issued a statement saying that the famine was man-made and had resulted from 'shameless plunder, exploitation, terrorization, flattery, fraudulence and misrule.' They added that the government was 'clearly dominated by and…representative of smugglers and profiteers'"

-- Willem van Schendel, A History of Bangladesh. Cambridge University Press: 2009, p 181.

 

it was our turn to eat

not a grain of rice
escaped through our fingers

nor the pilau

the kebab

the biriyani…

they came, hearing our burps
a million and more

the empty stretched hands
rose up
above their heads

they fought with dogs
at the roadside bins

unbellied, they lay

we don't talk about them
not for sorrow
nor guilt
least of all shame

recall would render
illegitimate
our buffet of 1974


Iftekhar Sayeed teaches English. He was born and lives in Dhaka, Bangladesh. He has contributed to The Danforth Review, Axis of Logic, Enter Text, Postcolonial Text, Southern Cross Review, Opednews.com, Left Curve, Mobius, Erbacce, Down In The Dirt, The Fear of Monkeys and other publications. Somewhat influenced by DHL, he likes to write about the pong of society, as well as its deodorant: He’s tempted at times to describe himself as, and feels himself to be, a pongographer. He is also a freelance journalist. He and his wife love to travel.
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