Vic speaking in
Johannesburg about animals and markets
My trip to Africa and
Australia put me in contact with the two oldest continuous human civilizations
of African man and aboriginal man. Since both had no written languages much of
their survival wisdom is contained in their lore. They lived with the deadly
animals in both places and learned how to survive in co-evolution with them,
and there is much to be learned.
As Africa has some 30
million years of lore without language, proverbs represent the accumulated
wisdom of how to survive with our earliest
competitors. Some of them from the book African Proverbs, a Peter Pauper
book, seem good:
Nigerian:
The bird should always return home before sunset.
Ashanti:
The moon moves slowly but
it crosses the town.
By the time the fool has learned the game, the players have dispersed.
It is the calm and silent water that drowns a man.
It is the fool's sheep that breaks loose twice.
No one tests the depth of a river with both feet.
Ethiopia:
You cannot build a house
for last year's summer.
Around a flowering tree, one finds many insects.
Madagascar:
Cross the river in a crowd
and the crocodile won't eat
you.
When the mouse laughs at
the cat, there is a hole nearby.
Sierra Leone: If you climb up a tree,
you must climb down the same tree.
Uganda: A fault confessed is half
redressed.
Most of these proverbs
should be tested with numbers from markets.
While in Africa and
Australia, I visited two crocodile farms and several zoos and aquaria where
they were featured, and I talked with the zookeepers and read a few books. I
verified that crocodiles learn very well and have great memories. A
apparently their cerebellum is quite large relative to brain for
reptiles. Steve is the head of Australia zoo and famous among kids for
his Australian accent and apparent love of crocs. We learned that the
crocodile hate Steve the most. Because they remember he captured them
all. They lie in wait for the keepers in the same place they enter each
day submerged in bushes, and they know all the keepers from each other, and all
the feeding habits. Yes, they are highly territorial and eat only once a week
on average, but are much more active in summer. They nested the same day in
Africa for 20 years on Sept. 14. Much was made of the fact that
crocodiles have only killed 20 in the last 15 years in Australia. But I met two
who had family killed or actually witnessed an attack ( Robbie Alexander). They
usually recommended antidote of the finger in the eyes is not as effective as
it seems as the Australian crocodiles close their eyes after grabbing at 2000
pounds a square centimeter pressure. The net result is that I can verify that
all good fisherman should never fish in the same place twice as the crocodile
can remember where you were and while he swims submerged through his territory
he is mapping his plan of attack if you get too close to the water. This of
course leads to the advisability of never trading the same way in one week as
you did the other as humans have incorporated all the wisdom of the crocodiles
through their written language and lore. -- Vic
A note from the grandmaster:
I rarely fish in the same place in
two consecutive games against any single opponent,
especially if I was successful in the first one. The
assumption has to be that the croc will be waiting,
especially if he appears not to notice that the game
followed the previous one and makes his moves rather
25/64 slowly.
Of course some crocs are less cunning and others more
lazy, so it's useful to know your croc in order to
gauge how much you dare repeat old patterns. But if in
doubt, assume the worst...
This, incidentally, is the weakness of your king's
fianchetto opening; play it in every game and we'll
think up ways to ambush you.
Nigel Davies
www.tigerchess.com