67. 2019.7.25 – I think I will have to shut down on this topic as I am clearly misunderstood on most fronts that matter in general society. My species definition sets me apart from botany and science as a total oddball viz … dynamic fractal systems of living organisms that are physically (genetically, morphologically, physiologically) and metaphysically, continuous in time and space. I do not add another sentence but suggest that this is a conscious creation and there is a lot more to species than an endless list of binomials.

How can I stop? Essentially I am being blamed for the implementation of a multi-million rand agricultural project by not opposing it on the basis of fraud. If instead of touting groenewaldii as discrete oddity only on the east bank, it was seen as a critical element in a vast complex system, I think a 10 times better argument is available. In any case here is a map showing one of two other localities on the west bank. One extends into the Bontebok Park a little west. Some of my readers just do not seem to get it.

Solomon Nomolos: People who care (most) about earth are constantly in contention with people care (most) about money. It’s always a battle to preserve the sacred in the face of profit. What ever anyone wants to call that plant we can all agree it’s beautiful and we can also all agree that citrus fruit is relatively easy to grow in many different regions.

Bruce Bayer: Solomon – now we move that landowner somewhere else too? I think I met the guy – already displaced from somewhere else battling with a dairy business in the face of that industry’s problems. Then also move the citrus to the Stormsvlei area and rather destroy that equally unusual population. Besides this is not the only point. The plant could still be safe on the west bank – for a while until that landowner starts to feel financial pressure. We are all to the singe individual, totally confused and confounded with no insight into the creation and its purpose.

Solomon Nomolos: I get it … it’s heartbreaking to me. Here in my country they’ve given up protection year after year, there are oil drilling operations everywhere, it’s always in the name of jobs. It seems to me there is no end to it all, one place at a time we are ruining the planet. And I have to ask from time to time when is enough enough?

Bruce Bayer: I would like to remind visitors that this site is about a specific hypothesis and the use of the word “species” with full appreciation for what it means and what a Latin binomial represents. Conservation is a completely different issue and also not something that you prostitute science for. Or common sense for that matter.

Bruce Bayer: An interesting take … “It is better to tell the truth and make someone cry, than to tell a lie and make someone smile”. Science and religion have destroyed what it really means to be human. These two disciplines should both be about truth and in accord with one another. It sure would help me in the wreckage of Latin binomials.

Solomon Nomolos: Subjectivism has done more damage I would say. The idea -according to what I can see- of being human is living in the broken state. Humans are bent from birth, and have made no positive contributions to earth. They’ve also all together abandoned the notion of living with the earth, in her cycles, with her motions. I think religion is another social weapon created by men. Science is seldom viewed in balance because the eye in which we use to view it sits atop the pride and ego of its possessors.

Bruce Bayer: Solomon I think it is that science as it is thrust on the human psyche is a form of particularisation and reductionism. So you are quite right. Abandoning living with the earth is simply not recognising that this is a conscious creation. Life is not a mechanical, physical or chemical process. Species are living things.

A serious issue of availability of plants is a topic that no one wants to touch. My personal view is that conservation issues cloud the scene to the detriment of conservation itself, to the detriment of commercial horticulture, as well as to people who are interested in and enjoy these plants. There is no need for it. But who has an answer. Ivory – one school says burning of hundreds of tons of tusks stopped poaching and others say it encouraged it. Again my personal view is that prohibition and exclusion are as immoral as poaching.