[martyn]

Originally Posted by StephenWong

Thank you for your quick response but to me it's still 'cultural' difference.

Luckily I only owned two pairs of ivory chopsticks and now only one. I also have many pairs of plastic chopsticks. If I can have a choice, I will stick to the ivory pair because it lasts longer rather using the plastic ones and adding to other environmental problem.

I thought you invested in ivory chopsticks for the detection of whether or not your Filipina maid has poisoned your food.

[StephenWong]

My Filipina maid shares our food so she cannot poison us. BTW, I didn't know ivory chopsticks can be used as food tester.

[martyn]

Originally Posted by StephenWong

My Filipina maid shares our food so she cannot poison us. BTW, I didn't know ivory chopsticks can be used as food tester.

Sorry, I confused ivory for silver.

[Katanga]

dropdedfwed

Mate thanks for your long thread on this subject about ivory and the whole thing. Don't worry - no offense taken.

You also put an interesting thread on the whole thing re how many lives depend on that industry. It was amazing when I was in Kenya before the ban how many people used to work in the whole "curios" business and selling all the artifacts. I still remember going to a workshop to see all these Chinese people working away on carving the ivory. Likewise you saw a lot of them working away on Rhino horns carving dagger handles for the Arabs (I think it is a man thing in Yemen and the likes)

Bottom line is that after the trade was banned a lot of the locals downgraded themselves into selling beads and wooden carvings.

Despite all the bans, poaching still continues and the animal numbers keep going down.

We should also note that a lot of small ivory carvings these days are from walrus teeth and the like.

cheers