TRAFFIC – Abduction strategies by aliens and humans

TRAFFIC

Abduction strategies by aliens and humans

Let’s imagine an alien attack. Or rather, a massive abduction by aliens from some planet a buzzillion light years away. How would it start? Would it be during the day, in the middle of a busy street full of people? It would make sense, to go for the time and place where the most humans are huddled together, too worried to look up, minding their own business. The loud and noisy streets would make the sound of the spaceship go unnoticed; but even if the space craft is invisible, once the abduction starts, panic and confusion would make the humans run away and scatter like cockroaches. No, it would have to be at night, while they are asleep. One by one they would be silently taken away, reaped from their homes unnoticed. But what if someone awakes? There’s always the occasional light-sleeper, or the one who stayed up until late night reading or playing games after the lights are out. Someone, like a boy or a girl, chatting the night away on their little iPads.

Imagine you are that one human. I can picture you clearly. There you are, giddily tap-tap-tapping your fingers on the keyboard in the screen, nothing but the glow of the night-time-mode screen illuminating you. Tap tap tap on the screen, tap tap tap… but then you hear a sound, a creak; but that is common at home. Everyone knows that when the temperature drops at night, the furniture makes funny noises. So you start tap-tapping away again, realizing that you had stopped in the first place, but there’s something else you now realize. There’s a light, no, a glow somewhere. Is it a full moon tonight? Is someone else awake? There’s something unnerving in the atmosphere; reason tells you it’s nothing, but it also tells you you’re a chicken and if it’s really nothing you should go take a look.

You put the tablet aside and get out of bed, just to prove yourself that, even though there’s nothing out there, you’re not a chicken. You walk to the door, stop, and turn around. Better take the iPad with you in case it’s a burglar, you can call for help or smash it on his head.

You walk silently into the hallway, straining to listen something you haven’t yet realized that is there. As you approach the other room, there’s a faint light coming out of it, but a strange light, a pale light. A new bed lamp, perhaps? You take a couple of cautious steps further and you wonder: has that buzzing sound been there all the time? A low buzz you strain to hear, even though it seems to grow louder and louder with each step. 

Your hands and now sweating, but you gather up all the courage left in you and peek into the room.

BANG! 

You drop the iPad on the floor, but that’s the least of your worries.

A corpse hanging out of thin air greets you. A vision you were not exactly expecting but still terrifies you. It could be your brother, your sister, your parents, your spouse, anyone, suspended on mid- air surrounded by a beam of white light, X-files style. There’s no big-headed, grey humanoid staring back at you, there’s no bloody mess, no missing limbs, no signs of struggle, nothing. And while you stand there, gaping with your mouth open, your heart racing and your head struggling to make sense of what you’re seeing, the light starts pulling them away. Your brother, your sister, your parents, your spouse, they are all being dragged away through an open window you hadn’t even noticed before. And out through that same window, you see thousands being taken away by the same light. Your neighbors, your friends, your family, all of them, out in the middle of the street, levitating into a light that is no longer faint but fierce and bright and blinding and blazingly hot. Suddenly you don’t know what’s going on around you anymore and with a sharp pain at the back of your neck- WAM!

You’re out like a candle.

Now let’s imagine a different setting. Let’s replace the tall buildings for even taller trees; the concrete walls for bushes and vines and flowers; convert the roads, the sidewalks into leaf-covered earth and streams. Imagine a massive river, wide and alive, dragging fish to eat but also snakes and crocodiles to watch out for. Imagine the sound of the river running. Hear the howler monkeys calling each other in the distance. Hear the frogs and toads, the dragonflies and butterflies and giant flies and a thousand other creatures flying and calling and singing in a raucous jungle symphony.

Imagine you are an animal. What animal would you be? A playful spider monkey or a fierce jaguar? A laughing macaw, peharps?  Whatever animal you choose, this is your home. Wild and unchanged as you have always known it to be. At night, the toads croak at the river bank, under muddy tree roots close to tiny turtles are hatching from their eggs. An occasional rustling of leaves indicates a big cat is hunting; the screech from the bats flying around momentarily drowns the sound of a millions insects. The nights here are full of life, but tonight, something is different.

There’s something in the air. A smell foreign and offensive that’s unnerving all living creatures around. You strain to listen but the only thing you can hear is a growing silence that seems to be approaching. Is there reason to be scared? Should you run away? Climb up a tree? Dive into the water? Where would you seek shelter, if not here, at home? Home is safe, you tell yourself, but even so, everyone starts growing quiet. Monkeys, bats, snakes, felines, thousands of eyes start darting to and fro, trying to foresee the danger. But there’s nothing to see, only silence to listen. Everything goes completely quiet.

No, there will be no loud “bang”. Not yet. Only a quiet “thud” as something hits the floor. And another; and another. All around you everyone starts to fall, limp bodies scattered on the floor, not moving, not struggling. You start to back up slowly, unnoticed, when suddenly, yes, yes, here it comes, a loud BANG! And all hell breaks loose.

But you’re not there to see it. It’s too late, even if you don’t know it, it’s already happened.

You wake up with a terrible headache; feeling thirsty, hungry, crushed. Something is pushing you from all around, you can’t move, you can’t breathe, you’re suffocating. You try to scream but your throat is sore; you open your eyes but they sting; an awful, terrible, rotting smell fills your nose making you want to vomit.

And you do. Your throw up but you feel no better as you realize that horrible smell is so many others in the same situation as you are, throwing up, sweating, urinating, defecating and dying on every direction. A loud sound stuns you and you throw up again as you feel yourself spinning around and around until you don’t know which way is up or down. 

You pass out again. You don’t know how long you stay unconscious, but the next time you wake up, the sound is gone. It’s quiet and it’s cool and the world has stopped spinning. You still feel crushed and the horrible smell is still there but nothing is pushing you anymore. With this newfound serenity, you venture a call. Maybe someone is out there. You call out for help, quietly at first then louder and louder as you hear others answering your call. You’re not alone! You can hear their confused and muffled answers coming from all over. But this joy is short-lived.

Suddenly, a splash of freezing water shuts you up. More and more freezing water freezes you and drowns you until you pass out again. This happens again and again.

And again.

You don’t know how long you stay unconscious, but it doesn’t matter to you anymore. You wake up with a thunderous noise, a noise like you’ve never heard before. You’re no longer crushed, you’re no longer suffocating; the hideous smell has been replaced by an equally bad one but not as strong. You open your eyes to a strange world of creatures you couldn’t even imagine, making noises and speaking languages your brain cannot even begin to grasp. But it doesn’t really matter to you anymore.

You’re sick. You’re tired. You’re hunching in a corner, half awake and half asleep. You’ve been in this metal cage for days and days, but you wouldn’t know that, because it really doesn’t matter anymore.

Then something happens. Something grabs you one last time. Something holds you against it and you feel a beating heart, louder than even your own. You’re taken away one last time, to yet another new place. You’re taken to a cool place with food and water and clean air that is finally good enough to breathe.

But it really doesn’t matter to you anymore. You’re sick, you’re tired, and with one last, sorrowful breath, you never wake up again.

This is not a game anymore, this is a true story. This is called (illegal) wildlife trade, and it is said to be the second largest illegal trade in volume, second only to drugs and followed by arms and ammo (though this is not confirmed, as it is difficult to measure illegal trading). Still, Interpol has estimated the extent of the illegal wildlife trade between $10 billion and $20 billion per year, making this trade one of the most lucrative (you don't have to fabricate, produce or make anything) Together with habitat loss, it's leading to the extinction of many wild animal (and plant) species.

From 2005 - 2009, CITES recorded an annual average of more than 317,000 live birds and just over 2 million live reptiles traded. Traded. Less than 10% of animals captured for this purpose actually survive to be traded as live animals. Because of these heart-wrenching survival rates, the amount of animals being taken (doesn't the term "abduction" seem appropriate to you?) can only be more and more staggering in order to compensate for these losses.

But the most staggering statistics are the amount of people who remain ignorant on this topic. People just don't know. They buy these animals as pets, they buy their skins, their skulls, their meat, without really knowing what that implies. They need to know the real story. They need to know this story.

Now it's up to you to let them know.

Sources:

- http://otorongoverde.blogspot.com/2013/01/the-illegal-parrot-trade-in-latin.html

- http://www.traffic.org/trade/

- http://worldwildlife.org/threats/illegal-wildlife-trade