Since he was "mentioned in dispatch" so to speak, Ronnie McKenzie has asked me to post this to the list for him:
In response to the recent mis-information posted by Mr Farmer I feel
compelled to clarify the record on Thuathe for a second and hopefully last time - obviously he either didn't read or could not understand the content of my previous note concerning Thuathe material which I purchased in Lesotho. In his previous email he severely criticised Professor Ambrose and others in Lesotho for swindling locals and I responded on their behalf to highlight how much they have in fact done for the local community. In his most recent email he again raises the issue of Thuathe being bought for next to nothing and has on this occasion included my name in the list of criminals.
Virtually all of the initial Thuathe material (before Mr Farmer knew about it) was purchased through two locals and a group from a South African University who initially had no knowledge of its value. While some of the earlier material was literally paid for with food and sweets by them (not me, as I bought all my material from them) they were never trying to swindle the locals in any way (as inferred by Mr Farmer on numerous occasions in previous emails) and both had been supplying food and clothes to locals in the area for years before the meteorite fell. I am sure it is not the first time that meteorites have been traded for food at rediculously low prices.
Prof Ambrose is an academic who had no interest in the commercial value of the meteorite and was only interested in cataloging the material and
documenting the fall from a purely scientific viewpoint. Another group of academics from a South African University also bought some original material for next to nothing since they had no idea of its value - they even turned down an offer on a 2kg speciment because the asking price of $10 at the time was considered excessive! The one item of truth in Mr Farmer's email concerns the fact that the asking price increased significantly during his visit and then to several times more after he left and Prof Ambrose became aware that Mr Farmer was asking upwards of $8/gm for the material in the US.
I purchased my first 2 kg's of material from Prof Ambrose and Mr Ashworth initially for a relatively low price but nowhere near the 1 cent mentioned by Mr Farmer. I then paid an average of approximately $2/gm (at current exchange rates it is $3/gm) for most of my subsequent material from Prof Ambrose which provided the funding for the school - I still have most of the material I bought. Mr Farmer should remember well what I paid for the 2.5kg 'bear' that appeared on his web site as well as on the front page of the Meteorite magazine since he was also bidding on that particular piece - so I am surprised (or rather dissapointed) by his inaccurate rantings - that piece went for almost $10 000 at today's exchange - a far cry from the 1 cent a gram mentioned in his email.
I have stopped subscribing to the meteorite list due to the continual flood of abusive emails particularly from Mr Farmer and directed at anyone and everyone on the list. I only respond to such garbage when I am made aware of a particular email and personally brought into the fray. Mr Farmer knows only too well what I had to pay for material and one needs only to discuss the matter with Prof Ambrose who has now built a school for the local children using the proceeds from his sales to me. I still work in the area (developing water supply projects) and am on the best of terms with the locals, most of whom are extremely poor and slowly dying of aids. I can easily get Professor Ambrose to corroborate what I have indicated above (with facts and figures) if Mr Farmer continues to debate the issue.
I suggest that Mr Farmer drops this issue once and for all and uses the
meteorite list as it was intended and not for personnal gratification or for publicising petty squabbles. I am sure there are many list members like myself who joined the list to keep up to date with the latest information on meteorites and who are fed up with the constant infighting between the various 'meteorite hunters'. I notice that most of the true professional meteorite hunters/dealers tend to stick to constructive comment relating to meteorites which I found very interesting and useful.
______________________________________________ Meteorite-list mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/meteorite-list
