Irresponsible Designers

Early there was a Paris fashion week sometime ago (no I do not follow fashion, nor do I care for such pompous, resource-wasting activities), and obviously the big labels were there to showcase their new stuff. It turned out that there is an alarming trend in fashion design - the use of exotic skins.

Here're a few things that I found out:
1) Christian Dior had a collection that was made up of python, ostrich and fox skins.
2) Calvin Klein's collection featured jackets that had alligator skins.
3) Celine came up with a white python skirt.
4) Jimmy Choo made snakeskin sandals .
5) Ferragamo used alligator for their footwear.
6) Alexander McQueen used snakeskin in his skirtsuits.
7) Christian Dior had a ponyskin clutchbag.
Just a few to name, I stopped looking because it get depressing.

Roberto Cavalli had this to say about the use of animal skins in design:
"Exotic skins are hot right now, there's a real buzz. I love to use reptile skins because it excites me to take a material that is seen as wild and mix it with a look that shouts glamour and sophistication. Exotic skin - alligator, crocodile and snake - also gives the impression of being superluxurious and expensive, a look women are into at the moment. For men it's cars. For women it's bags, shoes and belts now. A rich woman wants her bag to do the talking. It's the most sophisticated way to say you have money. Exotic skin is the ultimate. Everyone knows it is expensive.”

That was disgraceful. Want a visual? Here's Kylie Minogue and Eva Longoria with their(then) new python bags (probably wasting away in their collections now). And check out the price tags.



It's scant consolation that they cost more than cattle leather.

This is getting too far. How would Mr. Cavalli like to be worn by a bear? A friend suggested dumping him into a Roman amphitheatre with four lions and a feather duster to defend himself with. That should shake him up a bit.

But seriously, people have become short-sighted and/or self-centred. They do not question, and more often than not, they do not care how that bag was made, from what, who does it and how it is done. I do not think that Ms Longoria (Mrs. Parker now) thought about any of those when she got that crazy bag. Pythons are remarkable animals in that they survive with remarkably low metabolic rates, and as such, are tolerant of low oxygen levels. They have a rather primitive brain, and such animals sometimes can survive as 2 seperate entities when decapitated. In fact, this can happen even in birds as well. Go look up "Mike the headless chicken". Therefore, it's virtually impossible to kill them by physical means without otherwise destroying the skin. Naturally it follows that people are actually skinning the pythons alive. Of course, they do die eventually, but that's probably because they dehydrate without their skins.

Pythons aren't the only sufferers. Alligators and crocodiles are getting it too. They are "killed" by driving a chisel into their spinal cord. Of course, not being physiologists, they do not know that these animals aren't dead when they are being skinned, they are still very much alive, and they eventually bleed to death during the skinning itself (the egoistic skinners will now tell you they complete the skinning before the animals die).

It has been estimated that between 2000 and 2005, some 3.4 million lizard, 2.9million crocodile and 3.4 million snakeskins were killed and imported to European Union for their skins. These reptiles are in Appendix II under CITES now. Maybe it's time to push for something higher. They cannot afford to wait till they become really critically endangered before we do anything, because for all our ability to design, discover and engineer, humans can sometimes be the most stupid animals on the planet. People must start asking themselves if it is worth:
1)risking a poor native's life to try and catch and kill an animal perfectly capable of killing him,
2)sacrificing the life of the animal just for that weird bag which they can survive very well without.

I cringe everytime women see an animal skin product and go "I must have that!", because they don't have to have it. They won't die without it, and if they realise that, that python would still be somewhere in the rainforest helping farmers to control rat populations.

Are Biofuels the solution?

Everyone knows the link between global warming and combustion of fossil fuels, and how many organisations (except for oil companies) and governments (either out of good intentions or purely because of economics) have begun pushing for the increased use of biofuels, i.e fuels made out of biomass, e.g. manure, or ethanol from sugarcane fermentation, etc. But are biofuels good alternatives?

Biofuels are encouraged mainly for two reasons. First, under combustion, biofuels generally give off up to 60% less carbon emissions than fossil fuels. Second, that there will be some energy security (i.e life can generally go on if oil supplies and prices fluctuate).

However many things have not yet been taken into consideration. What about the production costs (in carbon terms) of producing the biofuels? Will the use of biofuels be an excuse to put more vehicles on the road (thereby negating the supposed carbon savings)? Will the production of biofuels adversely other things on Earth? Are people really looking at the big picture without cash-registers ringing in their heads?

Yes, we all know by now that use of biofuels can potentially cut carbon emissions by 60%. But how are the biofuels produced? We industrialise everything. So now we have to consider the carbon costs of the industry. Fuels need to burnt to manufacture fertiliser, to power machinery in the farms and biofuel plants, and fuel needs to be burnt to transport crops (or whatever biomass) to and from the biofuel plants. An whole new carbon emitting industry is setup. Will the eventual emission-savings of cars running on biofuels be enough to offset the costs? We don't know for sure yet, but I suspect, no.

There's worse to come. It's something that really riles me sometimes. And our neighbours in Malaysia are part of this whole farce. Whoever that did the calculations in carbon savings did so with the assumption that carbon absorption by forests would stay constant. But neighbouring countries around us are seizing this economic opportunity by clearing large patches of forest and starting palm oil plantations. The Malaysian Palm Oil Council CEO has also put the following blatant lie in the Council's website "www.mpoc.org.my":

"There are a number of advantages in using palm oil for the production of biofuel. Unlike fossil fuels, the combustion of palm oil biofuel does not increase the level of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere as the oil is merely returning carbon dioxide obtained earlier from the atmosphere through photosynthesis. As such, biofuel is regarded as carbon neutral.

Since carbon dioxide is a greenhouse gas responsible for global warming, the world benefits by the burning of biofuel instead of fossil fuel. Additionally, the palm trees that produce oil have simultaneously absorbed a lot more carbon dioxide during photosynthesis to form biomass for the other parts of the plant. The tree continues to absorb carbon dioxide throughout its life span of 25-30 years. A consumer of palm biofuel in Europe can therefore take comfort in knowing that palm biofuel is more than carbon neutral.

An added benefit of photosynthesis is the release of oxygen to the atmosphere. The quantity of oxygen released by oil palm, a perennial crop, far exceeds that produced by annual crops such as soybean or rapeseed. The cultivation of palm trees is therefore a huge contributing factor in the reduction of global warming. "

There is no way that clearing forests will result in reduction of global warming. Palm trees, although they do absorb some carbon during photosynthesis, will not absorb more than a patch of forest of the same area, simply because the density of vegetation is so different! Trees in plantations are planted some distance apart from each other, unlike in forests. They also have not accounted for the carbon costs in the production process and the loss of absorption when the original forests were cleared and there was no vegetation.

Now, the IMF has raised another issue. The use of other crops, like soy and maize, has put a lot of pressure on food supplies throughout the world. Food prices are rising, and the poor are starving more and more. Is it worth starving anyone just so that someone can turn their food into fuel for a car that they don't really need? Is it worth depriving a poor man of an ear of corn just so that someone can drive to his posh, air-conditioned office two blocks away? The magnitude of the problem (845 million people will go to sleep hungry tonight) makes it a hard problem to solve. People cannot put a face to it. Josef Stalin said "One dead is a tragedy, one million dead is a statistic". How apt is his description!

It seems to me that biofuels is not the answer. And its benefits could possibly be overhyped by governments trying to make a quick buck. People must change their lifestyles. E.O. Wilson said that we will probably need two more planets in order to sustain the lifestyles of typical Americans (which the majority of the world is trying to "acheive"). Earth, big as it is, is running out of space, and is being suffocated by us. Look at the picture below. It shows how much space (and you can imagine the carbon emission) it takes to transport a bunch of people by car.



And the group, if transported by bus (See the difference!).




The pictures are courtesy of the Geo-4 report, which got them from the Press-Office of the City of Münster, Germany.

So in the end, I ask the same question to all reading this. Are biofuels the solution?

Choking on Growth

The below is an article from The New York Times, October 14th, 2007

In China, a Lake’s Champion Imperils Himself
By JOSEPH KAHN
Published: October 14, 2007

ZHOUTIE, China — Lake Tai, the center of China’s ancient “land of fish and rice,” succumbed this year to floods of industrial and agricultural waste.

Toxic cyanobacteria, commonly referred to as pond scum, turned the big lake fluorescent green. The stench of decay choked anyone who came within a mile of its shores. At least two million people who live amid the canals, rice paddies and chemical plants around the lake had to stop drinking or cooking with their main source of water.

The outbreak confirmed the claims of a crusading peasant, Wu Lihong, who protested for more than a decade that the region’s thriving chemical industry, and its powerful friends in the local government, were destroying one of China’s ecological treasures.

Mr. Wu, however, bore silent witness. Shortly before the algae crisis erupted in May, the authorities here in his hometown arrested him. In mid-August, with a fetid smell still wafting off the lake, a local court sentenced him to three years on an alchemy of charges that smacked of official retribution.

Pollution has reached epidemic proportions in China, in part because the ruling Communist Party still treats environmental advocates as bigger threats than the degradation of air, water and soil that prompts them to speak out.

Senior officials have tried to address environmental woes mostly through pulling the traditional levers of China’s authoritarian system: issuing command quotas on energy efficiency and emissions reduction; punishing corrupt officials who shield polluters; planting billions of trees across the country to hold back deserts and absorb carbon dioxide.

But they do not dare to unleash individuals who want to make China cleaner. Grass-roots environmentalists arguably do more to expose abuses than any edict emanating from Beijing. But they face a political climate that varies from lukewarm tolerance to icy suppression.

Fixing the environment is, in other words, a political problem. Central party officials say they need people to report polluters and hold local governments to account. They granted legal status to private citizens’ groups in 1994 and have allowed environmentalism to emerge as an incipient social force.

But local officials in China get ahead mainly by generating high rates of economic growth and ensuring social order. They have wide latitude to achieve those goals, including nearly complete control over the police and the courts in their domains. They have little enthusiasm for environmentalists who appeal over their heads to higher-ups in the capital.

Mr. Wu, a jaunty, 40-year-old former factory salesman, pioneered a style of intrepid, media-savvy environmental work that made Lake Tai, and the hundreds of chemical factories on its shores, the focus of intense regulatory scrutiny.

In 2005 he was declared an “Environmental Warrior” by the National People’s Congress. His address book contained cellphone numbers for officials in Beijing and the provincial capital of Nanjing who outranked the party bosses where he lived.

But Mr. Wu was far from untouchable. He lost his job. His wife lost hers. The police summoned, detained and interrogated him. The local government and factory owners also tried for years to bring him into the fold with contracts, gifts and jobs. When party officials offered him a chance to profit handsomely from a pollution cleanup contract, a friend warned him not to accept. Mr. Wu, who needed the money, said yes.

Lake of Plenty

The country’s third largest freshwater body, Lake Tai, or Taihu in Chinese, has long provided the people of the lower Yangtze River Delta with both their wealth and their conception of natural beauty.

It nurtured a bounty of the “three whites,” white shrimp, whitebait and whitefish, and a freshwater crustacean delicacy called the hairy crab. Natural and man-made streams irrigated rice paddies, and a network of canals ferried that produce far and wide.

Along the lake’s northern reaches, near the city of Wuxi, placid waters and misty hills captured the imagination of Chinese for hundreds of years. The wealthy built gardens that featured the lake’s wrinkled, water-scarred limestone rocks set in groves of bamboo and chrysanthemum.

Since the 1950s, however, Lake Tai has been under assault. The authorities constructed dams and weirs to improve irrigation and control floods, disrupting the cleansing circulation of fresh water. Phosphates and other pollution-borne nutrients made the lake eutrophic, sucking out oxygen that fish need to survive.

Even in its degraded state, Lake Tai made an ideal habitat for China’s chemical industry, which expanded prolifically in the 1980s. Chemical factories consume and discharge large quantities of water, which the lake provided and absorbed. Its canals made it easy to ship goods to the big industrial port city of Shanghai, downstream.

With strong local government support, the northern arc of Lake Tai became home to 2,800 chemical plants, most of them small cinder-block factories that took over rice paddies beside canals.

Mr. Wu’s hometown alone had 300 such plants. His narrow village road was reinforced with concrete to withstand the weight of cargo trucks. Factories here made food additives, solvents and adhesives.

The industry transformed the economy. By the mid-1990s, taxes on chemical industry profits accounted for four-fifths of local government revenue, according to a report from the city of Yixing, which oversees Zhoutie.

Mr. Wu benefited as well. In his early 20s, he got a salaried job as salesman for a factory that made soundproofing material. It allowed him to travel around the country, and paid nice commissions on his sales. His wife, Xu Jiehua, made dyes.

Mr. Wu took long walks after dinner. The acrid tinge in the cool night air was the smell of prosperity to some locals. But it nauseated him, Mr. Wu recalled in later interviews.

In streams where he and Ms. Xu played as children, teeming whitefish used to tickle their legs. By the early 1990s, there were no fish in the streams, which ran black and red. “Rivers of blood,” Ms. Xu quoted him as saying.

Mr. Wu is small and pudgy. Ms. Xu calls him “little fatty.” He also has a short temper, and pollution sparked it.

“In the beginning I didn’t understand it myself,” he recalled years later in an interview with Farmers’ Daily. “It was my personality that decided all of this. I felt the burden getting bigger.”

He began by snapping photos of factories dumping untreated effluent into canals. He mailed them, anonymously at first, to environmental protection agencies.

When that produced few results, he signed the letters and included his phone number, volunteering to help inspectors see the problem for themselves.

Local regulators ignored him. But fish kills, declining rice yields and slumping tourism to the once pristine area made Lake Tai’s ecology a broader concern. Higher-ranking officials in Nanjing, capital of Jiangsu Province, got in touch.

One evening, Mr. Wu brought provincial inspectors to see concealed pipes running from a factory near his home to a stream that flowed into the lake. The factory, Feida Chemical, got slapped with a fine, and Mr. Wu got his start.

Friends and Enemies

Mr. Wu’s farmhouse filled up with the evidence he amassed, a bit haphazardly, of a looming environmental disaster. He used his pantry to store plastic bottles containing muddy water samples from streams and canals. Near his queen-size bed he kept stacks of newspaper clippings and photographs, letters and petitions.

One letter from local farmers described how a nearby factory making 8-hydroxyquinoline, used as a deodorant and antiseptic, emitted noxious fumes that “make our days and nights impassable.” Another writer referred to a local factory as “a new Unit 731,” after the Japanese team that conducted chemical warfare experiments in World War II. Members of another group said they did not dare tend their rice paddies without wearing gloves and galoshes because irrigation water caused their skin to peel off.

Mr. Wu answered many such calls for help. Between 1998 and 2006, the environmental protection agency of Jiangsu Province recorded receiving 200 reports of pollution incidents and regulatory violations from Mr. Wu.

Many of those he helped became allies. But Mr. Wu was making as many enemies as friends.

“Our society lacks the right atmosphere for environmental protection,” he told one local newspaper. “Even in areas where pollution is most severe, I still have a hard time winning people’s support.”

Some residents feared for their jobs, with good reason. The soundproofing factory fired Mr. Wu in 1999. His notice of dismissal, which he saved among his other papers, cited his failure to attend a meeting.

His family lived off his wife’s salary at the dye factory for a time. Then one day Ms. Xu mentioned to Mr. Wu how the stream near her factory changed colors depending on which dye they made that day. Mr. Wu brought a television crew to film the rainbow-colored stream. Ms. Xu soon lost her job as well.

“He did not always have our family’s happiness at heart,” Ms. Xu recalled. “He probably should have investigated someone else’s factory.”

Such pressure, though, made him confront local authorities more directly.

In 2001, Wen Jiabao, then a vice premier, now China’s prime minister, came to investigate reports of Lake Tai’s deterioration. Like most Communist Party inspection tours, word of this one reached local officials in advance. When Mr. Wen asked to see a typical dye plant, one was made ready, according to several people who witnessed the preparations.

The factory got a fresh coat of paint. The canal that ran beside it was drained, dredged and refilled with fresh water. Shortly before Mr. Wen’s motorcade arrived, workers dumped thousands of carp into the canal. Farmers were positioned along the banks holding fishing rods.

Mr. Wen spent 20 minutes there. A picture of him shaking hands with the factory boss hangs in its lobby.

Mr. Wu fired off an angry letter to Beijing recounting the ruse and warning the vice premier that he had been “deceived.” Mr. Wu circulated copies among his friends. Local officials saw it, too. Several villagers said they were warned then that they should keep a distance from Mr. Wu.

Words From Above

One summer afternoon in 2002, Mr. Wu went out on an errand and saw a banner stretched across the main road downtown. It read: “Warmly welcome the police to arrest Wu Lihong for committing blackmail in the name of environmentalism.”

Mr. Wu told friends he initially suspected that the banner was hung by local factory bosses to intimidate him. But when he went to the police to complain, he found a stack of placards with the same exhortation in the police station. The police had erected the banner themselves, and they detained him on the spot.

His family received a detention notice accusing Mr. Wu of inciting farmers to stage a public protest about pollution a few weeks earlier. The notice did not mention blackmail, as the banner had, and the police never pressed charges. He was released within two weeks.

That episode appeared to be part of an inconsistent, somewhat bumbling effort to keep Mr. Wu boxed up and harmless.

There were carrots as well as sticks. Zhang Aiguo, the chief environmental regulator in the city of Yixing, struck up a dialogue with Mr. Wu, several friends said.

Hang Yaobin, a truck driver and sundry shop owner in Zhoutie who has also pressed for better environmental controls, said Mr. Zhang told Mr. Wu that they could improve the environment together. But Mr. Wu should expose problems in other jurisdictions and should stop damaging Yixing’s reputation.

“Zhang Aiguo told him: ‘Don’t make me stink, or I’ll lose my job. Then we’ll accomplish nothing,’” Mr. Hang said.

In a telephone interview, Mr. Zhang declined to discuss his dealings with Mr. Wu in detail. But he acknowledged that the two talked regularly before he was assigned to another position in the Yixing government.

In 2003, Mr. Zhang offered Mr. Wu a business opportunity. A steel plant in Zhoutie had been ordered by environmental authorities to buy new dust-control equipment. Mr. Wu could find a vendor for the equipment and earn a handsome commission, several people told about the arrangement said.

Mr. Zhang confirmed that he told Mr. Wu of the opportunity.

Mr. Wu debated whether to accept. Mr. Hang said he advised his friend against it. “If you’re engaged in a confrontation with officials you can’t gamble, or visit prostitutes, or have any other vice,” Mr. Han said. “They are always looking for ways to get you.”

But this contract involved an environmental cleanup. And with both Mr. Wu and his wife out of work, they needed money. Mr. Wu agreed to contact a vendor recommended by Mr. Zhang.

It was not a rewarding endeavor. He brokered a contract. But the dust-control company gave him only a token advance on his promised commission. The steel plant boss, who had befriended Mr. Wu, eventually withheld part of what he owed the dust-control company to compensate Mr. Wu, according to Ms. Xu, his wife.

That was one of several muddled interactions with local officials and businessmen that did not satisfy either side. Mr. Wu remained cash-strapped. He did not stop contacting Nanjing and Beijing about pollution problems.

In 2005, he heard that the local government would be the host of a big delegation of Chinese reporters as part of the China Environmental Century Tour. He got in touch with China Central Television, the leading national broadcaster, and promised to reveal the story behind the story.

He arranged covertly for the reporters to inspect a section of the Caoqiao River that he learned the government planned to show them on the coming tour. He revealed hidden pipes that discharged black effluent from local factories into the river, which flows into Lake Tai.

The China Central Television crew later joined the Potemkin official tour. They aired a special report on “the river that goes from black to clear overnight.”

Mr. Wu was the star of that report, an environmental celebrity. Later the same year, the National People’s Congress, China’s party-run Parliament, declared him an “Environmental Warrior.”

Model City

With President Hu Jintao and Mr. Wen demanding tougher action on pollution, local officials in 2006 came under new pressure to clean up Lake Tai. Despite repeated pledges and campaigns to protect the once scenic lake, it was still rated Grade V by the State Environmental Protection Administration, the lowest level on its scale.

Yixing ordered a new crackdown on small chemical factories. It claimed to have reduced the total number by half from the peak of 2,800 in the late 1990s. The city said the industry, which once accounted for as much as 85 percent of the area’s industrial output, constituted just 40 percent in 2006.

But local officials put at least as much emphasis on fighting the perception that they had a pollution problem. They lobbied heavily for the State Environmental Protection Administration to declare it a “Model City for Environmental Protection.”

Around the same time, Wu Xijun, the Communist Party boss of Zhoutie, called Mr. Wu to his office. The two Mr. Wus, who are not related, had a “face-to-face talk” about the damage Wu Lihong’s environmental protests were doing to the area’s reputation. The party secretary then made him an offer, according to friends of Mr. Wu and an official court document that confirmed the meeting.

In March 2006, the township party committee paid Mr. Wu to promote tourism on the condition that he stop “nonfactual reporting” of pollution problems. The payments totaled about $5,000, the court document confirmed.

Mr. Wu may have toned down his protests for a time, friends said. But early this year, he learned that Yixing had won the environmental administration’s designation as a “Model City for Environmental Protection.” Enraged, he began his most assertive effort to date to embarrass local officials.

He spent weeks traveling throughout the area on his motorcycle, collecting water samples and photographing rivers and canals. He gathered data he hoped could prove that factories released most of their polluted water at night in quantities that the currents could wash away by dawn.

In April, he prepared to bring the water samples and photographic evidence to Beijing. He told friends he intended to file a lawsuit there against SEPA, the environmental administration, for its decision to honor Yixing. He never made the trip.

On the night of April 13, several dozen police and state security officers raided his farmhouse. Climbing ladders, they pried open the windows to his second-floor bedroom, arresting him and seizing documents and a computer.

Prosecutors quickly indicted Mr. Wu on two charges of blackmail. The first charge claimed that after he “gained knowledge” of a contract between the steel company and the dust-control company in 2003, he threatened to use his connections to undermine it unless the dust-control company paid him to keep quiet.

The second charge claimed that Mr. Wu extorted money from the Communist Party Committee of Zhoutie by threatening to report pollution problems.

Prosecutors revised the indictment twice in the following weeks. They dropped the charge of blackmailing the Communist Party, offering no explanation. Then they added a new charge, this one for “fraud.” It claimed that Mr. Wu had illegally aided the steel company boss in preparing false documentation to account for the money the steel company paid Mr. Wu in 2003.

The three indictments each claimed that Mr. Wu confessed to the various charges. The last week of May, with Mr. Wu in custody, Lake Tai cried for help. Nitrogen and phosphorous, the untreated residue of chemical processing, fertilizer, and sewage, built up to record levels, while rainfall fell short.

Lake Tai’s Revenge

Lake Tai had algal blooms before. This time, according to an analysis by the State Environmental Protection Administration, cyanobacteria “exploded” at rates that had not been seen in the past. Much of the lake was covered with a deep, foul-smelling canopy that left most of the 2.3 million people in Wuxi, the biggest city on the northern part of the lake, without drinking water for many days.

Local officials initially called the outbreak a “natural disaster.” But state media rushed to the scene, and some showed pictures of chemical factories dumping waste into the lake even as residents formed long lines at supermarkets to buy bottled water.

Neighboring cities shut sluice gates and canal locks to prevent contamination, creating a monumental maritime traffic jam and further reducing circulation around Lake Tai. The problem did not ease until central authorities ordered Yangtze River water diverted into the lake. Even then, the bloom lingered into late summer.

Mr. Wen convened a meeting of the State Council to discuss the matter. “The pollution of Lake Tai has sounded the alarm for us,” state media quoted him as saying. “The problem has never been tackled at its root.”

Five party and government officials in Yixing and Zhoutie, including three involved in environmental work, were dismissed or demoted. Li Yuanchao, the party boss of Jiangsu Province, vowed to clean up Lake Tai even if it meant taking a 15 percent cut to the province’s economic output. Authorities pledged to shut down hundreds of the most egregious polluters in their most sweeping crackdown to date.

Ms. Xu, Mr. Wu’s wife, said she hoped the authorities would conclude that it would be improper, or at least inconvenient, to prosecute Mr. Wu under such conditions. His trial, initially scheduled for June, was delayed, prompting speculation that someone at a higher level had intervened.

But although Mr. Wu’s arrest generated attention in both the domestic and international media, there is no indication that central government officials objected to his prosecution. On a Friday afternoon in August, the road in front of Yixing’s courthouse filled with Volkswagen Santanas, the standard-issue sedans of China’s police and security services. In a park nearby, officials hung a banner advertising the city’s new status as a “Model City for Environmental Protection.”

The evidence against Mr. Wu consisted mainly of written testimony and his own confession. The judges rejected a request by Mr. Wu’s lawyer to summon prosecution witnesses for cross-examination.

Mr. Wu told the judges in open court that the police had deprived him of food and forced him to stay awake for five days and five nights in succession, relenting only when he signed a written confession. He said that the confession was coerced and that he was innocent. The judges ruled that since Mr. Wu could not prove that he had been tortured, his confession remained valid.

Mr. Wu lost his temper. “Since I was a child I have never broken the law,” he shouted, according to relatives who attended. “If I could right now, I would like to split you in two.” He was sentenced to three years.

Shortly after the trial, Mr. Hang, the sundry shop owner and colleague of Mr. Wu, handed a reporter photos, clippings and documents collected over a decade of environmental work. He said he had no use for them now. Environmental work had become too risky.

He said he had recently seen some little fish darting around in the milky green water of a canal nearby. He took it as a good sign. “Once the white shrimp come back, that would be good,” he said. The white shrimp had not come back just yet.

Saving Sharks?

Below is a newsarticle from Yahoo News.

Fake fins eye saving sharks, Chinese wallets

A Japanese company is launching fake shark fins in China, hoping to tap a market as prices for real ones rise amid concerns the species is being hunted to extinction.

Shark fin is considered one of the highest-end delicacies in Chinese cuisine and also fetches high prices in select Japanese restaurants.

Nikko Yuba Seizo Co. a Japanese food-processing company, said it had developed artificial shark fins made out of pork gelatin. Its top executives returned Friday from a two-day trip to China to introduce the products.

"Shark fin prices have been rising constantly in recent years due to a fall in the volume traded, so we decided to develop an artificial fin," said Tadashi Kozuka, a top official of the company which also trades real shark fins imported from Indonesia, Brazil and elsewhere.

"We visited Shanghai and Dalian -- big cities where wealthy Chinese people live -- to seek trading partners. I guess fins sell well among rich people," he said.

But he said the artificial version would also appeal to Chinese who would not be able to afford the real fins, which are served as a luxury at weddings and other important occasions.

Kozuka said the company had long queues of customers when it first presented its product in China at a trade fair in June in the southern city of Guangzhou.

The price of the gelatin-made fin costs only one-tenth of the real one, or about 1,500 yen (15 dollars) per kilogram when sold wholesale, he said.

Controversy over China's appetite for shark's fin rose last year when the country's most famous sports personality, basketball star Yao Ming, called for a boycott of the dish to save the fish from extinction. Some species of shark are now endangered.

Environmentalists have campaigned to stop "finning," when fishermen catch sharks and cut off their fins before throwing the carcasses back into the sea. The practice is blamed for preventing an accurate picture of shark numbers.

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Would introducing substitutes really save the sharks? I feel the company that is doing this, while it might have good intentions, may have completely missed the point.

Shark's fins is not just a simple delicacy. It's cultural roots run deep. Has anyone wondered why Shark's fins soup always comes as a second dish at banquets after the cold dish? That's because in Ben Cao Gang Mu (Historical Chinese Medicine Encyclopedia written by Li Shizhen) it's said to stimulate appetite. The Chinese have used shark fins in shark-fin soup, considered a delicacy, since the Han Dynasty over 2200 years ago. There are records of both the Song Dynasty (960–1279) and the Qing Dynasty (1644–1911) using shark-fin soup as a banquet staple. In the Ming Dynasty, it became an imperial privilege to consume sharks fin's soup.

Chinese gastronomical culture is largely influenced by what the emperors ate, which the commoners could not afford, and its passed on to this day. Shark's fins soup is one example, as are bird's nest soup, and abalone dishes. To the Chinese, to be able to have these for a meal is considered a status elevation, and something to be proud of, to show off. No matter if these things have absolutely no taste, or nutritional value. By the way, Shark's fin's were never used because of they are particularly tasty. In fact, they are completely tasteless, or might taste like ammonia if not treated properly. Shark's fins were added to soup (besides their appetising and aphrodesiac properties) because they gave the soup a great consistency supposedly unmatched by other additives. Nothing but the best for the emperor right? That's probably how the dish became a status symbol.

Chinese Culture is such that when presented with such luxury, even if one did not appreciate it, they must learn, or at least pretend to. It's not considered a good omen to have a kid say he hates shark's fins soup because superstitious parents may take it to mean that the child is destined to live a "coolie's life" and so will never appreciate luxury. Hence this dish, as a result of its imperial status, must be served at Chinese events, otherwise the host will be frowned upon as a stingy person, and he will lose "face". Many Chinese would rather die than be in that situation.

Therefore to them, substitute Shark's fins is not an option. True, poorer people might take up that option as a substitute (better than nothing), but it is the current market now that's decimating Shark populations. It's like proposing to your girlfriend with a 50cent lollipop ring instead of a 5 thousand dollar princess cut diamond ring. Nonetheless, it is a good thing to have, just that maybe, it arrived a bit too early. People must be educated to develop an aversion to eating shark's fins. Which is a formidable task, considering in China, your pet dog might end up in a claypot.

Guess Who's Coming?

I really excited and am trying to keep myself from gushing... Jane Goodall will be coming to our humble little island!!! Here are the details:

Act for Earth!

Dress up as your favourite endangered plant or animal and advocate for our wild habitats!
Get your kids dressed up too!

Parade from Jacob Ballas Children's Garden to Palm Valley for picnic and performances!
See Dr Jane Goodall in person with her chimpanzee mascot, Mr H.

For more information and to register, http://wildlifeparade.wordpress.com/

To find out more about Dr. Jane Goodall and her work, check out http://www.janegoodall.org/

Date and Time : Friday, 2 November 2007 (Parade - 4pm)
Venue : Singapore Botanic Gardens (Parade - Jacob Ballas Children's Garden, Singapore Botanic Gardens)
Price : Free Admission
Agenda : To create a better awareness about our fragile earth and her endangered wildlife


On a different note, after my rant yesterday, it turns out that there are plans to build eco-passages joining BTNR and CCNR! Hooray!

Society Leaders and Conservation

Up until now, we've got a bunch of people passionately working to arrest the climate change and biodiversity crises that the world is facing. And they're all the same faces, mostly from the scientific world. However, slowly but surely, more and more people are awakening to the idea that something may have gone horribly haywire. Incredibily, "more and more" does not seem to include the so-called "upper echelons" of our society.

Here what everyone should do. Find one nice day to hang around outside parliament house on a day where parliament is sitting. Take down the makes and models of every minister's vehicle that enters the parliament house. Then go to http://www.epa.gov/emissweb/ to check out the efficiency, air pollution scores and emission levels of their vehicles. Our leaders are probably among the most polluting individuals in the country! Never mind the flashy businessmen with their tank-like Mercedes, we're talking about a country's leaders. They are supposed to set the examples. You might also notice that Singapore isn't actually very vocal when it comes to the environment. We keep quiet about shark's fins, their petrol guzzling vehicles, the fact that Singapore is a hub of illegal wildlife trafficking, the usurping of Khatib Bongsu and their incredibly stupid decision to cut an expressway through Bukit Timah, the huge ecological catastrophes that our society contributes too. At the same time, tiny ant steps that they take when its convenient are trumpetted like we just saved the world from impending disaster.

Let's move away from the politicians. Besides, if they did restrict shark's fins and tighten fuel efficiency rules whole industries would fold and they would lose their votes and according to them, when we stop voting for them, the country would go under. (Incidentally, that might happen if the ice caps continue to melt) So let's take a look at the religious people. After all, Ataturk once said,"Religion is an important institution. A nation without religion cannot survive."

No wait, I don't see anything. Big fat nothing. The major religions have not done anything significant to address any of these worldly problems. And I wonder why not. We have church congregations spending millions in building new churches with (Horrors!) air-conditioning. How about passing the hat / bag around for money for say, replanting our forests or funding environmental campaigns instead of nodding knowingly at the perceived accuracies of some obsure armageddon prophecy? Do religious leaders even know the severity of climate change?

The conservation movement, in all honesty is not moving fast enough. Dengue is moving to Europe. The Arctic ice-cap has a path melted through it. But people are still more interesting in asking gods and priests for 4D numbers. And they get there in their Lexus / Mercedes / BMW SUVs.

Blog for the Environment

On October 15th, bloggers around the web will unite to put a single important issue on everyone’s mind - the environment. Every blogger will post about the environment in their own way and relating to their own topic. Our aim is to get everyone talking towards a better future.

Blog Action Day is about MASS participation. That means we need you! Here are 3 ways to participate:

1)Post on your blog relating to the environment on Blog Action Day
2)Donate your day’s earnings to an environmental charity
3)Promote Blog Action Day around the web

Go to http://blogactionday.org/commit to become part of the voice for the environment~

ACRES Events Update

Show the world that “Animals Matter To Me”! 5th to 7th October
Venue: The Atrium @ Orchard (Beside Plaza Singapura), 60B Orchard Road map
Day/Time: Friday, Saturday and Sunday, 10am to 10pm daily
To mark World Animal Day, Acres will be celebrating Singaporeans' support for animal protection efforts by holding a 3-day animal-themed festival. There will be a photographic exhibition, music, dance, children's activities and a large array of educational exhibits on animal protection issues, along with the opportunity for everyone to find out how they can help make the world a better place for the animals we share it with.

More importantly, we aim to collect 4, 000 signatures for the global “Animals Matter to Me” campaign in support of a Universal Declaration on Animal Welfare to be endorsed by governments of the world. This is a call to everyone, worldwide, to recognise all animals as sentient beings, that they can feel pain and can suffer and that we have a responsibility to put an end to cruelty around the world.

Please drop by and show your support, and show the world that animals matter to you!

Volunteers are needed to help with this event. If you are interested please contact charlene@acres.org.sg


By the way, October 4th every year is World Animal Day, if you didn't already know.

When Businessmen Run Conservation Programs

I found this news article while trawling the net to pass time, from China Daily, and it concerns the Siberian Tigers from Harbin Park, one of the most successful captive breeding centres for Siberian Tigers. Unfortunately, some comments made me wonder why the Chinese even started the breeding programme in the first place. I copied and pasted the article below:

Siberian tigers move south to make some money
By Wu Yong (China Daily)
Updated: 2007-09-28 07:51


Fifteen Siberian tigers are traveling a long way from Harbin in Northeast China to Xiamen in the south - to help their families and relatives live a better life back home.

The Harbin-based Siberian Tiger Park signed a five-year contract with Xiamen Huzhilin Company earlier this year for an undisclosed amount; and the tigers will be on view in the coastal city from October 1, the first day of the week-long National Day holidays.

To take care of the tigers, two zookeepers from Harbin will be with them throughout the five years, said Bian Shifeng, a park employee.

It is not the first time the Harbin park has leased out tigers to ease its financial strain - more than 100 tigers can be found in Dalian, Shenyang and Taiyuan zoos, and generate about 1 million yuan ($133,000) each year, a source close to the park said.

The park, founded in 1996, is one of the major Siberian tiger breeding bases in the country. In the past decade, their number has jumped from eight to more than 800.

While preservation of the precious species is ensured, the increasing number of big cats has led to another conundrum: How to feed them.

Wang Ligang, the park's general manger, said the financial deficit is rising despite local government support.

A tiger eats 5 kg of meat every day and its annual expense covering food and medical care is about 30,000 yuan ($3,993).

Which means the park has to fork out more than 20 million yuan ($2.67 million) each year, according to Liu Dan, chief engineer of the park.

Wang said the park has three sources of income: ticket sales, leasing out the tigers and government funding. "But it is far from enough."

The price of pork and other meat rose more than 80 percent in the first eight months of this year, driven mostly by increases in animal feed prices, according to the National Bureau of Statistics.

Sources familiar with the conditions in the park said tigers are now fed chicken instead of beef to cut costs.

Cao Liang, director of the China Wildlife Conservation Association, said tiger leasing is justified as long as approval is secured from the local governments. "The best protection for many tigers (in Harbin) is to provide enough food for them," Cao said.

"The only solution is to lift the ban on tiger trade. The trade of bones from tigers that are bred in captivity and die of natural causes will not affect the conservation of wild tigers. This can help raise funds for living tigers and also give relief to patients," Wang said.

In Chinese medicine, tiger parts are used as cures for illnesses ranging from colds to rheumatism.

In China, about 50 tigers live in the wilderness and around 5,000 in captivity. Some 1,000 are born each year in farms and about the same number have died of natural causes in recent years.

Why aren't they considering reintroduction or controlling the breeding? If you can't support so many then don't breed so many! What the park manager said sounds like he just pushed ahead with the breeding program at maximum speed to get recognition for a "successful breeding program", and then now he's trying to make a profit for the park (and get more credit for himself) with the "extra" or "surplus" tigers. This doesn't work. If anything, the breeding program , in such a case is a miserable flop. The Chinese government has been asking for the lifting of international bans of trade in tiger parts. For all we know, the captive breeding program could have been a pathetic (not to mention cowardly) excuse to prepare for tiger farming industries.

To everyone who's reading, let's all put in a little effort in stopping these atrocities. BigCatRescue has a petition site here: http://capwiz.com/bigcatrescue/issues/alert/?alertid=9952801&type=CU Please sign the petition, and help improve the situation there.

Prophecy Come True?

A modified (and most probably modernised Cree Indian proverb goes like this: "Only when the last tree has died and the last river been poisoned and the last fish been caught will we realise we cannot eat money."

Well for those who want to know, the original story (as re-told by Lelanie Fuller Stone) goes like this...

--- There was an old lady, from the "Cree" tribe, named "Eyes of Fire", who prophesied that one day, because of the white mans' or Yo-ne-gis' greed, there would come a time, when the fish would die in the streams, the birds would fall from the air, the waters would be blackened, and the trees would no longer be, mankind as we would know it would all but cease to exist.

There would come a time when the "keepers of the legend, stories, culture rituals, and myths, and all the Ancient Tribal Customs" would be needed to restore us to health. They would be mankinds’ key to survival, they were the "Warriors of the Rainbow". There would come a day of awakening when all the peoples of all the tribes would form a New World of Justice, Peace, Freedom and recognition of the Great Spirit.

The "Warriors of the Rainbow" would spread these messages and teach all peoples of the Earth or "Elohi". They would teach them how to live the "Way of the Great Spirit". They would tell them of how the world today has turned away from the Great Spirit and that is why our Earth is "Sick".

The "Warriors of the Rainbow" would show the peoples that this "Ancient Being" (the Great Spirit), is full of love and understanding, and teach them how to make the "Earth or Elohi" beautiful again. These Warriors would give the people principles or rules to follow to make their path right with the world. These principles would be those of the Ancient Tribes. The Warriors of the Rainbow would teach the people of the ancient practices of Unity, Love and Understanding. They would teach of Harmony among people in all four comers of the Earth.

Like the Ancient Tribes, they would teach the peoples how to pray to the Great Spirit with love that flows like the beautiful mountain stream, and flows along the path to the ocean of life. Once again, they would be able to feel joy in solitude and in councils. They would be free of petty jealousies and love all mankind as their brothers, regardless of color, race or religion. They would feel happiness enter their hearts, and become as one with the entire human race. Their hearts would be pure and radiate warmth, understanding and respect for all mankind, Nature, and the Great Spirit. They would once again fill their minds, hearts, souls, and deeds with the purest of thoughts. They would seek the beauty of the Master of Life - the Great Spirit! They would find strength and beauty in prayer and the solitudes of life.

Their children would once again be able to run free and enjoy the treasures of Nature and Mother Earth. Free from the fears of toxins and destruction, wrought by the Yo-ne-gi and his practices of greed. The rivers would again run clear, the forests be abundant and beautiful, the animals and birds would be replenished. The powers of the plants and animals would again be respected and conservation of all that is beautiful would become a way of life.

The poor, sick and needy would be cared for by their brothers and sisters of the Earth. These practices would again become a part of their daily lives.

The leaders of the people would be chosen in the old way - not by their political party, or who could speak the loudest, boast the most, or by name calling or mud slinging, but by those whose actions spoke the loudest. Those who demonstrated their love, wisdom, and courage and those who showed that they could and did work for the good of all, would be chosen as the leaders or Chiefs. They would be chosen by their "quality" and not the amount of money they had obtained. Like the thoughtful and devoted "Ancient Chiefs", they would understand the people with love, and see that their young were educated with the love and wisdom of their surroundings. They would show them that miracles can be accomplished to heal this world of its ills, and restore it to health and beauty.

The tasks of these "Warriors of the Rainbow" are many and great. There will be terrifying mountains of ignorance to conquer and they shall find prejudice and hatred. They must be dedicated, unwavering in their strength, and strong of heart. They will find willing hearts and minds that will follow them on this road of returning "Mother Earth" to beauty and plenty - once more.

The day will come, it is not far away. The day that we shall see how we owe our very existence to the people of all tribes that have maintained their culture and heritage. Those that have kept the rituals, stories, legends, and myths alive. It will be with this knowledge, the knowledge that they have preserved, that we shall once again return to "harmony" with Nature, Mother Earth, and mankind. It will be with this knowledge that we shall find our "Key to our Survival". ---

I'm sure many of us would agree that much of the prophecy is coming true, that Man's (not just the white, but all the different races) greed is sucking the earth dry, and that wildlife is going extinct, the waters are becoming polluted and the forests are being cut down(And that reminds me of the rather sad state of 270 track of Panti Forest Reserve), and the politicians leading most countries are there because it makes them seen rich and powerful and pulsing with testosterone. But will we ever see the other half come true?

I think reading the prophecy gives me hope (although I've never been a religious or mystic-believing person and probably will never be one - too scientific, my other half snorts). The past year, I've met some really nice people, fighting tooth and nail for the betterment of the earth. These conservationists, they are the Warriors of the Rainbow. People like Louis from ACRES, Dr. Anna, Ria Tan (whom I've yet to meet) and some of the people at NUS and RMBR. But they are too few, and are like an advanced party. More will come and they have to come quick. This prophecy must come true.

I find that cultures are funny things. Often, the cultures are considered "Superior" in some way often have absolutely no, or close to no, respect for Nature. Lots of examples spring to mind. Chinese culture for example (I am ethnic Chinese by the way). The Chinese take pride in being able to cook and eat anything that moves. They harvest sharks, chop off their fins and dump them (finless) back in the sea. They keep bear farms to collect their bile, and have tried to legalise tiger farming. The Indo-Chinese believe in mystical powers of lorises (which unfortunately will manifest only if the lorises are killed and the corresponding body parts are eaten). The white man and royalty practically every "Superior" culture hunt animals just for fun. On the other hand, the cultures seen as "savages" or "barbaric" seem to have enormous respect for Nature. The North American Indians, the numerous African Tribes, the Nepalese, and Tibetans to name a few examples practically worship Nature. Unfortunately, many of them have now been corrupted by their conquerors. So we see African native guides who lead hunting trips, Indonesian indigenous people slashing and burning their forests with hopes of striking it rich. And for what? For nothing more than a few pieces of metal and paper that they call money.

Channelnewsasia situation update

Channelnewsasia gave a pretty positive reply. They said they'd look into setting up a Science/Nature Section on their site, or increase Nature reporting!

Channelnewsasia

I just made a request to Channelnewsasia via email for them to set up a Science/Nature section on their website. I hope it gets somewhere.

They do have a technology section, but while technology is Science, Science is not only technology. Is this something about Singaporean mindsets? When people mention Science, its the engineering and physics and chemistry. I don't think Nature comes to mind very often.

Fingers-crossed, hopefully we see some progress here.

Glow-in-the-dark Fungi

Found this at Meralodge forest. Really cool fungi. Well its not all that uncommon, probably one of the 33 Mycena sp. Its funny though, that people go the sea and look for weird creatures for GFP when maybe its in the forest right behind them.

Well now I hope that people don't read this and go wreck the forest.

On a lighter note, when you see someone board the bus, and he's muddy and sweaty, don't be so quick to label him a "construction worker". He might be your friendly field biologist who's working desperately to keep Singapore's natural heritage!

Help Needed

Well, this appeal is only open to students doing Biology in NUS and ok with doing nocturnal field work.

NParks doesn't let me do field work on my own! Slow Loris work are best done with one or two people, and since they effectively ruled out "one", then I need someone to go in with me! It doesn't have to be regular, just have to let me know if you are interested and then I'll contact you I have to do a night survey. Anyone?

Latest Update on Slow Lorises on 2007 IUCN Red-List

Here's what IUCN thinks with regards to distribution.

Native:
Bangladesh; Brunei Darussalam; Cambodia; China; India; Indonesia; Lao People's Democratic Republic; Malaysia; Myanmar; Philippines; Thailand; Viet Nam


Possibly extinct regionally:
Bangladesh; Brunei Darussalam; Cambodia; China; India; Indonesia; Lao People's Democratic Republic; Malaysia; Myanmar; Philippines; Thailand; Viet Nam; Singapore.


Notice that under "Native", there is no mention of Singapore, but under "Possible Extinct Regionally", Singapore is there. Obviously I hope that my project can help "Singapore" hop from the lower category to the upper one.

My Slow Loris Research

Here's a page that I managed to get posted on thw WildSingapore site, thanks to Kwok Wai and Norman.

HAVE YOU SEEN A SLOW LORIS?



Seen a slow loris? Please contact Fam Shun Deng asap at 92215549 (Singapore number) or +447794832899 (UK number) or famshundeng@tarsier.org

What is a Slow Loris?

The Greater Slow Loris (Nycticebus coucang) is among Asia's least studied primates. They are small, arboreal, nocturnal and inconspicuous. They are known to inhabit primary rainforests, which is present is small patches around Singapore, or logged over secondary forests with canopy corridors, which is not present in Singapore. As such, its habitat areas are severely restricted.

At the 2007 Conference of the Parties of CITES in The Hague, CITES member nations unanimously decided to push Nycticebus to Appendix I, an action that the member nations were compelled to carry out, to protect the species from extinction. As they look very cute to most people, they are hugely popular as pets in many countries in Asia and Europe and are sold in markets in many Southeast Asian countries. Traders circumvent their toxic bite by pulling out their teeth with pliers, which result in many lorises dying from infection. Singapore is a known transit destination for slow loris trafficking, and is the most common seized mammal to enter Singapore illegally. There are also some who believe that slow loris seen in Singapore are escapees from the pet trade as well.

Besides their huge popularity as pets, slow lorises also face pressures from logging and slash-and-burn practices in our neighbouring countries, as they are normally asleep during the day, and have a tendency to stay still and cling on to the tree when they are frightened. Also, they are caught and killed for many other reasons, from the absurd (eating them gives one strength) to the even more absurd (eyeballs for love potions).

Not enough is known about their ecology. Slow lorises often die in captivity from intestinal problems, and diabetic problems. Not enough is known about them for zoos even to optimally take care of them.

About Fam Shun Deng

Fam Shun Deng, currently a Masters Student in Primate Conservation at Oxford Brookes University, United Kingdom. He previously did field research on Nycticebus coucang (the Greater Slow Loris) in Singapore while an undergraduate at the National University of Singapore. He is focussing on the taxonomy and ecology of the slow lorises here, and is also branching into problems with the illegal trade and evolution and biogeography of slow lorises in Southeast Asia. If anyone has sightings no matter they be roadkills or wild or under any other circumstances, they should contact him at 92215549 (Singapore number) or +447794832899 (UK number) or famshundeng@tarsier.org immediately. Any help would be much appreciated as they are probably present at very low densities.

Here's the link, please spread it around! http://www.wildsingapore.per.sg/discovery/news.htm

Tropical Disease Spreading to Europe

"The Ministry of Health in Italy has confirmed about 160 cases of chikungunya in the Ravenna region in northern Italy.

Travellers have been advised to protect themselves against mosquito bites.

The European Centre for Disease Control urged pregnant women and those with chronic illnesses to seek medical advice before visiting the area.

The villages of Castiglione di Ravenna and Castiglione di Cervia have reported most of the cases.

The main symptoms of the patients were high fever and joint pain, as well as headache, muscle pain, rash and less frequently gastrointestinal symptoms."
- http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/6981476.stm

This is quite disturbing. Does it mean that climate change has progressed to such a stage that tropical diseases are taking foot in Europe?

My Recent Trip to Thailand

Well as a number of Year 4 Bio students will know, I'd been missing in action at Thailand to do some loris work and attend a workshop.

We(as in a Thai MSc, Dr. Anna Nekaris and I) went to Khao Ang Runai Wildlife Sanctuary. Its got a field station with some electricity, but guano falls from the ceiling everyday. On our 1st night walk, we recorded 6 lorises. Super cool. My first wild loris sightings. Dr Nekaris kept gushing about the high incidence rate and flat ground and how lucky Manoon (the Thai MSc student) was. And I was thinking how BTNR is the exact opposite. It must seem like a quite shithole if Manoon ever visits.

Khao Ang Runai is a really good place to do wildlife research mainly because of the good terrain and "low leech detection rates", as Dr. Nekaris put it. I still got 2 leech bites though. Besides this research, the other project going on there is one with pileated gibbons (Hylobates pileatus). The sanctuary is known for wild elephants and leopards as well.

Well I would love to post pictures.. BUT I haven't scanned my films and a lot of them are in Dr. Nekaris and Manoon's digital and video cameras. It'll be abt 2 months before I post them I guess. And the dumb airport customs at Survanabhumi Airport insisted I put my camera through an x-ray scanner. I hope it doesnt kill the film inside.

After the field trip, I attended the workshop. Actually, the workshop is only one half of the day. The second half was in fact a meeting between Thai and Cambodian government officials with regards to smuggling of lorises across their borders, and the constant misidentification of loris species. Dr. Nekaris was the technical advisor and I joined her. =p

Basically, for me the whole thing was a wonderful learning experience, but with regards to solving the problems, it was a complete waste of time. The Cambodians refuse to accept that they had a problem (they kept asking for evidence, when it was right there in their markets). While the Thais conceded that there was a problem, they were just sitting on their hands on not committing anything. The Cambodians asked for a bilateral agreement (which is rubbish because it will take years to hammer something out) and the Thais said they had no $$ to train sniffer dogs to sniff out smuggled lorises. No $?! Hah. What nonsense. Sitting right outside the meeting room was about 100 spanking new 4WD trucks sitting in the rain, bought with budget SURPLUS, which they had to spend before the end of the fiscal year. The TRAFFIC representative was talking about training border police and giving training and evaluation support. That was the only thing that they did not have any excuse to not do. Then it kind of hit me that it would take a long time to develop the training packages and they might probably never get done. I thought we were getting nowhere, so I grabbed the microphone and just let rip. Well I didn't exactly tell them to their faces what I thought of them, but I hinted that I think they were trying to not do anything, and I suggested that they use the loris experts currently doing research in the country. I think I shocked Dr. Nekaris a bit. But I think they needed a good kick up their backsides.

Oh and another thing, I think the "Singapore" and "NUS" tag gives you a level of prestige in Thailand somehow.

I think I would like to go back again. Loris taxonomy is in a mess, and maybe once
Nycticebus coucang has its mess sorted out, I'll head to Thailand to help Manoon out with the N.bengalensis mess.

ACRES Wildlife Rescue Centre Fundraising

AWRC Fundraising, 8th and 9th September
Venue: The Atrium @ Orchard, 60B Orchard Road map
Day/Time: Saturday and Sunday, 10am to 10pm daily
Acres will be organising a public roadshow at The Atrium @ Orchard to raise funds for Singapore's first wildlife rescue, the Acres Wildlife Rescue Centre (AWRC) and to create awareness on many different animal welfare issues through informative educational panels and physical displays depicting the issues, for example toy animals crammed into crates showing how animals are smuggled for the illegal pet trade. Informative brochures are available so you can take home the message with you and share it with your friends and family.

Forms for donation and membership will be available at our booth.
All proceeds go towards our the establishment of the AWRC.

If you would like to volunteer, please email charlene@acres.org.sg

Melting Arctic

Here's something from the Sunday Times, 12/08/2007.

Well I can't copy and paste or Associated Press will charge me,so the gist of it is below.

Basically, as we all know by know, the Arctic Ice Cap is melting. To some of us, it means rising sea levels, changes in oceanic currents, climate changes; to others, it may mean no more polar bears; to people who like to describe themselves as the following, “intellectual”, “important”, “powerful”, “elite”, “entrepreneurial” and whatever else that they see fit to describe themselves with, it means new oil and natural gas fields, gold, diamond and nickel deposits and a chance to show everyone who bothers and are weak enough follow them who's the boss by winning playground scraps over a share of the Arctic pie.

It is estimated that by 2040 to 2050, the Arctic Ocean will be navigable. In effect, that means little or no ice left. And lots of drilling and boring and rigging and no more wildlife. No polar bears, no seals, no ice, no Eskimos and more flooding in South Asia, more scorching heat waves in Europe and North America. Birders will see no more birds because caterpillar peak seasons will not match hatching seasons and the chicks will all die.

But we get lots of diamonds, and gold to decorate the coffins of those among us who die from heat waves, and drown in floods, and Heaven forbid, the “great” people who found those deposits.

Event Update!

Organised by: Acres
Venue: The Atrium @ Orchard, 60B Orchard Road map
Day/Time: Saturday and Sunday, 10am to 10pm daily

This National Day Festival that runs from now till 26th August, extend and enrich your celebratory mood with Acres and our fundraising activities while raising funds for the establishment of Singapore's first wildlife rescue, the Acres Wildlife Rescue Centre (AWRC)!

Acres will be having our public roadshow at the Atrium @ Orchard to engage Singaporeans in protecting animals and to take ownership of the AWRC and assist us in our efforts. This will strengthen our community spirit and increase our identity as a compassionate society.

Globally, the illegal trading in wildlife, timber and other natural resources is now surpassed only by the trafficking in drugs and weapons. This ongoing illegal trade has severe consequences for the survival of every species involved. Removing these animals from their natural habitat damages the fragile ecosystems as well as threatens the survival of the species.

This roadshow will raise awareness on the illegal wildlife trade in Singapore, bear farming and other animal protection issues. There will be exhibits on different animal welfare issues through informative educational panels and physical displays/replica models depicting the issues, for example toy animals crammed into crates showing how animals are smuggled for the illegal pet trade.

Fundraising activities:
Merchandise, including our hot-selling T-shirts ($15 each), mugs ($8 each) and colourful badges ($2 each) be sold. So spread compassion and wear a message!
What better way to celebrate our birthday by wear our national colours on your skin! For only $2, get your face or hands painted with cool designs and motifs!
Celebrate the occasion with our animals too! Purchase pictures of pets at $5, photo frame included, and enjoy $1 off when you present yourself in a red outfit!

So visit us at our booth and make a positive contribution to animal welfare and conservation in Singapore!

If you would like to volunteer with us at this event, please contact charlene@acres.org.sg for more details.

*If you are lazy to volunteer then be a nice person and go down to contribute $$ instead ok..

First Nature Post

I've decided to jump on the increasingly overcrowded bandwagon of NUS Bio Students' Nature Blogs. Now why did I decide to be soooo unoriginal? That's because Nature is so vast, even in tiny Singapore, that all of us cannot cover everything. This is my little contribution to continual biodiversity and conservation education of us. I'm posting this at 4am in the morning, so just let me ramble.

Man evolved intelligence at such a rapid rate that none of the species on this planet even has an inkling of all the cerebral processes that go on in our overstuffed heads that we take for granted. Like blogging, or sms-ing etc. Even so-called "borderline retarded" humans still kick animals' butts in IQ contests. And we get so caught up in our own intelligence, and the illusion of superiority we have over Nature, that members of our species think we own the planet. Until disaster strikes. 26 Dec 2004, is a date many of us remember of a time when Nature decided to bitch-slap us for clearing the mangroves and destroying the coral reefs. For those who haven't realised, the hardest hit areas were places in Indonesia, Thailand, Tamil Nadu and Sri Lanka, where forests and corals were destroyed and pretty beach resorts and ports were built in their place. And yet, Malaysia and low-lying Bangladesh didn't get much damage. Bangladesh is interesting. I'm sure they would like the pretty beach resorts, but they cannot afford to build them. So they leave the mangroves alone. The miles and miles of mangroves probably saved the country. Go google to find out more.

By the way, to the eternal optimists who think that we are too intelligent to kill ourselves and that we will find a way to beat the climate and extinction problem, we are NOT that intelligent. Species are going extinct, by our own doing, without even us knowing that they ever existed. Climate change is affecting the world at such a rapid rate, that even humans die from heat waves and what not. We screwed up the world by trying really hard to screw it up, and it took decades. We'd have to try even harder to unscrew it within the same time period. And so many nations aren't trying. China is talking abt going green for Beijing 2008 and but they are using coal for electricity. The US thinks everyone else should go green but themselves. Our neighbours seem to try desperately hard every year to smoke us out of our own country. Us? Our government signs this green treaty and that and every other, but we are still clearing whatever remaining forests we have and spraying streams with oil to control Aedes (for goodness sakes, they only breed in stagnant water!), and we cut down an 80-year old Angsana Tree because the rich brats we have living here can't keep to the speed limits and think their toys are more important than the tree. (It's like you've been standing outside a PAP kindergarten everyday and watching children run around you until one day, the teacher tells you, "You are in their way. I'll have to kill you.") We have a long long way to go before everyone of us understands the problem.

Oh and one thing about being really intelligent creatures. One thing that has differentiated us from other living creatures is our grasp of Mathematics. Let's look at something basic. Every Primary 2 or 3 kid will tell you that if you divide one by three, you get 1/3; and conversely, 1/3 multiplied by three will give you one. Then the "higher level" kid, perhaps Primary 4, will also tell you that if you divide 1 by 3 and express the answer in decimals, you get 0.3333333333. Of course, the even "higher" level kid, the cocky pure science "O" level kid doing "Additional Mathematics" will add that you can simply write it as 0.3, but with a dot above the 3. And then interestingly enough, the education system says nothing more about this little teaser, and few, in any, students probe further. Let me expand it below.

We have, 1 divide by 3 = 1/3, and 1/3 x 3 =1. We also have 1/3 = 0.333333... If it is true that 1/3 x 3 = 1, then 0.333333... x 3 = 0.999999... = 1.

0.9999999... = 1? Something that's not a whole is a whole. The decimal system. A product of our own intelligence. Go figure.