Trees and Other Endangered Species

So, we’re completely destroying any and all trees within a 2000000 mile vicinity of humanity. And we think it’s just great.

We’ve already almost completely depleted our sources of teak, mahogany, and yellow balau. So we’re just finding new, more unreached places that haven’t been exploited yet, as soon as it becomes too rare and expensive anywhere. Good idea, right?

I don’t know. I think it’s a bit much when you get to the point of exploiting and driving TREES to extinction. How absolutely pathetic.

All you lovely loggers out there: Get off your butt, and go PLANT a tree. Then, sit, watch, and nurture said tree until it is at an age where you can kill it. Or even better, wait till it’s big enough for you to make a table out of just one horizontal slice. Record observations…like HOW FREAKING LONG IT TOOK. Like, oh, I don’t know, maybe a couple decades.

Now tell me that logging is sustainable.

Honestly, if you can find space that is not already being utilized (including by nature!) and find some magic way to fast grow these trees that you love so much for your furniture, toothpicks, and other decorations, then by all means, go right ahead. Plantation grow these trees (I already know it’s barely possible) and make your money that way. Don’t exploit nature’s creation and drive others out of their homes in the name of money!

Oh yeah…you’re humans. Just kidding, that’s not possible. That’s all that matters, after all. How much bloody green PAPER (made of trees, you guys…) you can make in your life time is not, a repeat not a measure of your value as a person.

Look, brah. If you really want all this furniture/toothpicks…

Yeah, I don’t know. Just go plant a bloody tree.

Laws Are For Enforcing

And High Court judges are for paying off, as is apparent in the most recent case of your-government-is-so-awesome-it-ignores-its-own-rules.


Guess what? Our favorite, most notorious wildlife trafficker in the world is on the loose again. Anson Wong, congratulations.  Have fun destroying the lives of a couple thousand more wild animals.


Thank you, ever honorable judge Low Hop Bing. 


So, y'all know that in 2010, our smartiepants trafficker decided it'd be great to shove 95 protected snakes in plastic bags in his luggage and take a holiday to Indonesia. And his bag fell open and there were snakes everywhere and no one noticed the snakes were there until this happened (good airport security, huh?). 


Anyways, he was caught and convicted, for a minimum of five years I believe. And on February 22, court of appeal judge Loh decided this trafficking thing was bogus and that he should serve 17.5 months for what he did.


Coincidentally, Wong had just reached the 17.5 month mark in his prison visit. 


Wonder what the judges reason was for lowering the sentence? "It also erroneously considered irrelevant factors like that the 95 snakes were kept in a small bag and were being tortured."


Irrelevant? Really? What kind of callous, hard-hearted imbecile does it take to believe that this was not cruelty? What exactly do you consider torture, then, Mr. Loh? Waterboarding? What do you consider it then? Some good ol' jolly fun for these snakes? Maybe you'd like me to shove you in a plastic bag in my luggage next time I fly. 


I'd rather enjoy it, since you wouldn't be able to say anything about it. It's not torture, mistreatment, cruelty, or any of that sort of irrelevant stuff. Nope. I won't even erroneously consider it. I might even take the time to make the plastic bag airtight. I'm sure you'd enjoy that, as you seem to think the snakes did (especially the ones that DIED#$@#$!![I have no idea what that spelt, but it looks mean and nasty so I'll roll with it. I'm not actually swearing, k?]).


(insert swear word of choice that's pretty offensive but not too offensive since I don't like those kinds of words all that much to conclude here)

India Rushes Into Action

See what I did there? I know, I know, good joke. India...taking action...quickly... hahahaha!

But seriously. Really guys, it'd be great if you didn't take your time EVERY. SINGLE. TIME. something happens.

On another note, I have to say I'm ashamed to be human half the time. This is one of those times.

So, picture a poor leopard, starving (since people are killing all his food sources...oh, you know, because SAMBAR are now a threatened species...), is wandering around hoping to find something to eat. Stumbles into a village, probably in his habitat, and finds some dudes. I assume they try to do something to him, since the dudes attack said leopard. He returns the favor, injures the dudes, and runs away, thinking that wasn't the best place to be.

So, said dudes run back to their village to whine about their boo-boos, and the entire village decides to hunt down the leopard. Mhm, you heard me right. Fourty villagers decide to hunt the leopard down, armed with a bunch of clubs, instead of calling someone who can tranquilize and relocate aforementioned poor starving leopard.

And they find him (of course they find him, the poor leopard can't travel that fast ya know) and what do they decide to do? No, not scare it off or something more humane. No, they decide to BEAT HIM TO DEATH.

WHAT THE??? I'm not one to swear (no really), but it seems rather apt in this situation. Who's the vicious animal this time? Not the poor starving leopard, I can assure you. It just makes me so mad. Why do this? I thought we disowned the practice of stoning several centuries ago? We live in the age of technology. That means, I don't know, there are better ways to take care of those darn pesky endangered species. Ya know, other than beating them to death. Ughh. People.

We speak of education being an issue. I guarantee that half that angry mob had handphones (they're part of the 4% that lives with handphones but without running water). The information is there, people just don't want to acknowledge it, to use it. It's not to their advantage, it gives them too much responsibility. Wisdom is a heavy burden I guess.

Maybe the best part of it all is the fact that Indian Wildlife Department is "running an investigation" on the whole thing. Leopards are a fully protected species by law, so shouldn't the forty people in the angry mob be convicted?

Oh sorry, laws are selective where they come from. We can choose when they're applied.

PS This is one situation of 356 reported leopard killings in India in the last year. Meaning about 1500 leopards actually died last year.

Asia is the Answer. Surprise.

"As Asia grows wealthier, so, too, the trade in wildlife."

Never have I heard truer words written in an article.

I don't know about you, but I find something very disturbing about the statistics that have just been released about this last year. All I hear on the TV is Asian growth this, Asian business model that, the success of Asian markets. All I see with my eyes? Wildlife, pushed to the brink. Wildlife, with nowhere to go. Wildlife, dying for no other reason but someone's entertainment, someone's placebo. Should their lives really be thrown away so carelessly?

According to the article, in 2001, only 6 rhinos lost their lives to poachers. In 2011, 400 were brutally murdered for their horns. The cartilage horns that happen to grow on their noses appear to be a death sentence. But you know what's worse? These are only official numbers. Think about how many rhinos that have been killed that we just don't know about.

I have to say, my soft spot for rhinos has grown. You look at them from far away and just think, wow. How impressive. How regal. But today I spent about half an hour with the sweetest rhinos in the world. And honestly, it just hurts to think that so many of them are dying. I can't imagine it. They aren't malicious; they're scared. I don't understand how a person so blatantly invade an animal's personal space, then turn around and blame the animal when something goes wrong.

Human lives matter, sure. But what about everyone elses' lives? I talked to someone about whether wildlife trafficking and the illegal wildlife trade bothers them... and all she could say was that she'd be more concerned if people were being hurt. BUT PEOPLE ARE THE ONES DOING THE DAMAGE!!

I dare her to go up to those rhinos I saw today, with the sweet eyes and the trusting attitudes, and tell them she was going to kill them. The rhinos that nuzzled my hand, and the ones that rolled over in the mud and looked just like any cat or dog that wanted a belly rub.

Tell them that their lives mean nothing. Tell them that you don't care. Don't tell me.