Happy Children's Day!

It is October already! Happy Children's Day to all those who still has a kid in them. Actually I believe everyone does. To some, it's only a matter of that kid resurfacing when the occasion arises. Many times in our lives, we have faced trials and tribulations, and have been forced to grow up sooner than we would have been expected to, or wanted to. Reality is cruel at times. U may have to be forced to look at things from a different perspective and not through the eyes of an innocent child. Or teenager, for that matter. In a way, u see the 'real' world at a much earlier age, one which is what it is because of Pandora's Box.

However, I feel that my connection with Nature allows me to get in touch with the kid in me. She has been something I have been fascinated with since young, and still am at this age and time. I believe She will still continue to enthrall me with all her secrets and beauty right to the end of my life.

Since it is October, I can safely say that the monsoon period is already here, judging from the torrential rains that's been falling over the past few afternoons. That would also imply the migratory season is here too! The flocks should be on their way or are already here in S.E.A from the cold Arctic Circle and Siberia to escape the winter. I would make a trip down to Sungei Buloh soon! 2 weeks ago on the 18th Sept after a heavy rain at Jurong East, there were so many egrets on the grass patch! There's this huge grass patch between IMM and the MRT station. That's where u can really spot a lot of egrets feeding after a rain. I used to think those egrets were fro Jurong Bird Park. Well, maybe some are. But it does not make sense they would want to fly to the bird park when they can roam free. They are migratory birds and Sungei Buloh and even the canal near my place sees an increase in their numbers during this period.

2 more months to the end of the year. The festive season is already so around the corner. With Deepavali and Hari Raya in the next month, X'mas in Dec, follwed by New Year and the Lunar New Year, it's that time of the year again. Only this time round, they all fall terribly close together.

I was watching a documentary while eating my fish porridge on Thursday. I only caught the last 30mins of the documentary and it was on illegal fishing of dolphins in Japan. The ancestors of Japanese are actually Chinese, and I must say the Chinese really have a very wild gastronomical sense. They can virtually eat anything and everything! Sigh.

The documentary talked about how an activist in Japan resolved to educate the fishermen about the possibility of dolphin-watching instead of fishing them for food. It was narrated by this photographer who goes around the world pursuing his life-long passion about conservation for the orcas. There was gross footage on how the mass killing of dolphins was being carried out. It was exactly the same way how fishes are being hunted, except this time round, it's dolphins in their place. Just imagine a HUGE net containing tens of dolphins being heaved up from the sea and thrown onboard onto the ship. They would have accumulated hundreds before returning back to shore. When they reached shore, all of these dolphins were being dropped into the shallow seabed and they would be flipping about, struggling to get back into the waters, but to no avail, for the waters were simply too shallow. There's blood and it?s a scene I have never ever seen before on TV.

My impression of dolphins is always that of their 'born-free' status, whereby the sea is their immense playground. The worst would be that of those in the marine parks, made to perform for the human audience. This is the most gory scene I have ever witness. I teared in front of the TV upon seeing that, and upon seeing how the fishermen treated the dolphins too. It was horrible. The dolphins were being thrown about, as though they are fishes. BUT THEY ARE NOT! They are among the cleverest in the animal kingdom, and have brains the size of human beings! They are social animals, always move around in a family unit and certainly have EMOTIONS. I felt so terrible watching that scene on TV. Those footages were filmed secretly of course, by the foreign cameraman. He actually went to the police with those tapes and he had to do it in the bigger cities, because he was warned by the illegal hunters that the local police were in cahoots with the fishermen and would not side with him! RIDICULOUS! What the #@$%^&*?!?! It's really infuriating having to sit at home, watching TV and yet I could do nothing about this. I guess the minimum I can do here is to talk to friends about this and perhaps spread this message and let the world out there know that Japan is actually not a very kind friend to the marine world. They have many issues regarding 'whaling for scientific studies' all along with the green groups. Many times, the whale meat would still end up in the supermarket.

It's rather understandable if the people in China eat wild animals for their various healing properties or health benefits, for many are uneducated. But for a 1st world country like Japan? I cannot fathom that. It's unquestionable that it's cruel and inhumane to do that to the gentle marine mammals. There are many scientific studies to back the fact that these animals have ingested large amounts of mercury into their body. In that case, humans who eat them would indirectly be ingesting those poisonous substances too. There's no excuse at all not to stop whaling and the illegal poaching of dolphins. Many times, it's the profit that drives Man. It's simply too ugly. Don't tell me Japan cannot sustain its own economy without whaling? I don?t believe it. Man's greed, Man's wanton actions, Man's insatiable appetite for more... May well be the cause of his downfall one day...

Till now man has been up against Nature; from now on he will be up against his own nature.
~Dennis Gabor, Inventing the Future, 1964

Humankind has not woven the web of life. We are but one thread within it. Whatever we do to the web, we do to ourselves. All things are bound together. All things connect.
~Chief Seattle, 1855