the wiping out of the majestic Malayan tiger

I am working on a follow-up article on tiger conservation in the country. Yesterday an article appeared on the seizure of tiger carcasses seized the previous day from a lorry in Thailand believed to have come from Malaysia. The article carried a picture showing the Thai wildlife authorities holding up two severed tiger heads while the carcasses of two adult tigers lay in front of them. There also appeared to be a carcass of a young tiger cub. It was a shocking picture seeing the majestic beasts that rule the thick equatorial forests of Malaysia lying dead. The seizure of the tiger carcasses was just one of the many cases of wild animal smuggling in Malaysia that had been reported in the media over the past few weeks. Even today there was an article on the seizure of snake skins from smugglers in Malaysia. The growing trade in wild animal parts in the country is indicative of the Government's lack lustre commitment towards the conservation of its rich environment and biodiversity. The general attitude of the Government including the State Governments is that the country is blessed with plentiful jungle areas and biodiversity, that there will be enough to go around despite poaching and any amount of environmental abuse. Also the lust of present day political leaders to enrich themselves, their families and cronies at whatever cost has caused them to be party to the unscrupulous syndicate of poachers and animal part traders. The Government is even sitting on a much needed revision of the Wildlife Protection Act 1972 which allows poachers to get away with a mere RM5,000 fine if caught by the authorities and charged. The move to revise this act began about five years ago and nothing has come of it todate. Fed-up with the Government's attitude, TRAFFIC Southeast Asia, an international NGO set up by animal conservationists to stop the trade in wild animal parts has started a signature petition calling on the Government to act fast in revising the said Act. My article today is to get to the bottom of this disgraceful stand of the Government in not showing a commitment towards wildlife conservation. Hope this article turns out well and delivers the intended impact.

art - the cream of civilisation.

The modern civilisation that started in the 19th Century is a pseudo civilisation as it has produced no great art. What we revere as art in this age is the rantings and ravings of persecuted artists. Instead of rising to spiritual heights on reaching the climax of their work, serious modern artists mostly end up ruining their lives, both physically and mentally. Of course the not serious pretenders survive and flourish in wealth and fame, adding to the chaos of the age.
At the very beginning of this civilisation, there were the dying breed of artists who managed to leave behind some great works like the Renaissance artists and the overshadowed spiritualists of the great traditions such as Indian, Mayan, Egyptian and African, Chinese, Indo-Chinese and every other pre-modern civilisation of the world.
The growth of industries spurred by the spread of European colonial rule categorically destroyed every existing genuine civilisation of the world. The overwhelming greed and lust of the sensual and passionate European and later American populations and their leaders unleashed a populist wave of materialism throughout the world whitewashing the human psyche and standardising human art and culture.
This is the colourless world that we have now inherited.

from science to art

I have been thinking about real science as opposed to the current science of half baked theories and abusive applications. The real science is based on lessons drawn from observation of nature and life experiences and not deductions derived from laboratory experiments.
I was wondering how ancient sages had studied the world and cosmos so thoroughly as illustrated in the various Hindu scriptures, without the use of laboratories or precision instruments as I was parking my car below the 17-storey low cost flats where I live. At this moment, I coincidentally witnessed a toddler which had just begun walking being led from a shop along a concrete corridor. The mother was trying hard to get the child to walk along with her as it was catching hold of and `feeling' the vertical beams of the metal grille gates of a closed shop. It dawned on me that the baby's curiosity in trying to investigate the shiny metallic paint coated metal beams would have been exactly how the wise sages studied the world and cosmos so thoroughly.
The sages who were themselves great artists, philosophers, scientists, writers and builders of the great monuments of ancient times, must have used the toddler's method of investigating and understanding nature and the cosmos.
Scientists today appear to be blindly groping in the dark trying to figure out theories and inventions in total disregard of nature thus creating great chaos in the world as seen by the onset of global warming, social ills, poverty, unnecessary tension and a general lack of happiness.
True enough in the arrogance of being able to manipulate nature (on a lesser level) in maximising the tapping of natural resources, creating and mass producing machines meant to increase comfort, fast and easy travel and transport and entertainment, all aimed at short term gains; scientists and world leaders are acting like God and have no qualms about undermining the natural realm that they are inhabiting.
It is my hope that soon, we can return to a way of life built around simple and effective nature based science and arts and bring happiness to humankind, other fellow beings and the natural world on the whole.