The annotated budak

Lizard

A changeable lizard (Calotes versicolor), one of the most common roadside reptiles in Singapore. Specimens can often be seen clinging to fence tops or bushes, especially mature males in red crested breeding regalia. While a not unlovely creature, whose entry into Singapore from its South Asian homelands is thought to be accidental (as stowaways onboard incoming ships and freight), this agamid has succeeded in displacing another agamid, a native lizard which is now restricted to the forests. Few now (including budak) have ever see the once widespread green crested lizard (Bronchocela cristatella), which resembles a lanky chameleon and contrary to popular lore, is neither venomous nor pugnacious. But thanks to its invasive cousin, this local lizard, one might say, has lost its lounge...

On a less landlubbering topic, I have always had a soft spot for documentaries about the birds and the bees. I loved the leviathan span and undulating countercurrents of the BBC Blue Planet series aired on Arts Central a couple of years ago (the Dinosaur and Mammals series were a tad kitsch). Now it seems another masterful study in aquamarine is about to hit the screens in the States, though whether Singaporeans are deemed worthy to sea this show is another question (remember, they didn't even play Two Brothers and Bill Murray's The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou here!!). Also kicking off this summer, Morgan Freeman tells the touching tale of tuxedo-donning birds who find true love in conditions that are truly spine-chilling. In nature's rhythms, honed  through millenia of natural selection and individual pluck, there is a depth and meaning which surpasses man's efforts to rule the world via cold, immutable laws of lore.

Lucky sonofafuckingmudderbitch

mrs budak prevented me from murderising a sonofafuckingmudderbitch in the MRT this evening who decided ear phones are passé and thus entertained the entire carriage with Mandarin pop from his Nokia. Other than that, today was 'relatively' free of tension.

We had gone to Kinokuniya, drawn by the ongoing 20% discount available to cardmembers. I bought:
• Island Life by Alfred Russel Wallace;
• The Evolutionary Synthesis: Perspectives on the Unification of Biology, eds. Ernst Mayr & William B. Provine;
• This is Biology: The Science of the Living World by Ernst Mayr;
• The Complete Bone in one volume by Jeff Smith;
• A manga. Don't ask.

Still on biodiversity issues, one developing country appears to be looking at this subject with serious intent of late. Nature's bounty in this once divided land, it seems, offers enough reasons for its study, preservation and appreciation, along with jobs and wealth-generating opportunities from its sustainable use to boot. Who says conservation is for the birds?

Long weekend, isn't it?

My mum called again, asking when will we go visit my little hometown of small minds. I tried telling her that the past weeks (and coming months) are filled with overseas assignments that stretch through the weekend (I have long given up trying to explain what an editor is to my family; they have this vague idea that I visit corporations and write reports on them, which is true but...) and that my miniscule allotment of leave days is already drying up even before the half-year mark, but stopped short and let her remark that "it's a long weekend, isn't it?" 

I do have to go back, to resolve outstanding administrative issues, but not in the immediate future, not in my presently volatile state of mind, not in the face of mindless deadlines, not until some form of closure and rehabilitation is achieved for recent furies and flurries that are driving me to despair and despondency. Not ever, till then. 

We live in a idiocracy

Cowboy Caleb gives his typically twisted perspective, this time for Vesak Day and the so-called merit-earning practice of fang sheng:

"You see, 50 birds stuffed into one small cage for goodness knows how long in the sweltering heat at noon really does some strange shit to the birds. When they were freed, some flopped about and dropped dead on the ground (must be heat stroke). And then there was one which had a broken wing (probably from the overcrowded conditions in the cage) and couldn’t even fly at all. The cats probably got him later."

So does minishorts, who observes that:

"This place near my office seems to be freeing terrapins in the huge lake every other day. In the mornings when I drive to work, I would sometimes see a terrapin or two walking along the gravel. A closer look and you’ll see these are not terrapins, but land tortoises. They do not belong to the lake. They’ll DIE in the lake.

And yet these practising Buddhists are setting these poor creatures to their eternal damnation every single day, chanting the good Lord Buddha’s name in vain, I say."

Now where's the fucking merit in that? Sometimes, religion can really fry one's brains better than any amount of sunstroke. Religion may turn the good and wise into saints, but for the dumb and ignorant,  it becomes an opiate that feeds the faith of the weak with simple solutions and fuels spiritual release with one-off acts and obsessions of bigotry.  Bah!

Biodiversity – going, going...

Excerpts from: Biodiversity and Human Well–being

Thursday, May 19, 2005 | Washington DC, US

Launched today, the second Millennium Ecosystem Assessment report, Biodiversity and Human Well-being: A Synthesis Report for the Convention on Biological Diversity, synthesizes and integrates findings related to biological diversity from the four MA Working Groups: Conditions and Trends, Scenarios, Responses and Sub-global Assessments, in response to requests for information received through the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD)....

“Loss of biodiversity is a major barrier to achieving development goals, and poses increasing risks for future generations,” said Walter Reid, Director of the Millennium Assessment. “The Millennium Ecosystem Assessment report shows that management tools, policies and technologies do exist to dramatically slow this loss.”

Hamdallah Zedan, Executive Secretary to the Convention on Biological Diversity, said that the report is of great value to all those concerned with the Convention on Biological Diversity and its objectives – the conservation and sustainable use of biological diversity and the equitable sharing of its benefits.

“The report’s findings remind us that biodiversity is a requirement for all life on the planet – it is life insurance for our changing world,” he said. “The report reminds us of the need for action now....”

The key findings in this report highlighted by the CBD are:

1.      In the last 50 years, human actions have changed the diversity of life on the planet more than at any other time in history. Our activities have lifted many people out of poverty, but at the price of a loss of biodiversity. If we continue down this road, we will reduce biological diversity, with life-threatening consequences.

2.      Biodiversity is the foundation for human well-being. Not only does it provide the materials we need for food, clothing and shelter, but also gives us security, health and freedom of choice. The current pace and rhythm of our activities are harming ecosystems, consuming biological resources and putting at risk the well-being of future generations.

3.      Human activities are leading to the loss of the variety of life. Population increase and economic activity, fuelled by technological change and our patterns of political and cultural life are placing undue pressure on ecosystems. Our actions are changing habitats, the climate, overexploiting resources, creating pollution and promoting the spread of invasive alien species. If current patterns continue, the loss of biodiversity will accelerate, not diminish.

4.      In the past, actions and programs that promoted conservation and the sustainable use of biological diversity limited biodiversity loss. This is promising, but we are not doing enough. To further reduce and stop the loss of biodiversity will require a whole host of new and stronger actions. Sustainable human development remains the primary goal and we need to strengthen the range and power of our ability to respond to biodiversity loss.

5.      The size of the task ahead of us is so great that the 2010 biodiversity target will only realistically be achieved in certain areas and regions if we engage in substantial efforts. This sobering conclusion is not hopeless. Humankind can choose to act now for the conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity if it changes the way it is causing change, carefully chooses the ways it responds to change and makes the right tradeoffs.

Biodiversity is defined by the MA as the variability among living organisms from all sources, including terrestrial, marine, and other aquatic ecosystems and the ecological complexes of which they are part...

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The 2nd MEA is also reported in The Australian, The Guardian, BBC and this Pakistan paper, but I find no mention in most other Asian dailies. I guess the underlying fate of the world is too far a goal for elites in these nations striving to hit first-world per capita incomes (if not first-world distributions) at all costs – nay, at little cost in fact, since the earth's resources come free for the taking, aren't they? Egad, if we had to measure the costs and benefits accrued by our use of nature's bounty, what do you expect us to rely on for growth and prosperity – our brains?

Environmentally friendly transport