Tiger tales
8 February 2010(Reprinted from The Edge – Options pullout, 8 February 2010 issue)
Of protecting the big cat and dealing with endless political stuff
Dear Kam,
To commemorate the Year of the Tiger, many companies are using tigers in their advertisements. I even heard that a certain local radio station is taking a leashed tiger cub into offices and boardrooms as a publicity stunt. I read that animal welfare groups are calling for a stop to the commercialisation of the tiger and want people to donate to WWF and other agencies charged with protecting the tiger instead. Do you have any comments on this? Thank you.
Tiger Fan
via email
When I was young, I was fascinated by tigers and I’d cut out any pictures I could find of the magnificent creatures. I was mesmerised by them. They’re so beautiful yet so deadly. This was before I discovered girls, at which point my interests changed, but for much the same reasons.
One of the reasons I love Malaysia is that despite the noise and rubbish of city life, I can still imagine tigers out there in the jungles doing whatever it is that tigers do. I grew up in England where the largest carnivore is a badger, which is like a medium-sized dog with short legs. Throughout Europe, all the large animals, like the aurochs (giant cattle), wolves and bears, were wiped out hundreds of years ago, except where they have been selectively re-introduced (and on a small patch in Poland). But here, in little old Malaysia, we still have seladang, tapir, bears and tigers. But we don’t have many.
The greatest danger the Malaysian tiger faces is the favourite prize of the unimaginative businessman — the logging concession. Nature does all the work by growing the trees and all you have to do is hang out in the right hotel coffee shops and then pay somebody to cut down the trees. In no time at all, the trees are gone and the animals are dead and you can buy a Jaguar (the car, that is). This is lazy. In today’s world, we’ve got to do better than this.
It would be a tragedy if excitement about the Year of the Tiger led to the end of the tiger. There are about 500 tigers living in the wild in Peninsular Malaysia; there are none in Sabah and Sarawak because tigers never lived in Borneo. There are about 500 tigers in Sumatra, they’re probably extinct in Java and almost certainly extinct in Bali. At the beginning of the 20th century, it was estimated that there were 100,000 tigers worldwide and now there are 3,500. Some 12,000 tigers are owned as pets in America.
Everybody wants to have a bit of tiger. When I say everybody, I probably mean men. Tigers have no idea that they are so desired, they’re just quietly doing whatever it is that tigers do, but men want a bit of tiger, or an entire tiger, to enhance their slender masculinity. We’ve got Viagra nowadays and it’s probably much more effective than a tiger’s spleen.
It’s strange how animals are used to sell products. Tigers are especially popular, from petrol to cereals. What on earth does a tiger have to do with a breakfast cereal? Sometimes, the use of animal images is particularly, well, wrong. I saw a chicken product (can’t remember which one) being endorsed by a big cartoon chicken giving the thumbs up. This image annoyed me because not only do chickens not have thumbs but also how evil would this chicken have to be for it to celebrate the industrial slaughter of its own kind? How much are they paying that chicken? They probably don’t pay him very much because he knows that if he doesn’t put on a smile and give the thumbs up, then he could be the next fried nugget.
May the Year of the Tiger be good for all of us, but I agree with WWF. Let’s remember our tigers this year.
Dear Kam,
Is it my imagination or has more political stuff been happening in Malaysia than ever before? I’m so busy reading between the lines of our newspapers that I’m exhausted.
Politics Overload
via email
Too much is happening in Malaysia these days. I don’t think I can list them all. There have been arrests in the aftermath of the recent arson attacks, Dr M continues saying stuff, an aide of the PM’s resigned after saying stuff, the frankly scary Perkasa is constantly saying stuff, PKR is having some internal problems and Anwar’s trial has finally begun. The Star reported the first day of the trial on its first three pages, along with the headline “Sodomy II starts”. This headline must please so many parents who want their children to expand their vocabulary. Meanwhile, NST reported the trial on Page 8. I don’t know what this might mean.
The Teoh Beng Hock inquest and the cow’s head incident however have gone quiet, both forgotten in the wake of more recent events. But the MCA story continues, if anybody is interested. The situation in the Perak government has also been largely forgotten.
So much has been happening that it feels like if something dreadful were to happen today, it would probably be instantly surpassed by something even more embarrassing the next day. But one story recently caught my eye. I don’t think it has been reported much, although it should be. A report in the Malaysian Reserve (Jan 13) says that according to UBS Securities Asia Ltd, Malaysia suffered the biggest foreign exchange loss in Asia last year. The report has a graph (and I never argue with a graph), putting Malaysia 38th out of 40 emerging markets in terms of reserve losses. Only Venezuela and the UAE fared worse.
You people read The Edge, so you probably know all about this. In fact, you’ve probably already cashed out and bought your property in London, but I didn’t know. Nobody told me. Why are you all sending your money overseas? Don’t you trust us to behave? I’ve just spent lots of money on a new car. Will I be the only one left driving around? At least there won’t be any traffic jams. But I wonder how those Perkasa people plan to make money if there’s none left?
Maybe if the rest of us promise to behave like good little children and keep really quiet, you’ll bring your money back. We’d forgotten that good Malaysians are supposed to be seen and not heard. Our bad. Sorry.
Reprinted with the kind permission of
