Euphorbia pulcherrima

double, double...

mmm...Oncorhynchus gorbuscha

winter time...

do you want the good news or bad news first?...

koh lanta beach...


koh lanta friends

for the last two trips, i saved southeast asia till last on the itinerary. i can honestly say that se asia is a traveler's paradise. beautiful landscapes and beautiful, friendly people who wouldn't hesitate to invite you into their homes. it's sort of a vacation from the harshness of travel in places like india, nepal, or central asia. a place where i could let down my hair (ha!) and relax. an escape from insatiable touts and rotten con men.

i found myself in thailand in the winter of 2000 desparately in search of some rest and relaxation after a trek in nepal fraught with illness and exhaustion. i've always tried to keep away from the hordes of tourists that seemed to flock to places like phuket and koh phi phi.

i found an idyllic little island (recommended by a bunch of americans at the bangkok airport bus stop) on thailand's adaman coast called koh lanta. the beach was lined with palm trees and the bamboo huts of numerous "resorts" but there were hardly any tourists around. for $2 a night you could sleep in a hut of your own. to this day i joke about the "expensive" food at the "resort's" restaurant. i was being "ripped-off" at $8 bucks a day for some of the tastiest thai food i've ever eaten.

i spent 10 days in koh lanta walking the beaches. for an hour a day i taught the staff at the "resort" some english to use on the next tourists. they were such nice, happy people...

that was then. the tsunami over xmas has probably irreversibly changed the lives of the people i met on that tiny stretch of paradise. hopefully, they escaped to higher ground.

since christmas day, i've watched hours and hours of news coverage (including the "killer wave" coverage of fox cable news). it was very depressing.

i kept thinking that these tsunami survivors have nothing. absolutely nothing. i've got so much (in a relative sense).

i've derived so much pleasure from traveling in some of the affected areas. so, it was time to give back. i logged on to the canadian red cross website and forked over some cash. it was a piddly amount for a contribution, but i hope it will go a long way. i'm thinking of giving some money to unicef or doctors without borders. i've got till january 11th. that's the deadline for matching grants from the federal government.

to be totally honest, i don't normally donate to disaster funds. i totally hold dean responsible for this donation. i coughed up money for his cambodian orphan project. his reports of overjoyed kids had a profound effect on me.

now only if we could find enough money to help out the people in darfar and the congo...

it's the thought that counts...really it is.

damn the zoos!!!!!!!

"lucky" elephant...

i'm against zoos.

a very sad story out of the calgary zoo today. a baby asian elephant, about a week old, died yesterday from an infection. its mother had rejected it after giving birth, probably denying it of critical antibodies found in it's mother's milk.

why am i against zoos? in cases like this where breeding programs result in rejection of offspring. the elephant keeper at the zoo professed that "she's [the mother elephant] never had a baby before, never seen a baby before, doesn't know what it is," said [the keeper]. "When this baby came out of her, she had no idea what this big thing was that dropped out of her and she was very afraid."

do rejections occur in the "real" world? more than likely i guess. i'm not sure of the statistics or of any such studies though. however, according to carol buckley of "elephant sanctuary", a "naturalistic sanctuary" in tennessee, "in the wild, female elephants live in extended matriarchal herds. There's a lot of knowledge passed down from individual to individual. Many elephants are able to help in the whole rearing and birthing process. In captivity we don't have those situations."

the argument that this event would not have happened in the "real" world because of habitat destruction and other human transgressions still doesn't justify having captive animals.

extinction of species (elephants and homo sapiens included) throughout evolutionary history is inevitable. conversely, new speciation events occur simultaneously and fill niches left by elephants. it sounds harsh but it's enough justification to discontinue zoos.

there is hope out there. i've seen excellent examples of conservation in east africa. until recently, there was chain of 13 new national parks created in gabon in west africa. inspired by michael fay, of national geographic fame, these parks encompass 11 percent of gabon's landmass.

having cited these examples, worldwide conservation of critical ecosystems is pathetic at best. the best case scenario is that we could preserve vast tracts of land, saving valuable features such as migration routes (eg. the yellowstone to yukon project with regards to grizzly bear migration). the worse case scenario is the preservation of isolated tracts or "islands" of habitat (eg. national parks).

either way, we should focus our efforts on conservation of habitat rather than using zoos as "genetic holding pens".

as for education, zoos are inexcusable proxies for the real thing. there is such a gaping disconnect between people and "nature" these days. just go out and witness "nature" for yourself whether that's in our own backyard or africa.

when i heard of the baby elephant's death, i had mixed feelings. i was sad at first. but then i was happy for it just because it wouldn't have to spend anymore time in a zoo.

digitally enhanced grilled cheese sandwich...

digitally enhanced image...

muzak pick-me-up

so, you're having a bad day or need a muzakical interlude...

i suggest this muzakical treat:

click here.

now crank up the volume. enjoy.

kenny goes down in flames...

jeopardy category: business & industry

the answer: most of this firm's 70,000 seasonal white-collar employees work only four months a year.