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Taman Negara in Malaysia is the world’s oldest rainforest. It has flourished since the land rose from the sea during the Jurassic era, around 130 million years ago. Even ice ages haven’t affected the forest.
Far outnumbering the human inhabitants are the flora and fauna of Taman Negara. Within the park boundaries there are tigers, Malayan tapirs, elephants, wild boar, various species of deer, leopards, sun bears, civets and wild ox, to name just a few.
Add to this between 200-300 species of birds and thousands of insects making their lives on the jungle floor. Taman Negara has one of the richest ecologies on earth, protected both by its impenetrability and Malaysian law.
Read more about Taman Negara at Environmental Graffiti. Link
(Image credit: Flickr user taylorandayumi)
You’d think that being in a cage would make it hard to feed a smoking habit, but that’s not the case in Malaysia. Here’s the shocking story of how visitors to the Johor Baru zoo fed Shirley, a 25-year-old orangutan cigarettes, just to watch her smoke:
The government-run zoo in in Johor Baru has erected a ‘no smoking’ sign but that will do precious little to stop the sad practice while attendants turn their backs on it.
Shirley spends much of her sad existence tearing apart drinks cans and chewing on food wrappers thrown at her by visitors.
She regularly reaches through the bars of her cage to beg for cigarettes.
The Daily Mail is there: Link
Anson Wong spent years running a global network of illegal wildlife trafficking. He smuggled contraband such as Sumatran rhino horns, panda and snow leopard fur, and live endangered species across borders for those who paid premium prices.
Wong previously served five years in U.S. prison, after being nabbed by an extraordinary international undercover investigation by the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service called Operation Chameleon, considered one of the most successful in history. [You can read about this extraordinary sting operation in last January's National Geographic, in writer Bryan Christy's story, 'The Kingpin".] But Wong’s wife continued to operate the smuggling network while her husband was in prison, and Wong returned to Penang in 2003 to resume his criminal activities. “Nothing can be done to me,” Wong boasted then to an undercover agent. “I could sell a panda — and, nothing. As long as I’m here, I’m safe.”
He was caught this time by an alert airline security officer [Hear! Hear!] who noticed the broken lock on his luggage, and found it to be full of 95 boa constrictors.
The good news is that traffickers are no longer safe from prosecution in Malaysia. Wong was convicted by Malaysian court this week under a new law designed to crack down on the illegal wildlife trade. Link
(Image credit: Mark Leong/National Geographic)
There’s a caterpillar in this photograph taken in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Can you see it? Better yet, can you identify it? From Flickr user WohinAuswandern. Link -via TYWKIWDBI
Forget
the namby-pamby cigarette warning label we have here in the United States.
Here's a very graphic warning label from cartons of Malaysian clove cigarettes.
Alas, even these warning labels do not have much effect on smokers. From World Health Organization's Regional Office for the Western Pacific's smoking statistics:
- About half of all Malaysian men smoke.
- Every day about 50 teenagers below the age of 18 start smoking
- Studies show about 30% of adolescent boys (aged 12 to 18) smoke.
- Smoking among female teens is rising. According to two studies on teens conducted in 1996 and 1999, the numbers of female teens smoking rose from 4.8% to 8%. Overall, the 1999 study found nearly one in five teens smokes.
- Some studies have shown that lung cancer is rising at a rate of 17% a year.
- Although there are restrictions on advertising, tobacco companies have found ways to bypass these laws through using brand names and remain the top advertisers. Heavily advertised products include the Benson and Hedges bistro, Dunhill accessories, Marlboro clothing, Kent Horizon Tours and Salem Cool Planet concerts.
- Malaysia has been dubbed the "indirect advertising capital" of the world. Some of the tobacco industry's most blatant efforts to target young people can be seen here.
- Spending on tobacco advertising is extremely high. In 1997, the industry spent about $90 million, while in the year 2000, two tobacco firms alone reportedly spent more than US$40 million.
TYWKIWDBI has the larger pic: Link (as you'd imagine, the pictures are quite graphic - you've been warned)
