Zoo Negara...XPOSURE!!!

National Zoo here we come!!!

After 20 years and more for each and every one of us on this day, we finally set foot into our very own Zoo Negara once again! We wondered how much things have changed since, knowing we are having a 2020 Vision, Wan M'sia concept and so on and so fourth.

But all we can conclude at the end of the day, was a Vision of sadness, anger, pity and sorrowness...

I shall divide my sharing into 2 parts - Positive & Negative:


Positive

The sole positive part of our trip was that we were able to have a Gathering as usual, and that it's been at least 20 years since any one of us have been to this Zoological Garden. And the only good part of the animals was the young Seal, which was really cute, especially the way it clapped its hands! :)

Negative

There is nothing more I can say positively, and so, here we go with the sadness, anger, pity and sorrowness of what we experienced...

1. Zoo Map
Last month Persis and I had a short trip to Singapore and one of the places we visited was Singapore Zoo. We paid RM18 (as it was the Promotion month for M'sian residents only)(usually $18) and we got the Map, brochures, and the entire Zoo was an Excellent Journey through the animal kingdom! No complaints what-so-ever. The only extra things we paid for were for drinks or ice-cream(Ben & Jerry's) at the stalls located inside the Zoo.

In Zoo Negara, we paid RM 15 (as stated in it's website). But at the counter, IF we wanted to also go into the Insect & Butterfly area, we had to pay an additional RM 5! WTF?!?!?

And NO Map was given. And the highlight was that when we went to get a Map, it costs RM 2!!! For THIS Cheap, Crappy Low Quality and Low Info Map:














2. Trash Bin
These are important tools which are located all over the Zoo, for visitors to dispose of their rubbish. Unfortunately, the state of these Trash Bins is so bad, it should be Disposed of itself!!! In fact, there was a logo of Colonel Sanders (KFC) on the back of the trash bins, meaning this bins have been here for donkey years!















3. Disgusting sights
The name says it all. Here we saw a large tree trunk which it's tree was cut down, leaving it looking baren and all. Why cut down trees IN the Zoo? We also see the roads which have drops of paint, and it looks dirty and the walls where they built a waterfall was full of algae and unsightful:



























4. Multi-Animals Show (Location)
This was one of the shows we were looking forward too. The signs outside looked bad:















There were many Holes on the netted ceiling and a lot of dry leaves were falling down from it.















Behind us was the Aquarium which had Patins, and Arapaimas, but the enclosure looks real run down!

















5. Multi-Animals Show - Bird show - Money Extortion!!!
This was by far the most Shocking part of the show!!!

The animal was a Bird (forgot it's breed), and it's speciality was to fly onto an arm of a person (the person's arm must be stretched out relatively high, while holding a Money note in his hand), walk towards his hand and grab the money with it's mouth and fly back to it's trainer. Here's the terrible truth,



















When a man held out his hand with a RM 1 note:















the Bird DID NOT move. so the emcee asked him to bring out a larger amount, and the man took out a RM 10 note. The Bird DID MOVE and flew to his arm and did the following:















The emcee proceeded to ask more people who would like to "see the bird perform it's trick", when in fact the damn bird was extorting money on behalf of his trainer or whoever it is in cooperation with!!! In more clearer fashion, This was the Longest performance of the show! Sheesh!

6. House of Steel
Just outside the Show arena, there were the Monkeys enclosure. It consisted of Steel Cages, which looked worse than the Sungai Buloh Prison!!!

















More so, the 'home' of these monkeys inside the cage were not even close to their natural habitats. much concrete and steel instead.

7. Hippo's sorrow
The gigantic Hippopotamus was the next victim, as their enclosure were even more concrete, it's like a giant wide concrete bowl with water filled up for them to soak in, and they were in it most of the time. But the enclosure was small for an animal that big!














8. Orang Utan's new toy
The Orang Utan area looked quite spacious, as there were only 3 of them (2 young ones and a really old one). The old one was just sitting around, one young one was resting on a platform, and I noticed the other young one climbing around, moving closer to us. As it came closer, I saw it holding on and playing with a Junk Food Wrapper!!!


































It was stated "Cheese Balls" on the wrapper! This endangered species can become Further endangered should they eat that plastic! I mean, first thing that came to my mind was, what the heck is that plastic wrapper doing there?!?!?


Who was that irresponsible prick who threw it in?!?!?
What was that prick thinking?!?!?
Why didn't the Zoo Trainers/Staff remove it?!?!?


9. King of the Jungle @ Slave of the Concrete Jungle
Everyone loves the King of the Jungle, but we pity this King and his Queen. Here is the enclosure for the mighty Lions. They were just resting all the time on the platform, looking forlorn and sad. And just take a look at its 'house'. More concrete than anything! So much for creating habitats of the animals as natural as possible...Damn!














10. "Door Stopper"
There is a lake in the Zoo where there are many Birds (Flamingos etc) which are placed there. As we were walking back towards the exit, we noticed the Gate that drains water out of the Lake. We saw a Dead Fish stuck at the door entrance! And it smelled bad! We don't know if it got stuck as it was washed out or someone placed it there as a 'door stopper'.
















11. Icing on the Cake
To top our first visit to our National Zoo in 20 years, we stopped by the Elephants area before exiting the Zoo. It was feeding time, and we see many people extending their hands to feed the Elephant. Firstly, I feel the distance between extending our hands and for the Elephant to grab the food is a little to far. I was afraid the elephant might have lost it's control and fell into the concrete drain below!

Look into its eyes and you could see and feel it's sadness all over.......














And finally, there were 2 Elephants. The other one was in his den. I wondered why he did not move. And then I saw that his Legs were Tied Up with Metal Chains!!! Then what is the use of putting them in the Zoo? If he was injured or something, shouldn't they have a private area for these animals? The poor giant had no place to move, and I did not see any Water within it's reach!


















Final words...


We are always promoting "Visit Malaysia". We are always promoting our country's holiday spots and places to visit. We are always encouraging Malaysians to Support our own country and to know that we too have world class (konon-nya) tourist attractions. We were all lookin forward to this Zoo trip, sort of like a trip down memory lane, but in the end, our we felt like erasing even the memoried from our first trip 20 years ago!

We tried to be positive and not take into the negative comments which were written in the Newspapers and online forums etc. But we came out, and we are now contributing to Support those who had given such comments!

NO to animal abuse!
Our National Zoo is a disgrace!



*The comments on this blog are of my personal feelings and thoughts. You may research your own to find out more if it is true or not*

Rest in Peace (R.I.P) Michael Joseph Jackson

Michael Joseph Jackson (1958-2009)

It has been almost 2 weeks since the ill-fated morning of June 25th 2009. I remember I woke up to an SMS from my wife at 8am! (I was on Business Trip in Penang). Right after I read the SMS, I turned on the BBC Channel on my hotel room. And there it was, the continuous Live News Coverage of the Death of the King of Pop.

Shocked as I was, I was just silent throughout the entire morning. Whether you are, were or even if you weren't a fan, you knew who this person was. My grandfather knows him, so does the youngest cousin of mine. No Death of a Celebrity had such hightened popularity and publicity since Princess Diana. Being humans that we are, at the final years of his life, things were going down, many looked down at a man, fallen from grace, with accusations here and there. But the moment he passed, everything changed to respected comments and praise for a man, who's dream, achievements and personality matched no other. Thus those who thought of him otherwise when he was alive, would now feel the sorrow, guilt, and sadness.

I'll skip the rest, as almost everyone else in the world had provided their touching and memorable comments. I would like to share my feelings of the Final Chapter in Michael's Life which was official with the Michael Jackson Memorial Service, Live from the Staples Centre in LA @ 1am-3.30am (Malaysian time)

As expected, it was a true touching event, an event where cheers and rejoicing sounds were expected to be heard, but in fact, as the 11,000 strong crowd filled up the arena, the only sound was Silence...

There were no emcees, the performers just came on stage when their turn came, one speech, one song, and so on. One of the most heartwarming and strong message that was presented was by Reverand Al Sharpton which automatically got an entire standing ovation! He was addressing Michael's children:

"There wasn't nothing strange about your daddy, it was strange what your daddy had to deal with, but he dealth with it!"

A good friend of Michael's, Brooke Shields also shared that his favourite song was not one of his master pieces, rather, it was a song by Charlie Chaplin back in 1928 called "Smile". Right after her speech, Michael's brother, Jermaine Jackson took the stage and sang that very song:

His performance was one of my favourite. So touching and sincere it was. He had to hold back his tears, and after his performance, he threw a rose on Michael's casket.

There were many other Stars who sang tributes, all were excellent songs! Even the young kid, Shaheen Jafargholi, who rose to fame on the Britain's Got Talent show, by singing the same song that made him famous, which was the Jackson 5's "Who's Lovin You". Michael even invited him to sing with him at the upcoming 50 Concerts which will now never be held.

The final part of the Memorial was a few speeches by a few of Michael's brothers, one who was reduced to tears as he ended his thank you speech. The last speech was by Paris Michael, Michael's one and only daughter. She was already sobbing as she took the mic:

It was a heartfelt tribute to her father, whom she will miss for the rest of her life.

Tears, passion, sadness, smiles, rejoicing, remembering, respecting, honouring & loving...

These had been the feelings of people all over the world. We can now finally give Michael his well deserved rest, as he places himself now next to the Lord.

"Heal The World, Make It A Better Place, For You And For Me, And The Entire Human Race, There Are People Dying, If You Care Enough For The Living, Make A Better Place For You And For Me"

Michael Jackson, Rest In Peace...

The REAL Heroes, the REAL Humans!

"A dog is a man's best friend"

This animal famous around the world as being pets, and many other kinds of roles, but here in Malaysia, the extremely touching story of the Pulau Ketam Dog Rescue Mission tops it all, if there ever was a story involving dogs! Heck, there could even be a movie based on this true story!

The moment these furry 4-legged friends of ours were to look into our eyes, it feels as though nothing else in the world matters, it feels as though the beauty of innocence had just been glared into our hearts, THIS is real magic!

The next thing we know, we are uncontrollably handing whatever food or crumbs we have in our hands to their mouths! And after gobbling down the food, they continue to lick our hands and fingers clean!

I am talking about dogs...

The recent Horrific news about dogs being abandoned at an isolated HELL island near Pulau Ketam left us all stunned! We wondered how can a Human do such things? More so, we heard people were paid per dog that is thrown there! There is no food on that island, there are many poisonous snakes, and many dogs who could not make it, died a terrible death. And for the remaining ones, they ate the carcasses of the dead dogs to survive.

The pertinent question is: "Who are the REAL Beasts?" The Humans who discarded these dogs, and let them die on that island? Or the dogs, who knew nothing of their fate, and was handed down their Death Judgement!

If that is what being a Human is, I'd rather be a Dog!

This is Kuning and Hitam. They are the REAL Heroes! They knew what the rescue team was doing, and they would jump into the sea near the island and they would go into the island, and bring out surviving dogs! Hitam even grabbed Fish from his home at the fish farm kelong, into his mouth, and swam to the island and gave that as food for the surviving dogs!

Kuning is like so much more efficient than a Baywatch lifeguard! Recently he went missing, 2 volunteers thought he was one of the abandoned dogs and took him home. Recently he was re-united with his owners at the kelong, who were Indonesian workers there. And he's now back to work! haa.

This is the platform created by the volunteers, and Kuning would bring out the surviving dogs onto this platform. Water and food are placed there so that the surviving ones can still have food and water.

The first picture above is of Kuning and his owner Adi, the Indonesian worker at the fish farm kelong.

The rescue was headed by Ms Sabrina Yeap, who deserves more recognition than any human I currently know! She is the founder of the FFF - Furry Friends Farm, located in Kundang. Many Volunteers from the country came up and offered their help, and together they formed a team, a strong team that leaves even the Superstar athletes in shame (Ronaldo's 80 million pounds?!?!?)

The dogs are brought to a vet before begin taken to this farm, where they would be properly cared for.

I am inspired to write about this topic as I know, there are still many good hearted humans in this world. Even Volunteers as far as Australia came to help! Check out these websites:

http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2009/6/12/nation/4105395&sec=nation

http://www.mmail.com.my/content/kunings-no-coward-%E2%80%94-hes-deepsea-rescuer

http://www.mycen.com.my/rescue/updates.html

This last one above for Updates on the Rescue.

I am striving to not only save money for my honeymoon, house, but also to help our Friends.

This is an image of a Peaceful World, when people of different backgrounds, culture, race, all come together for a truly Commendable work!

Kudos to you all, good luck in your mission and God Bless the Dogs!!!