World Refugee Day Celebrations in KL Sentral

The global theme for World Refugee Day 2010 (which falls on June 20th) is "Home", which expresses the hope that refugees will either be able to safely return to their countries of origin, or rebuild their lives in new countries.

It was with the objective of creating public awareness on the plight of refugees and of celebrating the strength and resilience of refugees that UNHCR Malaysia marked World Refugee Day 2010 with a massive outreach event in KL Sentral, Southeast Asia's largest public transport infrastructure, over the past weekend. Our celebrations included rousing cultural performances, interactive exhibitions and a refugee bazaar to raise funds for refugee communities.

The event was successful beyond our wildest dreams and drew an enormous crowd on both days. We had many interested members of the public signing up to be volunteers, and the booths at the bazaar enjoyed brisk sales.



My colleagues and I were on duty on Friday night to help set up the booths and exhibition panels. It was more tiring than I had expected, because I was still on medication following oral surgery the previous week.



Come sign up at our booth to be a UNHCR Volunteer!



Our little refugee bazaar, offering everything from buns and cakes to shawls and costume jewellery, in an effort to help refugee communities, especially women, be financially independent.



Our refugee bazaar was also a good way of helping refugees network with potential customers.

TAKE A MINUTE TO BE A REFUGEE



What does it feel like to live as a refugee, away from home? To escape to an unfamiliar land, with nothing but the clothes on your back?

You don't speak the language, but somehow must provide for your family.

You live cramped in a small room with 40 others, and keep alive the hope that someday you will return home.



"We don't want charity. Just give us the chance to work and to be independent."



There are no 'refugee camps' in Malaysia, only Immigration Detention Centres.



Most refugees in Malaysia live in small, cramped flats or houses in cities. They are almost invisible in the cities they live in, living quietly side-by-side with Malaysians.



Due to displacement and trauma, many refugee children are denied a normal childhood and the right to play. In the indoor courtyard of a flat, refugee chilldren steal some precious play time.



This man rents a tiny room in a flat with 8 other men because it is all he can afford. Within the confines of this small space, the men conduct their daily activities of sleeping, praying, eating and even cooking.



Refugees wait at a free clinic run by UNHCR and an NGO in order to get treatment. The health needs of refugees are often neglected due to the cost of medication and treatment. These free and low-cost clinics help make healthcare more accessible for refugees.



Like many refugees, this hospitalised patient worked at a construction site. In an accident, he fell 13 floors and escaped near death. The steep hospital fees became a great burden to him due to his meagre wages.


WALK A MILE IN A REFUGEE'S SHOES



Choose your own adventure, UNHCR-style!

Enter our maze and walk a mile in a refugee's shoes:
What's it like to be a refugee?
To witness your family torn apart by war and conflict?
To lose everything you value -- family, friends, your home -- and be forced to flee in order to save your life?
To travel hundreds of miles, on foot through dense jungles, into a strange land.
It's difficult to imagine this journey and the life-changing decisions that must be made, often with little time to prepare.



IT'S LIFE OR DEATH. YOU NEED TO DECIDE. NOW.
Soldiers are coming to your village within an hour. They've threatened your life before. This time, you won't be able to buy them off with cigarettes. You've got nothing left. Nothing but your aged parents who urge you to run.









YOU STAY WITH YOUR PARENTS. SOLDIERS ARRIVE.

You plead for mercy. They show none. They pillage your home. They take away everything of value. Worse still, you are taken away. You may never return. Your life, as you know it, is over.

Many who flee war and complex human rights situations may never find the safety and protection they need.

Their journeys are very much like what you have read in this exhibition today. They need your support. Help them rebuild their lives in safety and dignity. Visit unhcr.org.my to learn more.



INTO THE JUNGLE YOU RUN.

You hardly have time to pack. Just a lighter. 3 shirts. The pants you're wearing. That's it. No food or water. You trek through the foliage for 4 hours. You stumble and injure yourself. But you have escaped a certain death in the village. You come to a road. At last. A way out. You hear the hum of a car approaching.







YOU HIDE BEHIND A TREE. THE CAR PASSES BY.

You wander in the jungle for 2 days, until you pass out from dehydration. You didn't make it. Your journey as a refugee ends here.



YOU ARE LUCKY. THE DRIVER IS WILLING TO HELP.

He gives you a ride to the nearest town. After 2 hours, you arrive at the town bus stop. You need to find someone to help you leave the country. You can't go back home. It's probably ransacked or burned to the ground. You can't stay in the town. The troops will find you. They will kill you for running away.








YOU BUY A TICKET AND GET ON A BUS. YOU'RE ON YOU WAY TO THE BORDER.

At the border, you realise you have no passport. Soldiers handcuff you and send you away on a truck, to where you came from. You are thrown into jail, indefinitely. Your journey as a refugee ends here.



YOU FIND SOMEONE TO TAKE YOU OUT OF THE COUNTRY.

You give him all your money. He's got a car. But you don't get a seat. You are asked to lie in the trunk with 3 others. You pass out many times along the way. You almost suffocate. But you survive the 10 hours of hell. You pass the border. You've made your way out of the country.

What happens now? You have no money. No friends. No future. In a very real sense, your journey as a refugee has just begun.

CULTURAL PERFORMANCES



A very macho and rousing dance by the Rakhine community of Myanmar to show loyalty to their King.



Children from the Mon community of Myanmar performing a traditional dance in absolutely regal-looking costumes.



A very colourful music and dance troupe by the Mon community of Myanmar.



What a spectacular costume! A dancer of Shan ethnicity performs the Peacock Dance.



Lovely ladies from Shan State performing a New Year song-and-dance number.



Young people from the Kachin (Myanmar) community performing the Myitkyina dance.



Adorable Kachin children performing a traditional dance.



Young people from the Chin community of Myanmar performing a dance to celebrate the birth of a baby boy.

The double standards practiced in most societies do confound me, I must admit.



Endearing little Afghan girls performing a demure little dance.



Afghan women performing a rather melancholic-sounding number. From the looks of it, I think it's a song about women's place being in the kitchen. The women stand around the pot, stirring, and clapping at the beat of one clap a minute or something excruciating like that.



Afghan boys performing a lively bhangra-like number, and dancing with each other. I was waiting for the womenfolk to join in but they never did. I guess the women were all stuck in the kitchen with that there big ol' pot, huh?



Young ladies from the Sri Lankan Tamil community performing an Indian classical dance.


HOW YOU CAN HELP

Refugees may have lost their homes, but let them not lose hope for a better future! Find out how you can assist them:

Choose A Project:
Look for a Refugee Self-Help Project that interests you and make a difference with your time, skills, resources and purchasing power! Visit our Social Protection Fund Blog at http://spfunhcr.wordpress.com/ and choose to make a difference in the lives of refugees!

Be Our Volunteer:
Contact the Social Protection Fund at 03 2141 1322 or http://www.blogger.com/mlsluspf@unhcr.org to offer your skills and services.

Contributions In Kind:
Your donations of used but wearable clothes, travel bags, soap, household items and personal care products can help out those who are not yet able to help themselves. Refugees and asylum-seekers in Immigration Detention Camps, especially, have a need for clean clothes and hygiene products. Think you can help? Then drop me an email or give me a call before you drop by with your donations. I will help you get your donations to those who need it the most.

Celebrating World Environment Day with MNS Selangor

The Malaysian Nature Society (MNS) Selangor Branch celebrated World Environment Day 2010 with our Open Day at Taman Lembah Kiara on Saturday, 5th June.

Our first Open Day was held at the MNS HQ itself in January 2008, and it was such a success that we have since held 3 other Open Days -- at FRIM, the Shah Alam Agricultural Park and at Taman Lembah Kiara. We used to only have annual Members' Days in out-of-city-limits locations such as the Boh Tea Plantations in Cameron Highlands, but sometime in late 2007, the Committee decided that in the interests of public education and environmental outreach, we would conduct Open Days where members of the public and local community could participate in nature and conservation-related activities and have a sampling of the activities our Special Interest Groups have to offer.

This year also marks MNS' 70th Anniversary, and so it was appropriate for our Open Day to adopt the theme of "70 Years of Conserving Nature, Celebrating Life". Our Open Day this year focused on the call to cherish and protect our country's increasingly threatened wildlife and habitats.

As usual, we offered guided nature walks, the Single Rope Technique exercise, exhibition booths, campaign and petition booths, Arts and Crafts, face-painting stalls, activity booths by most of the Spesh Interest Groups and booths by partner organisations such as MYCAT and Wild Asia to bring home the urgency of saving our wildlife from loggers, poachers and infrastructural/agricultural expansion.

We also introduced new activities this year, including a Scavenger Hunt, a Storytelling Session (by my highly talented blog buddy Keats) and Stream Ecology sessions (conducted by Hashimi).

Since Lil, our preferred Master of Ceremonies, was indisposed due to wrist injury, I replaced her as the emcee, which wasn't an onerous role at all considering that I had offers of help from Cindy, Bernie and Ilyas. My other roles were in the planning and preparation of the Scavenger Hunt, photo exhibition, Green Living booth activities and Nature Quiz, all of which were finalised and running smoothly by the morning of the event, thanks to the help of competent volunteers.

The MNS Selangor Open Day was literally a walk in the park for visitors.



A sizeable crowd had gathered at the Arts and Crafts booth by mid-morning.



Interested members of the public learning more about our campaigns to stop the conversion of rainforests into latex timber clone plantations.



A young family had fun playing the Water Conservation board game at the Green Living booth.



Ben10 and family try their hands at the Green Living 3R Board Game.



The SPCA was invited to set up a booth as a partner organisation, but unfortunately City Hall would not grant them permission to bring in animals for adoption. The gang made a tidy sum from merchandise sales and donations, though.



I didn't get to participate in as many activities as I would like to, as I was stuck at the emcee booth making the announcements. I conducted a nature/conservation-oriented spot quiz around 1030 hrs and gave out prizes sponsored by the various Special Interest Groups. The Green Science Kits sponsored by the Green Living SIG were the most coveted prizes of all. These two young men were all smiles after winning a Potato Clock and Enviro Battery kit respectively. Well done, boys! Just add vegetables and water, and - voila! - you have your clocks and batteries!



32 teams registered for the Scavenger Hunt, which was flagged off at 1100 hrs. Teams had to look for and bring back (or photograph), among others, an epiphyte, a skeleton (animal or plant), a soil-improving plant and something which has no use in nature. One of the judges is seen here grading a team and awarding points for the correct items brought back.



Two of the Scavenger Hunt teams with their spoils! (Photo credits: Christopher Leo)



Keats got her audience involved in an interactive storytelling session about habitat destruction. Children and their parents are seen here playing out the role of the emergent canopy in a rainforest in Keats' original work, "Paradise Lost".



Keats and her young fans with the butterfly crafts they made using reused and salvaged materials. (Photo courtesy of Keats)



Happy trails is what you get when you go on a guided nature walk with our Nature Guides. (Photo credits: JC Tan)



I conducted a Nature Quiz for the children of Compassion Home. Many thanks to Ellen and the volunteers who brought the children to participate in our Open Day! (Photo credits: Alex Foong)

The event was officially over at 1400 hrs and Vegan Eugene, Mary and I were among the last to leave after tidying up, no thanks to the fact that Vegan Eugene spent hours trying to locate an LCD projector bag that didn't exist. The Cave Group gang was still around practicing climbing techniques around 1500 hrs, so the three of us accosted them and asked for the opportunity to do the Single Rope Technique.

The tighter the harness, the easier it is to climb.



Looka yonder! It's a spider monkey! It's a baboon! No... it's just me.



Two of the cavers caught in a compromising posish... Ooh la la... ha ha.



SH, one of the senior cavers, all kitted out to try out some new climbing and abseiling techniques. Cavers have the most fun. I really want to sign up for the Basic Caving Course next year. I've been putting it off for too long.

If you like what you see and you like what we do, please visit the links below!

* Join the Malaysian Nature Society and lend your voice to the protection and conservation of Malaysia's wildlife and green lungs!

* Learn more about Selangor Branch and find out what our upcoming activities are!

* Sign the petition to Save The Belum-Temenggor Forest Complex!

* Sign the petition to Protect the Klang Gates Quartz Ridge and Selangor State Park from the proposed Kuala Lumpur Outer Ring Road (KLORR)!

* Sign the petition to Conserve Langkawi Islands' Remaining Rainforests!

* Sign the petition to Save Peninsular Malaysia's Rainforests from conversion into Latex Timber Clone (LTC) Plantations!

Trees have no suffrage. We do! Please lend your voice and vote for better implementation and enforcement of conservation laws. We share the fate of our natural environment. A healthier Planet means a healthier human population. Thank you for your support!

Post-Surgery Update

Just thought I’d make a quick update before posting a proper report on the Malaysian Nature Society (MNS) Selangor Branch Open Day which took place on World Environment Day (5th June 2010).

I’m back from the brink after undergoing a bone graft at the Tengku Ampuan Rahimah Hospital in Klang. I had a piece of bone grafted from my chin to my upper jaw. From the Chronology of Events below, you can see what a troublesome youngster I must have been and imagine the kind of trauma my teeth must have suffered:

1987: Broke both front teeth trying to execute a stunt I watched the lion dancers do during the Chinese New Year. Teeth duly crowned.

1993: Broke both crowned front teeth in a skateboarding accident in which I crashed into my friend David and smashed my teeth against the back of his head. Teeth crowned for second time.

1995: Chipped the re-crowned front teeth falling off my racing bike after getting hit by a motorcycle while cycling home from school at high speed. Teeth crowned for the 3rd time.

2000: Cracked both front teeth again at the SPCA when a Doberman I was trying to guide into his kennel bucked and hit my lower jaw with the top of his head. Remedial work to crown carried out.

2003: Found my front teeth in pain after a night out at the pub. Discovered that infection had set in – teeth cracked at least a week ago, not sure how. Antibiotics administered and remedial work carried out to crowned teeth.

2009: Left front tooth broke while having a cold drink outside the SPCA. Consulted my usual dentist, Dr. Thomas, and opted for a dental implant as temporary dentures inconvenient and right front tooth not trusted not to break if bridging done.

2010: Bone density probe conducted. Upper jaw is on strike and has had enough. Trauma from various accidents has resulted in there being no intact bone left in upper jaw. Upper jaw so perforated that the insertion of a dental implant would shatter the whole jaw. Bone graft advised. Advice accepted. Buddies duly informed. Family kept in the dark so as to spare them unnecessary worry.

My buddy Sheela P. was recruited to drive me to the hospital and back on the date of the surgery, 10th June. I was put under general anaesthetic at 0745 hrs and woke up sometime around 1530 hrs in immense discomfort in the ward. Was informed I puked copiously upon regaining consciousness. Was too groggy to care. Sheela made a timely reappearance when I came around and attended to me and pushed me around in the wheelchair without complaint. Turned down all offers of food from the hospital orderlies as none of the food offered was suitably meatless. Kept griping about wanting to go home and wanting to go to the SPCA this weekend. Updated my Facebook status via ‘Berry and accepted, with much gratitude, a phone call from That Special Someone, who wanted to make sure I survived the surgery. Was put on yet another round of IV drips although what I really wanted was potato chips and Coke.

Persuaded a very tired Sheela to go home at 1930h as she had been waiting with me the whole day. Sheela left only after Vegan Eugene and Mary agreed to come and pick me up. Nurses informed me that they were not authorised to discharge me from hospital. Requested to be removed from IV drips. Started walking slowly up and down the ward to persuade the nurses (and myself) that I would not faint if allowed to go home.

Walked to bathroom, showered, changed back into my t-shirt, jeans and trainers and requested again, with much restraint and courtesy, to be discharged. Informed the nurses that if I could do all that on my own without fainting, they could trust me not to faint when I got home. Nurses looked at each other and at me with disbelief, shook their heads and proceeded to get the papers signed to allow me to go home. Hurray! I may be a vegetarian and a teetotaller but I still kick ass!

Collected my medication from the hospital pharmacy, paid my bills, and walked (somewhat unsteadily, I must admit), to the cab stand to wait for my buddies at 2100 hrs.

Vegan Eugene and Mary spotted me from half a mile away thanks to the size of my swollen face. Reached my Bachelor Pad around 2230 hrs, very relieved to be home. Proceeded to clean the Bachelor Pad and feed the Rowdies, who were very curious about my bandage and were extra gentle around me.

Curiously enough, despite the discomfort I am in, the pain wasn’t as bad as I was told it would be. It could be that I have a high threshold of pain. After all, I don’t know many other people who have fallen asleep in the tattoo parlour while their backs are being tattooed, or anyone who could remain relatively cheerful and talkative while undergoing a root canal operation.

The subsequent few days were pretty awful, maybe because I couldn’t come to terms with the fact that I didn’t bounce back as quickly as I thought I would. My face ballooned to twice its size, making simple tasks like putting on a shirt close to Herculean. I spent most of my time on housework and trying to complete some files that I brought home from the office, because outdoor activities would increase the risk of infection. I had to miss the Casualty Evacuation Workshop at the MNS Urban Nature Centre. I had to miss helping out at the SPCA for a week. I had to miss my friend Ainul’s wedding and my buddy and partner-in-crime Amarjit’s farewell party. I couldn’t swim, cycle, skate or play football. I guess this is how restless the Phantom of the Opera must have felt, confined to his little hideout in the lake under the opera house, not being able to come out and party. I guess I could qualify as a chronically tone-deaf counterpart of the Phantom. There were moments when I felt as though I was never going to get any better.

I did, however, develop my own method of changing the dressing on my wound. It involved laying surgical tape, gauze and ointment out on my palm like an open-face sandwich and slapping everything onto my chin in the general location of the incision. Unconventional, but it has worked for me so far.

I don’t intend to be out of action for long. Next week I will be back at work, doing what I love best – serving some of the world’s most vulnerable people. Next week I will be back at the SPCA, guiding the new volunteers and helping the animals stay clean and healthy. Next week I will have parties to attend, friends to meet up with and assignments to complete. Powered by soup and mashed potatoes, I will be ready to take on the world again.

Vesākha Weekend and Animal Updates

The last two weeks have been a flurry of activity -- dental appointments, meetings with volunteers, making final preparations for the Malaysian Nature Society (MNS) Open Day and fielding questions after my Letter to the Editor on the animal-testing facility was published.

This post, therefore, will be full of non sequitors and disjointed jottings. Sometimes I feel like I am the protagonist in an absurdist play. Today, for instance, I held a cat in an Arsenal jersey and a baby bat that fell out of a tree. Not both at the same time, of course.







Mizz was adopted by SPCA General Worker, Thim, and now lives in the SPCA Bungalow with the Inspectorate and PR & MarComms Team. I was there this afternoon to deliver books to the Shelter and to pick up a copy of Earthlings and the cruelty investigation manual. Mizz doesn't seem to mind wearing the Arsenal jersey all day and spends a lot of her time on the window ledge.



My colleague Nick saw this baby bat on the lawn in front of our department's cabin and pointed it out to me. I had to put the baby bat somewhere safe from automobiles, feral cats and human feet.




The baby bat was kept safely hidden in some dense foliage behind our office and given papaya to eat in case he was hungry. He looked a little dehydrated but otherwise healthy. There were no signs of injury. I have picked up many stranded bats before. They were mostly disoriented by sunlight and winded or stunned from having fallen off their roosting places. They are usually able to orient themselves and fly off safely at nightfall.

Gerald Durrell and I would probably get along famously well with each other.


Friday, 28th May 2010: Vesākha Day and other news



The Buddhist Maha Vihara in Brickfields

As is my custom every Vesākha Eve, I recited the Jayamangala Gatha (Stanzas of Victory) on Thursday night. My command of Pali and Sanskrit has deteriorated from want of practice and the only stanza I seem to be able to remember without effort is the one on Nalagiri the Bull Elephant. Trust me to only remember the bits with animals in them.

Being able to sleep in on a weekday is such luxury, and I made the most of it on Vesākha (Wesak) Day as it was a public holiday. I spent a good part of the day doing housework, giving the Rowdies a bath, getting Whoosh (my fostered cat) vaccinated and completing some office work which I had brought home in my thumbdrive. My colleagues and I have decided not to return Whoosh to the stalls except as a last resort, as she did not receive adequate care there and we did not want to risk Whoosh getting hit by motor vehicles again.



Light dispels ignorance.

I took the train to the Vihara in Brickfields in the evening to meet up with Covert Mum and Covert Dad. I took the parents to dinner at Gopala's, one of my favourite restaurants, where we had lovely dosai and some pretty unusual but tasty soy satay.

I saw the parents off and then walked back to the Vihara, where I was to meet up with my friends from the Facebook group, Sampah Masyarakat (roughly translated into "Society's Rubbish", or "scum of society"), as we were to conduct a cleanup campaign in the Vihara and the streets around the area. I failed to meet up with the group and all attempts to contact them failed. I had brought my own biodegradable garbage bags but picking up litter while the crowds were still coming in was an exercise in futility. People were dropping litter faster than the volunteers were picking them up. I didn't want to get trampled to death in the stampede and so I gave up after a while.

At the booth operated by the Aloka Foundation, someone called me by name. It was a lady who was a participant of one of my 3R (Reduce, Reuse and Recycle) workshops in 2009, and I asked her if she had seen any of our fellow activists there. She did not, but she did have candles to offer to me instead. I made a donation for the lighting of candles in Lumbini, the birthplace of the Gautama. One of the candles was in the name of my parents, and the other would bear That Special Someone's name and mine. It was nice to think that somewhere in the foothills of the Himalayas, there would be a little light shining for him and me.

I returned to the Vihara to recite my poojas, and on my way out spotted an elderly lady looking lost. She was unable to contact her daughter and her phone battery had died on her. I offered to call her daughter on my phone and to walk her to the Tamil Methodist Church where her daughter was waiting for her anxiously. She accepted my offer gratefully and it took us ten minutes to walk to her daughter’s car. The elderly lady was wilting in the heat by then. It was late when I finally got to the train station, and I was by then too exhausted to even think about attempting to contact the other Sampah Masyarakat members again.

I didn’t like the fact that I had failed to participate in Sampah Masyarakat’s cleanup campaign after I had agreed to do so. I didn’t like the fact that it was an addition to my already long list of sins and transgressions – all those red lights I’ve run, illegal U-turns I’ve made, trash I’ve talked and swear words I’ve uttered. I am glad there isn’t any Heaven or Hell in Buddhism. Judging by the number of offences I’ve committed, I don’t have any doubt as to where I’ll end up.


Saturday, 29th May 2010: Terror Kitty and other new friends

Saturday was no day of rest for me, as I had promised the SPCA officers that I would be at the shelter early to guide the new volunteers who wish to engage in animal care work. The new volunteers -- CH and Manoj who are undergoing training as volunteer dog trainers, and two teenage girls -- and I started bathing and tickwashing the dogs as soon as it was warm enough, around 0945 hrs.



CH and Manoj rinsing off one of the Kennel F dogs.



Manoj is a natural at handling dogs.



The two girls worked very slowly and I had to keep checking to make sure they had rinsed the shampoo off properly.

We were joined at the B Kennels by a group of students from Taylor's College, who mostly stood around chatting with each other and taking photographs. Most of the time, one of the students would attempt to help us, while the others stood around watching.



I think Manoj asked for volunteers, not an audience.

Manoj left by 1130 hrs and the students left shortly after, despite not having done much. CH and I finished bathing all the dogs in Kennels B Ext and B and I tidied up the dog-washing kit. I cleaned the Cattery before cleaning myself up and getting the carrier from the Battletank to bring a spayed cat home in.

The latest cat to be spayed under Project Second Chance is a feral female caught and sent to the SPCA by my friend, Leena. I had agreed to bring the cat home and provide post-surgery care. The cat was a holy terror -- the fiercest I have ever met. She ripped the gloves right off our hands and bit the carrier door. When we tried to guide her into the carrier using sticks, she bit the sticks (which were at least 2 inches in diameter) and broke them right into two. We finally got her into the carrier after much sweating, heaving and cursing.

I drove home with the terrorist in my backseat yowling for all she was worth. That cat is living proof that spaying doesn't necessarily make them any more docile.

I reached the Bachelor Pad, set up the holding cage for Terror Kitty, and tried to transfer her into the cage. She turned on me with a look of pure hatred in her eyes, slashed my arm and dashed out of the gate and down the street, with me in hot pursuit.

And that was it. I couldn't find her. Terror Kitty was nowhere to be seen. I felt like a failure. I didn't know what to say to Leena, except that Terror Kitty would probably be okay because it has been over 5 days since her spaying, that the wound has healed and she is in good health.

It was while I was brooding over poor Terror Kitty that my friend Pat came over in the late afternoon with her husband and daughter and a carload full of good things to be donated to Green Living and the SPCA for our Pre-Loved Books stall and our quarterly Jumble Sale respectively. It was raining like the clappers then but my dear friends did not abort their mission to deliver the promised items to me.

I spent the rest of the evening on housework, and put a saucer of kibbles out for Terror Kitty in case she returned. I made one last search attempt for Terror Kitty before driving back to the parental home on Saturday night.

Terror Kitty, wherever you are, I hope you are alright.

Letter to the Editor: Animal-Testing Cruel, Inaccurate and Unnecessary

LETTER TO THE EDITOR: ANIMAL-TESTING CRUEL, INACCURATE AND UNNECESSARY

I am appalled that an elected representative such as Malacca Chief Minister Mohamad Ali Rustam could defend animal-testing on such flimsy grounds and invoke faith and the name of the Creator on what is essentially a scientific issue.

The CM further stated that "eating animals could also be seen as cruel, and yet it is widely accepted". The CM must be very naive indeed to believe that there is no opposition to the factory farming of animals. The worldwide poultry and livestock farming industry is under immense pressure from consumers and civil society groups to improve the living conditions of animals raised for food, and the increasing number of people turning to vegetarianism and free-range farmed animals is testimony to this.

The consumption of animals and the use of animals in research, however, are two different issues. Proponents of animal testing argue that animals are enough like us for experiments on their bodies to be truly useful, but so unlike us that we need not worry about the plight of the animal. The opposite appears to be true. Because animals differ from humans in so many ways, particularly in the way they process chemicals, animal experimentation has generally not proven rewarding in critical fields such as cancer research. Yet animal research is successful in the field of emotion, in studies such as those for depression-alleviating drugs and in the famous 'maternal deprivation' monkey experiments, because animals are very similar to humans emotionally. If animals suffer as we do, how can we justify the cruelty committed against them?

While some will argue that progress would not have been made in modern medicine if animals hadn’t been used as test subjects, there has been just as many failures, if not more. According to the US Food and Drug Administration, 92% of drugs that show promise in animals fail in clinical trials, making the continued use of animals unjustifiable not only on an ethical scale, but on a scientific one as well. Statistical evidence reveals that drugs that cure cancer in mice do not work, or at best, work minimally, in people.

Conversely, drugs that kill animals might have saved human lives, as the vast majority of cancer treatments are rejected because they failed at animal testing stage. There are many people termed terminally ill who would be willing to be medical test and research subjects, if only the laws would allow it. While million of animals die in research laboratories, millions of people may die because of the reliance on animal testing.

Animal research is not only cruel, but grossly inadequate due to the differing effects of drugs on different species. Animal testing teaches us very little, if anything, about how humans would respond to certain drugs. They only show us how certain animals may respond to the drugs tested on them. Penicilin in large doses, for example, is fatal to guinea pigs but rarely so in humans. Aspirin causes birth defects in mice and rats. Ibuprofen causes kidney failure in dogs, even at very low doses. Cancer testing on mice is ineffective because most mouse tumours originate in different types of tissues from human tissues. Putting human tissue into mice does not solve the problem as human cells are likely to behave and respond differently in a mouse than in a human body. According to "Nature" magazine, of the potential anticancer drugs that give promising results in tests on mice with cancer, only about 11% are ever approved for use in humans.

The low correlation between species for substance tests works the other way as well. Substances that have no ill effect on animals may kill humans. Sheep have no problems enjoying arsenic, and strychnine is safe for a monkey in doses that would wipe out half a dozen people. Thalidomide was tested as safe for use in cats, armadillos, guinea pigs, swine and ferrets. Smoking vast quantities of cigarettes did not cause lung cancer in dogs or rats.

The idea that it is not ethical to use human volunteers in experiments but is ethical to do absolutely anything we want to non-humans must be challenged. The proponents of animal-testing are in favour of it because it spells big business for many stakeholders, including dog-catching contractors employed by local authorities. It is accepted that tests on humans would be more accurate than tests on other animals, but we don't test drugs with a real risk of death on humans because society finds it ethically unacceptable. However, alternatives already exist for many forms of animal testing.

Because of the ban on animal-testing in the European Union, companies have been forced to come up with alternatives. For example, L'Oreal came up with Episkin, a reconstructed human skin that has been approved for the testing of cosmetics. Episkin layers are grown on collagen, using skin cells left over from breast surgery. Independent tests have shown that in many cases, Episkin is able to predict more accurately than animal tests how a person will react to products.

Other alternatives to animal testing include 'in vitro' cell culture techniques and computer simulation programmes using data from prior animal experiments. Human volunteers are also employed in allergy and skin irritancy tests. Donated human blood is used in accurate and quick pyrogenicity tests to determine if pharmaceutical products and intravenous drugs would cause inflammation or fever when they interact with immune system cells. Non-animal alternatives for toxicology tests include QSAR models and 'in vitro' testing on cell and tissue culture. Toxin Binding Inhibition (ToBI) Tests are now being employed to test vaccines.

Although these alternatives to animal testing are not without their limitations, the moral task of the scientific and medical community is to improve on these methods and discover and develop better non-animal alternatives. Governments should be funding the search for alternatives at a much greater level than they are funding animal experimentation.

Those working to phase out animal experiments advocate the 3Rs: reduction (by encouraging companies, by legislation if necessary, to share experimental data and thus reducing the need for animal testing and eliminating duplication of research), refinement (by improving the welfare and living conditions of the animals and minimising suffering ) and ultimately, the replacement of animal experiments with viable alternatives.

To assume that animal experimentation is the only way we can make any progress in medical research is to underestimate human intelligence and innovation. And to dismiss animal rights activists as dreamers and idealists is to fail to take into consideration the growing population of rational and empowered people who realise that compassion to all living beings is the hallmark of a civilised society, and that human health need never be at the expense of animal lives, not when so many alternatives and solutions exist.

For the above reasons, the plans to set up an animal testing facility in Melaka must be dropped.


WONG EE LYNN
PETALING JAYA