Give the dolphins back their smiles....

The Animal Concerns Research and Education Society (ACRES) just launched their ‘Suffering, not smiling’ campaign, which aims to raise awareness on the plight of dolphins and urge Singaporeans not to support marine parks that keep dolphins in captivity. The greatest abuse suffered by captive dolphins lies in confinement itself. Dolphins are highly pelagic animals and have large home ranges of about 30-400 square kilometers in the wild. The Dolphin Lagoon in Singapore measures one hectare, this represents only 0.0003 per cent of the dolphin’s natural home range! Clearly, this is detrimental to the welfare of the animals.

Indo-Pacific hump-backed dolphins (Sousa chinensis) are also notoriously shy animals. Forcing these shy dolphins to perform unnatural acts and forcing them to participate in contact sessions with humans further compromises their welfare. The unnatural acts during the dolphin shows also contradict earlier statements by UWS stating that the dolphins would not be made to perform tricks "which are unnatural".

· The cruel confinement of these ocean mammals
· The conduct of captive research, which is of little, if any, relevance to the conservation of wild dolphins
· The deprivation of the dolphins' instinct and natural way of life, including loss of their social structure and enforced dependence on humans for food
· The dangers of human-dolphin contact, including the possible transmission of disease.

Deepavali morning thoughts......

It is the morning of Deepavali Day and here I am alone at home again. The two ladies in my life not around .Joyce is away attending some course related to her part time dental job at Orchard hotel. Lyn has gone away to J.B. presumably to shop, eat and be merry. I am going to meet Joyce later at around 7 so maybe then we can spend some quality time together.

Last night Lyn and I had one of those never-seeming-to-end SMS marathons that started at around 10:30 and ended close to 2a.m. I love her to bits and enjoy every moment we spend together. She is someone I can really relate to and share special moments with. She has been such a good friend and confidante to me all this time.
She has truly been a Godsend in my times of trouble. We still hold the record for longest ICQ chat (i think it lasted close to 8 hours) which hopefully we will not have to break it anytime soon...

I have also appled for leave from work on 17th November to 21 November. Joyce, Noel , Paula and I will be going up to KL presumably for Paula's friends wedding. But we really know that it is just a good excuse for the four of us to get away from Singapore and parental control and have a jolly good time eating, shopping and basically chilling-out. I hear they have lots of spanking new shopping centres in KL. I will do the usual thing and bring back gifts and foodstuffs from Kl for all my family at PPQS. The only downside is that i will be away from my beloved sis for 5 whole days with no way to contact her by SMS even. But time and distance do make the heart grow fonder....

I am backkkkkkkkkk.........

It's been nearly 23 days since I last updated this site. Been kinda busy and never actually got around to doing it although I meant to....

I finished my In-Camp Training(ICT)......(wonder why they call it 'In Camp Training' when most of the training is done outside of camp)......was one of the toughest ICT I ever had and the weather was not on my side. It rained for most early mornings when we were out in the field which resulted in lots of wet,cold and sleep-deprived soldiers. On the bright side I made lots of new friends. In the end it was the best in-camp thus far in my long and illustrious military ...errrmmm....(can't find the right word).....career thingy.

On Monday I went back to work and what a reality check. To say that I was disappointed at what went on (or rather did not go on...) whilst I was gone for over 2 weeks would be an understatement. I have 2 weeks backlog of work to do and I really am at a loss at where to start. As of today I have not touched the 'mountains' of undone work but have instead opted to do the current work from the 18th onwards. Also I have been kinda pre-occupied with helping Ko Koh manage the financial aspect of the new import procedures.

Me and the Khimster are not really talking much at all except when really neccesary. It is getting intolerable just being in one anothers presence. Geez...we both had better grow up and act like adults!

Tomorrow is Deepavali, The Festival of Lights, and Little India is all bright and replendescent now. Quite a sight, even more glorious and gay (read 'happy' to the uninitiated) than the Christmas lightings at Orchard Road.

I recently acquired a bunch of male and female guppies for my community planted tank in my room. It seems like the female guppies are dying and the cause of death....horny males...I think.....they chase the females and make futile (or is that fertile?) attempts to mate with them.I think the females feel kinda stressed out by the amorous advances and died as a result. I wonder if the same logic can be appled to humans....

All the news this week is about Dr Mahathirs comments about how the Jews rule the world by proxy and all. In my view he is right about most things. The Jews are brilliants overacheivers whom everything they touch seems to turn to gold. It is one of those mysteries how 6 million Jews can hold out against all the Arabs nations that surround them on all sides. To God be the glory....

I also recently became an uncle. My elder bro Leo and his wife Lynn had a baby on Friday. His name is Alden Brian Boyd! Maybe I could post a pic of him in here when i get one. He is one handsome devil and will definitely have all the little ladies in pre-school falling head over heels over him when the time comes....