TGV Belum Temengor Screening Makes Its Mark

RSC wishes to thank all of you who supported the TGV screening of the documentary, Temengor – Biodiversity In The Face of Danger, especially the 355 members of the public who attended, some with their children.


Students from various universities, including a group of 30 from The Environmental Law & Awareness Club of University Institute Teknologi Mara (UiTM) came to lend their support.



We thank their lecturer, Norha Abu Hanifah, for inculcating a love for animals and the environment among these outstanding young men and women. They are Malaysia's future and we hope they will pass on this baton of love to others, so that Malaysia will have a society we can all be proud of.




We also thank the celebrities who attended the Premiere Screening, among whom were Formula One racing ace, Alex Yoong, actors Harith Iskandar, Shamser Sidhu, Joanna Bessey and Lina Teoh, among others.







Joanna is doing admirable work with the orang asli or aborigines who call Belum Temengor their home, and whose livelihood is being affected by the logging at their doorstep.



We thank TGV Cinemas for sponsoring free screenings over seven days. You are amazing. Companies like Yeo Hiap Seng, Starbucks Coffee, The Body Shop, PJ Hilton and MPH Bookstore contributed door gifts. Thank you.



We also thank companies that make special efforts, as part of their policy, to protect animals and the environment. We’d like to recognise Starbucks Coffee and The Body Shop as examples of these companies.

Starbucks Coffee plants trees and buys directly from impoverished farmers, effectively cutting out middlemen and huge cartels that exploit them.

In return, these farmers take care of the environment because their "organic" and bird friendly coffee fetches higher prices in world markets.

The Body Shop’s products are free from “animal testing”. Often, people don’t give a thought to the fact that cosmetics are the end products of animal cruelty. The Body Shop does.

Many pure herbal and organic products including Indian Ayurvedic are also free from animal testing. So if you want to help protect nature and fight against animal cruelty, then please do not support companies that are involved in such things.

RSC single-handedly arranged all the publicity for this event, and we would like to thank the Media that provided us the coverage before, during, and after the screening of this documentary. We couldn’t have done it without you.

• REDFM104.9 on the prime time breakfast show.
• Light & Easy prime time breakfast show
• TRAXXFM on the What's Up Session with DJ Jezza
• SURIAFM prime time breakfast show

HOTFM announced the screenings in their morning and evening news bulletins over two days on Sept 12 and 13 while the MIX Breakfast Show put up the announcement on their "on air" community bulletin board.

A journalist from Radiq Radio, an online radio station which is also heard in Indonesia, attended the Premiere Screening and broadcast the event through www.radiq.org

The NTV7 Breakfast show and the Quickie team from 8TV also turned up. Thank you too for your support.

The national news agency, Bernama, newspapers such as The Star, The Sun and The New Straits Times, and magazines such as AdsVantage Family Magazine, Anjung Seri, and Singapore’s Asian Geographic also turned up to provide coverage.

The Media will never know how much their support has meant. Previously, when the documentary’s producers approached local television stations to broadcast the documentary, none wanted to do so, even though they offered it for free.

Now after the TGV-Belum Temengor screening and all the publicity, local television stations have approached the producers, seeking to air Temengor – Biodiversity In The Face Of Danger.

All these have been possible because of You. Because You made time to watch the documentary. Please, don’t ever think there is nothing you can do in the fight against animal cruelty or environmental degradation.

By going to watch the documentary at TGV Cinemas and signing the petition to stop the logging at Belum-Temengor, You have made a difference. So chin up, and be proud of yourselves!

Our work has had far reaching consequences. Overseas Media too have picked up on the publicity created in Malaysia, and recently, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation interviewed the producers about the documentary.

Our cry to stop the logging is being heard far and wide. Thank you all.

Shark's Fin At Victoria Station

My letter to Victoria Station Restaurant complaining about Sharks Fin Soup on their menu:

Dear Sir,

About a week ago my husband and I went to the Victoria Station at USJ for dinner.

We were horrified when we saw sharks fin soup on the menu.

Finning a shark is a brutal practice: After a shark is caught, its fins are sliced off, and packed away in stacks on the ship or hung to dry on the rigging.

The enormous carcasses, in some instances still alive, are thrown back into the sea and are either eaten by other sharks, or the live ones die by drowning. Sharks can't swim without fins, and can't process oxygen without swimming.

Unlike a crab and its claw, sharks do not regrow fins — nor do they reproduce in fish-like numbers. Most species have an average of one pup a year; some take as long as 15 years to reproduce.

A 2004 survey by The International Union for the Conservation of Nature found 56 endangered species of sharks. Blue, mako and hammerhead sharks are among the most popular for their fins, but rays, skates and other shark-related animals also are taken.

Alarmed at the scientific findings that showed shark populations decreasing, the United States banned shark-finning practices in federal waters of the Atlantic in 2000. In 2002, the Pacific was added.

There's now a push to make the ban worldwide and many conscientious people are already enforcing this "ban" in their own way by refusing to support places that sell shark fins.

In this day and age many companies such as Starbucks Coffee, Body Shop are becoming responsible companies that not only have environmental friendly policies, but are actively spending money to promote the protection of the environment and wildlife.

Richard Branson's Virgin Airlines is the latest to follow this trend. In the aftermath of Steve Irwin's death many others will follow I'm sure.

I'm just sad to see that Victoria Station is not one of them. Hence we cannot give our support to your restaurant for this purpose.

http://www.seashepherd.nl/longline/longline_shark_finning.html

Ban Pet Shops From Selling Animals

Below is my letter that was published in The Star, Sept 21, 2006. This is a follow-up to Cynthia Hassan's letter that was published in The Star on September 13 (posted here also in an earlier blog)


Ban Pet Shops From Selling Animals

I REFER to C. Hassan's letter, “Follow Saudi lead in banning cat and dog sales(The Star, Sept 13).

In Malaysia, there are no guidelines for breeders or pet shops. Many people who have bought puppies from the shops find the pets having hip and joint problems a few years down the line because the shops may have bought them from unscrupulous breeders.

Last year, a cat breeder was charged in court for neglecting four of his cats and brought them misery in a house he rented, “Witness: Stench was intolerable” (The Star, Nov 25).

These cats were kept in cages. Enforcement officers who came to confiscate them found the cages full of faeces and the smell so unbearable they had to go out several times for fresh air.

Photographs taken showed the cats were in a pitiful condition. Their faces were disfigured and they had bald spots all over their bodies.

We are encouraging such breeders to mushroom everywhere whenever we buy the animals from pet shops.

I, for one, never buy anything from a pet shop. I even buy my pet food from veterinarians.

Early this year, the Remembering Sheena Campaign sent a proposal to the Housing and Local Government Ministry, urging it to shut down pet shops that sell animals.
These shops should only be allowed to sell pet food, bowls, leashes, toys and vitamins but not animals.

I have seen in a Petaling Jaya shop many colourful birds caged up while the larger ones are chained to perches.

I wondered if anyone has ever checked whether some of these birds are on the Convention on International Trade in Engendered Species (CITES) list.
It is a disgrace that in Malaysia even legitimate places are keeping endangered animals.

One of them is the Johor zoo, which has been illegally keeping an endangered orang utan for 10 years but it has faced no action. If legitimate bodies like zoos can break the law without facing the consequence, how can we expect pet shop owners who are motivated by monetary gains to act any better?

SHOBA MANO
The Remembering Sheena Campaign.

The Hippo & The Tortoise - A Touching Story

This story below was sent to us by Christina Liew

NAIROBI (AFP) - A baby hippopotamus that survived the tsunami waves on the Kenyan coast has formed a strong bond with a giant male century-old tortoise, in an animal facility in the port city of Mombassa, officials said.

The hippopotamus, nicknamed Owen and weighing about 300 kilograms (650 pounds), was swept down Sabaki River into the Indian Ocean, then forced back to shore when tsunami waves struck the Kenyan coast on December 26, before wildlife rangers rescued him.

"It is incredible. A-less-than-a-year-old hippo has adopted a male tortoise, about a century old, and the tortoise seems to be very happy with being a 'mother'," ecologist Paula Kahumbu, who is in charge of Lafarge Park, told AFP.

"After it was swept and lost its mother, the hippo was traumatized. Fortunately, it landed on the tortoise and established a strong bond.They swim, eat and sleep together," the ecologist added.

"The hippo follows the tortoise exactly the way it follows its mother. If somebody approaches the tortoise, the hippo becomes aggressive, as if protecting its biological mother," Kahumbu added.

"The hippo is a young baby, he was left at a very tender age and by nature, hippos are social animals that like to stay with their mothers for four years," he explained.


















Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath a way.
















This is a real story that shows me that our differences don't matter much when we need the comfort of another. We could all learn a lesson from these two creatures of God, look beyond the differences and find a way to walk the path together.

Follow Saudi Lead In Banning Cat & Dog Sales

Below is a letter by RSC Supporter Cynthia Hassan that appeared in the Star dated September 13, 2006:

Follow Saudi lead in banning cat and dog sales

I REFER to the report, “Saudis ban sale of cats and dogs” (Sunday Star, Sept 10).
Malaysia should do the same. Most of these animals producing litters of puppies and kittens are so stressed out being treated as money-making machines for the short lives they live.

Shops selling reptiles, birds and other animals should be closed down and banned forever. The petshops are in reality “hellholes” for the animals.
There are many beautiful dogs, puppies, cats and kittens on the street, that need more love and are less prone to sickness than a pedigree.

I know this for a fact, having owned both pedigrees and mongrels.
All the street animals need are just a good meal and some love and they will be your faithful, loving friend for life.

C. HASSAN,
Subang Jaya.

'Lost Elephant Back In Belum'

Below is my letter published in the New Straits Times on September 15, 2006.

Start protecting their habitat
15 Sep 2006
SHOBA MANO, for Remembering Sheena Campaign
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
WITH reference to the report "Lost elephant back in Belum" (NST, Sept 13), I find it ironic that the article states that the lost elephant was released into "Belum state park in Grik".

I wonder if the public is aware that this so-called state park is only a small pocket of the vast Belum-Temenggor forest complex, which is right now being mercilessly logged.

Belum-Temenggor is so rich in biodiversity that it is said to be the only place in the world where 10 different species of hornbills congregate. It is also home to many animals, some unique to Malaysia and at least 14 on the world’s endangered species list.

An appeal was made to the Perak government to gazette this entire complex to save it from logging.

In 2003, only this small pocket was declared a state park but this has yet to be gazetted until today and, therefore, still vulnerable to logging.

Such a small pocket declared a state park is not enough to house large animals.

I feel sorry for this poor, lost elephant. Human beings chop down all the trees it needs for food and then call it a "rogue" elephant when it ventures into villages to eat from the fruit trees there.

Now it is released into a restricted, confined area which has to be shared with other wildlife fleeing from the logging in the rest of the Belum-Temenggor forest complex.

In an unprecedented move on Sept 11, Malaysians from all walks of life gathered at TGV Cinemas KLCC to appeal to the government to save Belum-Temenggor and to watch the premiere screening of a documentary at TGV Cinemas KLCC. This will be followed by a week-long free screening from today until Sept 20 at TGV Cinemas KLCC.

TGV Cinemas and Novista Sdn Bhd want no money to convey the special message to all Malaysians that if they lose Belum-Temenggor, they have lost a true piece of paradise.

I urge the public to go and watch this documentary to understand what the destruction of Belum-Temenggor rainforest, which is older than the Amazon and Congo, means to all Malaysians.

Update On Premiere Screening at TGV KLCC

The Premiere Screening of Temengor - Biodiversity In The Face Of Danger took place yesterday at TGV Cinemas KLCC at 11 am.

You may listen to a clip about it on radiq radio at www.radiq.org. Also, catch the NTV7 Breakfast Show on Friday 15 September btween 8:00 am to 10:00 am.

As part of Novista's commitment to the environment, the company has donated all proceeds from the sale of DVDs on the documentary to the Malaysian Nature Society. "This is a labour of love," said its producer, Harun Rahman. "The only thing we want from this is to see all Malaysians reach a level of maturity where they practice respect and love for nature and all animals. And of course, to STOP THE LOGGING AT BELUM TEMENGOR."

TGV CINEMAS too added its voice to stop the logging by allowing all the screenings at no charge.

Door gifts for the early birds during the public screening were contributed by YEO HIAP SENG, PJ HILTON, THE BODY SHOP, STARBUCKS COFFEE, MPH BOOKSTORE.

Don't forget to go over for the public screenings taking place at TGV Cinemas KLCC from September 14-20. The documentary is 20 minutes in length.

There are three screenings during the weekdays - 4 pm, 5 pm and 6 pm.
There are three screenings during the weekends - 1 pm, 2 pm and 3 pm.

Bookings For Public Screening To Close On Friday

All those who want to reserve seats for the Public Screening of Temengor - Biodiversity In The Face Of Danger by Novista Sdn Bhd will have to do so by tomorrow.

We are closing the bookings on Friday, September 7, 2006.

You are still free to come to TGV Cinema KLCC between 14 - 20th September at the screening times posted on this blog. There are still seats left as of now. We are closing because we are now busy with the preparations for the event and cannot attend to the bookings. Having said so we can only guarantee seats to those who have booked.

Do feel free to drop by even if you don't have a booking. We allow walk-ins as long as there are seats available. If not, wait for the next screening time. The documentary is only 30 minutes in length. So you won't have a long wait. There are 3 screening times per day.

Harun Rahman On SURIAFM105.3

Catch Harun Rahman the producer of Temengor - Biodiversity In The Face Of Danger on SURIAFM 105.3 on Friday September 8, 2006 at 9:00 am. SURIAFM is a Malay radio station.

Harun will be speaking about why it is so important to protect Belum Temengor forest from logging and why he made the documentary that won the Best Documentary Award at the Malaysia Film Festival 2005.

Don't forget to come for the screening of this documentary at TGV KLCC between 14 - 20 September 2006. Scroll down to earlier post for screening times.

Steve Irwin Dies

Steve Irwin the famous Australian conservationist has died. Despite his daredevil antics in getting up close and personal with wildlife, Steve Irwin brought a very serious message to the world - that animals are beautiful, wonderful creatures and deserve to be protected.

He was critized once for holding his baby son in one arm while he played with a crocodile with the other arm. But that's just the way Steve is. To him all the animals were his babies too and he never saw them as dangerous.

Steve is right. Man is the most dangerous being on this planet. He destroys everything he comes in contact with. Without animals this world will be an ugly place.

Steve Irwin's documentaries had an audience of 200 million people around the world and he became a virtual global industry generating books and interactive games. He proclaimed the message of conservation in a way that the world listened and did something for the animals and nature.

RSC is sorry for his loss.