PROGRESS REPORT EARTH 2012
A short science fiction story which tells you why the Earth probably wont end in 2012.
By Aljuhara
I bowed low before the Elders.
The conference hall I entered was completely bare, with a shining marble like floor and three seats for the Elders in the far corner. Soft dreamy white curtaining was draped all around the room so I could not see what kind of walls there were. From the subtle fragrance I knew that it had been sprayed with atmospheric ion-concentrates, which controlled the temperature, ambiance and setting. Unseen to me, the Elders were now sitting in a dream paradise location, on grass lawns surrounded by sparkling mountains , with trees and birds and a twinkling stream nearby. Their appetites had been artificially quenched by the most delectable food from distant alternative earths we cannot comprehend, and yet no resources had been wasted. No beings harmed.
They were strikingly beautiful forms but there was an air of immense age about them...perhaps in the icy grey eyes or the very slow, disciplined, deliberate way they moved.
“ You’re back rather early” commented the Great Tuan, nodding to acknowledge my veneration. “ITs only been,what, four days...?”
“There was...an accident” I mumbled in embarrassment. It had hurt like the Dickens being ground to bits under a speeding container on a dusty rural road in a town called Puttlam, in Sri Lanka, on Earth, but following the release through death, of my soul a great weight had been lifted, Id found an incredible freedom I can hardly describe, as if a terrible deadline had been brought forward and cut short. I was practically walking on sunshine. It was simply priceless. And thankfully I could not remember the pain. Much.“There was a.. bovine, involved, a transporter accident. I died.”(well, basically a stray cow had jumped in front of my motorbike and we had smashed into it and hurtled into the path of an oncoming 3- tonne container traveling at almost twice the speed limit. My earth wife was struggling for her life in a dusty town hospital in Puttlam, as I spoke, but I was not allowed to think about her. As soon as I had landed back at the Axis, they had reformatted my EQ-memorybase. The two score Earth years of family involvements, juvenile memories, silly fears, victories, emotional moments, loves, hates and aspirations that had driven me on Earth were now deleted, including the memory of the love I had for the woman I had loved and the child she was carrying. But they could not take away my memory of course, since I was here to report on the situation and they needed all I had.
“The population has increased seven fold since our last visit. Nine tenth of the humans are living in poverty and hunger. The rich ones are stripping that planet like weevils. Female humans are still treated on par with animals in most of the area” I shuddered. Beside the Tuan , the Priestess Erudita sighed like the breeze through leaves, and I saw her beautiful nostrils flare in distaste. “ They have for the most part abandoned any of the first Precepts and now only think of survival and of killing and using any other defenseless human or animal they can, including their own children. Non human beings, the disabled and human children are in terrible danger and are being exploited without any limits for the sheer greed, lust and sheer entertainment of the humans. A few enclaves of Protectors try what they can to save or protect the innocents but they are fighting a losing battle against a new religion that is sweeping this planet.”
“What do you mean new religion? What happened to the First Cluster of religions ?” said Erudita, examining her faultless nails thoroughly.
“ They are highly diluted, and misrepresented by false prophets. The new philosophy is called Consuming or Consumerism. It is based somewhat loosely on, I dunno, lets say Maslows wants . But it goes much further beyond. Much much further”
“ Who is this Maslow? Do you mean the Earth beings want more than just food and clothes and shelter? Is that the problem?”
“Maslow was merely a respected ancient Earth dwelling scholar. He outlined a set of new age wants which he identified in people. He said that people want not just food clothing medicine and shelter...they want love, respect, recognition...job satisfaction...things like that. But this Consuming religion has an outreach system called Marketing which works in such a way as to exert subtle mind control and increase not only these wants but to go way beyond...so people want now to be VENERATED, to be WORSHIPED, to have the BEST material things, like owning airborne transporters and luxury road machines, better than their neighbours, to have two or three very extensive abodes, to be ETERNALLY young and virile, and to be constantly ADORED by MANY of the opposite sex...and to wear fur coats, and stuff” I added somewhat stupidly at the end
“What you mean - all seven billion of them want everything ?” Erudita cocked a quizzical, disbelieving eyebrow as the Tuan shook his head in disgust and extinguished a cigar he was smoking virtually in the Eden setting.
“ Well, mostly. There are a few vegans and conversationalists fighting this trend but the Consuming thing is much much stronger, so these people are mocked at and marginalised as nut cases in popular culture. Unfortely the Marketers are pretty much well in control. There are new communications media called the tele-vision or somethng and another called the Interlink- through this they spread their messages, which seep into the receptive minds of these new humans”
“Messages such as?” said Sixa, the third elder, who had been quiet so far, because he was taking down notes.
“ things like...eat this, drink this ...wear this ...only if you have this will you be happy...and they show visual presentations of very happy humans who have supposedly had all these things ...the sausages, and the ice creams...and the digital screens and the new and umproved mobile tele-communicators...they have large boards on the roads, beautiful females who got beautiful from rubbing these pastes, so they sell the paste... and women want them...its absolutely endless! ”
“ So are people happy when they see these boards?”
“ No they are sad, they feel that their life is worthless unless they can get some of those things. In fact I think they are happy until they see those boards and pictograms...”
“ so why do they look at them if it makes them sad and feel low down?” asked Erudita clearing trying to understand the mentality of the unbelievable human being.
“ they are mostly forced to see these, the boards are everywhere and everytime they read a circular or leaflet, and every time they put on their news machines...in fact even the so called hand-phones are now sending these messages which make you want something. Its out of control”
“does not the administration comprehend that these mind –altering messages are causing damage to the ordinary people, causing dissatisfaction and discord and destroying the Earth as a whole?”
“ I believe their minds are the most damaged, and dissatisfied- those of the people within the administration- they want many road machines, many palaces for one person , many females and stocks of alcohol- and they want the commercial currency to be hoarded in mega collections for themselves...they do the worst of this Consumerism, on a large scale cutting trees, killing whales, felling whole forests at a time, ...they work with support from the Marketers...There is basically no way of stopping them, sire”
“So at least are they happy?” asked Erudita, hopefully.
I had to think about that, hard. They sure didn’t look it, all the bloated dictators, and corporation heads...if you weighed the currencies and powers they possesed against that of the ordinary drunkard they should have been so happy that it went off the happiness scale – but it didnt look that way. They were just constantly shooting each other, fornicating and desperately drinking paste from rhino horns to make themselves more successful with the females... they just didnt look as happy as even George of the Jungle... ..I didnt answer.
Erudita sighed again and looked at her co –councilors
“ Sixa, could you and Najar here please produce this final report by Marsday. We need to have another meeting with the High Elders to decide what to do about Earth. Perhaps we can mark it as a convict planet and send only Sinners of the first three levels there, you know, the universal Lapsors, and the child molesters and such like. ...-They can be sent to those fur farms as racoons-. Uh meanwhile, make a note,I personally feel it is actually useful to retain this planet in the system, it can be allowed to degenerate into what we liked to call Purgatory those days. Please make sure that no one from the soverign platforms is sent there, not even to the developed world, there is too much pollution and cancer. We will meet again when the report is ready. Council adjourned.”
In relief I bowed again and left the room slowly wondering if my poor earth wife was free yet.
Save a tear for this crocodile
Did you see the headlines last week?
Monster crocodile caught, killer crocodile trapped, youth catches murderous crocodile.
Sensational. And the photographs: about 3000 people with one animal which was tied up very tight , humans laughing and pointing and sitting on it. For some of these sad people this must be the culmination of their human mission, the high point in their blasé lives, the story they will tell their grandchildren someday…which will be counter questioned with such queries as “what is a crocodile? What is an elephant? What is a tiger?” since by that time there won’t be any around, except as wind up toys imported from China
Perhaps media too is to blame for attitudes. Let’s just examine those words “killer crocodile” . Crocodiles kill, its what they do, they are carnivorous reptiles evolved over millions of years to catch living prey and kill. Unlike humans who can eat plants, or chose to go vegan, a crocodile MUST kill to survive, unless it can scavenge. Which again this one had supposedly been doing, since there was an outlet nearby which had been dumping a lot of meat remains into the river at that point. Not mentioned in the media I read.
Then there is media which totally distorts facts to the point of ridiculous “The MURDEROUS crocodile that TERRORISED people in Wanathe at Ragama has been caught in a trap set up by a youth in the area. The crocodile is about 19 feet long.” says a website called Lankatruth. It sounds as if the death toll from this serial killer must be in hundreds, but googling further Im surprised to find it is one. Murder by definition is the “unlawful killing of one human by another, especially with premeditated malice” so how can a crocodile be murderous? the definition of terrorism is trickier but still dosnt seem to fit ” “Criminal acts intended or calculated to provoke a state of terror in the general public” Did the crocodile set out each morning with a thought of terrorizing people? According to SrilankanMirror “Since its capture last morning (Feb. 08), more than 50,000 people had come to see it.” So fifty thousand “human” sri Lankans came to watch a rare and precious wild animal tied up in torment, misery and sheer terror, suffering with its throat cut with bait, and some of them sat on its back in rows, to have their photos taken, but no one had any real idea about saving it, no one thought that perhaps the crocodile wasn’t really wrong to eat animals, since it was a carnivore…no one really wondered what it must have felt like…I have to pause and wonder, who was more cold blooded…
And I have not read the vernacular papers on the subject but Im sure they have splendid headlines too.
“But it killed a man! you say. Its stomach had HUMAN body parts in it!” Well, so do lots of humans, kill people, and these are higher animals who think rationally, who know that it is wrong to kill humans, warm blooded so called intelligent so called humans also kill people, and this is not how they are treated. And they usually don’t kill from hunger, but from greed, jealousy , hatred…are these then more acceptable than an urge to simply survive?
Oh easy for you to say, you don’t have to share your backyard with a crocodile, you will say. Im sorry about the person who died. People die daily. In road accidents, in medical mishaps, from electric shocks and sports accidents, food poisoning , what have you. I may die tomorrow from falling off a moving bus. Life has a expiry date. But to blame a wild animal for your death and justify torturing and killing it on this basis, now that’s simply, what’s the word for it… barbaric?
No, this killer crocodile was neither a murderer nor a terrorist but was helpless and this is how reportedly fifty thousand so called sound thinking humans in a predominantly Buddhist country captured it from a marsh, tried and administered their summary justice. Why I say “from a marsh” is to emphasise that it wasn’t trespassing in someones backyard, or living room, this animal was in a marsh, where crocodiles usually dwell. Its their kind of land. It does not really belong to anyone.
And finally… allow me to speak in terms which even these humans understand- allow me to appeal completely to your greed and profit point of view, may I point out that this 15 to 19 foot Nile crocodile was valuable. Thousands of foreign tourists come to this country to observe the wildlife. They do not come here to shop at malls, or to gamble at casinos, or to play golf. They certainly dont come here for the red light districts. If you have ever been anywhere out of this country, or if you have access to the internet you will know that Americans and Japanese have better casinos and malls than we will ever have in a hundred years. The Thai have better brothels. What they don’t have are wild crocodiles.
So finally dear gentle readers, as you talk of this particular crocodile at parties or over the water cooler , or wherever you make small talk, please at least do not malign its character, it was not a murderer, or a terrorist , so save a tear for this crocodile.
It was merely a carnivorous wild animal who found itself in the wrong place at the wrong time and fell prey to the most dangerous animal of all, self righteous, law abiding humankind, who decided to prove their superiority, and who wanted fun photos to be taken of them sitting on it as it took its last choking breaths.
Udyangani , Cats ,Dogs,Women, Domestic Violence and more
So regarding the search for a white kitten, I had the chance to touch base with Udyangani from Gothatuwa – she now has 30 cats and more than 100 dogs. The situation is dire. She spends her time going to Police Stations and Pradsehya Sabhas in answer to various complaints . her shelter is on 8 perches of land, her own home, which is now quite dismal.
The same neighbord who lodge complaints against her regarding the noise or the cat –defecation also quietly keep little animals in front of her house. Now I don’t mind expressing my humble opinion here but that is the height of disgusting sri lankanisticness.
People who throw little animals away . Buddhists against sterilization. On the basis that we are interfering with karma.
“Please help me with a website – I need to ask for a bit of land. The neighbors are trying to get rid of us
“ there are three women I know, they love animals they take them in ,their husbands who previously came pretending to like animals are now making life difficult for them. One of them, drinks and beats her up and he bashed a cat on the ground and broke its back , its paralysed now.”
“ people come here and put more animals here, they say they do it because I look after animals
“it takes about 3000 a day to feed them, and people think we have donors, we do not , things are so difficult , I work all day and my whole salary goes to this
here's more about Udyangani in the local press
Cats and Dogs, Her Life An appeal from SOFA
Stichy and Patchy Story
you hear all about govt sponsored spay and neuter campaigns and the whole importance of sterilizing strays but guess what when you go to one of these fairly uptown joints they charge you upto 8000 per cat !! that almost had be lose consciousness since we have about 3 or 4 fertile animals hanging around my house and that would be a large chunk of my income.
luckily I was directed to a reasonable local vet named Dr Gallage who performed the operations for a nominal charge of 1000 each and 2000 if its disolving sutures. email me if you need his number
Labels: spay neuter sri lanka stray
sponsorship of 24 dogs and Sonna and Wesak
Hi, We now have sponsorships for 24 of the 34 dogs now, in less than a month of our call for support.
Given below are the full list of sponsors and the details of the sponsored dogs. Some of you may have got parts of this list earlier, but I felt it would be good to share the full details one last time.
Thanks to you, we are left with just 10 more sponsorships!! We are hopeful of securing sponsorships for these 10 dogs as well.
Our heartfelt thanks to all of you.
I would like to share with you all a few pictures of Sonna, the blind dog with me and Nihal, taken a while ago, today, on Wesak Day. Sonna gazed at the Wesak lanterns that we lit in the front veranda of our house, as if asking for some of that light from the lanterns . . . I thought, however, even though he cannot see, he really can and that he has all the possible "light" (and freedom) in the world now with me and Nihal, along with his 34 shelter inmates thanks to dear people like you.
If only we can ensure the same for all the others outside our care . . . We do have a solid opportunity for that via representation in the advisory committee for the National Spay Programme of the Government set up to ensure that the programme provides sustainable and humane dog population management, which if successfully done, will leave no more room for the emergence of destitutes such as Sonna or the likes of the 34 KACPAW dogs that you very kindly help us to care for.
Best regards, Champa
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1&2: Nihal and Brigitte Alagoda: 2 dogs: Ano (m; light brown) and Ajo (f; black, white and brown)
Ano was paralyzed after perhaps a road accident and abandoned by his owners and was found by Piyaseeli (President, KACPAW) in the drain in front of the owner's house in an affluent area in Kandy. We just could not leave him there. Although he is paralyzed he does walk on all four legs at times. He has a pair of beautiful eyes, full of love and gratitude. He is 3.3 years old.
Ajo could never be rehomed as she kept on getting a skin rash. With treatment, the skin rash improves, but never quite fully. She is 3.2 years old. We hope to cure her now that she will get individual care.
3&4: Manomi Tennakoon (US): 2 dogs: Bega (f; a biscuit brown) and Tiggy (f; brown)
Bega was a pup who did not get the required quota of calcium during her puppy days and as a result both her hind legs are deformed. She gets about fine, but cannot walk like a normal dog. She was picked up by me in Kandy from a beggar (a woman) who was caring for her. Her legs could not be corrected, despite the calcium syrup we gave her a for a while. She is 3.8 years old. Full of vigour, Bega prances about happily.
Tiggy was okay when we got her, but at the shelter she had twisted one of her hind legs and it could never be corrected. We still do not know what happened to Tiggy, who was an absolutely normal dog, ready to be grabbed by anyone. This mishap rendered her a somewhat deformed dog and hence she was not sought after by those who came to the shelter looking for a dog to adopt. She is 5.8 years old.
5. Sandya Wickremarachchi: 1 dog: Minno (m; black and white)
Minno was picked up from Minipe, where I had gone for a spay programme. At some place in Minipe, suddenly I saw this black and white pup running/limping across a paddy field with a huge bandage on its foreleg. I picked him up and he was smelling like a flower, after a bath (lux??), and he had this huge ayurvedic medicinal bandage tied around his little leg tightly. Obviously someone was caring for it, but not the right way as his leg had to be amputated the very next day when I brought it to Kandy and showed him to a vet. Minno is a cheerful little dog. He is 5.8 years old. He has a bit of a skin problem which gets better off and on.
6. Nayana and Lal Fernando (Canada): 1 dog: Tania (f; brown)
Tania was a mere two or so months old when she was brought to our shelter by a set of medical students from the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Peradeniya with one of her hind legs amputated; she is a train accident victim. The students had cared for her and brought her to the shelter as they could not keep her in their hostel. Tania has a skin infection that come and goes. She is 5.7 years old.
7. Eileen Petiyagoda (Patron, KACPAW): 1 dog: Dimples (f; back, white and brown)
Dimples was brought to our shelter by some workers of the University of Peradeniya, when she was hardly two months old. They said she was run over by a lorry. There seemed to be no major injuries and Dimples grew up to be a very handsome dog. However after about two years at the shelter she started getting epileptic fits. She is on drugs for the rest of her life to prevent getting the fits. She does not like to be touched too much as she we believe is sensitive. We respect her wishes. Dimples is 7.6 years old.
8, 9, 10, 11&12: Chang Thashou: 5 dogs: Podi (; white), Asha (f; black and tan), Mandy (f; black and tan), Gloldy (f; brown) and Puppy (f; white and brown). Chang deserves a special mention as she has been continuously sponsoring five dogs for so many years now at 2000 per dog per month. She would increase her sponsorship now to 2500 a dog per month so she could sponsor the following five dogs.
Podi has been suffering from a chronic skin condition and gets better from time to time. She is 7.9 years old.
Asha too has been suffering from a chronic skin condition, which gets better off and on. A couple of years ago she ran to the road from our shelter and was knocked down by a motor cycle and was paralyzed in the hind quarters. I applied an ayurvedic oil and massaged her while giving heat treatment and did physiotherapy for her and today mercifully she is walking again. She and Mandy are inseparable. Asha is 8. 2 years old and is one of our earliest inmates.
Mandy is Asha's friend and companion. Mandy too suffers from a skin condition which gets better sometimes. She heads the list of our inmates and is 9.4 years old. Mandy is such s cheerful dog.
Goldy is paralyzed in the hind quarters. She was dumped at the shelter barely 3 months old. Goldy has a marvellous way of getting about lifting her hind legs ensuring her legs do not get wounds.
Puppy is another train accident victim. She was brought to the Vet Faculty of the University of Peradeniya by a kind worker in the railways department after the accident to amputate her leg. Puppy was a bare two months old and it broke my heart to see this wee pup with her little leg gone (front leg). I told the person who brought Puppy to hand her over to us after her wound gets healed. And that is how she ended up at our shelter. She is 7 .8 years old.
13. Harindra Ameratunga (US): 1 dog: Hari (f; brown and white)
Hari was handed over to the shelter by Harindra in 2006. If I can remember right Harindra had picked her up when he visited Kataragama. She was about 1 or 2 years old then. Or perhaps even older. She must be around 8 or 9 years old now.
14. Champa and Nihal Fernando: 1 dog: Buster (m; brown and white)
Buster was found by me in the town of Kandy, unable to move. He was an accident victim, all skin and bone and smelly as he had two huge wounds. All credit should go to my sister Anoma for curing Buster by coming to the shelter regularly and applying medicine. The wounds have healed, but Buster is incontinent and his sphincter muscle in the back does not work owing to the accident, so sometimes faecal matter is passed by him involuntarily. He is aware of his debility and looks so apolegetic at times, especially when we clean his enclosure. Otherwise, Buster is in good health and is a happy dog. He is 9.3 years old.
15&16. Patricia Butenis: 2 dogs: Kalki (f; black); Kiki (f; black)
Kalki was picked up on our way back from a spay programme in Kadugannawa several years ago -- she had a sort of an owner and we told her that we will be taking Kalki with us to have her spayed and that she would be returned. Kalki had a bit of a skin problem which I thought we could cure soon. That was not to be. Her skin condition improves at times and then degenerates. I did not want to send her back like that. So Kalki is with us now, even at this last stage of the closure of the shelter. She is a sprightly dog and is 3 years old.
Kiki was brought from the University of Peradeniya premises to be spayed and released. We often do such spay programmes for the University. We did release Kiki and she chose to come back to the shelter!! The skin problem she had at the time she was picked up could never really be cured. Again, in her too, the condition improves and degenerates. We hope that the change in habitat would have a beneficial effect on them, curing the skin problem. Kiki is a short, sausage-like dog; she does resemble an extra small pigmy hippo!! She has folds of flesh just above her tail. Kiki has a great appetite. She is about 8 or 9 years old.
17, 18, 19, 20&21. Rivi and Lashoonika (Dubai): 5 dogs: Bindi (f; chocolate brown); Pongo (m; white); Satty (f; brown); Benji (f,; brown); Ribbo (f; brown)
Bindi, Pongo, Satty and Benji have a chronic skin problem. We are treating it and they seem to be getting better. Except Satty, the other three came to us when they were pups of about 2 months old. All four dogs suffer from a skin problem that comes and goes.
Ribbo came to us from the Vet Faculty as an adult and she is an amputee.
22. Chandi Ameratunga (US): 1 dog: Mammy (f; brown)
Mammy was adopted by a villager and seems to be very happy at her new home. One of her hind legs is stiff and she came to us with a litter of pups. She looked after the pups so well despite her disability. All her pups were found homes, but we could not find a home for Mammy in the normal fashion as she had this debility.
23. Sue Marsh (UK): 1 dog: Chuti (f; brown)
Chuti came to us when she was about 8 months old, in September 2001, when a distemper epidemic was raging at our shelter. In less than a few days after coming she got distemper, but with treatment we managed to save her life. For several years after that she had a nervous twitch, but today she shows no signs of it. She is 9.8 years old and is one of the longest staying inmates of ours. She was adopted by a poor villager, a woman, and seems to be very happy at her new home. Sue, her sponsor, is yet another person who deserves special mention, as she has been steadfastly behind KACPAW since its inception and has been promoting KACPAW in the UK.
24. Sujatha Fernando (Canada): 1 dog: Geetha (m; brown)
Geetha was brought in to the shelter from the University of Peradeniya in 2007. Geetha came in with 45 other dogs; when a suspect rabid dog was found in the University premises, the University authorities requested us if we could keep all the dogs found in their premises for observation at our shelter. In order to safeguard both the canine and human populations of the University, we took in the 46 dogs to the shelter, but we did not release a single dog. We were able to re-home all of them, except Geetha, after observing them for three months. All of them got booster anti-rabies vaccinations. Geetha could not be found a home as he had a problem of drooling after contracting distemper. Today he is with a carer from the village and has settled in well in his new home. His new owner says that he does not drool much. Geetha is much older than we attributed him to be at the time of his arrival at the shelter. He must be around 8 or 9 years old.
Apart from the above 24 dogs we have part sponsorship for Demi (f. blackish brown) from Piyaseeli Wedisinghe (President, KACPAW). Demi is a beautiful dog. Unfortunately she is a nervous dog, and therefore we could not find her a home. She was dumped at the shelter, skin and bone, with a brood of pups. The pups were all re-homed and Demi remained. She was adopted twice, but was returned to the shelter as she was not very manageable. Hopefully, and eventually, we will be able to make her a friendly dog.
Monsoon puppee
poor little darling, aparantly motherless,soaked,flooded out, cold and hungry in Wellampitiya sleeping off its exhaustion, with its butt in the water.
Can anyone provide a home?
HOME WANTED
ISHAN FERNANDO
COORDINATOR - CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY
No. 5, Alexandra Place
Colombo 07, Sri Lanka .
T 94(0) 114 -722 200 ext 260
F 94(0) 112 -682 712/3
M 94(0) 777-696 700
E Ishan@eodel.com
www.embark.lk
www.odel.lk
