Daily Life and Shark Finning

Good Morning.

This morning has started on a relatively romantic note. Ella has been crooning in my ears all morning, as I work on my desk and look out of my desk-to-ceiling window. Oh, I think I’m getting goosebumps.

This week, I’ve seen the Bus Man 3 times, which is a super bonus. I have been leaving the house later than usual, thus the increase in probability of getting onto his bus. It feels nice to smile.. to the Bus Man, to the security guy on the ground floor at the office building, to the girl behind the counter at Starbucks, to the girl who hands me my non-fat latte. It also feels nice to wear comfortable flat shoes.. makes me feel like I’m closer to the ground (and less likely to trip over myself and fall on my knees/ flat on my face).

Report is coming along slowly as I trudge forward. Not too bad. Some other stuff has also come up, which are interesting and makes the report less painful. I’m excited at the prospect of doing some new things, and being able to change certain stigmas and contribute to a greater good. I am, but a drop in the wide ocean, but I truly believe in the power of every drop.

Talking about the ocean, I read a very disturbing article in the Asian Geographic this morning about illegal shark finning. It’s nothing new, I worked on a protect-the-sharks project a few years ago and helped in public education, but this article described the writer’s experiences very vividly, including seeing a sea of hundreds of thousands of fins drying under the sun on building rooftops in Costa Rica. Disgusting, people! Disgusting! As the weakest specie on earth, we are wiping out this earth! About 90 percent of the total shark population in the world has been depleted in the last 30 years due to our insatiable desire for sharks’ fins, which is in essence just tasteless cartilage with no nutritional value! The taste in shark’s fin soup comes from the flavourful soup base, and not the fins.

With that, I’d like to leave a short clip of an interview with Rod Stewart, who created the film “Sharkwater” and the article in the current issue of Asian Geographic.