Tourism

Malaysia 2019 was a very useful trip to see the darker side of conservation. Orangutans who learn what life can be like in captivity, will generally find it very hard to live away from humans and fend for themselves. The ones in this sanctuary showed poor immunity to existing with us and often needed medication for respiratory tract infections. Most of the Orangutans were rescued from zoos or people's homes where they were kept as exotic pets. This cohort according to the vet at this centre were not realistically rehabilitatable for the wild. Interestingly he had a view that breeding in captivity, although not allowed, would make sense to continue the species. He had this outlook I think because he was friends with palm oil owners and so would have had a good idea of the fact that there would really be no sacrifice of this industry for the survival of Orangutans. If it wasn't for foreigners paying to be volunteers or coming to view the sanctuary it would be void of visitors with Malaysian nationals appearing disinterested. Staying where one of the keepers lived shone a light on the fact that, a lot of this has to do with capitalist values. These values have made people ashamed of the natural world and they have thus traded it for concrete buildings. So when your concrete building reminds you that - you are not enough - it is very hard to prioritise not wanting to progress and that doesn't generally involve visiting Orangutans. The centre had a lot of virtue signalling from conservationists who happened to be western and had been "exposed" by them, very recently, causing a very defensive attitude towards volunteers who wanted to learn more or take photos. It made me realise that some of those we entrust in working with all partners to help safeguard the natural world, lack empathy. Empathy is putting yourself in another person's shoes and it enables you to accept that people have different values and priorities. I think it must be very addictive going from country to country playing judge and saviour much like missionaries. Sometimes as a GP it is nice to be instructive, you feel knowledgeable and helpful; but we're in a time where you are generally grounded as people are much more able to speak up and reflect that their point of view or individual issues may need more consideration. It is a very easy mistake to not evaluate and re-calibrate our communication and perceptions with each new person we meet and it takes much more effort than pattern recognition I.e. default stereotypes . It's much easier to get it “right” when you like people and are interested in them but, I find often, we like types of people and only certain types of problems. We like talking about what we know - it's like self soothing. So I can see the similarities in conservation. The problem with establishing your identity and self esteem this way is if your plan lacks substance and you choose not to have insight, you will blame much more for the fact there are no results and add to further polarisations rather than increase networking, cross pollination and collaboration. Part of this, I imagine, has been because it is lucrative to have the platform of being the holder of the answers or "the way". It doesn't help male Orangutans like Henry who I wasn't allowed to take a photo of. He is probably still living his life pretty much behind bars as he and the other alpha male otherwise fight including finding ways out of their enclosures to do so. It just felt shared learning, ethics and accountability was needed but without trust and respect you are more likely to get questionable practices. This particular site were working with Singapore zoo to establish the right diet for the Orangutans and were in need of more funding to sustain it, but sadly a large proportion of the support was coming from the landowner and it was being reduced due to economic struggles. In this case it seemed pride in conservation and interest needed to be multilayered for resilience. In terms of my images I could have probably been more selective. Within this is their lives and they are caged because of us and how we have chosen to develop and grow as a human population. It's really disingenuous to blame a country or people as the total point of failure, there has to be more accountability on our reinforcements of harming values like status and materialism as a global society. So I would challenge that when you meet someone at an event and you feel an internal disinterest or rejection of them, evaluate why. It will often be primitive. Just check what is driving your judgements of other people, for yourself. I find it is a good exercise, as if you can be honest about it, you may become wiser to social conditioning and its roots. I also acknowledge there are some in full awareness and enjoy the power imbalances serving them - I just would prefer they didn't take up roles that require compassion and drive for social justice so that we can actually progress.