Hazy reflections

I have been wheezing the whole day. It has been this bad ever since the blasted haze rolled into Singapore in its stealth like state. I have a fever and can't stop sneezing. It is almost as if there is a feather constantly tickling my nose.

Anyway, I was watching Animal Planet in a half-comatose state [yes, without managing to finish any work today] about um... lets see I think it was one planet or violent planet that focused on Storms especially the hurricane since all these just goes together. It talked about how these storms affected the lives of the animals in hurricane-hit areas. At the start, they mentioned how the animals have adapted to living in such conditions but when the damn hurricane came, apparently the frogs just increased their frenzied cries of 'Yay rain!' while the stupid [i forgot what] birds just stayed in their nests that they wove into leaves. It didn't help that the narrator said to prevent the trees from toppling over, the trees released the leaves. I was like... -_-! I felt they should have focused on the various defense mechanisms the different animals deployed to hide from the heavy onslaught of the hurricane. I would have been far more interested in that! The camera then filmed the aftermath and mentioned now with much vegetation gone, the surviving animals will now have to find food and survive. But no, they went on to another region coming under the hurricane and happily returned to show how the animals had recovered. Now, I don't want that! I want to know what the animals did to survive! Sheesh! I felt cheated. The only good feeling I got was when they showed the alligators being sucked up a water spout [tt is a tornado on water]. I hate alligators, crocodiles and dinosaurs. But now I feel mean. Sometimes, we only just want to save animals that are defined cute and adorable like the pandas and giant tortoises. We forget about the apparently uglier animals as they just don't fit into our utopian understanding of the natural world. Again, it is a man-made imposed restriction on what animals should be saved or not.

They also had a couple of Steve Irwin talking about his work and his passion during the commercials. It was in tribute to him and seeing how he wanted to bring the awareness of animals to our faces, so that we can see in action rather than him just reading from a book. I guess that really striked me. But yet, there are people who raise the controvesy that he is intruding into the lives of the animals. Do you think animals like being disturbed?

I guess that is boils down to how again humans view animals. Some people like Steve want to make animals as real as us, to make us at least feel that this animals do share the same environment as us. You know we tend to be so selfish sometimes or most of the time. Yet, maybe it is true. We are disturbing these animals that they might suffer from trauma and die anyway. So which can be a better method?

Sigh. Is there really a better way?

I read Prozac Nation. I got a little depressed over it. I totally agree that this life really sucks because no matter what you do, you still are in a rut but I guess I still canno understand how it can be a biological problem that makes you constantly in the state of depression. I guess to me again, I believe it to be in the mind but when I read the book, I'm a little swayed that it can be mental. But somehow, I find it amazing that the number of depressed people are rising and it is either because the world is becoming more stressful or because people are opening up or... I don't know. I guess depressed people irritate me because of their whining, crying and constant harping of stuff. If I knew the girl in Prozac Nation, I would have slapped her or just moved on. But of course, that is bullshit. Because why? I knew my friend was cutting but I couldn't do anything. She was so volatile in her blog but around us, she was all right. I just didn't know how to deal with her. And I feel bad about the entire case but I don't know. Maybe I felt dealing with it by herself was a good course of action but now, I don't know. Being depressed isn't the culture here in Singapore, so I guess it is hard for depressed people to seek help/find other people for support and for us around to deal with them. I guess that more can be done... so at least I too, know how to help my friend.