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Your Letters: Domestic Protection, Immigration Chaos, Palm Oil and Orangutans
April 29, 2010

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ChrisH
3:48pm May 7, 2010

The fact that there are 6B people is exactly the reason why we should try to preserve those last great apes alive.

We drain every natural reason that comes in our path, until it's gone, and then we move on.

We kill every animal that we want, because we are the master species.

Breed and kill, is all we are capable of.

edfaisaly
2:38pm May 7, 2010

reading your comments just reaffirm my belief that rich westerners are ignorant folks whose 'armchair comments' are out of touch with reality.

while you are sitting all comfy at home, typing away on your netbooks, staring at your led monitors and watching the news on your flatscreen telly, you have no idea that there are more than 6 billion people on this earth and 80% of them lives under the poverty line.

everyone readily admits that they understand that we all have to improve on this but what are the rich westerners are doing to improve this? they champion the rights of ORANG UTAN!

they see a hungry orang utan, they'll dig deep into their pocket, grab a few loose dollars and go to the nearest hypermarket, buy a bunch of the best, ripe cavendish banana, (maybe add some ceasars salad too) and rush back to the forest and feed the apes till they are all bloated. all these, while passing by the hut of the hungry indigenous folks on the way and managed to miss it altogether. oh no wait, they did not miss it, they are just respecting the right of the indigenous folks to live in a hut in the jungle with the rest of the wild animals. on the way back, the westerners will gently and politely remind the indigenous folks to not fell any tree to farm. 'if you are hungry, just peel a tree bark and eat it okay. while doing that, be careful not to disturb the sleeping orang utan resting on the branches' whispers the 'caring' westerners to the folks.

Wonderful people you lots!


jetset24
5:50am May 4, 2010

Since Suharto's era is long gone...the population has bursted out of at the seams. I don't know how can some people in this country think that having many children would provide more comfort, more religious rewards and the list goes on....Is it religious consciousness that a family should breed as many babies or the culture dictates it. And now the family planning is trying to regain the needs to curb the population growth. Let's hope it is not a hopeless situation...But I am afraid it may be too late to change people's perception.


marko1
12:44pm May 3, 2010

edfaisaly...first of all blame the government for that not the apes...

Also 230 million people? yes poor and sad but most of them have lots of babies.. IM over 35 years old and would never consider bringing a baby into this sick world,unless i am a responsible person... who on earth would have a baby when they earn less than $2 a day? The day people realise animals are more important then people the better this earth has a chance to exist.....otherwise we are all dooomed....

edfaisaly
10:34am May 3, 2010

Indonesia has 230million people. about half of that survives with just USD2.00 per day. millions go hungry each day. while thousands die from undernourishment and worse, hunger, every single day. and what do we have here? rich westerners championing and caring for the rights of... wait for it, ORANG UTAN!

when hundreds of orang utan die - the whole world go mental and starts crying 'murderers?' meanwhile thousands of hungry people die - and what do we have? silence...

so, thank you nature alert england! thank you jeanie elford! such a service you are doing to the people of the world. the world is certainly such a wonderful place to live in with people like you. Here's hoping that more enviroMENTAL people like you will emerge so that the world will be a better place for all apes to live in. maybe a world with lesser people, but no worry, plenty of apes. cheers!


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Domestic Workers Deserve Protection

Amnesty International calls on Indonesia’s House of Representatives to provide legal protection to female domestic workers in accordance with international human rights law and standards.

An estimated 2.6 million female domestic workers are currently not protected by legislation to safeguard their rights, in particular the 2003 Manpower Act. The Manpower Act itself discriminates against domestic workers — virtually all of whom are women and girls — and leaves them without legal rights protections, such as reasonable limitations on working hours, remuneration adequate to secure a life with dignity and provisions for rest and holidays. The result is that female domestic workers live and work in abusive conditions.

We urge the legislature to acknowledge that, like every other human being, domestic workers have rights. Female domestic workers should be granted equal protection along with other workers. Such a move would help ensure they are no longer vulnerable to exploitation and abuse.

We welcome the inclusion of a domestic workers protection law in the national 2010 legislative agenda. House Commission IX, which is overseeing the bill, should ensure that domestic workers and their representatives can provide input into the formulation of the bill and that it remains consistent with international law.

Amnesty International

Idle Agents Make Long Entry Waits

I came through immigration at the Jakarta airport a few weeks ago and had a two-hour wait to get through. First, there was a huge line waiting for the visa on arrival, which took half an hour to process. Then we moved on to the immigration entry counters where there was another huge line.

Although the lines of people were long there were many immigration staffers just walking around doing nothing. Why doesn’t someone make sure these people work to offer a quick clearance and let travelers be on their way?

Peter Briant

Sending a Message With Our Money

It is hard to comprehend why some palm oil companies in Malaysia and Indonesia still do not understand why their members come in for so much international criticism (“Besieged Palm Oil Growers Plan Malaysia Strategy,” April 21).

The core issues are really very simple. The palm oil industry has been responsible for destroying millions of hectares of rain forest and wiping out tens of millions of animals in the process. The industry is responsible for the deaths of many thousands of orangutans and about 1,000 currently in rescue centers.

Such facts may not be of any concern to these companies, but they matter to consumers, who have every right to insist the products they use or consume do not contribute to such wholesale and wanton environmental destruction. Customers are increasingly using their buying power to send a message.

Finally, there is the question of integrity and trust. Even members of the Roundtable for Sustainable Palm Oil, working — in theory at least — to stringent regulations, have been caught breaking the rules.

If any palm oil company thinks a consumer would for a second trust a certificate conjured up by a bunch of RSPO renegades sitting around a table in either Jakarta or Kuala Lumpur, it could prove to be a very expensive error.

The smart companies will comply fully with the RSPO. It makes good commercial sense to do so. And it is these same companies that will reap the benefits of increased sales as more and more customers give them their business.

Sean Whyte

Chief Executive, Nature Alert England

SBY, Time to Act To Save Orangutans

Why does it come as no surprise that a list published this month of the 12 most endangered species on the planet includes the Sumatran orangutan?

Shamefully for Indonesia, along with the Cuban crocodile, the Grenadian dove and the 59 white-headed langur monkeys left on an island off Vietnam, the Wildlife Conservation Society has identified a few thousand Sumatran orangutans left in small pockets of forest in Northern Sumatra.

President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono spoke this month of the need to halt Indonesia’s massive illegal logging problem. Maybe if he stopped turning a blind eye to all the palm oil plantations, mining concessions and legal logging concessions his government allows and actually acted on his words, the Sumatran orangutan and its Bornean counterpart might actually survive past the next five years.

The power to remove the Sumatran orangutan from the endangered list lies entirely with the president and his colleagues in the Forestry Ministry. Orangutan charities with limited funds can only do so much by rescuing a small number of the thousands of orangutans stranded every year in palm oil plantations.

I implore the president of Indonesia to finally put the money foreign governments have given him to stop deforestation where his mouth is and act to save the orangutans before they disappear altogether.

Jeanie Elford