Why do we need zoos?

It was a random afternoon when I was reading the novel, A Tiger for Malgudi when this thought struck me: Why do we need zoos? Sure, Raja seems happier at a zoo but really why DO we need zoos? So this article is literally me typing my thoughts. A long, long time ago there were human exhibits in what was referred to as ‘Ethnographic’ museums. Natives of different lands whose lifestyles were relatively unknown were brought to Europe and America to do something easy yet difficult: live. They were forced to carry out their normal activities with thousands of people gawking at them. They were chained, malnourished and tortured mentally and physically. They were torn from their lands to become exhibits reducing their existence to non- living things. They also performed practiced acts to showcase their ‘primitiveness’. These were meant to educate people about the different cultures and people across the world but really served the pathetic ‘superiority’ of civilised Europeans. Another concept was ‘freak shows’ where people with physical and mental disabilities performed acts for the amusement of the nouveau riche. People laughed and enjoyed others’ special qualities and termed them as ‘imperfections’. Those without arms or legs were called ‘Snake man’ or ‘Seal man’. This sounds cruel, unfair and like Hitler’s utopia. Thank God humans finally put an end to these inhumane actions. But did we? I have been fortunate (or unfortunate) enough to visit zoos in India and outside. In tropical Singapore, people were filled with immense sorrow when Inuka the polar bear born and raised in captivity in the country died at 27. There was much media attention around the polar bear whose name was chosen through a naming contest across the country and birthdays celebrated with extravagant cakes. So we took polar bears from their native habitats (somewhere not as hot as Singapore) and put them in an artificially induced atmosphere with a single iceberg to make them feel at home. However close their captive area may be to their original habitat, it still doesn’t take away the fact that it is artificial. So they are torn from the where they are meant to live and forced to live in captivity for public attraction. Check that. Also the zoo is known for their show timings where birds fly from nowhere perfectly onto the staff’s arm, audience can touch a bear and tourists can feed leopards. Performing acts for public’s muse? Check that.  When I visited Thailand, I went to a Tiger temple. The name is misleading as there was nothing holy like a temple or fiery like a tiger. We were made to change into light coloured pants and went to look at the tigers. The tigers were chained and appeared to be drugged with some substance that made them drowsy and heavy. The only job of the tamers was to take pictures for tourists. Tourists could pet them and even feed tiger cubs with feeding bottles meant for humans. So they were no longer tigers but domicile cats found on the street corner. My stay in Thailand included a lot of elephant riding where they were beaten with sticks, feeding elephants with bananas and snakes performing with men. But wait the story is not over yet. How can I forget our very own beautiful and scenic Vandalur zoo? At the zoo, we went on a Tourister bus and saw the lions. But the catch here was that one lion was kept alone in an enclosure. When asked why, the driver replied that it had fought with the other lions and thus kept alone. Sounds like ‘rest and isolation’ that Raja endured in the circus. Mental and physical torture? Check Check Check! So centuries ago we considered other human beings as lesser living things but now we consider all sorts of animals as lesser living beings and treat them in the most unimaginable way possible. We cannot claim superiority because we are on the top of the food chain. Pull out any person living in the city and leave them unprotected in the forest and you can see for yourselves who is really on top of the food chain.

The primary arguments supporting zoos are a) they educate people about our ecosystem and its inhabitants and b) they sometimes serve as conservation centres for breeding animals endangered in the wild. Let’s look at the first argument “they educate people”. How many people actually take time to read descriptions about every single animal on exhibits? When I went to Vandalur it seemed like mating season because most of the couples who visited, huddled behind trees and benches. “They serve as conservation centres”. Fair enough. But think about another thing, the ‘Association of Zoos and Aquariums’ in the USA found among all the animals in the 228 zoos (now 233) which it has accredited, only 30 species are for conservation. Most of these species cannot be let out in the wild again. So they will live but not like how they used to.

When there are so many activists condemning elephants held in temples then why is nobody talking about zoos? The real distinction here is between a good zoo and a bad zoo. But the line is so thin that people consider it normal for an animal to be kept in an enclosure which has nothing but an entrance for food and a tree. So what can we do about this? Unfortunately, I am not qualified enough to suggest an alternative because I cannot think of a good one. My aim with this post was to teleport this thought from my brain to yours. So if you have received that thought then do something with it: Think about it.  

THE WHISTLEBLOWERS OF SAUDI ARABIA: THE KINGDOM OF MEN

Chrystopher Wylie and Afzal Kohistani are considered two of the most well known whistleblowers of modern day acts against individual rights. Investigative journalism by N. Ram on the Rafale deal and Suki kim for her undercover work in North Korea have been considered a couple of the most daring acts of the day. But equally or more important have been the exposés about the kingdom of oil, dates, gold and men: Saudi Arabia. Saudi Arabia has been on the news lately for a range of reasons. With Crown Prince Mohammad Bin Salman’s (MBS) ‘revolutionary’ changes, Act East policy, attempts at diversifying the oil based economy and the blood chilling murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi in the Saudi consulate at Istanbul, the limelight has finally shifted from Donald Trump to MBS. At the same time, the world has also turned its one open eye to young women who have fled from Saudi Arabia. The year began with Rahaf Mohammad Al qunun barricading herself in a Thai hotel, in an attempt to prevent her deportation back to Saudi Arabia. She did not want to face the same fate of Dina Lasloom who had been intercepted by Saudi authorities at the Thai airport and deported back to Saudi Arabia in 2017, never to be heard from again. Al qunun, the daughter of a Saudi Arabian governor (who disowned her as ‘mentally unstable’), described the alarming abuse and threats she faced at home. She was locked up in her room for six months because she cut her hair the ‘wrong way’ and beaten up by her elder brother for removing her niqab. This incident throws light on Saudi Arabia’s rampant guardianship or wali system. Under Saudi law, each woman has a male guardian, who may be the woman’s husband, father, brother or son. Without their permission, women are not allowed to marry, travel, obtain a divorce or open a bank account and do many activities that are considered trivial for women around the world. Though the wali system is not explicitly mentioned in Saudi law, it is practiced according to the understanding of officials and institutions such as the police, hospitals and courts. This means that the boundaries and scope of the wali system is like an amoeba and is subject to individual interpretation rather than scholastic jurisprudence. The shallow nature of the system can be summarized when activist Wajeha Al- Huwaider said that if she wanted to remarry, she would have to get the permission of her son. Defenders of the wali system like Noura Abdulrahman, who was employed in the Saudi Ministry of Education called the basis of such a system as “love”. She said “They (the guardians) ask nothing in return- they only want to be with me. The image in the West is that we are dominated by men, but they always forget the aspect of love”. Even assuming that the first sentence is true, the second sentence lacks both common sense and logic. What this system represents is not love but pure cruel slavery. What is loving in beating up a woman just because she decided to step out of the house alone? What is loving in deciding a woman’s entire life to suit the male guardian’s needs with no regard to the woman? And most importantly what is loving in a patriarchy? It is important to remember that this system is more about patriarchy than about religion. In 2019, Saudi Arabia launched an app called Absher which apart from providing a plethora of services like renewing passports, applying for jobs and Hajj permits, can also be used to track the whereabouts of a woman under a man’s guardianship. The app would send a message to the guardian if it detected the use of passport at the border by the woman under his guardianship. Al qunun’s story could be considered a repetition of Laura’s (pseudonym) who was also granted asylum in Canada. Across the globe, stranded in Hong Kong, are two sisters Reem and Rawan (pseudonyms) who spent six months in the city instead of a two hour stopover on their way to Australia. They also retell stories of abuse in the hands of their father and brothers. Currently they are hanging on a loose thread of hope that they would not be deported. They describe themselves as “fish trapped in a little oasis that is rapidly drying out”. Reem hopes to become an author to tell the sisters’ experiences to the world. Saudi Arabia is known for many gender unjust laws such as the muttawa or religious police and gender segregation in buses and stadiums much like the Apartheid system. MBS has been praised for allowing women to drive and go to stadiums. The thing about freedom is that is cannot be served in small doses. Neither can it be superficial to please an international community. Giving women the right to vote in 2015 and the right to drive in 2018 is not called freedom, it is called a late dawning to allow their mere existence as humans in the world. When the entire world was ready to take severe action against the kingdom over the murder of Jamal Khashoggi why not about the centuries old male guardianship system? It is ironic that Sophia the humanoid robot who was granted citizenship in Saudi Arabia was not forced to wear an abaya like the millions of women in the kingdom. Al qunun’s dramatic escape is a milestone in the path to freedom for Saudi Arabian women. In the words of Al qunun “I am sure that there will be a lot more women running away. I hope my story encourages other women to be brave and free”.

'Thoughts'

‘Thoughts’ is a label where I would be posting the array of ideas and questions that come up in my mind. Views expressed are highly and only personal. There may be thoughts which can be out of the blue and controversial. Since these are my thoughts allow me to be grammatically wrong, random and politically incorrect. My hope with sharing these thoughts would be to create an interactive platform and probably answer some of the questions which have me going around in circles. Happy Reading!