Saturday, November 22, 2008

International Bully Awareness Week

Many years ago when we were in grade school we got to go home for a hot lunch with our father before the afternoon classes. Everyday after lunch when we, my younger sister and brother and I, were ready to go back to school, our brother always threw a tantrum for not wanting to go back to school in the afternoon. Since skipping class was never an option in our family, our dad had to play a tug-a-kid game to ensure our unruly brother goes back to school in the afternoon. Because it was the same embarrassing spectacle that repeated everyday in the neighborhood,I can never forget what my poor brother had gone through after a pleasant midday break at home.

Our parents did spoil our brother a bit. They assumed he was just being naughty. Our parents had never asked him why he did not want to go back to school after lunch. Miraculously, after we moved away from the neighborhood, our brother adjusted well at the new school. He went to school willingly morning and afternoon.

In retrospect, if our parents had known the reason why our brother did not want to go back to school in the afternoon, they might handle his aversion to afternoon classes differently. Now we know how prevalent bullying is in our society, I feel strongly someone, maybe a teacher, had made my dear brother want to avoid his afternoon classes at school. - Ayee

Thursday, November 20, 2008

Rat Poison

I just learned my neighbor’s dog died of rat poison.
Everyone in our neighborhood knows "Sophie" and her elderly owner. They are frequent walkers in the area. We often saw the pair early in the morning, late in the evening, and many other times in between. For me, it’s always a pleasure to see a well-behaved dog on public streets. "Sophie" was so well trained that she never had to be leashed. She looked very much like any other good dog when walking next to her master on the street. But she became extremely protective of her owner if someone she did not know came close to him. She did annoy a few neighbors because sometimes she barked a lot. Quite often we could hear her loud and forceful barks a block away.
But I do not know if she was relegating her guard duties to a new kid on the block. We did not hear "Sophie" barking much after "Harley", a Chow, moved into the house near hers a couple of years ago.

"Sophie" died just days before her 10th birthday about a month ago. Her owner thought she caught a dead rat in the back yard.

Composting bins in the back yard attract rats. To get rid of the rats, many of us resort to deadly poisons that kill rats but also pets and even kids. While composting is good for the environment, putting rat poisons around composting bins is not. - Ayee

Sunday, November 16, 2008

Bushy Tail Clowns

The antics of our back yard squirrels never cease to amaze me. They make me laugh. They are clowns. They also remind me of a pet squirrel I had when I was in grade school.

My dad bought me a little grey squirrel at a tourist shop on route to a birthday party in the country. My relationship with that squirrel was painfully short. It bit me when I tried to play with it. Then it escaped a few days later from a wire cage that I had set up for my new pet. Even though I did not have a name for it, I do think of this ill-fated squirrel now and then. To this day, I still wonder what had happened to it.

I think it is wonderful now we still can see squirrels, a variety of birds, raccoons, and even skunks roaming freely on their own in our backyards or public places. The sighting of these lively animals in a natural setting outside of cages or zoos makes me realize how foolish and inhumane I was when I removed a wild squirrel from its lush habitat to a treeless city as a pet. - Ayee

Tuesday, November 11, 2008

Good News and Bad News

There is good news and there is bad news.

The good news is that an abandoned cat has survived a 17-floor fall from a high rise apartment building. Now it is doing well at an animal shelter after surgery for broken teeth. It is a miracle that it gets a second chance to live the other eight lives.

The bad news is that many people left their pets behind when moving. This is one of the reasons why many landlords do not let their properties to pet owners. This also is the main cause that animal shelters everywhere are full of abandoned pets. And many of our parks are populated with unwanted rabbits.

Owing a pet is like having a child. They are blessed events in life that also inconvenience us and cost us a plenty to keep them. Both pets and kids come into our lives by our own choices. But kids leave when they grow up to have their own families or to pursue their personal dreams. Our pets for better or worse stay with us for life. We do not leave our kids behind when we move. Then why would we not want to do the same for our pets? - Ayee

Saturday, November 8, 2008

“Noblesse Oblige”*

Just learned from a television news program what the president and chief executive officer (CEO) of Japan Airlines (JAL) did to save jobs and to keep his company stay afloat.

With rising oil prices and other operating costs, we all know airline industry is in serious financial difficulties. JAL, known for its generous cabin services in the past, is not immune from the dire challenges that other air carriers face. To avoid further layoffs of its loyal staff, its president and CEO, Mr. Haruka Nishimatsu, voluntarily reduced his own salary and cut all the perks that come with the job. His current annual salary of about US$90,000 may seem to be a generous one. But it is lesser than what JAL pays its pilots. Instead of using executive dinning room, he joins his employees at the company's cafeteria having some luke warm noodles for lunch.

Mr. Nishimatsu’s altruism over his employees’ well-being is unparalleled. He also lives up to a saying that "privilege entails responsibility."* - Ayee
*The Award Illustrated Dictionary (1984)

Saturday, November 1, 2008

Empty Shopping Baskets

This afternoon, I went to the supermarket for my weekend paper. The store was so busy. There were long lines at every checkout stand. I thought I was smart that I picked the shortest one. There were only three customers ahead of me but our cashier got an item with no bar codes. It took him awhile before he got the right number to punch into the cash register and completed that order. In the meantime, a lady in front of me was unloading her groceries from the shopping basket onto the checkout counter. When she had placed all her groceries on the counter and wanted to return her basket, she could not reach the stack of empty baskets underneath the counter. Sometimes it happened to me too when I wanted to put the empty basket back. Since I was closer to the stack of the empties than her, I reached out for the stack and held it for her, just like many others did for me. After this shopper placing her empty basket onto the stack, she realized I had only one item to buy. Immediately, she offered to let me pay for my newspaper before her order. I did not think what I did for her was a big deal. But this lady did not take my simple gesture lightly.

My encounter in the store this afternoon does not seem to be eventful. But it does illustrate that kind gesture is infectious. - Ayee