The Wild Boars issue - TOC: 1 ST: 0

I had thought Singapore society by and large have settled on what is the 'best' way to deal with the rising population of wild boars here. Well someone has reopened it with a fresh perspective and evidence. See Chen Jinwen article. 

I must confess I have no time to read his article carefully but a couple of paragraphs caught my eye. 

Despite the dominance of scientific language in understanding nature, ‘lay’ knowledge from ‘non-expert’ ordinary people who encounter nature (wild boars) on a regular basis should be recognised and valued in itself. For example, when it comes to understanding wild boar behaviour, the scientific categorisation of wild boars in Singapore under one species sus scrofa gives the impression that the nature of all boars is fixed and unchanging.

Yet, a simple conversation with the residents of Pulau Ubin, or two chance encounters with different boars at Ubin will lead you to another conclusion: there are actually two different types of boars at Ubin! The first type of wild boar is more common, ‘afraid of people’ and minds its own business. For the second, ‘wild’ is a bit of a misnomer, for the boars – specifically found at and around Chek Jawa – have little or no fear of humans. Possibly the most famous example is ‘Priscilla the Pig,’ the ‘friendliest’ wild boar which followed visitors around and became Chek Jawa’s unofficial mascot until ‘her’ death. Why this difference? The reason is simple – different human-boar interactions have led to different types of boars; because Priscilla and her fellow wild boars were fed in the past by humans, they have become comfortable with human presence.

I am only blogging about this because I am impressed not necessarily with his findings but that it was right that as much as possible I am agnostic about most things....just as I had accused the PM and his Cabinet colleagues with poverty of values I keep looking for evidence that I had misunderstood them. I do that with the Pop. White Paper too. I imagine if they had managed housing and transport better, that White Paper might have sailed through parliament. May be we will howl about it in 2020 but that is another matter.

I wished I had the luxury of paying more attention to issues of the environment. I let my daughter inform me on such matters as she has keen interest in this area. Right now, my mind often drift to the historical Venice. I am almost at the end of a book on its rise and fall. Once you stop trusting your government there is a lot to research and think through. The government premium especially on long term issues is gone for me. Unless they can reverse the loss of trust, investors' confidence will eventually evaporate too. 

Back to Chen Jinwen's article. I think we ought to pursue further what he has raised only because we want to be a city in a garden we have to learn to live better with nature. I had expected ST to report on this more comprehensively but increasingly they are failing to rise to the occasion. TOC: 1 ST: 0 ST could do better if they worry less about the government and more about us and the long term interests of Singapore. Of course what is our long term interest is never clear. Just convenient for the government of the day.