A Malaysian 14 year old girl has won a United Nations Letter Writing contest. The contest attracted 3 million submissions from across the world who were asked to put themselves in the mind of a wild animal threatened with destruction of their habitat.
The letter from Sze Ee Lee is brilliant and is worthwhile in quoting in full. The hope, sarcasm, earnestness, passion, determination and humour that shines through is brilliant and I loved it.
Author: Sze Ee LEE Girl Age: 14 Number of Words: 797
Lot 116 Herbal Trees
Tiger Road 1/3,
Raub Rainforest,
Pahang Darul Makmur,
Malaysia,
24th March 2007
Dear People of the World,
Don’t be surprised when you see this letter. Let me introduce myself. My name is Cody, a tiger cub that lives in the rainforest of Malaysia. I may be small but I have seen horrific things done to the creatures of the Earth. I couldn’t sleep for days when I heard about what had happen to my cousin Nikki. Luckily, he was rescued from the cooking pot just in time. Kind people have since then taken good care of him. So I have many words to say to the people of this planet.
I want to congratulate you all. Many of you have good education and live in your so-called world of modernization. Does this mean that humans are civilized? Yet, why do humans still need to invade our jungle besides hunting us like in those primitive days. Dear people of the World, don’t burn our homes and occupy the area, our natural habitat. We have no other place to go.
With advanced technology, you can build multi-storey sky scrapers. One day, man may even build an underground city (But please, not under the sea). So why do you still require our land? Please, please leave our habitat alone.
If you want to help us, don’t throw waste products into the river. Oh, dear farmers. Be advised to use organic fertilizers, so that chemical fertilizers which are harmful will not flow into the river. The river is yours and our source of water. Aquatic life like prawn and fish are consumed by you and other animals. Don’t poison ourselves indirectly.
The most important way to help us survive is to protect our habitat. Although wildlife preservation is recommended by the government, people are still not cooperating with the organization to help us. Why is this so? Join some of the conservation organizations like WAF- World Animal Foundation and WWF – World Wildlife Foundation, and you will realise our plight – acid rain that destroying the forest and wildlife, illegal logging and hunters hunting for our skins or ugh ! – meat for exotic dishes. Please protect our habitat.
Reserve parts of the great big jungles of the World for national parks and nature reserves so that we won.t be extinct from this world . just as we animals of the World would not want you humans to become extinct, too.
Children by nature love animals. Expose and educate the young generation to continue to love and protect wildlife. It is also not too late to create awareness and educate the present generation. As long as Man is willing to open his heart and seriously look into conservation of nature and wildlife, there is hope for us.
My friend, the crocodiles shed tears when they heard about the demise of the great Steve Irwin a.k.a. the Crocodile Hunter. Mind you, it is not the idiomatic .crocodile tears.. Here was a truly great man who reached out to the people with the message .These creatures are beautiful, fascinating, wonderful.. He handled them with a great respect, cared for them and most importantly was concerned that they remain in their habitat. We need more people like Steve Irwin. Most realistically, if Man can love and care for the well-being of their pets, with knowledge and information about wildlife, more people of the World would be concerned about our well-being.
Scientists and environmentalists should put their heads together to solve problems like acid rain, global warming, the depletion of the ozone layer and also do more research to propagate our species.
Whatever man has destroyed is a thing of the past. Let.s look forward to a bright future. Let the governments of the World work together to enforce laws against poaching, illegal logging and mass destruction of our habitat . directly or indirectly. In view of this, I suggest an Awareness Campaign be carried out via the mass media, over the internet and across nations. It has to be on-going so that information and messages to conserve wildlife get the attention of a wide cross-section of the People of the World . young and old alike.
It is said .The pen is mightier that the sword.. So please publish more books, magazines, pamphlets. I believe many people of the world are still ignorant or lack information about wildlife. There is a Malay saying .Tak kenal maka tak cinta., which means to know you is to love you. So please get as many people to know us and consequently to love us. We are helpless. We depend on you . the People of the World to save us. Many concerned organizations also need your funding. So donate generously for a good cause . Don.t allow us to become extinct.
Thank you.
p/s : This letter carries 1,000 paws prints of concerned tigers.
Yours sincerely,
Cody.
All this to be taken with a grain of piquant salt!!!
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