Orang means Man, Utan means Forest. The Orangutan is therefore the Man of the Forest. He is in fact the closest ape to the human being. While I was looking at the feeding time in the Rehabilitation Center in Sepilok, near Sandakan, I couldn't help reconsidering what I was really seeing. On one platfom were 6 Orangutan and countless Macacos being feeded. On another little less then a hundred tourists agitating cameras, videos, binoculars. Eating ice cream and chips. Who made the real attraction was not clear to me anymore. For a moment I felt the lucky ones were the Oragutans who were getting a free meal with show included. But I noticed they were not interested at all in the crowd facing them: the same everyday oddity.I have to clarify to myself this duality I have toward humanity. Sometimes I love to see (and photograph) what Man is doing, but most of times I wish for a large pandemic to swipe us (or the most of us) from the face of the Earth. What I don't stand is mass stupidity, and this seems to be the common caracter of this globalized world. I have bad feelings for the future of mankind if we don't correct our trends.
Sabah, this portion of Malysian Borneo, is showing well what we are doing to Earth. Very few patches of land are left to the forest, enclosed in the horrible concept of Park. Horrible because a Park is mainly the good excuse to do whatever you want outside of it! Most of the state is now covered with vast plantations of Oil Palms.
Yes, the question is where are we going. But, even more important, how badly we are going there..
