Happiness is ...... (16)

Hip! Hip! Hooray! I scream with joy when I read that Chinese President Hu Jintao is going to loan Singapore two pandas! The pandas will arrive in the second half of 2011. I wonder what their names will be? Hope none of it is Choo Choo, as the Chinese have the tendency to name their pandas with repetitive single syllable names eg. Tuan Tuan, Xing Xing, Yuan Yuan, etc. Sister Lee Lee said that she is quite safe, as the Chinese would never call any Panda with a name that is often associated with actresses and cabaret singers! Now that I think of it, Choo Choo is a possibility because Choo in Chinese means "pearl" and Singapore is sometimes thought of as the Pearl of the Orient! If the name materialises, it would probably be spelt in Hanyu pinyin as "Zhu Zhu".

I have never seen a live panda before, and have been thinking of going to Chengdu to see the pandas. Now I don't have to travel that far. Pandas are so cute and huggable, especially the baby pandas. I have even been toying with the idea of being a volunteer at the Panda Reserves in Chengdu in the near future!

Sister Ean Ean is sometimes somewhat exasperated with my love for animals. "Everything also want to hug. Want to hug me or not?", she would tease me.

I detest poachers who kill pandas, tigers, leopards, etc. for their skin. If the Creator wants us to wear the fur of animals, I guess, He would have let all of us grow lovely fur on our bodies! Vegetarians also believe that man is made to consume fruits, beans, nuts and vegetables for we do not have teeth like wild animals which need to hunt for their prey. I do not blame the people of yore for hunting animals for their food and fur, but now, with modern technology, we can make lovely coats with synthetic materials. Hence, the poaching of animals should stop! Let us refrain from buying fur coats, because when the buying stops, the killing will also stop!

I just can't wait to see the pandas! I am happy that the Chinese Government is doing a great job to preserve the pandas. I thank God for having given us such a cute and unique creation of an animal that looks like a gentleman with dark glasses and white shirt and black waistcoat!



Gan Chau