The Footprints In A Desert

(inspired by the idea of Deep Spring College and the stories of Walden)

The idea of leaving a trace behind does not sound popular in a city where concrete surface prevents so. Without such artificial accommodations, like it or not, every walking man will leave a series of footprints as he or she makes a move. In doing so, one is at a higher risk if there is ever a predator. Hence, for the sake of our own, with the enormous power developed along the history from when bare-foot walking was popular, we erased our traces by changing the face of earth to conceal our ancient instinctive fear of being a prey. Cleanness is an alias of making no contact with anything. Sometimes nor even with other people. Without sympathy, city is nothing but a true desert, a place of nothing.
Conversely, looking at a desert, despite the assumption which is usually supported by the seemingly void appearance, there are zings. They face extreme adversity yet surviving in their own unique ways. Since it is almost always the minority who are rebellious and determined enough to keep a life away from the traditions of the majority, the animals seem to be in an actually less competitive environment.
Not having lived in the wild long enough, many may not realize the dynamics of the apparently static environment. This may be the sensational difference between life and death, nature and artificial world. Nature has a grand mind, but a slow one comparing to the rates of our solutions. Slow, but gradual, cyclical and progressive. Thus we may be blinded by the pace of our own within a narrow perspective ignoring the largo movements of nature. More sadly, our desires and fears drove us to contemn the efficiency of such elegant processes.
But after all, even without a dead, solid surface, our footprints will not stay long under the convection of air in a desert. Perhaps, without any untold mystery, simply, nature just loyally marks what we did, indifferently presents them and finally, unconditionally forgives us.

The Troubling Asian Table

Keeping U.S. Turtles Out of China
http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1618565,00.html

Frankly, I had eaten turtles before. They are mainly served in a soup. On the other hand, I love turtles as well as other reptiles; I kept two land turtles for a few years at home that didn't end up in my belly not someone else (for they escaped and were never found again).
As I grow older, like my father, I am against the eating culture in China which is a mixture of traditional Chinese belief (or even Chinese medicine knowledge) and the ill curiosity of prosperous consumers.
Like the reputation of Chinese food, Chinese have a lot of attention in food and the highly picky tongues have been trained to extreme. Any black burnt spot on the food is unacceptable and can be refunded in a normal restaurant in contrast to the American attitude to such things. But the other side of the extreme food culture is somehow incomprehensible and not environmental under today's judgement. As an idiom goes, "Chinese eat anything; anything with four legs on the ground, except chairs; anything that can fly except aeroplanes", dogs, turtles, snakes and many other animals as peculiar as you can think of are no exceptions. Although they are not common dishes on a table, following the prosperity of China, the demand of such scarce animal in food use is soaring as the article stated.
Personally, I can stop myself from spending money to kill these wild animals. But the big picture is how to remove the prevailing interest of consuming wild animals from Chinese minds. I think a stricter regulation and ban should be established. Additionally, the spread of a threatening fatal disease - SARS a few years ago in China was known for making its path from a wild specie (which appeared widely on restaurant menus) to human. After all, it is not easy to build the environmental protection concept within a short time. On the other side of the barter, the restaurants should put their creativity more in how to cook but not what to cook.
Conversely, Japan's whale hunting issue which was advocated as a cultural tradition by some Japanese representatives over the bargain table is viewed as a commercial or economic interest by many critics. Their whale hunting industry simply need to slaughter whales to make a living. The claimed "tradition" has been practiced for merely decades since the end of WWII when Japan had a shortage in pork supply (whale meat at the time was a subsidy good to ensure the public health).
Asian dinner table is really a troubling place.

The French Presidential Election

Sarkozy Coasts to Victory
http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1618019,00.html