1 April 2023

You probably didn’t know, because we keep it very quiet, for two years now.  Two years ago this time, a two-meter long snake was found snuggling outside the changing room window. We cordoned off the area, and reported to the police. They came at once and called a “snake king” to capture it. The snake, however, did not seem to care, or did not seem to move at all.  We decided that the snake, in its spiral position, was actually dead.  But we were just there an hour ago with a clear ground, now a snake sunbathing? The police agreed with us, but we waited for the expert “snake king”. The king arrived two hours later, and confirmed that it was dead and took it away. He said the snake probably ate the poison for rats, or ate some rats which had swallowed some poison. The snake probably fell into our campus from the adjoining tree outside after it had been poisoned. Now you know why there was some slope construction a year ago.

 

We sighted wild boars right outside our campus; they crossed the roads in a fashion which pleased them most. We also had news about a boar running into a motorcycle; luckily the rider was not badly hurt. But these all lead us to see how the environment, or external agents, might upset or endanger our own environment, however neat and tidy we keep it within our jurisdiction. Consider how orderly you keep your home, but your neighbors have no regard of hygiene or noise; you will not be happy living within your tidy home. Or when you clean your home so well, but your neighbors, or strangers or pranksters, deliberately foul the public area right outside your door. Now consider those were not pranks, but vicious actions done deliberately to upset you, attack you, threaten you, endanger you, in order to make you leave the premises. We have had plenty of such news when there are redevelopment projects in the district, or during war time.

 

There are homeland security issues a country needs to consider: how a country protects its lands and waters, and to prevent the outside force from attacking or altering the landscape of the territory.  I guess they are the same mentality as how we protect our home, just a zillion more times more complicated. In any case, we learn to protect ourselves and our properties well; this is the same action many countries are doing, in the interest of protecting their people, their ethnic pride and dignity, and their rightful ownership of the land.

 

Anson Yang