Susan Labandibar - Activist CEO » animals

A New Kind of Social Entrepreneurship

Susan — Sat, 01 Aug 2009 04:42:00 +0000

In July, I went to Indonesia to meet one of the world’s leading experts on wild orangutans. Since 1971, Dr. Birute Galdikas has been struggling to maintain her population of 6,000 wild orangutans in a national park in Borneo. Her staff of 220 mans guard posts and feeding stations throughout the park, educates the local population on the value of the rain forest and maintains an orangutan rehabilitation facility containing 330 baby and juvenile orangutans.

Tech Networks has created a new program to help Dr. Galdikas protect orangutans and their rain forest habitat. The program is called Hutan, which means “forest” in Indonesian. The word Orangutan in Indonesian literally means, “people of the forest.” Our goal is to raise $50,000 for Dr. Galdikas’ non-profit, Orangutan Foundation International, by the end of 2009. 20 percent of the gross receipts of the Hutan program will go directly to Orangutan Foundation International.

Although this form of social entrepreneurship is a new concept for IT services, it has worked in other industries, such as Dancing Deer Baking Company’s Sweet Home program. We are looking for companies and non-profit organizations who would like to cut costs, increase the quality of their IT service, and green their IT infrastructure to participate in this program.

True Bravery

Susan — Sat, 18 Jul 2009 15:01:13 +0000

I’m back from Borneo. Two shining weeks of visceral living. The fragile beauty of the rainforest, calling to me amidst the destruction of the smoldering forest stubble, the cruel rows of oil palms marching like an invading army into the national park, the brown sludge rolling into the clear black waterways.

The river is our road through the rainforest. Long, slow klotok^* rides at dawn and dusk. Solemn proboscis monkeys waiting in the trees. On the second day, we encounter an orangutan. Waving branches at first, then gradually coming closer. Baby clinging to her side. Silence. The orangutan regards us. I put down my camera and binoculars and drink her in deeply through misty eyes. My heart is crying: “God, what can I do to keep her world pure and free?”

Step back for a moment. Look at the boat driver, the tour group, the orangutan and her offspring. Now pan out over the river, the camp, and the forest. See the orangutans, the monkeys, the wild Bornean pigs, and the clouded leopard. Every living plant and every living being is here today because of the actions of one woman: Dr. Birute Galdikas.

She came here 38 years ago to follow and study orangutans in the wild. By anyone’s standards, she was amazingly brave. Living in a bark-walled hut in the midst of the jungle accompanied by orphan orangutans who clung to her side and bit anyone who tried to remove them. Tracking wild orangutans for days at a time, scrambling through crocodile-infested swamps as her subjects swung through the trees. Suffering from every conceivable tropical ailment, from malaria-induced fevers to a paralyzed, claw-like hand, to weeping jungle ulcers that took months to heal.

My companions on the tour had read her account of those early years, called Reflections of Eden. Everyone wanted to know how she had the guts to fend off flying snakes, blood-sucking leeches, and charging 300-pound male orangutans. Her response was modest: She said that she was too young to know any better.

Dr. Galdikas was brave to face those dangers, and undergo those hardships. But there is a different kind of bravery born of right-thinking and personal responsibility that must endure the test of years. This is the courage required to stand in the path of destruction, facing down the poaching, logging, mining, and palm oil industries and to say: “Here you will not tread.” Therefore, I asked Dr. Galdikas: “How have you kept fighting when all around you the rainforest is being destroyed?” And she replied: “Because I have to.”

^* Klotok: Traditional Indonesian long boat.

Off to Borneo

Susan — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 03:17:37 +0000

For the first time in 15 years, I’m leaving. I’ll be gone for over two weeks. I don’t think I’ll be thinking about work. I’m going to be immersed in a different world–a beautiful and endangered land where orangutans and others are suffering and dying as their habitat is destroyed.

The focal point of the trip will be the orangutan sanctuary at Camp Leakey, located inside Tanjung Puting National Park (which itself is under threat.) I’m bringing antibiotics and syringes for the orangutans at the sanctuary. And I’m bringing a laptop for Dr. Birute Galdikas, who has been studying the orangutans since 1971 and is now fighting to save them.

May I bear witness for these denizens of the rainforest upon my return.

Till now, this has been my only encounter with primates. On a road to a shrine in India in ‘87.

My Dad and the Orangutans

Susan — Sat, 13 Jun 2009 17:26:18 +0000

On a day in June 2000, a doctor performed a biopsy on my father that showed he had mucosal melanoma, a rare and fatal cancer. The next morning, as I was standing in the shower, a shock wave of emotion and loss hit me. In that moment, I realized that my family would never be the same again. My father’s illness and impending death became a grim shadow in my life.

My life with the shadow was divided into two parts. In my normal life, I continued running my business and taking care of my rescue pug, Tristin. In my shadow life, I poured over medical research, corresponded with doctors, and reviewed all available clinical trials, trying to find a cure for my dad.

Finding a balance between my normal life and the shadow life was challenging. Of course, nothing was more important that helping my father. But what was the likelihood that–even if I devoted my every waking moment to keeping him alive–I could anything to save him? Thus I alternated between guilt and despair, until his death in February 2004.

After my father died, I healed quickly. My grief had been spread over a period of years as I faced the facts of Dad’s illness. Reading bad news is hard. Reading it night after night, as I went through case studies, and forums, and articles was even harder. There is something in the human psyche that wants to turn away from bad news. But bad news is all around us and, now that I had developed a habit of looking at it straight on, I found that I couldn’t stop seeing it.

I realized that the natural world has been invaded by a cancer like my father’s. Our planetary ecosystems are being destroyed, including the rainforests, which are the planet’s lungs.

Indonesia is now the world’ third-largest greenhouse gas emitter. This is because of ongoing destruction of the rainforests. In less than 15 years 98% of Indonesia’s rainforests will be gone. The orangutans who live there, along with thousands of other species, will be extinct. The original orangutan populations have already been reduced by 97%. There are perhaps 55,000 orangutans left. Of these, 5-10,000 are killed every year.

Apart from logging, fires, and other factors, oil palm plantations are the single largest cause of rainforest destruction in Indonesia. Palm oil has become the world’s most popular oil. Demand for palm oil is forecast to double by 2020. To meet that demand, over 1,160 square miles of land per year will need to be converted to oil palm plantations annually. The Indonesian government has set aside 26,300 square miles of forest land for new oil palm plantations.

Oil palm is big business. Almost all oil palm is grown as an industrial plantation crop. The oil palm industry is financed by the state, international private banks, and international donors such as the World Bank, Asian Development Bank, the European Union, the United States, and Japan. Important global corporate consumers of palm oil are Unilever, Proctor & Gamble, Cognis, Cargill, and Archer Daniels Midland.

“In reality it’s over for the tiger, the elephant and the orangutan,” said Mr. Smits, who founded the Borneo Orangutan Survival Foundation. “Their entire lowland forest habitat is essentially gone already. We find orangutan burned, or their heads cut off. Hunters are paid 150,000 rupiah [$15.00] for the right hand of an orangutan to prove they’ve killed them.”

This sounds like as one-sided a contest as the battle my dad waged against is cancer. On one side you have everyone from international agribusiness, to the Indonesian government, to shadowy Malaysian companies who control most of the oil palm projects in Indonesia. On the other side, you have the Rainforest Action Network, Greenpeace, and maybe the Dutch government, if they can get their act together. A David and Goliath match–AND–we’re almost out of time.

So this is the shadow that’s hanging over me right now. Once again, it’s challenging to find a balance. In my normal life, I continue running my business and taking care of my rescue pug, Otis. In my shadow life, I try to figure out what I can do to stop the destruction of the natural world. Of course, nothing is more important that saving the planet. But what is the likelihood that–even if I devoted my every waking moment to it–I could save even the orangutans? There are no clinical trials, no FDA-approved drugs that combat corporate greed, governmental corruption and willful human ignorance.

Nonetheless, I want to try. On July 1st, I’m going to Indonesia to visit Dr. Birute Galdikas, founder of Orangutan Foundation International. I’m bringing a laptop and some medications for the orangutans. I’m hoping that, while I’m there at the orangutan sanctuary, something will click. Somehow, I will figure out how to use the skills and resources I have to really make a difference.

The Life-Changing Blog Entry

Susan — Sat, 18 Apr 2009 18:02:41 +0000

Hello. Welcome to my life-changing experience blog entry. Be prepared. You may decide to kick a bad habit in the next five minutes. Are you ready? Are you up to the challenge? Then go for it. Read the first two parts and watch the YouTube video. Let me know how it works out.

PART ONE — THE SETUP — COMPARISON TO SMOKING

This blog entry’s not about smoking, but I find it helpful to start with smoking, because it’s an example of a bad habit that’s hard to break. Did you ever smoke? Okay, why? Was it because it got you high, kept your hands busy, and helped you stay skinny? Was it because your friends smoked and it was cool? Did you have a parent rebellion trip going on?

If you’re like most of the people reading this, if you did start smoking you’ve stopped by now. What made you stop? Was it dirty, expensive, and inconvenient? Were you concerned for your health, or for those around you? Did you just want to break the addiction?

How did you stop? Did you go cold-turkey? Or was it a gradual phase out? Whatever it was, you stopped. And you’re feeling better because of it.

PART TWO — THE TRANSITION — MAKING A BIG CHANGE

So, Blog Reader. Are you up for it? What would it take for you to make another change in your life that could be just as hard as quitting smoking? What would be worth that effort?

Here’s the deal:

It’s key to your physical health

It’s key to your spiritual health

It’s key to the health of the planet.

I know you don’t want to feel alone in your decision. Well, you don’t have to stand alone. You’ve got Einstein, Ghandi, Shakespeare, Aristotle, Plato & Socrates in your corner. They all stopped. Stopped what? Stopped eating meat, that’s what.

PART THREE — THE DECISION — GO VEG!

Okay. Close your eyes. Take a deep breath. Open them again. Now click here:

15 reasons

Red Wriggler worms love baked squash skins

Susan — Fri, 28 Nov 2008 02:05:02 +0000

My worms mainly eat banana peels, tea bags and, in this photo, the skin of a beautiful turban squash I baked a few nights ago. It looks like the worms are really digging this squash.

My worms live in a box in an unused shower. It’s very convenient to keep the bedding moist. I just take the cover off and turn the shower on for a few seconds.

What’s More Important?

Susan — Sun, 25 May 2008 15:00:13 +0000

I recently was asked: “What’s more important, people or the planet?” For me, the answer was obvious. Our beautiful planet, birthplace and cradle of all the known life in the universe, is more important than the wants and needs of humans, who have become the dominant species to the detriment of the rest of the natural world. But some say that in the celestial game of Pinochle that controls our destiny “People Trump Planet.”

Of course, with our current state of technology, no planet = no people. But that isn’t the point of the question. I would frame the issue as follows: “Is humankind just one life form on a planet teaming with many other living beings, from plankton to elephants? Or is our planet more like a petri dish, containing the ideal ecosystem to support the growth and evolution of mankind?”

What does the Bible say about the relationship of man to animals? While Adam and Eve were in the garden of Eden, God instructed them to eat fruit and vegetables, Genesis 1:29-30: “I give you every seed-bearing plant on the face of the whole earth and every tree that has fruit with seed in it. They will be food for you. And to the beasts of the earth and all the birds of the air and all the creatures that move on the ground–everything that has the breath of life in it–I give every green plant for food.”

Subsequently, however, after Noah landed the ark, God gave Man dominion over the animals he had just saved: “God blessed Noah and his sons, and said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth. 9:2 And the fear of you and the dread of you shall be upon every beast of the earth, and upon every fowl of the air, upon all that moveth upon the earth, and upon all the fishes of the sea; into your hand are they delivered. 9:3 Every moving thing that liveth shall be meat for you; even as the green herb have I given you all things.”

The Christian world view is that God has given Man mastery over the Earth, but that Man has obligations to that which God has created. He is charged with stewardship, not reckless use and destruction. For more on this subject, see Dominion: The Power of Man, the Suffering of Animals, and the Call to Mercy by Matthew Scully, former speechwriter to George W. Bush. (If only all Republicans equated conservatism with conservation the way he does!)

The Buddhist world view is very different. A central tenet of Buddhism concerns the Oneness of all things. It is the very separation of Man from the natural world that causes suffering. Buddhism seeks to reunite the internal with the external, the mind with matter, the spirit with the natural world. Every object, in Buddhism, has a buddha-nature. This is can be a rock, a teacup, or a plant. A false sense of duality causes man to believe that he can destroy these objects without harming himself.

Don’t Ask for Help Unless You’re on the Endangered Species List

Susan — Sun, 10 Feb 2008 18:27:50 +0000

According to Beth Daley’s article in the Boston Globe on Friday, Deciding They All Can’t Be Saved, New England-based marine mammal rescue organizations are becoming increasingly selective when determining whether to assist stranded seals. As justification for this policy shift, Ms. Daley’s article points to evidence from marine scientists that with local Harbor seal populations at over 100,000, there is no longer a compelling biological reason to assist individual seals, as the species is well out of the endangered range.

So, if it’s not to ensure species survival, why should we help out a fellow creature? Photos accompanying Ms. Daley’s article show one clear reason: Huge smiles on the faces of seal rescuers cutting twine from the neck of a stranded seal pup. It’s a feel-good moment for everyone on the beach who is concerned about the fate of the helpless mammal.

What is wrong with showing our children that we are a compassionate society that will not pass by suffering animals in our midst, or allow them to be mauled by dogs, and chalk it up to “the cruelty of nature?” I, like many who donate to marine mammal rescue organizations, believe it is worth the investment of $2,500 per seal to allow everyone who participates in these rescues–from the park ranger guarding beached seals, to the mothers taking photos of the seals with their children in the background–to know that they are not witnessing the dying throes of an intelligent animal.