WHAT DID WE LEARN FROM COP BORNEO? (CHINESE VOLUNTEERS 2)
I learned about a lot of knowledge of orangutans and COP’s work, even some details that I cannot get from Internet. With deeper comprehensions, numerous thoughts are triggered.
“If we do not do this, then who will?” Reza briskly said. His words were like slight wind, soon ended, but echoed in my brain for a long time. During the seven days we spent with COP members, I saw their love and devotion to orangutans. They are fighters who bravely fight with people who are hurting orangutans, they are families who carefully pay attention to lonely baby orangutans, they are helpers who selflessly help orangutans recover from disasters they experienced. They refuse to accept funds from palm oil companies even though sometimes they face financial problems, one time they had no money for salary. But even in this situation, COP members still took care of every rescued orangutan. These kind characteristics are that I have never seen before from any NGO.
Reza showed us many pictures of orangutans, some of them been well looked after by COP and some of them been badly hurt by workers of palm oil companies. I remember the photo of head of a dead male orangutan most impressively. His eyes closed tightly and his face became less reddish. No-name killer put his head on soil. No forest and vegetation surrounded him. There was only a layer of dirt on his big, alpha face. I could not stop myself from thinking of his majestic appearance when he was alive. I could not stop imaging the moment of his death. Before his eyes are closed forever, did they reflect hate towards humans, sadness for ending of life, or pray for maybe escape? He would have no chance to tell. And we are never going to know about it.
I cannot help myself think about the relationship between human and nature, justice and profits. As we know, COP is the one of the only NGOs which have no economical connections with palm oil companies, even though they will be offered a huge amount of money. “All of us, we do this job because we love orangutans. Money is not really that important to us. One thing we valued is orangutans’ safety and happiness.” That is what Reza told us. And that is what part of COP is unique and heart-warming. Unfortunately, only by hard-working NGO members’ efforts to save orangutans is not enough. Those palm oil companies only have their profits in mind and neglect wildlife, especially orangutans. They are selfish and cold. But one day, when last forest is destroyed by palm oil company, how many orangutans have died? What appearance our earth will be? And how much money they are able to make in the future? Answers are definitely negative. (Zi Chen, Jiawei Yang_Orangufriends)
