Tuesday, 18 November 2014

Responding to "Orangutans" - 2

We've just done the reading and most exercises that make up Part 1 of chapter 2 of Quest 3 (Hartmann & Blass, 2014, pp. 46 - 50). In the their final exercise in this part of "Physical Anthropology", Hartmann and Blass ask us to share our own ideas on three more general questions arising from the reading. We are going to do this as a series of short response writings.
  • 2. Do you think Nonja is well cared for at the Schönbrunn Zoo? Why or why not? (p. 50, D., 2)
Think about this question for perhaps 30 seconds and then write down your responses in a comment below. You have five minutes. 

__________
Reference
Hartmann, P. & Blass, L. (2007). Quest 3 Reading and Writing. New York: McGraw-Hill.

9 comments:

  1. I think Nonja is well cared for at the Schönbrunn Zoo because Nonja is very famous and it can earn a lot of money to the zoo. Moreover its art can make a lot of money too and gave that money to charity to protect other orangutan in the wild. If the zoo didn't take well care of Nonja, it would have sick and could not paint any art. the zoo would lost much money, So the zoo will take the beat care of Nonja; because of money that it makes.

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    1. I guess that money and self-interest are powerful motives, but I hope that the zoo and its employees have other motives as well, like a conviction that it's the morally right thing to do. I don't want them to throw her out onto the streets or kill her if her paintings stop selling and she becomes an unprofitable burden! Or is it OK to kill loyal work animals and pets when we tired of them and bored with them?

      I notice that a lot of Thai people seem to think it's OK to throw their pet dogs onto the street when they are bored them, or when the dogs are no longer cute little puppies. It would be better to have them painlessly killed, although the best solution is for irresponsible people, especially parents, not to buy cute puppies when they are not prepared to care for them properly for several years.

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    2. Remember: it's response writing. If something comes into your mind, that's a response, and you can write it down in sentences. In an academic essay, we might wonder the relevance of Bangkok street dogs to Nonja's welfare in the German zoo, but that's no problem in response writing.

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    3. And thank you Thip for prompting that train of responses in my mind, which I would not have thought of had you not written your comment for me to read and respond to.

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  2. What's a good care for her? Nonja is given a shelter, foods, and fences in the zoon. She is also given the circumstence where can draw something. Although there is no force makes her draws, humans cultivate her painting ability by supplying the circumstance which would not be given to her if she was in the wild. Her nature is altered by humans.

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  3. I thought that if the zoo provides here with a caretaker who spends time encouraging Nonja in her art at least once a week, she is probably well cared for. This seems to me confirmed by the fact that she "is very outgoing with humans," which appears to be a result of her being cared for by the human employees at the zoo since her birth, and who must have treated her reasonably well to have earned her trust and warmth.

    Finally, there is no hint of any mistreatment in ""Orangutans", but had the famous Nonja been mistreated, I think it would have caused a scandal in the German media so serious that Hartmann and Blass would be unlikely to have ignored it completely: there are no immoral legal violations of the right to free speech in Germany that could have imposed and maintained ignorance of any such mistreatment, corruption or other wrongful behaviour by Nonja's caretakers at the zoo. Just as censorship is a powerful weapon that dictators use against citizens, so too is free speech a necessary and powerful tool to discover and expose corruption and other evils in society. (Sorry - when that connection popped into my mind, it was too neat not to include in my response, so I have.)

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    1. I agree with your idea. The fact that she is very outgoing with humans implies that she is not afraid of humans because they are nice to her.

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  4. I am not sure whether Nonja is well cared or not, but I can assume that she is treated fairly enough to establish a good relationship with her caretaker conseidering the fact that she seems to enjoy painting once a week. If she is not happy or she is forced to paint, she might tear the paper or try to ran away.

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  5. I have not any suspected with Nonja treating.It was reasonable that she has been received a good care by her caretaker.If she is unhappy it must showing in her reaction but in the artical told that she have a good caretaker treated her to do the art picture everday and she was happy to do so.Another reason she was an outgoing orangutan that she have a good relationship with human beings.

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