The Asian reporter., November 16, 2015, Page Page 3, Image 3

ASIA / PACIFIC
November 16, 2015
THE ASIAN REPORTER n Page 3
U.S.-born Sumatran rhino
formally handed over to Indonesia
By Tatan Syuflana
The Associated Press
AY KAMBAS, Indonesia —
A U.S.-born Sumatran
rhino ate leaves and
wallowed in mud at an Indonesian
sanctuary as the U.S. formally
handed over the animal in hopes he
will have offspring and help save his
critically endangered species from
extinction.
The eight-year-old rhino is now in
quarantine at Way Kambas National
Park after travelling more than
10,000 miles from a zoo in Cincinnati,
Ohio, to the Indonesian capital of
Jakarta.
U.S. consular official Robert Ewing
delivered the 1,800-pound rhino to
Tachrir Fathoni, director general for
Conservation of Natural Resources
and Ecosystem at Indonesia’s Minis-
try of Environment and Forestry, in a
ceremony at the Sumatran Rhino
Sanctuary in the park in Lampung
province.
“Thank you so much for the warm
kindness (of the American people) for
allowing the return of the one and
only (Sumatran) rhino in the U.S.,”
Fathoni said.
Ewing noted the importance of
Indonesia’s biodiversity and the
environment not just to Indonesians
but to the world.
An estimated 100 Sumatran
rhinos, also known as the “hairy
rhino,” remain in the world and nine
are in captivity.
The 250-acre sanctuary has five
rhinos in an intensive research and
breeding
program
aimed
at
increasing the wild rhino population
W
RONALD’S REFUGEES. A man, right, rests at a downtown Mc-
Donald’s in Hong Kong in this file photo. McDonald’s in Hong Kong is
no longer just a restaurant for people to munch a burger, it has recently
become a shelter for “McRefugees” to crash. People who cannot afford
high rent or want to save a few bucks from overnight transportation have
opted to sleep in some of the fast-food restaurants that operate around
the clock. (AP Photo/Vincent Yu)
Lonely McDonald’s death
highlights ‘McRefugees’
By Kelvin Chan
The Associated Press
ONG KONG — As other diners in the Mc-
Donald’s enjoyed their Big Macs past midnight in
October, no one noticed the middle-aged woman
who appeared to be sleeping at a table.
The woman, wearing a grey coat and slippers, abruptly
slumped over at about 1:20am, according to surveillance
camera footage.
It wasn’t until the next morning that a customer found
the woman was cold and unresponsive. The police were
called at 8:30am, about 24 hours after the woman first
entered the restaurant, according to a report in the South
China Morning Post.
The death of the woman, identified by police as a
56-year-old surnamed Lai, has focused attention on the
growing number of working poor and homeless people
spending their nights in McDonald’s.
Dubbed “McRefugees,” they sleep in 24-hour branches
of the fast-food chain, which offer a clean, safe, and free
refuge found in few other places in the southern Chinese
business hub. More than 120 of the company’s 253 Hong
Kong outlets operate around the clock.
In a statement, McDonald’s Hong Kong said “we
welcome all walks of life to visit our restaurants any
time.”
It added that it tries to be “accommodating and caring”
to customers who stay a long time in restaurants “for their
own respective reasons.”
The phenomenon dates back to at least 2007 and has
also been documented in Japan and mainland China. It
appears to be particularly popular in Hong Kong,
notorious for being one of the world’s most expensive
places to live because of sky-high rents.
At the same time, homelessness is a growing problem,
with the number of street sleepers tracked by the
government rising to 806 this year, more than double the
amount since 2007, though social-welfare groups say the
actual number is likely higher.
One such person, Mary Seow, began sleeping in a
McDonald’s in the working-class Jordan district about
two weeks ago after she noticed others doing it. Seow, who
was preparing to doze off in a corner of the basement level
restaurant, said she previously had been spending her
nights in a park.
“Sometimes I’m quite sleepy and I don’t feel shy about
sleeping here,” she said. “But sometimes I’m not sleepy
and I feel quite shy. And I also ask myself why I have to
end up in this way.”
The 60-year-old widow, who arrived in Hong Kong two
months ago, said she was swindled by mainland Chinese
“friends” she met at a church in Singapore. They
persuaded her to sell her house and go with them to invest
the money in the mainland, where she spent five years
depleting her funds, she said.
Now, she lives off her meager savings and some money
from working as what is known as a “parallel trader,” a
person who carries diapers, baby formula, chocolate, and
other branded goods across the border to the mainland.
She said she’s not ready to go back to Singapore because
she doesn’t want to lose face with friends wondering
where she’s been.
As she prepared to nod off, three men across the room
lay covered by blankets on padded vinyl benches. A staff
member used tables to block the entrance to the
restaurant section where Seow and the others were
sleeping, before turning off its lights for the night.
H
HOMECOMING FOR HARAPAN. An eight-year-old male Sumatran rhino named Harapan,
or “hope” in Indonesia, wallows in mud at Way Kambas National Park on Sumatra island in Indone-
sia. Harapan was formally handed over in the hope he will have offspring and help save his critically
endangered species from extinction. (AP Photo/Tatan Syuflana)
was returned to Indonesia in 2007.
on Sumatra island.
Harapan, or “hope” in Indonesia, Their sister, Suci, died from illness
lived at the Cincinnati Zoo and for last year at the Cincinnati Zoo.
Indonesia said it does not want to
nearly two years was the last
Sumatran rhino in the Western be dependent on other countries in
conservation efforts by sending
Hemisphere.
It is hoped that Harapan can mate rhinos to be bred abroad. However, it
with one or more of the three females says it welcomes any technological or
scientific
assistance
for
the
at Way Kambas.
One of them, Ratu, a 12-year-old Sumatran rhino breeding program.
The Sumatran rhino is seriously
born in the wild, is pregnant with a
calf expected in May. Her first calf, a threatened, with the species’ num-
male named Andatu born in 2012, bers in Indonesia over the past 50
was the first Sumatran rhino born in years decimated by rampant poach-
an Asian breeding facility in more ing for horns used in traditional Chi-
nese medicines and the destruction of
than 140 years.
The father of both of Ratu’s calves forests by farmers, illegal loggers,
is Harapan’s brother, Andalas, who and palm-oil plantation companies.
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