Animal life and human beings

I'd like to comment on the letter written by H.W. Pienandoro (The Jakarta Post, July 22, 1996) which compared the lives of fish and human beings.

From biological point of view, there are fish which survive in muddy and dirty ponds. They are particularly the fish of the Anabantidae family (gouramies, fighting fish) which possess a comprehensive accessory respiratory organ called a labyrinth. A similar organ is also possessed by fish of the Clariidae family (catfish). The possession of such organs allow the fish to survive in low oxygenated water, such as muddy, dirty ponds. I'd rather say that those fish are conditioned to live in dirty water. In respect to this, we cannot move the fish to a new habitat with conditions different to their old habitat. The fish will suffer because they are used to their old environment.

Regarding humans, it is not clear whether or not they are equipped with a particular instrument to allow them to live in a corrupt, dirty society. Perhaps they become conditioned and begin to adapt to such an environment.

Human beings sometimes compare their lives with animals' lives. As a matter of fact, animal life goes hand in hand with nature. In terms of getting food, the big prey on the small. It sounds cruel. However, it has nothing to do with humanity because, if this system goes well, it supports the web chain of ecosystems. Predation does work well in the animal world.

But predation works in other ways in human lives. In business and politics, we see, how a strong party predates and exploits a small and weak party, and this goes on uncontrollably. Unlike in the animal world, where only the strong benefit from the practice of such predation, in human society the strong have a moral obligation to help the weak.

WAHYUNI RIZKIANA KAMAH

Jakarta