And on the 5th Day

Haven't quite made it to the one week mark of (unofficially) running a photo agency, and after a series of long distance calls trying to make amends, and a lot of waiting in front of the laptop for reply emails to see just how much I fucked up, I'm seriously exhausted today. But I'm surprising myself by enjoying the experience so immensely, and although I can foresee plenty of sleepless nights and painful mistakes ahead, it doesn't fill me with dread at all. Which I suppose, can only be a good thing.

Jazz Republic

I was rather put off by the title of the article, but I'm glad I gave it a go anyway -- the writer perfectly sums up my own opinion of Bangladesh. Of course, he is writing about India, but I suppose South Asia never gets very far away from itself.

Will India Lose Its Charm as It Becomes ‘World Class’?

By ANAND GIRIDHARADAS

... India has long been a jazz republic, functioning without a written score. People involve themselves in each other’s lives without regard to propriety or privacy. They insist on feeding you even when you want nothing. They insist on paying a price other than the price listed.

They pack as many cars onto a road as possible, without regard to the painted lanes. They pay as little tax as they can get away with.

If you call Domino’s after closing time, you can sometimes cajole them to reopen and deliver a pizza anyway. Everything is a negotiation; everything is improvised. Things are a “no” in India until they are a “yes.”

Anand goes on to say that India is changing. Modernity is eroding its charm.

And yet now when I visit America, where I grew up until moving to India six years ago, I wonder if this is where India is bound: a society that is fairer and more ordered, but in which something of the warmth of improvisation is gone.

Although he refers to America, the last sentence seems to me a pretty accurate characterisation
of Singapore.

During my trip back, I was taking pictures for my brother in Victoria Theatre. He was taking part in a national competition, and I had photographed his events in the past when they were held at less prestigious locations.

When it was his turn, I left my place in the aisle alongside other photographers to go crouch in front of the stage, next to a 'official' event photographer, taking care to keep low so as not to block anyone's view.

I barely began clicking before a woman -- the theatre security -- came up and spoke to me in a tone which I thought would be more apt used on a terrorist trying to hide a bomb under a stage. She growled that I was not allowed there and that I had to leave. Immediately. Security concerns. I must have been living in Bangladesh for too long, because I turned to her to explain: I only needed a few minutes, I was blocking no one, and it was my brother up there.

What was I thinking, trying to negotiate with her? Our society seldom allows for exceptions. You think you're so different? That you should get special treatment? That we will bend the rules for you? You've been misinformed.

But I suppose it was a habit I had picked up. In Bangladesh, your access is determined by your determination, your ability to convince, persuade and lie. As the writer put so succinctly, its a 'no' until its a 'yes'. It's survival of the fittest, and here I don't begrudge others for getting ahead of me because they were smart enough to do so. I don't think -- not fair! He broke the rules! I think, fuck! Why didn't I think of that?

In a way, I've been so spoilt by Bangladesh, where a smile and an explanation lets me get away with just about anything.

We don't allow for this in Singapore, and lest anyone think I am criticising the existence of our myraid of rules, I'm not. I can understand that the same charming system that lets me get away with photographing anywhere is the same system that allows for inefficiency and corruption.

The security woman wasn't persuaded, of course, and continued to growl at me. After a while, I got so irritated I snapped at her and said loudly, "My god! Give me a break!" Then she said there were more security personnel coming to remove me. Well, my brother's segment was over, and I left -- to collective relief.

On the last night before I was due to fly back, we had dinner with my uncle and his family at the nearby foodcourt in Hougang Mall. I had with me one of those small video cameras to record the antics of my two young cousins.

I had forgotten the sacred rule of never photographing/videoing indoors, and was taken aback when the manager suddenly appeared out of no where, putting her hands to block the video lens. We were in front of the drinks stall, and I had been videoing Reuben talking general gibberish.

"You CANNOT take video in here!" she said, as she forcibly lowered my camera.

In both of these incidents, it wasn't so much the request that shocked me. Both of these women were just doing their jobs and it is their right to tell me to stop photographing/videoing.

It was their tone, and the way they spoke to me, that left me slightly dumbfounded. Their ferocity, anger and aggression made me feel like such an utter criminal, like I had been caught setting fire to the place. Well trained. If I were a terrorist I'd be shit scared.

Anand writes about how the 'modernity' and its rules have changed Indian society.

But one senses something robotic at work, cutting between what are, at the day’s end, just two human beings.

And yet, with India as the foil, one can see a deeper meaning in the brusqueness and coldness. So much of this behavior seems intended to draw a red line of dignity around the individual, to declare to the world that she is somebody whom no one can push around, that no one is better than anyone else.

But which is more real, this cold dignity or India’s warm servility?

And one wonders whether, as modernity comes, India will lose a certain warmth, a certain tender involvement of everyone in everyone. Is the warmth that lingers just a product of this stage of history, residually feudal and agrarian and poor, a stage from which India will eventually move on?

It seems undoubtedly so. And I particularly loved his last line.

Is destiny the barriers between us?

This, I'm not so sure. Perhaps, the barriers that exist between people can be removed by the people themselves. It does make it all that difficult to connect with one another, to break the ice of initial hostility, but it doesn't make it impossible.

After both incidents, I talked to the women after putting away my offending equipment. We laughed together, and we apologised to each other. So sorry about it, just doing my job, they said. I'm sorry too, I said, for having been so difficult.

I guess, a smile goes a long way in Singapore too.

I've had the privilege of spending two long afternoons talking to a photo curator from India, a woman who I find difficult to describe, although the first word that springs to mind would be indefatigable.

Its always good to refresh your mind with perspectives unlike your own, especially in a field such as photography that's always evolving, always changing, always surprising you.

Malaysia Boleh (I hope)

For the second time in a row, arrived back in Dhaka without my luggage.

I can only hope that the good AirAsia folks handling baggage at the KL airport is just as good as their colleague that literally ran with me through the airport, guiding me and clearing the way (fastest exit through customs ever) so that I was actually the first one to board the plane to Dhaka.

Amazing, if you consider that I landed only 40 minutes before it was due to take off. Thanks to him, I actually had the boarding pass for the next flight in my hands even before I cleared through customs (I had to check out and check in as the 2 flights were separate). That's why, really, Malaysia really boleh!

Plus that lovely air stewardess who helped me by putting me at the front of the plane, getting off with me and handing me over to the ground staff -- all the while urgently explaining my situation to him in Malay.

So my luggage, including a brand new electric guitar (and way too much pork for one person to consume), was supposed to have arrived on today's flight instead, but I found out (after 2 hours of constant calling) that it would only get here tomorrow.

Like I told the guy on the phone, I don't care if its late, just make sure it gets here.

And I thought it was rather poignant, albeit in an unpleasant way, that a housefly suddenly landed next to my face on the window at the exact moment when the wheels of the plane made contact with the ground in Dhaka.

Hm.

Haven't had a fever in a long while, and was rather intrigued to wake up yesterday morning feeling as though someone had taken a blunt tool and beaten all my joints to a pulp. Spent the night utterly confused as my body said it was COLD but after 5 minutes under the blanket the same body said TOO FUCKING HOT!

Every time the season and temperatures change, people here fall ill from a "seasonal flu". I think its the most noticeable from winter to spring, or from spring to summer (also known as the season when Jess-spends-too-much-time-submerged-in-ice-water). I had been feeling fine, even though all my colleagues have been calling in sick.

This is NOT GOOD. If I land at Changi before the fever subsides, there's a good chance I'll get quarantined. I doubt the good folks in surgical masks would accept my "seasonal flu" explanation.

But well, its true. No one is immune to a change in the weather. I went to see the doctor today, and even before I opened my mouth to say anything, he asked rhetorically, "Fever?"

Oh Jesus.

This is a joke, right?

Dr Thio [Dr Thio Su Mien] said she went on to discover that in Aware's comprehensive sexuality education programme, which is taken to schools, homosexuality is regarded as a neutral word, not a negative word.

'I started thinking, 'Hey, parents, you better know what's happening,'' she said.

'I talked to parents. I said: You better do something about this, otherwise your daughter will come back and say, 'Mum, I want to marry my girlfriend.'

'Or your son will say: 'Dad, I want to marry my boyfriend.''

I mean, seriously?

'And this is something which should concern parents in Singapore. Are we going to have an entire generation of lesbians?'

What? Huh? Do not compute. Are you really saying this? Huh? What? My brain is going to explode.

And what does this even mean?

I find to my dismay that Aware seems to be only very interested in lesbianism and the advancement of homosexuality, which is a man's issue,' she said.

I'm guess its good that I'm all alone in my house and no one can hear me screaming.

Water Festival = Water in Unwanted Places

Yet another lesson well learnt, alongside classic favourites such as How to Win in a Stare Contest and Thou Shalt Look All Ways Before You Cross This Street. The latter is interesting if only because I remember a particular court case about a car accident in Singapore where the prosecution said the victim was not obliged to look both ways before she crossed the road because it was a ONE WAY STREET and who the hell drives in reverse at such high speeds? Well, my friend, welcome the land where the roads go wherever you want it to.

So the camera is, erm, dehumidifying in the dehumidifier room. I'm not sure how long it takes to suck out all the water, and I've been warned (in low, anxious tones) NOT to try to switch it on until a hundred years have passed unless I want everyone to think I'm an IDIOT.

I think, dude, I went to a water festival with no plastic protection, I think I got that covered.

Anyway, in my defence, the water attack that ruined my mood and camera was SNEAKY and UNFAIR. We had arrived at the small field where the festivities were taking place, only to find the programme had been held on hold because it had begun to rain. So there wasn't any water-throwing taking place, just a bunch of people who had already soaked each other but were still trying to seek shelter from the rain (I know).

While debating which leaky roof to hide under, a dude crept up from behind and silently emptied a bucket of water down my back. And because the world is just, the same dude slipped and fell in the mud (earning jeers from peers) a little while later. I only wish he'd landed face first.

Weather hit 41˚C yesterday. How anyone gets any work done in this weather is beyond me.

Camera + Water = Everything Sucks.

Embankment

Down by the embankment. On the map it says the area is called Rayer Bazar Badhya Bhumi. Not that far away from the main urban areas, but a whole different world -- ponds, water bodies, water hyacinths, cricket on green green grass, children, brick factories, lots of open space, goats, tanneries, cows, sheep, children etc.



No, nothing will keep the kids away.



I quite liked this picture till my local friend saw it and told me I was a rude photographer. Anyway, I hope you like the picture. If so, I shouldn't tell you that he's heading to the toilet by the pond.

Woof.

So it turns out that the crazy barking at night from the house down the road is from this really pretty dog that's strangely docile in the morning. From my window I thought it was a pit bull. Not.



And also liking pretty mongrels with long, furry tails.

Karwan Bazaar (again)

The constancy, predictability and reliable presence of Karwan Bazaar is a godsend to all photographers who ever wanted a chance to "go back and do it right".

Not to mean that I did, but at least I'll have a chance to do so at some point. Again and again.

Whereas in Singapore there's always a fear that a place will be torn down or "upgraded", this place gives you the sense that it's always, and will always, be the same.






Buffaloes up for the slaughter. Done early in the morning in a section of the market that opens only during the day, the meat is frequently sold as beef, which fetches higher prices. Apparently I've been eating a lot of buffalo meat without realising it.

Afternoon Impressions.

From lensculture.




Dogs Can't Read. photography by Daniel Milnor

Recent Photographs by Roger Ballen

Asakusa Portraits. photography by Hiroh Kikai

How come lah?

It can be frustrating when the news raises more questions than answers.

Remittance jumps to single month high

Dhaka, Apr 5 (bdnews24.com)—Despite the global recession, Bangladesh received $881.3 million in remittances in March this year, the highest ever for a single month, the central bank governor said Sunday.

The March figure broke the record of $859 million earned in January, according to Bangladesh Bank numbers. February saw $784.5 million...

... The World Bank, IMF, ADB and local economists have all predicted a dip in remittances, one of the economy's main indices, in the face of the global crisis ...

Sadly, the article did not explain the reasons behind this peculiar occurrence. Just, hooray! Money! After months of front page stories about pissed off, repatriated workers, cancelled work permits etc... this was quite unexpected.

Decision on 'saving daylight' soon

Dhaka, April 5 (bdnews24.com) – The power ministry may make a final decision next week on whether to introduce Daylight Saving Time, by turning clocks forward an hour, to conserve power countrywide.

"We want to introduce daylight saving because it is much easier to conserve 1MW power in this way than it is to produce an extra 1MW of electricity," state minister for power Shamsul Haq Tuku told reporters Sunday.

The ministry has been planning to set clocks forward for an 'extra hour' of daylight to manage the acute power crisis across the country.

The major shopping centers and offices in Bangladesh have to shut down at 8pm. Thankfully, the smaller vendors remain open for business. Otherwise, god forbid if you run out of bottled water to drink at 10pm.

Watch as an entire nation resets their biological clocks. It will be fun.

And the response of almost everyone I know to the article below has been -- "Oh dear god, NO."

Tk 10,000 cr subway project may start this year

Dhaka, Apr 5 (bdnews24.com)—Construction of the proposed Tk 10,000 crore Dhaka subway project, with 60 percent financing from Japan, may begin this year, said an official on Sunday.

The 52-km underground subway across the capital city, estimated to cost between Tk 10,000-12,000 crore, will have six lines and 50 stations, aimed at solving the city's traffic gridlock, according to the project proposal ...

... Around 80 percent population of the city will have at least one station within one kilometre.

The subway is expected to serve some 10-40 lakh (1 million to 4 million) commuters daily.

The Sena Kalyan Sanstha (army welfare organisation) will provide technical assistance in implementing the project, which will be constructed by a "cut and cover method", meaning without disturbing surface traffic on any major route.

In response to my highlighted sentence -- wanna bet?

Stuff.

For the scene in Pulp Fiction where Vincent Vega races his convertible down a deserted LA street, trying to get an OD-ed Mia Wallace some help, Quentin Tarantino made sure the entire road was wet so that the light would do wondrous things on the gleaming tarmac.

(Or is it asphalt? Not too sure.)

Night in Kamalapur Train Station.



One early morning at the same train station, a young boy kept following us around. He never spoke a word, but trailed behind us for at least an hour. I finally starting chatting to him, which led him to bring us to his "care center" -- a home for street children a stone's throw away from the train station.

He was up early. Most of the other boys were still fast asleep.



Bangabazar -- the land of the rejects, quite literally. Clothes which were supposed to line the shelves of stores in Europe and America end up here if they fail quality checks. Some of the more familiar brands were Mango and Zara, but those were quite rare to find.



The second floor of the building are where the tailors work. Want to buy a pair of jeans but need it shortened? Take a seat, I'll be back in 10 minutes. They head upstairs, the tailors do their magic, and voila -- 300tks please.






How they manage to thread a needle in the dim light of a single fluorescent tube, I'll never know. (Just so you know, all the tailors were men.)

Well, at least they tried

Anti-beggar bills passed

Dhaka, Mar 31 (bdnews24.com)—Parliament on Tuesday passed the Sylhet Metropolitan Police Bill 2009 and Barisal Metropolitan Police Bill 2009, setting jail terms of up to three months for begging.

The new laws fix no fines for beggars, but state if anyone is caught begging in public places or shows disabilities to get alms, they will face time behind bars.

The laws also says anyone guilty of 'eve teasing' will face imprisonment for three months, a fine of Tk 500 or both.

If anyone uses public places as a lavatory, they face a Tk 500 fine.

It sets a Tk 300 fine for anyone caught spitting or smoking in violation of public notices.

Similar punishment is applicable if anyone bathes or washes in public ponds, tanks or by their banks.

For those who live here, I don't have to point out the insanity of what they're trying to do.

Anyway, what the hell is "eve teasing"?

Update: "Eve teasing" refers to verbal sexual harassment. Interesting.

Gender

I'm scared of girls.

I've mentioned this before, that I always felt that most of them looked at me with a mixture of animosity, suspicion and contempt. This is, of course, not true (I hope) and just a result of me being stupid, overly sensitive and letting my imagination indulge in itself.

It's ironic, because I am very fond of talking to women here. The younger ones tend to be more reserved, so I chat mostly to older folks. Truth be told, the ones who are less well-off are also a lot more easier to approach. I hardly ever feel inclined to respond when a man/boy wants to start a conversation with me, but if a woman says anything at all -- I have all the time in the world for her.

Anyway, just some photos of what I feel is the "average" Dhaka girl -- something I wish I saw more of. The below were taken at Fantasy Kingdom, the amusement park on the outskirts of the city in Ashulia.

Digressing slightly, today's xkcd rocked.

(Police reported three dozen cheerful bystanders, yet no one claims to have seen who did it.)

Lovely Topu told me a lovely story today.

When I was on my trip in Norway, we were at a bar with some people and a girl asked me, "Tell me the two main differences between Bangladeshi culture and the culture here."

And I told her, "Firstly, we can have fun without beer. Secondly, we spend half of our lives living with our parents, and, for the other half of our lives, our parents live with us."

Don't think I could get more fond of that guy.

Also, thought that this was an amazing letter of resignation by Jake DeSantis, printed as an op-ed in the NYT:

After 12 months of hard work dismantling the company — during which A.I.G. reassured us many times we would be rewarded in March 2009 — we in the financial products unit have been betrayed by A.I.G. and are being unfairly persecuted by elected officials. In response to this, I will now leave the company and donate my entire post-tax retention payment to those suffering from the global economic downturn. My intent is to keep none of the money myself.

After the 156th time you utter "I'm not feeling so good", you start to wonder if it's all in your head.

Don't get me wrong, I enjoy the occasional debilitating cold (KIRSTY!!) but after the last five days of no work and all sniffles, gastric pangs and other similar nonsense... I'm ready to call it quits.

You hear me? This is getting ridiculous. Stop it.

Sigh.

Dialects add to burden

Time, energy better spent on mastering English and Mandarin: MM Lee

By Goh Chin Lian

MINISTER Mentor Lee Kuan Yew yesterday reiterated his stand against Chinese dialects, saying that learning dialects adds to a child's burden.

Also, it takes away the child's time and energy from mastering English and Mandarin, he said.

In addition, English and Mandarin differ in their vocabulary, phonetics and syntax and adding on dialects will cause 'negative interferences' in the learning of the two languages, he added.

In defending the decision to promote Mandarin over dialects, he also noted that the value of a language is its usefulness.

With Mandarin, the reach is far greater than dialects: 'If you speak Hokkien or Cantonese, you reach some 60 million in Fujian and Taiwan, or about 100 million in Guangdong and Hong Kong. With Mandarin, you can speak to 1,300 million Chinese from all provinces in China,' he said.

Mr Lee was speaking at the launch of the annual Speak Mandarin Campaign, which he introduced 30 years ago.

Since then, most Chinese Singaporeans have adopted Mandarin over other dialects.

However, about a fortnight ago, the acting head of Nanyang Technological University's (NTU) Division of Linguistics and Multilingual Studies, Dr Ng Bee Chin, sparked a debate when she reportedly said at a language seminar:

'Although Singaporeans are still multilingual, 40 years ago, we were even more multilingual. Young children are not speaking some of these languages at all any more.

'All it takes is one generation for a language to die.'

Man Reads Monkeys' Mind

My usual morning news rant. I know its unpleasant, how I go around throwing barbs from the comfort of my not so comfy chair. Still, this is what I do.

A farewell in forests

Rare langur rescued, left in centre for care

She clung tight to his neck. With her big round eyes, she gave us a cursory glance and then nibbled at the grape she was holding so delicately with her long, beautiful fingers. Then she saw the apple in my hand and immediately abandoned her grape to reach out.

She felt the apple around and explained her joy in a sharp trilling voice. She did not like the cameras much and hid her face in the chest of Dr Anwar Hossain, the zoologist, and trilled. She was wondering why we were there, and why so many people. She found safety in the warmth of the human body. Probably she felt it much like her lost mother from whom she was separated some 10 days ago.

And where is her mother? Nobody knows. Probably she was killed and eaten up by the Tipra people. Probably the mother just left her behind, which is unusual for a primate, when people chased them. Nobody can tell that exactly.

Clearly, the reporter has a means to accessing the inner workings of this monkey's brain. He can talk to monkeys.

Which is why he singled out the Tripura (aka Tipra) as the probably cause of the mother's disappearance. You know, because there ain't no other damn animals in the forest that eat monkeys.

But it was awfully nice of him -- after deliberately singling out the likely culprit -- to say "nobody can tell that exactly".

Now, if he had backed up his assertion with a statement like "The Tipras have been responsible for the dip in monkey population due to over-hunting" or "The Tipras only eat monkey meat and hunt them vigorously" -- it could be a bit easier to swallow.

In a country where I get yelled "Chakma!!" on the streets as if it were a venereal disease, its quite sad to see such cultural arrogance and carelessness in the leading English broadsheet.

Revolutionary Road has been the most violent movie I've watched in ages. I think I could barely breathe throughout the movie.

Time to get the book.

Responsibility.

If there's one good reason for forking out the extra money for a faster internet connection, its so that I can see Jon's face again.

Daily Show's Jon Stewart Rips Into CNBC

Full, unedited clip here.

Jon took Mad Money's Jim Cramer to task for being, well, a shitty journalist. Since I can't stream the video, I made do with the transcript, which is just as spectacular.

STEWART: But isn't that part of the problem? Selling this idea that you don't have to do anything. Any time you sell people the idea that, sit back and you'll get 10 to 20 percent on your money, don't you always know that that's going to be a lie? When are we going to realize in this country that our wealth is work. That we're workers and by selling this idea that of, "Hey man, I'll teach you how to be rich." How is that any different than an infomercial?

CRAMER: Well, I think that your goal should always be to try to expose the fact that there is no easy money. I wish I had found Madoff...

STEWART: But there are literally shows called Fast Money.

CRAMER: I think that people... [Audience laughs] There's a market for it and you give it to them.

STEWART: There's a market for cocaine and hookers. What is the responsibility of the people who cover Wall Street? Who are you responsible to? The people with the 401ks and the pensions and the general public, or the Wall Street traders, and by the way this casts an aspersion on all of Wall Street when I know that's unfair as well. The majority of those guys are working their asses off. They're really bright guys. I know a lot of them. They're just trying to do the right thing and they're getting f--ed in the ass, too.

Whenever it feels as if the world's going to shit, and that there's no hope for the human race -- its good to know there are people like him around.

But Daniel Sinker at the Huffington Post makes a good point about the media coverage of the "showdown" -- the fact that American news outlets covered the spectacle of the interview, and not the point of the interview itself.


I also hope that some of the folks at the excellent Bangladeshi political blogs take a close look at the NY Times article summarizing Hasina's position post-mutiny. Some of the "facts" mentioned seemed dubious, but I lack the confidence and knowledge to make any claims. If my suspicions are correct, it wouldn't be the first time international newspapers get a little careless when they do reports on more "obscure" world events.

(Please don't tell me I should just be glad that the NYT covered it at all.)


Case in point: AP's coverage of yesterday's fire at Bashundhara City, contained a mistake in the very first sentence of the article which states: "A helicopter plucked survivors from the roof of Bangladesh's biggest shopping mall Friday..."

Now, unless my own eyes deceived me when I was watching the helicopter load ONE person from the roof, this reporter is being slightly careless with the use of plurals.

Holi

Having one of those very sombre days.

I didn't have as good a session as I'd hoped at Holi yesterday, because when we came back for Round 2, I was assaulted by a group of teenagers who very aggressively smeared the dye all over my face and someone's finger landed in my eye.

At least now I know that blue-coloured contacts don't suit my face.

So I was half-blind and just generally not in the mood after that. Still, it was a lot of fun. Round 1 -- only kids who couldn't wait till after lunch to get started -- had me laughing like crazy. The funniest bits were the adults who thought it would be a good idea to walk through the streets, only to end up drenched purple/blue/red.

I read an article somewhere before, about the etiquette of snowball fights, and how the rules don't apply when kids roam the streets on Christmas looking for victims. You're in their territory now - your authority means nothing on this day.




He's not posing. Just waiting for people to empty his bucket on.







Not happy with any of the photos. These will do.

Waking up early to shoot feels good. Sleepily good. Hope that the early morning light will make it easier for me to make some hard decisions.

YouTube and other media sharing sites has been blocked in Bangladesh because of an audio clip -- featuring Sheikh Hasina at a meeting with army officers after the mutiny.

Just listened to the clip (linked from the article above), and I'll have to wait to get someone to translate it for me, but I did manage to catch a few utterances of "suor baccha" which literally translates to "the child of a pig".

Anyway, as the author of the article linked above wrote: "For those of you who do not understand Bengali, shouting sounds the same in any language."

True.

Because I Can Be A Little Obsessive

Ok, so my heart stopped with jealousy when I saw this photo.


Is that a job I can apply for?

Found on I Can Has Cheezburger which I absolutely adore. I admit I haven't yet warmed up to Lolspeak, but it does have its moments.

Been on the site for the last couple of days. Housemate knew I liked cats, but I don't think he was aware of how much.

more animals