Commander
08-Mar-2015, 08:42 PM
NSS is organising a national butterfly campaign. Whilst we in ButterflyCircle is not opposing their layman effort, we have articulated our reasons for not supporting them. This initiative was spearheaded by their Chairperson Anuj Jain.
Read my email to Anuj for our reasons... :)
----- Forwarded Message -----
From: Anuj Jain <anuj0001@gmail.com>
To: Khew SK <hexaglider@yahoo.com>
Cc: Amy Tsang <amy.tsang3@gmail.com>; Leong Kwok Peng <peng@edu-sg.org>
Sent: Tuesday, January 13, 2015 3:14 PM
Subject: Re: Singapore national butterfly campaign
Dear Khew,
Thanks for your detailed feedback. I appreciate all of it and the viewpoint of Butterfly Circle members.
Indeed it is an uphill task trying to get the government agencies to engage in this project. We recently had word with NParks who are fine with NSS running this project but do not feel they could endorse it right now.
With regards to the SG50 timing, in the end it is not an individual driving the project but Nature Society (Singapore) as a whole.
While I respect the comments you have shared from the high ranking government officer, there are different reasons for choosing a national symbol. India has the Bengal tiger as its national animal which doesn't mean that the Bengal tiger is exclusive to India. It is found in neighbouring countries as well. We are clearly explaining the rationale behind shortlisting six species. We also allow people to vote for any other butterfly found in Singapore if they wish to. After all the final vote is in the hands of Singaporeans. Its they who choose, not us.
In doing so, we do hope to bring about the message of conservation awareness.
Thanks for your wishes:)
Regards,
Anuj
On Jan 13, 2015, at 10:04 AM, Khew SK wrote:
Dear Anuj,
Thanks for your reminders. This campaign is your initiative and it's good that you're working hard at it.
Over the few months, I've had the opportunity to talk about this campaign to a number of people from govt, academia, other nature enthusiasts and of course, my own members at ButterflyCircle. Here are some of the feedback, in no particular order :
A National butterfly project should require official support from the govt or govt agencies. This is to give the named butterfly more coverage and official endorsement. Has Anuj approached the Ministry of Communications and Information (MCI) or the Singapore Tourism Board (STB) for support? Alternatively, some of the statutory boards like NParks or NEA would also lend some weight to any announcement of a national butterfly. Without government support, anyone or any organisation can claim to christen a "national butterfly or bird" and it will be ignored by government agencies and will remain just a "hobbyist initiative". I believe the earlier "national bird" exercise comes to mind. I was told that Jurong Bird Park named the Black Naped Oriole as the national bird, but NSS named the Crimson Sunbird as the national bird. When I asked some government agencies, their response was that "there is no national bird of Singapore".
As you've mentioned the timing of SG50 is possibly a good timing to name something "national". However, given the sensitivities of the current political climate in Singapore, anything that resonates with the national spirit should bear the hallmark of a true blue Singaporean. Social media is pretty unforgiving of FTs and non-Singaporeans these days on anything controversial, and something that resonates with the Singapore spirit will certainly attract quite a lot of attention. Something like this may backfire, if you do not feature the correct person leading it. Even a new citizen like me may not escape unscathed, so I'd prefer to avoid any sort of exposure of this sort.
The selection of species comes next, and there was a question from a high-ranking government officer to me - whether there are any butterfly species endemic to Singapore? If not, why would Singapore claim it as our national species if it occurs in our neighbouring countries? If there is official support, then there is a risk of bilateral spats if the other countries ridicule Singapore for naming a species that is not totally ours to begin with. Coming from the civil service, I can understand this very cautious sentiment, hence the point highlighted about getting government support for this campaign may be quite remote, if they take this into consideration.
When a local company approached me for some butterfly pictures for their season's greetings card recently, I submitted a few of my best shots of species that I thought would be attractive on a calendar or a card. The Common Rose, Common Birdwing, Common Tree Nymph and a few others were submitted. I was asked to resubmit other more "brightly coloured" species. When I asked why, the reply was that there was too much black in the species that I selected, and these were considered inappropriate, as too much black in the local community spells inauspiciousness. Somehow, when I tried to argue that this wasn't the case, the layman chose to decide otherwise, and ended up with the picture of a Plain Tiger and Peacock Pansy.
I appreciate your initiative to do this, but unless you can get a lot more support from government agencies, it will end up more as a "hobbyist or layman" project that will receive perhaps some temporary publicity, but then it gets forgotten and isn't worth the effort. Without any authority behind the naming of a national butterfly, other groups can later propose something else, and no one can dispute anything as it's just a case of one group of hobbyists versus another group.
The other members of ButterflyCircle are also quite lukewarm about the idea, and would prefer to just go along with enjoying butterfly photography and doing our own research quietly. We don't need this type of unnecessary publicity where public reaction in social media may be a double-edged sword.
You mentioned that you will be, or have approached NParks about this project. When I met them recently, they do not appear to know about this. Whilst doing the announcement at the Festival of Biodiversity is a good idea, I am not sure if you have managed to persuade NParks to do this, nor is any indication that they are agreeable.
These are some of the thoughts and feedback that I've gathered, and amongst our ButterflyCircle members, the vote is that we will stay out of this campaign. If there are other less potentially controversial projects that we can collaborate on, we can consider. But this campaign runs the risk of backfiring on us or, at best, end up as something that only a small group of people are excited about and for only a short period of time.
We wish you all the best in your endeavours.
Cheers.
From: Anuj <anuj0001@gmail.com>
To: Khew SK <hexaglider@yahoo.com>
Cc: Amy Tsang <amy.tsang3@gmail.com>; Leong Kwok Peng <peng@edu-sg.org>
Sent: Monday, January 12, 2015 12:58 PM
Subject: Re: Singapore national butterfly campaign
Dear Khew,
Hope you are well. I understand you might have been busy over past months, though this is my 4th email and a few sms reminders to you on this subject.
If you and Butterfly Circle have any feedback on the campaign, I would like to hear about it latest by 15th January after which we may not be able to incorporate them into the campaign design and content.
I am also going to email Horace seeking permission to use his butterfly life cycle videos for the campaign.
Happy new year again!
Best regards,
Anuj
> On 16 Dec 2014, at 9:25 pm, Anuj Jain <anuj0001@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> Khew,
> You might have been busy but wondering if you and Butterfly Circle has any feedback on the candidate species for the campaign? Please let us know by the 31st December if you guys have any feedback.
>
> Also, we are also in the process of developing an independent website for the campaign. Please could you also send me the Butterfly Circle logo to be featured on the website. We do value you guys as a valuable partner in the campaign.
>
> We are also in the process of discussing with NParks for feedback. Will update you as and when we hear from them.
>
> Lastly, we would love to have a butterfly life-cycle video on the campaign website. Horace's videos are just amazing and I was thinking if we can have Painted Jezebel or Common Rose/Birdwing video on the website. What do you think? Of course, we'll credit the contributors duly.
>
> Regards,
> Anuj
>
>
>
>> On Nov 24, 2014, at 5:28 PM, Anuj Jain wrote:
>>
>> Hi Khew,
>>
>> Wondering if you had time to speak with other Butterfly Circle friends about the campaign? Any opinions on the candidate species?
>> While we are working on other campaign details, hope we can come to an agreement on the shortlisted species first.
>>
>> I will be traveling overseas from tomorrow to Sunday but should have email access.
>>
>> Regards,
>> Anuj
>>
>>> On Nov 15, 2014, at 3:14 PM, Anuj Jain wrote:
>>>
>>> Dear Khew,
>>>
>>> Hope you are well. You would recall me mention about the national butterfly campaign couple of months ago. The public will be asked to vote for the national butterfly via an online voting system.
>>>
>>> Few updates -
>>> 1. BIG has tentatively selected 6 butterfly species as potential candidates for the national butterfly. These will be featured as experts' choice but members of public are free to vote for any species out of our 300 plus resident butterfly species.
>>>
>>> While shortlisting these 6 species, we started off with several criterion in mind - beauty, national colors, size, rarity and uniqueness. We were off the opinion that the national butterfly should be easy to spot and big enough for the public to appreciate and relate to, hence it shouldn't be one that is too rare or highly restricted to deep forests.
>>>
>>> In the end, we shortlisted the following - Painted jezebel, Common Birdwing, Common Rose, Common Tiger, Common Tree Nymph and Knight.
>>>
>>> Each has a short story to tell.
>>>
>>> Briefly speaking, Painted Jezebel is a high flyer, found in multiple habitats and represents resilience; Common Birdwing being big and showy; Common Rose has red and white, is graceful and has goes with the story that its well being (along with Common Birdwing) in Singapore largely depends on human assisted planting of its food plants; Common Tiger is graceful, uncommon and its native hosts being coastal climbers reminds us of the importance of protecting coastal vegetation and managing our coastlines in general; Common Tree Nymph is big and graceful and highlights the need for protecting forests; and finally Knight with Singapore near-endemic parkeri subspecies highlights the uniqueness of species in Singapore.
>>>
>>> 2. We have already developed a voting module with the help of our website developer and are now coming up with a dedicated website for the campaign. We felt having an independent website for the campaign will make it easier to vote and will be better for groups and organizations to come together for this cause.
>>>
>>> 3. We have already discussed with PUB and the campaign voting will be flagged off at World Water Day on 21st March. We plan to keep the voting on for 3 months, with results to be announced at the NParks Biodiversity festival. With all this happening at SG50, it will resonate with the national spirit. I have yet to discuss the details with NParks but have informed them in principle.
>>>
>>> Khew, I hope we can work together on this cause. Would really like you guys to get involved.
>>>
>>> Would also really appreciate any inputs on above shortlisted species. If you have other suggestions, I am happy to consider and incorporate them.
>>> Lastly, Amy Tsang whom you might have met, is coordinating aspects of the campaign with me. She is copied in the email.
>>>
>>> Regards,
>>> Anuj
>
Read my email to Anuj for our reasons... :)
----- Forwarded Message -----
From: Anuj Jain <anuj0001@gmail.com>
To: Khew SK <hexaglider@yahoo.com>
Cc: Amy Tsang <amy.tsang3@gmail.com>; Leong Kwok Peng <peng@edu-sg.org>
Sent: Tuesday, January 13, 2015 3:14 PM
Subject: Re: Singapore national butterfly campaign
Dear Khew,
Thanks for your detailed feedback. I appreciate all of it and the viewpoint of Butterfly Circle members.
Indeed it is an uphill task trying to get the government agencies to engage in this project. We recently had word with NParks who are fine with NSS running this project but do not feel they could endorse it right now.
With regards to the SG50 timing, in the end it is not an individual driving the project but Nature Society (Singapore) as a whole.
While I respect the comments you have shared from the high ranking government officer, there are different reasons for choosing a national symbol. India has the Bengal tiger as its national animal which doesn't mean that the Bengal tiger is exclusive to India. It is found in neighbouring countries as well. We are clearly explaining the rationale behind shortlisting six species. We also allow people to vote for any other butterfly found in Singapore if they wish to. After all the final vote is in the hands of Singaporeans. Its they who choose, not us.
In doing so, we do hope to bring about the message of conservation awareness.
Thanks for your wishes:)
Regards,
Anuj
On Jan 13, 2015, at 10:04 AM, Khew SK wrote:
Dear Anuj,
Thanks for your reminders. This campaign is your initiative and it's good that you're working hard at it.
Over the few months, I've had the opportunity to talk about this campaign to a number of people from govt, academia, other nature enthusiasts and of course, my own members at ButterflyCircle. Here are some of the feedback, in no particular order :
A National butterfly project should require official support from the govt or govt agencies. This is to give the named butterfly more coverage and official endorsement. Has Anuj approached the Ministry of Communications and Information (MCI) or the Singapore Tourism Board (STB) for support? Alternatively, some of the statutory boards like NParks or NEA would also lend some weight to any announcement of a national butterfly. Without government support, anyone or any organisation can claim to christen a "national butterfly or bird" and it will be ignored by government agencies and will remain just a "hobbyist initiative". I believe the earlier "national bird" exercise comes to mind. I was told that Jurong Bird Park named the Black Naped Oriole as the national bird, but NSS named the Crimson Sunbird as the national bird. When I asked some government agencies, their response was that "there is no national bird of Singapore".
As you've mentioned the timing of SG50 is possibly a good timing to name something "national". However, given the sensitivities of the current political climate in Singapore, anything that resonates with the national spirit should bear the hallmark of a true blue Singaporean. Social media is pretty unforgiving of FTs and non-Singaporeans these days on anything controversial, and something that resonates with the Singapore spirit will certainly attract quite a lot of attention. Something like this may backfire, if you do not feature the correct person leading it. Even a new citizen like me may not escape unscathed, so I'd prefer to avoid any sort of exposure of this sort.
The selection of species comes next, and there was a question from a high-ranking government officer to me - whether there are any butterfly species endemic to Singapore? If not, why would Singapore claim it as our national species if it occurs in our neighbouring countries? If there is official support, then there is a risk of bilateral spats if the other countries ridicule Singapore for naming a species that is not totally ours to begin with. Coming from the civil service, I can understand this very cautious sentiment, hence the point highlighted about getting government support for this campaign may be quite remote, if they take this into consideration.
When a local company approached me for some butterfly pictures for their season's greetings card recently, I submitted a few of my best shots of species that I thought would be attractive on a calendar or a card. The Common Rose, Common Birdwing, Common Tree Nymph and a few others were submitted. I was asked to resubmit other more "brightly coloured" species. When I asked why, the reply was that there was too much black in the species that I selected, and these were considered inappropriate, as too much black in the local community spells inauspiciousness. Somehow, when I tried to argue that this wasn't the case, the layman chose to decide otherwise, and ended up with the picture of a Plain Tiger and Peacock Pansy.
I appreciate your initiative to do this, but unless you can get a lot more support from government agencies, it will end up more as a "hobbyist or layman" project that will receive perhaps some temporary publicity, but then it gets forgotten and isn't worth the effort. Without any authority behind the naming of a national butterfly, other groups can later propose something else, and no one can dispute anything as it's just a case of one group of hobbyists versus another group.
The other members of ButterflyCircle are also quite lukewarm about the idea, and would prefer to just go along with enjoying butterfly photography and doing our own research quietly. We don't need this type of unnecessary publicity where public reaction in social media may be a double-edged sword.
You mentioned that you will be, or have approached NParks about this project. When I met them recently, they do not appear to know about this. Whilst doing the announcement at the Festival of Biodiversity is a good idea, I am not sure if you have managed to persuade NParks to do this, nor is any indication that they are agreeable.
These are some of the thoughts and feedback that I've gathered, and amongst our ButterflyCircle members, the vote is that we will stay out of this campaign. If there are other less potentially controversial projects that we can collaborate on, we can consider. But this campaign runs the risk of backfiring on us or, at best, end up as something that only a small group of people are excited about and for only a short period of time.
We wish you all the best in your endeavours.
Cheers.
From: Anuj <anuj0001@gmail.com>
To: Khew SK <hexaglider@yahoo.com>
Cc: Amy Tsang <amy.tsang3@gmail.com>; Leong Kwok Peng <peng@edu-sg.org>
Sent: Monday, January 12, 2015 12:58 PM
Subject: Re: Singapore national butterfly campaign
Dear Khew,
Hope you are well. I understand you might have been busy over past months, though this is my 4th email and a few sms reminders to you on this subject.
If you and Butterfly Circle have any feedback on the campaign, I would like to hear about it latest by 15th January after which we may not be able to incorporate them into the campaign design and content.
I am also going to email Horace seeking permission to use his butterfly life cycle videos for the campaign.
Happy new year again!
Best regards,
Anuj
> On 16 Dec 2014, at 9:25 pm, Anuj Jain <anuj0001@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> Khew,
> You might have been busy but wondering if you and Butterfly Circle has any feedback on the candidate species for the campaign? Please let us know by the 31st December if you guys have any feedback.
>
> Also, we are also in the process of developing an independent website for the campaign. Please could you also send me the Butterfly Circle logo to be featured on the website. We do value you guys as a valuable partner in the campaign.
>
> We are also in the process of discussing with NParks for feedback. Will update you as and when we hear from them.
>
> Lastly, we would love to have a butterfly life-cycle video on the campaign website. Horace's videos are just amazing and I was thinking if we can have Painted Jezebel or Common Rose/Birdwing video on the website. What do you think? Of course, we'll credit the contributors duly.
>
> Regards,
> Anuj
>
>
>
>> On Nov 24, 2014, at 5:28 PM, Anuj Jain wrote:
>>
>> Hi Khew,
>>
>> Wondering if you had time to speak with other Butterfly Circle friends about the campaign? Any opinions on the candidate species?
>> While we are working on other campaign details, hope we can come to an agreement on the shortlisted species first.
>>
>> I will be traveling overseas from tomorrow to Sunday but should have email access.
>>
>> Regards,
>> Anuj
>>
>>> On Nov 15, 2014, at 3:14 PM, Anuj Jain wrote:
>>>
>>> Dear Khew,
>>>
>>> Hope you are well. You would recall me mention about the national butterfly campaign couple of months ago. The public will be asked to vote for the national butterfly via an online voting system.
>>>
>>> Few updates -
>>> 1. BIG has tentatively selected 6 butterfly species as potential candidates for the national butterfly. These will be featured as experts' choice but members of public are free to vote for any species out of our 300 plus resident butterfly species.
>>>
>>> While shortlisting these 6 species, we started off with several criterion in mind - beauty, national colors, size, rarity and uniqueness. We were off the opinion that the national butterfly should be easy to spot and big enough for the public to appreciate and relate to, hence it shouldn't be one that is too rare or highly restricted to deep forests.
>>>
>>> In the end, we shortlisted the following - Painted jezebel, Common Birdwing, Common Rose, Common Tiger, Common Tree Nymph and Knight.
>>>
>>> Each has a short story to tell.
>>>
>>> Briefly speaking, Painted Jezebel is a high flyer, found in multiple habitats and represents resilience; Common Birdwing being big and showy; Common Rose has red and white, is graceful and has goes with the story that its well being (along with Common Birdwing) in Singapore largely depends on human assisted planting of its food plants; Common Tiger is graceful, uncommon and its native hosts being coastal climbers reminds us of the importance of protecting coastal vegetation and managing our coastlines in general; Common Tree Nymph is big and graceful and highlights the need for protecting forests; and finally Knight with Singapore near-endemic parkeri subspecies highlights the uniqueness of species in Singapore.
>>>
>>> 2. We have already developed a voting module with the help of our website developer and are now coming up with a dedicated website for the campaign. We felt having an independent website for the campaign will make it easier to vote and will be better for groups and organizations to come together for this cause.
>>>
>>> 3. We have already discussed with PUB and the campaign voting will be flagged off at World Water Day on 21st March. We plan to keep the voting on for 3 months, with results to be announced at the NParks Biodiversity festival. With all this happening at SG50, it will resonate with the national spirit. I have yet to discuss the details with NParks but have informed them in principle.
>>>
>>> Khew, I hope we can work together on this cause. Would really like you guys to get involved.
>>>
>>> Would also really appreciate any inputs on above shortlisted species. If you have other suggestions, I am happy to consider and incorporate them.
>>> Lastly, Amy Tsang whom you might have met, is coordinating aspects of the campaign with me. She is copied in the email.
>>>
>>> Regards,
>>> Anuj
>