Fire and Fury Might Have to Wait for the Next Lifetime
Posted on 25. Jun, 2010 by Paul Sochaczewski in Articles, Golf
The Indian Army controls the world’s highest golf course, bringing a surprising set of challenges LEH, Ladakh, India I thought it might be the altitude that would get to me, but it turned out to be military bureaucracy. Since my first visit in 1979 I had wanted to play golf in Ladakh, an isolated corner […]
Read MoreMove Over Scotland: China Invented Golf
Posted on 25. Jun, 2010 by Paul Sochaczewski in Articles, Golf
And it’s coming home to the Middle Kingdom HONG KONG, On the outskirts of the Middle Kingdom The Scots never knew what hit them. Everyone knows that these sturdy northerners invented golf. After all, the first written record about golf comes from 1457, when King James II banned the game because his subjects preferred it […]
Read MoreHow Green are Your Greens
Posted on 25. Jun, 2010 by Paul Sochaczewski in Articles, Golf
Asia’s golf courses face an environmental challenge BANGKOK, Thailand I play golf. And I am committed to nature conservation. Is this an insolvable conundrum, or can the two passions be reconciled? “Golf development is becoming one of the most unsustainable and damaging activities to people and the environment,” notes Chee Yoke Ling, environment coordinator of […]
Read MoreThis Guy is a Natural
Posted on 25. Jun, 2010 by Paul Sochaczewski in Articles, Golf
The world’s greatest golfer? Hint: He rolled a perfect game the first time he tried bowling ECHENEVEX, France In the cosmos of golfing role models, the hero-of-heros might seem a touch unlikely. But this man had one brief shining golfing experience that was Camelot-like in its brilliance. That golfer was Kim Il Sung, president of […]
Read MoreZen Shrine Helps Duffers Answer Cosmic Question: Why Can’t I Putt?
Posted on 25. Jun, 2010 by Paul Sochaczewski in Articles, Golf
Japanese monk invokes Goddess of Holes-in-One ANNAKA, Japan Golfers, Lord knows, seem to need more spiritual guidance then practitioners of other sports. How else could you explain the almost-religious-like belief duffers will place in a Heaven Wood, or the way they mumble the mantra “Tetrachaidecohedron dimple pattern” in order to ensure that they will not […]
Read MoreShooting Orangutans and Pondering the Universe
Posted on 25. Jun, 2010 by Paul Sochaczewski in Alfred Russel Wallace and his assistant Ali, Articles
Alfred Russel Wallace spent 18 lonely months in Sarawak, writing the precursor to his theory of evolution. SANTUBONG, Sarawak, Malaysia Different people react to solitude in different ways. Some people converse with demons and angels. Some folks become truly, giggling-at-midnight mad. Some find enlightenment. And once in a while a guy who spends too many […]
Read MoreWhy Travel Far?
Posted on 25. Jun, 2010 by Paul Sochaczewski in Alfred Russel Wallace and his assistant Ali, Articles
Wallace’s rite of passage and the teenage imperative BATANG AI, Sarawak, Malaysia Why travel far (and treacherously), leaving behind comfort, friends and security? This question turned in my mind as I looked for orangutans while following the trail of Alfred Russel Wallace, who travelled some 22,400 kilometers in the Malay Archipelago from 1854 to 1862. […]
Read MoreThe Man with Pins in His Lungs
Posted on 25. Jun, 2010 by Paul Sochaczewski in Alfred Russel Wallace and his assistant Ali, Articles
After dinner in Sulawesi, chatting with a man who speaks with Moses BOGANI NANI WARTABONE NATIONAL PARK, Sulawesi Over the grilled fish I asked about spirits. We were eating lunch in a simple warung outside Bogani Nani Wartabone National Park in north Sulawesi. I sensed that my companions had tales to tell. Endie’s father was […]
Read MoreThe Literate Orangutan
Posted on 25. Jun, 2010 by Paul Sochaczewski in Alfred Russel Wallace and his assistant Ali, Articles
Trying to teach a red ape to write SEPILOK, Sabah, Malaysia What if we could communicate with other species? What could an orangutan tell us about her life, about her emotions when her rainforest is chopped down, about the rascally behavior of randy adolescent male orangutans? * * * * * I’ve seen orangutans in […]
Read MoreWho Gets Credit, Who Takes Credit, for Changing the World?
Posted on 25. Jun, 2010 by Paul Sochaczewski in Alfred Russel Wallace and his assistant Ali, Articles
Did Darwin steal from Wallace? Attributing glory can be a tricky business TERNATE, Indonesia Who gets credit, and who takes credit, for changing the world? July 1, 1858 was a modest news day in mid-19th century London. Thirty-nine year old Queen Victoria went horseback riding, Madame Tussaud announced a wax image of United States President […]
Read MoreDreaming of Malthus
Posted on 25. Jun, 2010 by Paul Sochaczewski in Alfred Russel Wallace and his assistant Ali, Articles
During a malarial fit, Alfred Russel Wallace has his eureka moment about natural selection TERNATE, Indonesia The economic theory of Thomas Malthus isn’t what most people suffering a malaria delusion would dream about. But Alfred Russel Wallace, the sweaty patient in question, wasn’t a humdrum guy. * * * * * Here’s what transpired. Alfred […]
Read MoreBruno and the Blowpipes
Posted on 25. Jun, 2010 by Paul Sochaczewski in Articles, Environment
Who will determine the future of Sarawak’s isolated Penan? BAREO, Sarawak, Malaysia Bruno Manser has disappeared in Borneo and is feared dead. Manser, 47, was last seen in May 2000 in the isolated village of Bareo in the Malaysian state of Sarawak, close to the border with Indonesia. The Swiss had illegally entered Sarawak to […]
Read MoreGod’s Own Pharmacies
Posted on 25. Jun, 2010 by Paul Sochaczewski in Articles, Environment
Asia’s sacred groves survive because they provide spiritual and practical benefits; with thanks to a flying monkey god KERALA, India Who has the answers to conservation conundrums? Goverments with their laws, or local people with their traditions? As a conservationist I have spent years encouraging governments to establish protected areas through legislation. Unfortunately, many modern […]
Read MoreWatch What You Say in Burma’s Sacred Forests
Posted on 25. Jun, 2010 by Paul Sochaczewski in Articles, Environment
What’s a more powerful conservation incentive – a government jail or a spiritual punishment? ZEE O THIT HLA, Myanmar Myint Naing has one of the easier jobs in the Myanmar forestry department. Since 1999 his task has been to protect the Zee-O Thit-Hla sacred forest, which has been a government forest reserve since 1988. No […]
Read MoreReligions on the Wing
Posted on 25. Jun, 2010 by Paul Sochaczewski in Articles, Environment
Everyone in Irian Jaya wants a piece of Zakarias’s soul MINYAMBOU, Irian Jaya. When the fundamentalist Baptist missionaries in this isolated valley in Irian Jaya now West Papua] asked for contributions to build a new church, Zakarias chipped in with the most valuable thing he could find — a bird of paradise. The irony of […]
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