Feb
strong>Feb. 28, p9
During an impromptu visit to a number of traditional markets to check on rice prices, President Joko 'Jokowi' Widodo stopped by the bird market on Jl. Pramuka in East Jakarta on Saturday.
Jokowi bought 300 birds, including starlings and robins, as well as squirrels, which he plans to release at the State Palace on Jl. Merdeka Utara in Central Jakarta and the Bogor Presidential Palace in Bogor, West Java.
'I am looking for cheap starlings,' he said as quoted by kompas.com.
Your comments:
Supporting poachers doesn't seem like the best method for supporting an ecosystem.
Deddy K
It is akin to buying stolen property. It just fosters more theft. The way to achieve an functioning ecosystem is to plant trees and shrubs that sustain local wildlife. The wildlife will soon appear and settle into the ecosystem.
Jagera
He will need also to buy the birds small helmets as the traffic is so bad in Jakarta and they will hit each other while flying around. Honestly, they must find a solution to the traffic problem as soon as possible, one day soon it will be faster to walk that ride a motorcycle or car.
John Hoffmans
Irrespective of the quality of his degree two things are at play. He is trying to gain public support by cheap stunts. He is not busy enough dealing with the real issues.
Daddy
I doubt that Jokowi has any understanding of how ecosystems function. For starters, wild birds and other wild animals should be left in the forest. In Indonesia, the wildlife trade is, together with habitat destruction, the main driver of the extinction of species.
Jan Karl
I went to the bird market in Denpasar recently and saw dead birds in buckets that died overnight, birds of all kinds, monkeys on chains, magpies, cats, so sad.
Mitchell
One thing is for sure: hundreds of people will be hunting starlings in Puncak and Gunung Salak. I don't need a forestry degree to know that is not helping the ecosystem.
Kantisini
Buddhists release captured animals (especially birds) to redeem some positive karma and erase the sins we commit in this life and help set free others who have been trapped.
I hope more Jakartans help release people who are trapped in poverty like the street children of Jakarta, the prostitutes and even the drug addicts. Set them free by helping them.
Malam
Shouldn't a president be running a country that has massive problems instead of a PR exercise down in the market? This is what got him elected, so he trots off to take some more selfies. What a disappointment he is.
Suzanne
What a busy man. And after the market, gardening?
Sukajadi
What about the ecosystems in the rest of Indonesia that are already destroyed?
Farmer J
Within one week the birds will be all back in the market.
Brien
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