What did you do to celebrate World Pangolin Day? Well in the case of craft brewers TeTe, they decided to hold a facebook-led writing competition. The light-hearted competition with a serious message took off and hundreds of people commented on the link. All entries were considered and Tete gave generous prizes of their wonderful white Beer to the winners.
World Pangolin Day
Each year World Pangolin Day is celebrated on the third Saturday in February. This delightful creature is one of the world’s most trafficked animals. Once again we hear of a truly beautiful animal being driven almost extinction by man’s stupidity, superstition and arrogance. World Pangolin Day is an opportunity for lovers of the pangolin to get together, organise events and raise awareness. The numbers are declining rapidly throughout Asia and Africa. Unsurprisingly the demand for pangolin products once again comes from China. Some Chinese believe that the pangolin’s scales are a medical panacea whilst its flesh is a rare delicacy. As is often the case, rarity stimulates desire. Wealthy patrons will pay large some to tick the pangolin off their list. This beautiful and defenceless animal needs all our help.
The craft beer community in Saigon has been building up a solid reputation for both providing great product and also contributing to the fabric of Saigon live in a positive way. It is a pleasure to know these guys. They are all friends and all socialise in each other’s establishment and enjoy each other’s beers. In short, it’s a microcosm of what society should be like. Tete has built up a good reputation in the short time they have been around. They joined the stalwarts like Platinum and Pasteur Street Brewery and in turn, have been joined by the latest additions Winking Seal and East West Brewing Company.
The only brief that the writers was given was that they were strictly limited to 60 words. The entries good be a poem or just a piece of prose.The World Pangolin Day competition was in two categories, Vietnamese and English, and the full list of prize winners was as follows:
World Pangolin Day winners - English category
1. Far Fzn
2. Jeremy Gremillet
3. Zoe Osborne, Keith Hancock
World Pangolin Day winners - Vietnamese category
1. Loc Nguyen
2. Minh Nguyen
The overall winner in the English category, Far Fzn, effectively incorporated the plight of this beautiful endangered animal into his poem. Ymerej Tellimerg was more spiritual in his approach and captured the uniqueness of this strange mammal. Zoe Osborne went for a humorous yet pointed stab at the pangolin’s plight, whilst Keith Hancock went for almost Learian absurdity. It will be good to hear from our Vietnamese readers to explain the subject of the two Vietnamese writers.
Thanks to everyone at Tete for finding the time in their busy schedules to help raise awareness of the pangolin’s plight. Hopefully, World Pangolin Day will be even bigger next year. Well done to all the entrants and congratulations to the winners.
