LANANG
by
NICHOLAS NICOLA
Copyright © 2012 Nicholas Nicola
Black Fez Press Smashwords Edition.
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Book cover design by the author. The photo was taken by him at an orang utang rehabilitation centre near Kuching which is the capital of the East Malaysian province in Borneo known as Sarawak.
For Lanang and all other orang utangs who have suffered.*
TABLE OF CONTENTS
1 - Gathering Clouds
2 - First Rains
3 - Stormy Weather
4 - Strong Winds
5- Clearing Skies
LANANG
by
Nicholas Nicola
Chapter 1
GATHERING CLOUDS
‘The ‘Great Leader’ has doubts.’
Lanang eyed the others and wondered if they would succeed; it had been a long time since he had persuaded his friends to become resistance fighters. However, it was too late now to back out of this mission. In the darkness Lanang looked into the wide open eyes of his friends and sensed their total confidence in him.
Still. All was still. It was the well-known calm before the coming storm. ‘They look so innocent...’ A sigh. In the silence Lanang cast his mind back to when it all began.
‘The Phantom Agents!’
The future leader watched television with the Dayak boy Aladdin. Soldiers with netted motorcycle helmets and samurai swords were jumping out of a big station wagon. They were modern day ninjas who were the good guys. These fighters for justice were skilfully using star-shaped knives hidden up the sleeves of their leather jackets. The ninjas were attacking an evil gang of black clothed gunmen who were holding hostages for ransom in a factory. “What’s this show?” signed Lanang.
“Phantom Agents.” signalled Aladdin. “It’s a Japanese children’s program from the 1960s.”
“They look like they’re wearing pineapples on their heads!” Lanang laughed as he waved his hands while communicating with them. “I like the moon badges on the front of their helmets!”
“Each phantom agent is named after a phase of the moon.” explained Aladdin who was now moving his hands very quickly. “They are fighting other ninjas from an evil organisation called the Black Flag.”
The very curious orang utang viewer also liked the use of the star knives. He copied the action by rubbing the palm of his hand in quick strokes over his other palm. Aladdin laughed. “That’s good! I guess you have the perfect hands for it! You should show the others!”
“I should!” thought Lanang.
The evil gunmen did not know where the star knives were coming from so they shot blindly at their hidden foe. One by one the gunmen were wounded. The bad guys were also jumped on from above by the good guys who could climb along the ceiling beams.
Lanang saw that the phantom agents tried very hard not to kill their enemy; it was seen as a last resort to use a gun - only to be done if it couldn’t be avoided. Life was important.
Now a surprise attack by some other phantom agents who had been hiding behind a big cloth with a brick pattern; it had made them invisible against a brick factory wall. Finally, the last bad men run off scared – they thought ghosts had been against them! The injured criminals who could not escape were captured and tied up together with a big rope. The Phantom Agents would find the other criminals later. No one would escape justice and the caught kidnappers would go to court to face prison when they were proven guilty of their terrible crimes. There is a happy final scene when the small group of civilian hostages are freed; with big smiles on their faces they thank their modest heroes.
Aladdin turned the television off. “You want a banana?”
Lanang nodded. After handing over the banana Aladdin stared out of a window. The boy lived with his parents and sister on the edge of a Borneo rainforest. The weather was very tropical so it was no surprise that on a very hot afternoon it looked as if it was about to rain. “I think you might get wet going home.” Lanang eyed the grey sky. He knew it would be possible to stay dry while going through the rainforest by keeping under the thick high brush of the trees. Lanang waved his hand at Aladdin to signal there would be no problem. “Whatever you reckon.” smiled Aladdin. “You know the rainforest better than me.” Lanang went down a ladder outside the longhouse that was set on high narrow stilts. Lanang liked to use the ladder rather than the house steps as it was quicker for him to go up and down.
Aladdin said goodbye to his best friend as he watched him go into the thick rainforest. Lanang cheerfully waved back. One thing was for certain: the two teenagers knew each other very well. It was a special friendship.
‘The murder of Lanang’s mother.’
When Lanang was still a boy his mother had been shot and killed by two bad men. Lanang could still remember his mother pushing him into the thick overhanging branches of the next tree just before her big body tumbled down onto the floor of the rainforest. Lanang looked down to see two men with a brown sack run up to his mother who was crying. Lanang wanted to jump down and be with her. Yet, he knew what he had to do; his mother was very ‘jungle wise’ and had prepared Lanang for this horrible moment. Sadly, she was aware that one day it would come.
Lanang was told to stay well hidden and to not make a sound. The bad men would kill her and go after him. They wanted him alive. She wasn’t sure why but baby orang utangs mattered a lot to these evil men.
Lanang’s mother when she was only a girl herself had seen from the edge of a clearing some other baby orang utangs placed in a wooden box. It had been put on the back of a truck that had driven away. Lanang’s mother with her mother had then seen the fly covered bodies of several dead mothers on the floor underbrush of the rainforest. It had been a slaughter. To make this dreadful scene worse was that some of the body parts of these dead mothers were missing. One was beheaded. “A body with a missing head is a truly terrible sight...” Lanang’s mother had stated with tears welling up in her eyes as this nightmare childhood memory was recalled. Lanang’s mother had cuddled tightly to her mother while they saw the bullet holes in the bodies of the dead mothers; both had wondered about the loud bangs and the blood curdling screams that had led them to come over to this part of the rainforest. Alas, it was fearfully understood that it had to do with this massacre. After seeing all this senseless death mother and daughter had then gone deep inside the rainforest to make sure no men could hurt them.
Yet, as the years passed and Lanang’s mother grew up to have her own children she noticed that what had once been the heart of the rainforest was now itself becoming an edge. The rainforest was being cut down. The day would arrive when it would be near impossible to hide from the evil doings of men.
‘Lanang outsmarts the poachers.’
That evil day had come. Lanang’s dying mother lay on her back. Her whimpering had stopped. She was breathing heavily. With her head slightly tilted she was looking wide-eyed up at the trees to see her son. Her eyebrows moved up and down ever so slightly signalling to Lanang to stay hidden. As much as it went against every loyal instinct in his young body Lanang obeyed his mother. In Lanang’s hand was a small hard fruit which he had wanted to throw at the two men who now prodded his mother with their rifles. They had expected to find Lanang in her arms.
When it was clear the young orang utang was not on the ground the two men looked up. They were smiling as well as yelling up at the tree for Lanang to come down. One of the men took out a banana from a daypack and waved it skywards. However, Lanang’s ‘friends’ were looking up the wrong tree. Lanang was in the next one and he realised that the two men could not see him. Although only the sides of the faces of these two murderers could be seen Lanang knew he would always remember what they looked like. Both men were very fit; one man was tall with a very thick moustache while the other was slightly shorter with a deep scar on the right side of his face and a black eye patch over his right eye. It looked as if a jungle tiger had scratched him. Despite their assured look it was clear to this clever primate child that these overconfident men were only guessing as to where he was. Lanang’s mother also realised this and relieved to know her son would be safe she heaved her last breath. The man with the big moustache looked down at Lanang’s mother. He kicked her to be sure she was dead. He then looked up at the trees and then kicked her again. Again. Again. The man was hoping Lanang would get very angry and in some way give away his position. Nothing. Both men stopped smiling. The banana was thrown onto the ground and the rifles were raised. Lanang kept his cool. He stayed perfectly still.
After a few minutes of this ‘jungle stand-off’ the two men started to angrily shout curses. BANG! Another shot from the other rifle: BANG! If the two men could not capture Lanang then they would kill him for fun. Thankfully, they shot at the wrong tree. The two men again cursed when nothing fell down. Looking back at Lanang’s mother they cut off a hand with a machete then walked away. “We may get a good price for this off a tourist at the market.”
‘Lanang pays his last respects.’
Lanang stayed in the tree for many hours; looking down all that time at his dear dead, mother who now only had one hand. He did not cry. He was silent. He was not scared. He was angry. He wanted to avenge his mother’s death. However, for now his respect for his mother was so great he did what he had to do to stay free – for her sake. His mother had told him that the men would pretend that they had gone away and then grab him when he came down to mourn her dead body. It was true. After half an hour the two men had suddenly appeared to have another look up the wrong tree. They even checked the banana and saw that it had not been touched. “Too bad.” said one of the men as he put the banana back into his daypack next to a medical kit with syringe needles. “The sleeping mixture we syringed into this banana would have worked so well.”
The cruel men went away. Lanang would wait until nightfall before taking the risk to climb down. His mother had told him to get away from the death scene as quickly as possible but Lanang had to touch his mother one more time. She was brave. He wanted to ‘feel’ her spirit. He wanted her spirit to be his spirit too. Luckily, no large animal like a tiger had come along to bite pieces out of his mother. Luckily also no other of his kind had come as well to face being attacked by the men. (Although, in the distance, there had been another rifle shot, and Lanang feared that maybe another tragedy for another orang utang family had happened).
Night. A full moon was shining as Lanang quietly climbed down from his ‘tree of life’ and hugged his mother. He slept. In the morning, heartbroken, Lanang left his mother where she lay after covering her body with a few leaves, twigs and small branches. The sad son went into the rainforest to find food. Even though he had no appetite it was what his mother would have wanted him to do. Lanang was nearly eight years old and soon he would have left his mother to start an independent life. Lanang had never known his father and so his mother had taught him how to make his daily sleeping nest as well as showing him the hundreds of fruits and plants which could be used for food, tools and medicine.
Lanang would survive but the deep distress of losing his mother had left him very sad. The will to live was not really there and again it was only out of respect for his mother that he went on with the motions of life. This depressed state of mind was like post-traumatic stress and explained the careless way Lanang moved across the top of the forest. This unhappy primate would not always check that the next vine he would use to transport his growing body could hold his weight. Thus, to his great shock, Lanang one day tumbled out of the trees when the vine he was swinging on had snapped. Landing on top of a bush softened Lanang’s fall but his foot had banged against its tough trunk to badly sprain his ankle. Lanang had enough sense to climb to the top of the bush to keep away from any big animal that may want him for lunch. Orang utangs had learnt over thousands of years that the higher up they were the less chance they could be hunted and eaten. The pain in his ankle was so bad he could not climb back up to the rainforest roof until the throbbing had stopped.
‘Lanang is adopted by Mr Aladdin’s family.’
A loud, rustling noise. ‘Oh no! Could be a tiger!’ Lanang couldn’t climb up a neighbouring small tree as the pain in his ankle was too great. “I’m done for!” His disquiet grew when he saw the threat was far worse than a tiger: a human boy and man were approaching. “LOOK father!” pointed the boy. “A hurt orang utang!” Lanang was holding his leg; the frightened look on his face made it clear he was in trouble. “Wait here Aladdin,” stated the father. “No need to be scared lad,” kindly said the father to Lanang. “I’m not a poacher who is going to harm you.” Unluckily for Aladdin’s father despite the calm tone in his voice an immobile Lanang could only think of defending himself: he tried to poke the father’s eyes with a long stick. “NOW! NOW!” laughed Aladdin’s father. “I’m no giant who is going to eat you!” Although Lanang was trying to blind him the father well understood why the young orang utang thought that a human being could not be trusted. “Aladdin! Come over here!”
“Yes, father?”
“This brave warrior won’t let me come any closer. You’re much smaller than me. So you are not as scary. Boys will be boys so they say. Sit here and just smile at him. Let him feel he can relax. I’m going back to the house to fetch some ointment for his leg.”
Lanang saw the man walk away and watched the boy sit down near him and smile. ‘What were they up too – these tricky humans?’ Maybe the boy was a distraction and he would be caught from behind. Lanang quickly turned his head - and half his body around with it - but could see nobody. ‘OUCH!’ His quick body movement increased the pain. ‘OH NO!’ Lanang could feel the boy’s hand on his hand! Lanang had let down his guard and dropped his stick to grab his sore ankle. The boy now had his hand on top of Lanang’s hand and it could only mean he would be grabbed from the bush to be taken prisoner. Lanang was about to pull the boy’s hand away with his free hand but his instincts suddenly told him there would be no need. To this day Lanang is not sure what stopped him from slamming Aladdin’s hand to then punch the boy in the face but he did notice that the boy had softly put his hand on top of his hand; as if to gently signal that he did care about Lanang.
The injured orang utang took a chance and let Aladdin hold his hand. It felt reassuring. Lanang calmed down. Maybe he wouldn’t be dragged off to a cage. The man came back and Lanang could see that he had a small white tube in his hand and from it came the smell of ointment which to Lanang was similar to the ‘bush medicine’ he would use. ‘Were these humans actually going to help him?’ It seemed unthinkable. Yet, it was true! The father rubbed the ointment on Lanang’s ankle to help soothe the pain. Trust had replaced suspicion so Lanang ‘allowed’ the man and boy to take him back to their home where they could bandage his sprained ankle. Lanang met the mother and Calypso who was Aladdin’s younger sister. The family would take care of Lanang until his ankle was well again.
‘Mr Aladdin the learned scholar.’
“Our little Odysseus.” joked the father. This poor Dayak farmer had no formal education but when the missionaries arrived they had taught him to read and write by using the Holy Bible and books by some of the world’s great writers. (Odysseus was an Ancient Greek hero who had many adventures in his ten years of travel to go back home to his island Ithaca after the Trojan War had ended; his eventful journey was recorded by Homer). The missionaries had now gone to be replaced by ungodly businessmen who came only to make money by cutting down the rainforest until it would be no more. The tribal people - along with the rainforest and all the animals in it - also faced losing everything. Thus Lanang was amongst friends who saw him as someone that was also suffering from the misfortunes that had befallen the land.
‘What the Dayaks believe.’
As animists the Dayak Iban people believed a strong life spirit or semengut was within all humans, animals and plants. All life was to be respected. Thus the damage that was happening to plants, animals and people was sickening the very soul of the planet. These former head hunters still believed that where they lived was very special. What lay beyond the land of the Dayaks was only chaos which had to be kept away. The Dayaks worshipped the Sun known as Mahatala for it was the male part of the Supreme Being who ruled over them while an Underworld known as Jata was the female half of their God. The Dayaks knew Jata as a water snake that circled itself around biting its tail so as to make a sacred mandala. Jata lay on the waters running between the Upperworld and the Underworld. From the top of sacred mountains the Dayaks worshipped the Supreme Being who made the world from the Sun and Moon. The End Days would be due to human failings. It was easy to believe that while the rainforest continued to be logged the world would soon be no more. After the universe had disappeared only a young woman would be left and - hidden in a rock or tree - she would represent the underworld.
‘Lanang learns about the Dayak world.’
One day Aladdin explained the Dayak beliefs to Lanang. The young orang utang would wonder if this mysterious female was a symbol of life that could once again come out from inside the earth. ‘Who was to say...’ Lanang hopefully thought ‘...that she be a wise female orang utang like my mother? In that case she will hide in a tree!’ Lanang would also learn that the good land of the Dayaks was on the back of the water snake. He was not sure how true this was but what was certain was the world beyond where the Dayaks lived was filled with terror. After all, it was from this outside hell came the evil men who were destroying the sacred land of the Dayaks and the orang utangs. After death a Dayak soul would go on a boat that drifted along a river that peacefully took the dead person to the Upperworld. (Some orang utangs had mastered paddling with canoes by watching the humans travel this way on the waterways). ‘I must try to save the rainforest which is heaven on earth!’
‘Mr Aladdin remembers a very sad orphan.’
The father had much sympathy for Lanang for when he was a young man he had come across an orphan boy orang utang holding a stick at a small rehabilitation centre. For his own protection the orang utang was in a wire cage as it was genuinely feared that if this mentally damaged primate went outside he would hurt himself.
The young Dayak man was amazed to see a kind monkey befriend the sad orphan and give him some seeds to eat and keep him company. There was a true concern being displayed here and it was needed as the young orang utang kept wildly rocking his whole body to and fro in a highly emotional distressed state.
Mr Aladdin had approached the unhappy primate who stopped rocking his body. With the red-brown tinge in his mainly black hair the young Mr Aladdin understood that the boy orang utang had in desperation viewed him as a father figure. Standing so close to him the ‘father’ saw that his ‘son’ was a little happy. The young Mr Aladdin had to go home but after moving two steps away from the cage the most despairing high pitched crying sound came out of the young male orang utang’s mouth. Mr Aladdin was shocked by this loud sad shout as he thought orang utangs were normally quiet. Two steps back to the son. Peace. Two steps away. Screaming. Two steps back. Perfect silence. Two steps away. Howling. Two steps back. Tranquillity.
Many minutes passed...still no crying.
Mr Aladdin steeled himself. He had to go home or his parents would be very worried. Nightfall was fast approaching. ‘Trust my luck there are no other visitors around.’ Mr Aladdin took a deep breath and walked away from the very distressed orang utang who sensed something was not right: he stretched out his hand through the thin wire cage to grab his ‘prodigal father.’ Tears. Such crying was unbearable to watch let alone listen too. Mr Aladdin walked firmly straight ahead to reach the exit of the rehabilitation centre that was only manned by a couple of government rangers. (It seemed the few orang utangs in this centre were only kept here until they could be moved to a larger friendlier place).
Mr Aladdin could never forget the heartbreaking crying of this young male orang utang whom he had ‘left behind’. As the caring teenager walked down the road outside the young orang utang’s high pitched crying eerily wafted down to him. It was very sad and the boy was very upset.
The appearance of Lanang would help Mr Aladdin the man to find a sort of personal happy outcome to overcome what was a sad boyhood memory. The mistreatment of the orang utangs was not of his making but he felt he should do more to rally people to petition the government to save the orang utangs and the rainforest. Orang utangs would be captured so they could be used to entertain humans or so that their body parts could be used for strange herbal medicines; baby orang utangs were seen as special status pets with their owners not really seeming to care that the mothers had to be killed to obtain them; with such a huge human demand for orang utangs a poacher knew he could make big money. Mr Aladdin would shake his head in despair. “Why is the human race so stupid! So crazy! So cruel! All of us must respect the orang utangs!” Thus by helping Lanang Mr Aladdin felt he could partly come to terms with his own unhappiness at not being able to really stop the poachers. (After all, they had guns and friends in high places but at least Mr Aladdin had his personal courage). Dayaks were known to use their blowpipes on orang utangs, especially when it came to keeping the orangs away from rainforest fruit trees. Yet in his region Mr Aladdin had at least convinced his fellow Dayaks how they can live in harmony with orang utangs by showing there was enough fruit to share.
‘Lanang enjoys his stay with the family’
Lanang was spoilt by the family and so was enjoying his rest. The one day that this injured young orang utang thought he would only stay turned into one week and the week turned into a whole month before he finally bothered to return to the rainforest. Lanang liked the delicious food he was given, the very comfortable bed he was sleeping in, all the loving attention he was receiving and he was certainly enjoying Aladdin’s entertaining company. Aladdin’s mother was very caring to Lanang. Calypso would be very cheeky - both to Lanang and Aladdin – which helped raise the low spirits of her new ‘little brother’. Mr. Aladdin would also give both Lanang and Aladdin simple sign-language lessons so they could talk with each other.
The ankle had mended after twenty four hours but Lanang had pretended to be in pain for a few more days. Orang utangs, along with being highly intelligent and wise, can also be opportunists, and Lanang was certainly taking full advantage of this surprising opportunity to be given ‘five star hotel service’. It was an interesting experience for Lanang as he had become a loner who did not mix too well with other orang utangs. Young orang utangs are known to quickly get over their trauma which impressively displays their mental strength but with Lanang there was never this sense of a full emotional recovery. He was friendly enough and there were four or five others he could count as good friends but always this terrible sadness would overcome him that made him feel better to be on his own for a few days. It was during such a ‘brooding time’ that his mishap had happened. However, with Aladdin he could be friends while there was no expectation to always have to talk. Although these two friends belonged to different species they were of like mind. With that said Lanang was amazed that Aladdin’s mind could not send mind messages as Lanang’s orang utang telepathy was very developed; it also mystified the young orang utang that human language (Aladdin practiced speaking in English to Lanang while Mr Aladdin would try out his Latin) was simple compared to the highly advanced speech of his species; it would have surprised Lanang if he ever found out how humans considered his ‘non-verbal utterances’ as ‘primitive sounds’. ‘Same, same but different,’ was a common expression which Lanang and Aladdin would use to talk about their special friendship; they were developing ways to understand each other using different hand signs and sounds which looked confusing to outsiders but which to these two were nothing special. Lanang had no problem using the many hand signs shown to him and Aladdin learnt the tonal nature of Lanang’s voice to the point that he understood that a long rasp sound maybe a noise of happiness while a short loud squeal was a vocal sign of disapproval. It was all a matter of common sense really. Lanang found it suited him very well that he could just pretend that he did not understand what Aladdin was saying if he wanted to be left alone and Aladdin was not offended when this happened; when he wanted company Aladdin was always there to be his friend.
Lanang’s higher moral sense always made sure that he would not treat Aladdin and the other humans of this family as ‘pets’ but as equals. This fair and just principle Lanang always kept upmost in his mind for he was forever grateful to the kindness and generosity of spirit that the whole family always showed towards him. An older wiser orang utang male named Bapoo who Lanang had gained some ‘fatherly advice’ from had once told him let people think you are stupid because then they will show their true colours to you; meaning that more often than not people would often take advantage of your ‘stupidity’; while on the other hand one could be pleasantly surprised by the good nature of people who would not abuse your ‘stupidity’; this was the case of Aladdin and his family who had shown nothing but kindness to Lanang. There had also been the advice to ‘always be polite to people’ and so this smart orang utang also acted in a grateful way when his human hosts passed on knowledge to him. Mr Aladdin would inform Lanang that malaria came from mosquitoes but his learned student already knew this and was even aware of rainforest preventatives and remedies for this crippling disease. Still, Lanang would act surprised and thanked Mr Aladdin with exaggerated open handed gestures for passing on this important medical fact.
Although Lanang did finally leave after a one month stay he had become such a part of the family he would visit as he pleased. Lanang was always welcome to stay overnight or longer if he wished. So many years had gone by and here again was the passing of another afternoon at Aladdin’s place; but this time Lanang had watched Phantom Agents and this time his whole life was about to change. ‘Tell the others.’ Aladdin had said and Lanang couldn’t get the idea out of his head. ‘Why not tell the others? Why couldn’t they be Phantom Agents? Why not indeed!’
‘Lanang wants to act on his fantastic idea.’
“WHAT A RIDICULOUS IDEA!” scorned one of the three elderly leaders of Lanang’s tribe. These wise, old male orang utangs had adopted Lanang soon after his mother’s death. “You watch too many human television shows! You stupid silly thing!” The tall tree the three Elders and Lanang were in started to shake from the collective laughter of these adult male leaders who each had the strength of ten men; for deep down they were very fond of Lanang. “There’s no need for such a commando group anyway! The homo sapiens have left us alone for a long time now. We have your first idea to thank for that.”
Lanang had proposed a ‘neighbourhood watch’ whereby everyone would keep an eye out for any suspect humans entering into their tribal territory. The orang utangs lived in a valley where the ‘bottlenecks’ at both ends could be easily watched. Turns were taken to always have two orang utangs on lookout with one on either valley entrance. Whenever a poacher was sighted by an orang utang he or she would blow on a leaf to warn everyone. Orang utang groups would quickly move into parts of the rainforest that were too difficult for human beings to walk into due to the very thick floor foliage. After three times when poachers could not spot any orang utangs in this rainforest valley they had not come back. It was assumed by the tribe that these dangerous humans thought there were no orang utangs in the valley.
‘A young primatologist amuses the orang utangs.’
On one occasion the leaf whistle was given off for a totally different reason: a young inexperienced primatologist had wandered into the valley. He would be a source of amusement for the orang utangs as they watched him lie down in the wet mud on the ground of the rainforest. It seemed he was trying to hide from the orang utangs but unbeknown to him a whole tribe of orang utangs were actually studying him from their own hiding spots. The man in the mud had a little black box which he put it to his eye; apart from a loud click sound this ‘secret weapon’ was not causing any harm; what was amazing was the small paper square that would spew out of the box after every click. Caution quickly turned to curiosity and it was Lanang who was the first to go up to the very surprised primatologist. An exchange of sign language occurred but Lanang found it frustrating that the range of words that the human could rely on was limited. “Hello...yes I can say HELLO!” A sigh. ‘It’s like talking to a child...’
The primatologist suddenly aimed the black box at Lanang and pressed a button. He then waved to Lanang to look at the resulting wet square he was shaking to dry. Lanang was amazed to see himself! The host took out a ‘harmonica leaf’ from behind his ear so he could make a loud raspy sound; it was the signal for all the others to come out of the jungle and welcome their visitor. Everyone was interested in the Polaroid camera and the primatologist soon found himself taking a few group shots. He even showed his curious friends how to operate it which of course they quickly learnt. As these orang utangs were well mannered the human was hospitably offered jungle juice and fruit. The orang utangs overlooked how the primate scientist crinkled up the leaf handed to him even though it was meant to be used as a napkin; they understood humans still had a long way to go to be civilised. However, after being shown a leaf harmonica the primate scientist played on it for his new friends a recital of Old Man River (retitled as Old Orang Utang River) as a goodbye.
‘It is hoped Lanang’s idea improves the young.’
“What do you think of Lanang’s idea?” remarked the First Elder to the other two Elders. It had been decided to have a private meeting.
“I think it is a total waste of time except for one thing...” replied the Second Elder.”
“What may that be?” inquired the Third Elder.
“These young ones need discipline.” grunted the Second Elder echoing the eternal complaint that the old always made of the young.
“Yes! I agree!” The Third Elder slammed his hand on his knee to emphasise his total agreement. “The other day there was a whole gang of boys screaming and laughing while madly swinging on the vines. I nearly had a heart attack they were making so much noise! These idiots like to swing down on vines that are about to break but just before they do - switch to a good vine! Lucky no one has been killed! Fun they call it!”
“My sister was complaining that she had a nephew come and visit her and the first thing he did when he turned up was grab a banana without asking!” complained the Second Elder. “This nephew was staying over for a few days and each night he just slept in the same nest! Even babies know to put a fresh leaf over their heads when it rains! It did not bother him that insects were coming into the nest! He just would not make a fresh insect-free nest every night! Very lazy and unhealthy! The young don’t know the meaning of the word work! All these kids want to do is swing around! ‘Swingniks’ – that’s what I call them! Generation R for rude is a label which also suits!”
“Yes! Bad manners are all they know!” growled the First Elder. “They are very immature! We have to keep these disrespectful young ones off the vines!”
“Lanang’s idea is crazy but it would be good to teach the younger generation to learn some life skills that will improve their moral fibre!” said the Second Elder
“Its agreed.” stated the First Elder. “We’ll let Lanang go ahead with his ridiculous commando unit. We’ll humour him and say it is a great idea. If the younger generation start to behave then that’s all the success we can really expect. If nothing else I’m sure we will be entertained!” The Elders laughed so hard that the tree shook.
‘The Reincarnation Project.’
“He would be a good candidate – wouldn’t he?” suggested the First Elder when the laughing session had finally stopped. “Yes he would...” agreed the other Elders who could all see Lanang in a far away tree putting up a banana leaf roof. It was noticed how methodical he was in tying up the branches to make a solid frame for the large leaves to rest on; if there was rain it was certain there would be no leaks. “Hmmm...he might turn out to be like Michelangelo...”
Long ago a scheme had been worked out by orang utangs to learn more about the mysterious ways of humanity as well as to try to have a good effect on human history. The basic plan went along the lines that an orang utang would be selected and prepared over time both mentally and spiritually so at the point of natural death their spirit would enter into human shape and live one human life. At the end of this ‘study exercise’ the orang utang would return to the rainforest in the next life and tell all. Thus it is bemusing to consider how human art historians do not know the real source of Michelangelo’s radical scaffolding plan that allowed him to paint so well the Sistine Ceiling. A visit to any tropical rainforest with its complex interconnecting series of vines and branches along its top would straight away reveal all. Reincarnate orang utangs always had red hair but they would often tint it to avoid human suspicion; one thing which could never be covered up was their generosity, compassion, humility, good humour, inventiveness, advanced creativity, sense of adventure, off-beat solution solving and high intelligence.
‘The Charles Darwin Controversy.’
The strange thing was that when an orang utang returned to the rainforest in the next life and was asked about the human species more often than not the reincarnate would keep silent. Not a word would be spoken! It was very frustrating for the other orang utangs – especially for the Elders who along with the tribal shaman had put in a lot of their spiritual energy to make the reincarnation possible. It was usually thought that something had gone wrong and another reincarnation would take place to make up for it. Most of the reincarnates kept quiet as they found the human species often very crazy and if this raw fact was told the reincarnates feared they would be tossed out forever from the tribe or cursed or become a laughing stock. It was better that the orang utangs knew nothing rather than be told the terrible truth of the stupidity that made up most of human history. (So much so that the good in human endeavour often seemed outweighed by so much that was bad).
A case in point was an orang utang who returned at the time Charles Darwin had just published Origin of the Species. This orang utang reincarnate was too frightened to mention that human beings believed that they were on top of the evolutionary tree when it was plain to see that orang utangs followed by mountain gorillas had top billing while human beings would have to fight it out with the chimpanzees, gibbons, spider monkeys and perhaps even with the baboons for the next place on the evolutionary scale.
‘Human ignorance angers the First Elder.’
A very recent reincarnate was also too scared to mention that primatologists believed that orang utangs only had the intelligence level of a five year old human child. It was secretly mentioned in passing to the First Elder whose booming voice was not so secret as it could be heard throughout the whole rainforest valley: “WHAT!!!? A FIVE YEAR OLD! EUREKA! WE WHO CAN SELECT UP TO FOUR HUNDRED DIFFERENT TYPES OF RAINFOREST VEGETATION ON ANY GIVEN DAY!!!? HOW MANY HUMAN FIVE YEAR OLDS CAN DO THAT!!!? WE WHO GAVE THE WORLD THE SISTINE CEILING, MIND BODY MEDITATION AND THE THEORY OF RELATIVITY?!!! GET OUT OF MY SIGHT!!!” Thus one can understand the reluctance of reincarnates to speak up. Yet, the Reincarnation Project continues to this day.
‘Lanang the student of human history.’
It was not the next life Lanang was interested in but this life. Having gained the approval from the Elders Lanang wasted no time to have a commando group that could fight back whenever bad humans threatened orang utang lives. Lanang knew he could also count on the support of good humans such as Aladdin as Lanang had learnt not all humans were evil; in fact, it seemed most human beings were good which made it even more strange for Lanang to understand – as he watched the news - why a few bad human beings were allowed to cause so much harm not only to the rainforest but to the whole world.
This curious young orang utang was now not only watching Phantom Agents to gain good ideas but also movies and history shows. For instance, Mr Aladdin - with his son’s help - explained a scene to Lanang from a documentary about the Carthaginian leader Hannibal who kept outwitting the Romans. Apart from famously taking his troops over the Alps with his elephants - which totally surprised Rome - Hannibal was also able to inflict a massive defeat on the Romans at the Battle of Cannae. The Roman Empire could always throw up much larger armies to fight Hannibal’s smaller force but this clever Carthaginian general kept showing how high intelligence can often overcome physical brute force. “It’s clear he was another orang utang reincarnate.” laughed Aladdin. Lanang had told him about the Reincarnation Project. With 80,000 soldiers of one of the greatest empires the ancient world had ever known against him Hannibal’s 40,000 men were able to outflank and encircle this huge army in a two pointed movement. Hannibal then used the very might of his enemy against itself as the standing Roman soldiers were crushed together as the tightening Carthaginian human ring squeezed this big body mass in on itself. Hannibal’s incredibly outnumbered men inflicted up to 70,000 casualties.
“It was a battle of total destruction. It is not for nothing that Hannibal is called the Father of Strategy.” noted Mr. Aladdin. Thus it was always inspiring for Lanang to learn how a few could defeat the many such as the fast Athenian fleet trapping the big but slower Persian navy at the straits at Salamis; as well as three hundred Spartans stopping for three days a hundred thousand Persians at the mountain pass at Thermopylae. ‘Alas, I too have only a few but we too can win.’
‘More is learnt about humans on the internet.’
Mr Aladdin had connected the internet to his longhouse so with Aladdin’s help Lanang learnt more about humanity from cyberspace. Aladdin interpreted for Lanang but he was learning many English words which helped him to read the human way.
“English is the world language.” explained Aladdin.
Lanang’s typing skills were also coming along quite nicely – practice makes perfect as they say. The internet for Lanang was the window through which he would see the craziness of an outside world - which the Dayaks believed brought only disaster to their land. Commercial television had already made many questioning minds wonder what had been the real point of billions of years of evolution if at the end of it people were only being encouraged by stupid ads to buy stupid things. Yes, many things were useful such as electricity, phones, labour saving products like washing machines, vacuum cleaners and so forth but as Lanang would find out there was so much that was rubbish which people were talked into buying. ‘Why did people replace something basic that was working perfectly well with something with unnecessary ‘advanced features’?’ It mattered to Lanang to try to understand this human appetite for useless things for it led to the unnecessary death of the rainforest. Millions of beautiful trees were being cut down! In Africa wars were fought over the control of minerals such as coltan used in mobile phones and that many mountain gorillas were dying in the crossfire. Humans seemed aware of ‘blood diamonds’ which were costing human lives but not so much about ‘blood phones’ which were costing gorilla lives. Gorilla babies faced being poached and their parents also faced being killed by humans to be eaten as bush meat. In Borneo some orang utangs also faced being killed to be eaten but many more orang utangs were being wiped out due to their rainforests being cut down to make way for palm oil plantations as this oil was used in bio-fuels and many supermarket products. ‘The good human shoppers MUST be allowed to make a proper choice! Children should tell their parents not to buy anything with palm oil!’ An angry Lanang knew much advertising was aimed at children to annoy their parents to buy junk food. It would help if many good humans could read clear product labels that showed which things had palm oil in them so they would not be bought. Demand for palm oil would then go down which was one sure way to help save the rainforests and the animals that lived in them.
Old growth forests were also being destroyed to make paper and furniture. ‘Crazy!’ thought Lanang especially when young plantation trees were better suited for paper products like toilet paper; also it was possible to design things so they could always be reused so the Earth’s minerals, trees and all animals could be left in peace. Lanang also tried to understand a human world which had hundreds of millions of people with far too much while billions of other people had nothing.
‘Lanang asks the computer a few questions.’
With ever improving computer skills this student who was hungry for knowledge about human behaviour started to directly type questions on the computer’s internet SEARCH toolbar. “Excuse me, why are humans so cruel to animals? Excuse me, could you please tell me why humans want to cut down all the trees?” He also examined climate change as it seemed Nature was fighting back after hundreds of years of having humanity try to control it; there was also a growing curiosity about the universe; this solar system; the many galaxies and the billions of stars. Mr Aladdin had once said: “All of us are made from stardust.” It led Lanang to ask spiritual questions dealing with God and to the spaceless timeless beginning, growth and perhaps end of this endlessly curving flat Universe.
‘Lanang views primates in the human world.’
On YouTube Lanang sadly viewed a gorilla family in a zoo looking in a mystified way at a crowd of yapping human children and their parents; all with ice creams in their hands and pointing their messy fingers at a newly-born baby gorilla. Despite their captivity these gorillas still appeared very noble in front of this stupid human crowd. ‘Why do such ill mannered human beings think they are a more advanced than us and the mountain gorillas?’ Lanang was truly at a loss. ‘These humans have no common sense!’ However, it was a relief to find out that there were some humans in Borneo and Sumatra trying to right the wrongs committed against the orang utangs and the rainforest. Aladdin was asked to write thank you letters to these people on Lanang’s behalf. After all, these courageous humans who came from far off places all over the world as well as locally were putting their lives at risk to help orphaned orang utangs; as well as stopping the killing and mistreatment of other primates and animals. Many loggers and poachers would prefer to have these defenders of the local wildlife in coffins six feet under the ground. A news website showed an orang utang who had cleverly escaped from an Australian zoo. Screaming humans. It was thought the orang utang was going to attack the zoo’s visitors but all he wanted to do was stretch his legs and get some fresh air. A zookeeper rolled his eyes when a journalist suggested the escapee had embarrassed the zoo. “Yes, he’s always outsmarting us.” with a thoughtful look the zookeeper added: “At the end of the day he just wants a taste of freedom – which is fair enough.”
“He was pretty smart really,” said a boy. “He must have done a lot of planning to figure out how to get over those fences. The way he used that stick! WOW!”
‘If only you knew how smart we really can be!’ mused Lanang. Another video clip showed four orang utangs working together to get over an Indonesian zoo fence; there were many other such escapes and so what really caught Lanang’s eye was an example of orang utang ingenuity that was totally different: Nonja the female orang utang artist at Vienna Zoo. Her abstract paintings were as good as human modern geniuses; so it mystified Lanang to find out Nonja’s masterpieces were seen by human art critics as ‘child scribblings’. Human ignorance truly confused Lanang. Nonja’s art was shown to Mr. Aladdin who surely would appreciate its true mastery. “Yes, the colours are well composed.” assured Mr Aladdin. “I see abstract art as ‘classical music for the eyes’ and Nonja helps confirm this for me.” In this information revolution age Lanang was becoming aware of many things through the simple click of a computer button; what also helped was Aladdin finding on the web an out-of-the-way translation software program which he played around with so as to transform human speech into Lanang’s language. Thus on an Australian late night radio interview program it was learnt by Lanang that an orang utang was unhappy that a photographer had taken a bucket of bananas from her while sitting on a feeding platform at a rehabilitation centre. He did not want the orang utang to eat all the bananas which would be used to attract a male orang utang. However, she took the photographer’s equipment – worth over $5,000 - from him until he returned the bananas. The human photographer was surprised to see how clever his subject was which confirmed for Lanang the one ‘secret weapon’ he had was how humans so badly underestimated the capabilities of the orang utangs.
‘Lanang becomes a world business high flyer.’
Although knowledge was a good thing what mattered was training and equipment. With Aladdin’s help Lanang had set up a small banana import export business which was tabled onto the Jakarta Stock Exchange. ‘LANANG BANANAS’. It was hoped the company would become more popular than palm oil. Orang utangs had looked on in horror as large areas of the rainforest had been cut down for palm oil tree production. Palm oil was a hidden ingredient that had found its way into many supermarket items like tea light candles, biscuits, noodles, crisps, cosmetics, soaps, shampoos etcetera. Palm oil production was also an excuse for logging to be carried out. A palm oil producer would say he needed land cleared for his palm oil trees but what he really wanted was to cut down the valuable rainforest trees. It was also terrible how rainforest trees were cut down to make way for plantation trees when other land should have been used.
LANANG BANANAS would keep the rainforest. In orang utang society the life of the rainforest came first before anything else. Orang utangs along with many other species knew that without the rainforest there was no life. As they witnessed the unthinking destruction of the planet by human beings many orang utangs wondered how really stupid was the human race if it could not even understand this basic survival fact? Even fish knew that without water they could not live; but many human beings seemed to believe they could somehow continue life while still trashing all of the Earth’s land, sea and air. Orang utangs in their thousands were dying as rainforest areas the size of many football fields were cut down every day to make way for palm oil and illegal logging.
Lanang was interested in creating on paper the illusion of a very big banana empire. This ‘paper empire’ would make it seem the whole rainforest was being used for banana production and thus ensuring its survival for ‘sound business reasons’ – which is the only thing the human money makers seemed to understand; and those who made money seemed to control the destiny of the world. Lanang had also learnt about the political power of bananas: hadn’t a democratically elected government in Guatemala been overthrown in the 1950s to suit the business interests of an American banana company? Lanang’s own ‘business’ was really just a way into the stock exchanges of the world – this was where Lanang would really make his wealth.
The stock markets were Lanang’s true plantations and this is where he would beat the humans at their own illogical money making games. Once the necessary arrangements had been done with the right regulatory financial institutions it did not matter how many bananas there were for this is what was truly happening: Aladdin would give Lanang the receipts and it would show that just two hundred bananas were passed on to Kuching in Sarawak with a profit intake of $US200 for the stock market records. The bananas to be purchased simply came from the local fruit stall. Lanang had the receipt records changed to show that 2,000,000 bananas had been transported to Kuching and to other towns and cities in both Indonesia and Malaysia as well as to places further away like Bangkok, Sydney, Shanghai, Tokyo and San Francisco. Thus on the Jakarta Stock Exchange the illusion was created that LANANG BANANAS had a profit margin worth millions of US dollars and better still – seemed to be increasing its astronomical profits. It drew the attention of greedy investors throughout the world who were pouring real money into Lanang’s banana company; Lanang was just as quickly pouring this money into buying the equipment needed for his commando team.
The Elders had probably thought Lanang would be making a few rough helmets out of coconut shells and using banana skins to make a few humans slip over. ‘No siree!’ Lanang was making sure only the best high–tech equipment would do for his ‘Phantom Orang Utangs!
The merchant-of-death arms dealers were thankfully bypassed as direct contact was made via the internet to factories everywhere in the world that could quietly ‘on-the-side’ make a small number of things that Lanang’s tiny commando unit needed e.g. tranquiliser weapons; laser guided plastic star knives with stun tips; climbing ropes, infra-red vision goggles; GPS tracking devices and satellite mobile phones; phantom agent style paratrooper army helmets but with webcams and all weather bullet proof uniforms. Top dollar prices would be paid to the factories which included high bonuses for the workers and it was guaranteed that all merchandise bought by ‘Mr Lanang’ would remain secret. Also a financially cash strapped NASA was very happy to put into space a communications satellite for a ‘Mr Lanang’. The equipment was shipped to a local warehouse in freight boxes marked LANANG BANANAS. Mr Aladdin and Aladdin would pick up the boxes and in a van take them to their place. At Mr Aladdin’s longhouse orang utangs would open up the boxes and take separate things into the rainforest. A local very smart donkey and his friends were also happy to help carry things as they were treated very fairly by both Dayak and orang utang alike. Mr Aladdin mentioned these faithful animals had been brought in from Cyprus by the missionaries many years ago.
Lanang’s first major business enterprise now had the full attention of Wall Street. Wide eyed greedy speculators who saw only dollar signs in front of their eyes were pouring billions of dollars into a company whose real net monetary value was about $US20. Lanang was laughing himself silly. The world economy was now in the hands of a mischievous teenage orang utang who had outwitted all the businesspeople from every major business centre and financial market on the globe.
The whole shape of capitalism was taking on a different face; although this was good Lanang was wondering in this global card game if he was overplaying his hand. It was time to draw back as Asian Stock Exchanges were starting to go into meltdown after some investigative articles in a major business newspaper. Although the business mastermind ‘Mr Lanang’ was yet to be linked with any shady dealing the share price in LANANG BANANAS began to fall quickly; with this sudden lack of business confidence was the threat of a new global war if the world economy could not right itself. It was feared the world was about to turn into one big ‘banana republic’ - billions of dollars were now going out of bananas.