It gives me great pleasure to share with you this year’s issue of Inside SSPCA, which debut during Asia for Animals 2023 – Oct 11-13.
It was a great deal of fun (and some level of stress) to put together. While it tapped into an existing skill set, it also forced me to think beyond the level of just a writer or just a copyeditor.
I’m grateful to Dona Drury Wee and Gracie Geikie for giving me this opportunity. Shoutout to my excolleague Antonia Chiam for being the best (and first!) official assistant I ever had, and to Stefanie Sim for the beautiful layout and graphic design work. Big thanks to everyone at Place Borneo, especially Emma ZA who coordinated with all the necessary people for us and always had time to address my unexpected problems during the conference.
Print issues are very limited, but you may touch mine if you ask nicely. Meanwhile, here’s the pdf version.
[Planted: 20 August 2023 | Last tended: 20 October 2023]
Click for changelog
Added 2023 report to the bottom.
I agreed to take on the role of Hub Master for this year’s Pelikan Hub.
If this event is unfamiliar to you, it is an annual international meet-up organised by Pelikan every 22 September, and facilitated by Hub Masters in participating cities. You need 7 sign-ups before a city is confirmed. This is the third or fourth year Kuching is a hub, and my first time as Hub Master.
Sign-ups this year kicked of really early. There was a “save the date” aka pre-sign-up, followed by the actual sign-up that was only available to those who registered interest early. There were some unhappy noises from those who missed the “save the date”. Given that 2022’s participation was through the roof, I think this is a way of crowd control.
When spreading the word, we’ve always had to explain a number of things to other fountain pen users.
No, you don’t have to be a Pelikan user. But you inevidebly end up being one because they usually give out their Ink of the Year during these hubs and you end up using it if that’s your first pot of Pelikan ink.
No, you don’t have to be a massive fountain pen nerd. There certainly are regulars in our group who know their fountain pens and own very fancy ones, but I’m happy with my small collection of affordable pens. Gets the job done. Never mind I barely use them because I’m on the computer most of the time.
Is it too late to join? No. You don’t get the goodies that Pelikan sent (it has arrived for our 15 registered hubbers), but you’re still welcome to join an evening of fellowship with other fountain pen users. We are always happy to get your fingers inky.
The best way to reach us is either through our Facebook group Fountain Pen Kuching, or my email in the main sidebar. I probably won’t book a place until early next month, so there’s time.
Here’s to a great Hub!
Pelikan Hub 2022
Pelikan Hub Kuching 2023 Report
This year’s Pelikan Hub had 15 registrations. Three were absent – two were travelling and one forgot. The goods were handed out. The big table broke out all the pens and inks and paper after dinner, while the little table engaged in conversation. It was a situation that happened organically, and it was nice. Everybody took care of themselves and each other. My social batteries were low so I was at the small table. A bunch of new people joined us, so that was nice. I hope to see them during our regular meets.
As a Hub Master, my role went smoothly. My aim was to leave without the mailing box I came with, and I succeeded. The banner went home with the previous Hub Master. I drew the cat outline on it at home and that took forever; the group helped fill it in with the provided black markers. The Hub Master’s gift was claimed, so were the spare name labels and markers. The smaller boxes were reused to pack their goodies.
The stint as Hub Master exposed me to the world of international Hub Masters, where I learned of potential drama that may arise when your group gets too big. We are currently a comfortably small group that can be overseen by one distracted person making only the barest minimum effort (ie book a venue, be the parcel recipient for your city, some basic admin and speaking skills).
Bigger groups, my estimate is any group bigger than 20, may not have the luxury of booking a few tables at a local cafe for the price of dinner. Some cities run these as literal events – with extra door gifts, lucky draws, activities, etc. One hub sent out a form asking participants to RSVP with a small fee to help with booking a venue, which a hubber indignantly took to the FB group. Another Hub Master told me that yes, she paid to book the venue but left a donation box to let anyone help with defraying the cost, which works well if your participants are considerate or you can afford not to get your money back.
It’s rather upsetting to think that some people expect the Hub Master to foot any venue booking fee, and it’s definitely not a burden I expect a future Hub Master to bear alone. For the moment, it helps that we’re a small group that meets up periodically through the year, and will likely communicate any problems.
We ended the night by launching a WhatsApp group to facilite communication.
Back a few year ago, I started getting myself flowers once a week to cheer myself up from having to deal with a nightmare of a toxic and thankfully former colleague. I’m not sure why I stopped. The florist I usually go to moved and it was a break in routine that stopped my flower habit. By then, I guess I didn’t need the extra reassurance and I was sure I would survive this episode in my life.
‘Pantun Wajib’ means ‘Compulsory Poem’, in reference to the tradition of concluding speeches with pantun. If you’re unfamiliar with the term or form, a pantun is somewhat like a ruba’i but with an ABAB rhyming scheme. I’ve always wanted to write some when I find an appropriate subject matter, then I realised that there’s plenty of things to make fun off in a typical work day. I decided it would be best honoured in the original language.
A poorly stitched panorama of St Joseph’s Cemetery from the furthest point in the back.
For a long time, I’ve had a fascination with graveyards and have visited a few around Kuching, wondering about the people buried there and what their stories were. Old graveyards like St Joseph’s Cemetery or the small graveyard on the grounds of St Thomas’s Cathedral date back to the days of the Brooke administration, with Europeans interred here in Kuching. And old headstones tend to be far more interesting than the standard marble slabs that are common today. Back in those graveyard-exploring days, I took photos and wondered if there was a way to properly document our graveyards.
Late last year, I learned about BillionGraves through their partnership with Geni. I got pretty excited after I read what BG is and what sets them apart from other graveyard record websites. This is what it says on their ‘About Us’ page:
Our goal is to preserve precious records found in cemeteries throughout the world. We use modern technology to capture images of headstones with their GPS locations so users worldwide can access those records anywhere. BillionGraves strives to do just that: preserve at least one billion graves. And we won’t stop there!
The BG app (currently available for iPhone and Android devices) records the GPS location of the photos you snap. This is automatically attached to the records and shows up on the website when you upload the image. The app lets you transcribe the information on the headstone if you prefer to do it yourself. Otherwise, it gets uploaded and joins the database of photos waiting to be transcribed. Any member can transcribe, but sometimes you run into problems… which I will get into later.
Bro Albinus was my very first photo and record. Notice the cool feature of pinning the location of his grave on a map, which cuts down the search considerably for anyone who is looking for it. For people who want to see the grave but are unable to visit it personally, there are photos to show what it looks like.
To my knowledge, I’m the only active BG member in Kuching… although I got my riding buddy Cyn to give me a hand with the WWII Heroes Grave this one time:
How low we stoop to get a good photo.
If anyone from the Sarawak Tourism Federation or DBKU is reading this, we did some weeding on every grave so we could photograph the full stone. You’re welcome.
How you can help
Scary enough for you?
1. Oh, Shoot!
Obviously one way you can help a great deal is to download the app, pick your favourite local cemetery (preferably one that I haven’t done yet) and start shooting. Get in touch with me if you are interested. If we can coordinate our efforts and agree on a standard to follow, we can cover a lot more ground together.
2. Transcribe Now I know there are people out there who are intrigued by the idea but feel that graveyards are scary places and are not ready to brave the heat and mosquitoes. You can help from the comfort of home by transcribing records that are already online. I’m especially keen to get those of you from Malaysia and Singapore to participate. Why? Because the non-Asians mess up the names when transcribing headstones.
Here’s an example: The following is my full name. Which is my surname? -> Georgette Tan Thien Gin
If you said ‘Gin’, you probably don’t live in this region and don’t understand our name formats. If you said ‘Tan’, you probably understand why I’m ripping my hair out when I see what some members did to our local records. I also spotted this kind of error on existing Singaporean records, both on BG and on other cemetery record sites. They might not know what an ‘ak/anak’ or ‘a/l’ or ‘a/p’ means in a name. This is why I need your help. You can start right now.
I also need people who read Mandarin, Japanese and are familiar with the terms that might appear on a Muslim headstone (I’ve not visited a Muslim graveyard yet). There are also stones with Mandarin or Japanese characters coming in from other parts of the world, and there might not be enough people with the language skills to help.
3. Details, Details
Some of the people buried here (ie Bro Albinus or Kanang Langkau) are well-documented on publicly available records. It would lend the BG records some additional value if these documents are linked or included.
Tips and Hazards
If you plan on visiting a graveyard to start shooting, here are some things I’ve already experienced or researched on:
1. Your Grave-Tripping Essentials
iPhone/Android phone with the app downloaded, signed in and configured to your preference. If possible, add the cemetery to the site before you go, or at least know the name of the place so you can add it when you’re there.
sunscreen / hat / umbrella
mosquito repellent
covered shoes and long pants
pen and notepad, in case the stone might be too faded for the camera to pick up but the inscription is visible to the eye
a friend or two, for extra hands and general safety reasons
2. Faded headstones
There are several methods which you can read up about here. I have not dealt with faded headstones yet because it will be extra work and I usually go alone. If you get to have a go at it first, make sure not to damage anything.
3. General Safety
Our graveyards are not very well maintained. Expect tall grass, lots of mosquitoes, barely any walking space between graves, and things like this:
Yes, those were my footprints.
The front of some graves will show signs of visitors – candles. These candles will be left to burn and run down, mixing with dirt and creating a waxy muck that your shoes will sink into, get stuck in and is just slippery enough to make you lose your balance. I don’t like falling down. You won’t want to fall down in a place where lots of stone and marble are packed closely together. Or near something like this:
Lots of things to discover at your nearest graveyard. What are you waiting for? Let’s get graving.
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