Little lizards make big money

JAKARTA - A TINY Indonesian lizard has become big business for impoverished villagers in Indonesia, where growing Asian demand for reptile-based traditional medicines has driven a boom in gecko farming.

Geckos - the pale, soft-skinned lizard with a distinctive call - are abundant in Indonesia and are believed by Chinese and Korean traditional medicine devotees to help cure cancer as well as skin and respiratory diseases.

In rural Banjarsawah village, on the eastern half of Java island, struggling farmers have discovered geckos make a surprisingly lucrative commodity. Tohasyim, 32, a farmhand who earns 10,000 rupiah (S$1.39) a day feeding other people's cattle, now makes 1 million rupiah or about US$110 a month hunting geckos in a local forest.

'I start hunting the geckos in the evening after I finish my job, feeding other people's cattle. I normally start hunting the geckos at 6 in the evening until 5 in the morning,' said Tohasyim, who, like many Indonesians, has only one name.

The industry began four years ago when one villager, Abdurrahman, began drying geckos at home and selling them to an exporter. Now, more than 100 hunters scour the forest nightly catching the skittering lizards and delivering them to Abdurrahman, 40, who delivers them to the exporter.

Most villagers in Banjarsawah are now involved in dried gecko production. Hunters venture into the forest in groups of four or five, wearing battery-powered head lamps and catching the lizards with their gloved hands. About a dozen workers, mostly housewives, spend days stretching, drying, and packing the lizards. They often work from 7 in the morning to 4 in the afternoon in the dark woven bamboo house of the industry's owner. When demand is high, they work even longer. These workers earn about 20,000 rupiah per day. -- REUTERS

Year 2010

wow... tats fast... a yr gone... what can i say... a pretty tough year that i hav been thru'... the poorest year of my life... but still its not the worse... at least i experience how is it like to build ur own empire, thou' i din really succeed but i dun see myself as a loser... cos i gain experience that no one does... at least i tried, tats y no regret... not been spending like i did in the past years... again... desolo had always a lot of wants tat are un-fulfilled... i guess i should stick on to my career for the time being... as for biz... i prefer to do it as an interest or passion rather den a money earning tools... i guess the best i got from 2009 is that i got myself a guy who may not be the best but just the right person... jus so many things tat i prefer to keep it to myself den to share... so wassup for 2010? so many new yr resolution... thou' it come a little late but yup.. still not too late... there u goes:

DeSoLo's new yr resolution:
1. To travel to Jakarta, visit my inker gang... (which definitely will come thru in Apr)
2. To lose weight (which am doing so but still working on it)
3. To Learn driving
4. To pick up foreign language (should be Indonesia Bahasa, so that i can communicate with my tattooists)
5. To start joint saving with Dar, at least a $250 each per mth for marriage.
6. To go for makeover photo shoot with Ash & Dar
7. To go for my graduation family photo shoot
8. To complete my 2 tattoos: Gecko & Libra lady (am tired of all my 80% in progress work, i got to be stronger & bear the pain)
9. To expand my back tattoo
10. To renovate my room (tat hav to wait till sis moved out)
11. To travel to one of the beach hotel with dar

So far it should be jus that... other plans will be my life plan...
still considering... should i go into interior design? pick up professional photography? learn inking so as to bring my group of inkers to SG?