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Showing posts from June, 2007

For tiger crusader, Myanmar ‘too important to walk away from’

(Photo: Flickr)   TO meet Mr Alan Rabinowitz is to come face-to-face with an impressive picture of apparently perfect physical health. At the age of 53, the American wildlife biologist has a boxer’s physique and the vigor of a tiger. But beneath this veneer of fitness, Mr Rabinowitz is fighting an insidious disease: In 2002 he was diagnosed with an incurable form of leukemia – chronic lymphatic leukemia – symptoms of which doctors said would likely start appearing in about eight years from now. While some people might be devastated into idle depression by such news, this ticking time bomb has only served to boost Mr Rabinowitz’s motivation to continue his life’s work of saving the endangered big cats of Southeast Asia and South America.   Any discussion about Mr Rabinowitz, who serves as the executive director of science and exploration for the New York-based Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS), would be incomplete without talking about Myanmar, a country that he refers to as a