EDITORIAL HAPPY MONKEYS CITY GIVES PRIMATES PREFERENTIAL TREATMENT.THE Los Angeles Zoo The Los Angeles Zoo founded in 1966, is a large zoo located in Los Angeles, California, USA. The Zoo, located in Los Angeles' Griffith Park, is home to 1,200 animals from around the world. is taking no chances with its new golden-monkey exhibit. The zoo is building a $7.4 million enclosure to house a trio of Chinese primates being loaned to the city starting at the end of the year. And the zoo is doing everything it can think of to make sure the living conditions living conditions npl → condiciones fpl de vida living conditions npl → conditions fpl de vie living conditions living make for happy monkeys. Everything, it turns out, includes hiring a feng shui Feng shui Traditional Chinese method of arranging the human and social world in auspicious alignment with the forces of the cosmos, including qi and yin-yang. It was devised during the Han dynasty (206 BC–AD 220). consultant to see to it that the enclosure design gives appropriate consideration to "life-force energy" flowing through, not to mention a happy baby-monkey-making place. Yes, it might all seem a little new-agey and touchy-feely. But the silly extravagances aside, it does makes sense for the city to take the extra care to create a habitat to best suit its monkey investment. The terms of China's "loan" of the monkeys, after all, carries a $100,000-a-year price tag. And gone are the days of concrete cell-block zoos. Still, it's a tad galling to see all this attention lavished on a few visiting primates when L.A.'s residential primates -- namely, us -- don't get the same consideration for our living conditions or aesthetics. Few of L.A.'s neighborhoods would pass feng shui muster -- or any rational quality-of-life metric -- what with the lax billboard rules, crammed streets, crumbling sidewalks, lack of streetlights, and traffic-clogged roads belching belching see eructation. fumes fumes odorous gases and other volatile materials; inhalation of irritating fumes causes coughing and, if sufficiently severe, irreversible pulmonary edema. . In a city that scarcely pays attention to planning for its residents' needs, it's amazing a·maze v. a·mazed, a·maz·ing, a·maz·es v.tr. 1. To affect with great wonder; astonish. See Synonyms at surprise. 2. Obsolete To bewilder; perplex. v.intr. to see the care given to its zoo population. No one wants unhealthy living conditions for monkeykind. But why should that be OK for humankind? |
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