Tiger King

In the early months of 2020, many people were going crazy over the true crime miniseries titled, Tiger King. Of which, each episode followed the life of a man known as Joe Exotic and his big cat zoo, where he was housing over a hundred different big wild cats and exploiting them for money.

The series itself is something of a novelty as the further you look into the life of the Exotic man, the further the audiences opinion of him, be it good or bad.
Some look at his work with wild animals and think that he was rescuing the animals and caring for them instead of leaving them hurt and abandoned in the wild. While some others may look at all this as a desperate cry for attention he never received in his youth.

Animal exploitation aside, Exotic is very vocal about the quirky life that he led before being convicted of murder-for-hire. After all, it's not just anyone who decides to build a pen for tigers and lions in their backyard.
But after watching a few episodes, I began to question a few things of this exotic man and ask myself how such a person could go so long raring wild animals and exploiting them before the authorities stepped in. And also, how could he and his team not see that what they were doing was wrong?

It's hard to see the faults in ourselves, we grow up with the constant understanding that we and our lives are the centre of the universe. While in reality, we are no more special than the millions of other people walking down the street. True there may be some characteristics that make us novel, but we are all humans that breathe, eat, and eventually die. And I believe that it is only in the understanding of this that we as a human race can evolve from only caring about our selfish wants and desires, and can truly help someone in need without the expectation to gain anything from it.

So today I challenge you, during this exceptional time where we are all feeling trapped in our own homes, find a way to do something nice for someone else. Show kindness and empathy without thought to gain recognition or an ego boost in the process. Let's use this time to show love to our fellow man and create a better environment wherein developing ourselves is an ongoing process and people like Mr. Exotic, never get the chance to exploit others for their own gain again.