The Licorice Gourami  in the Aquarium leads inevitably to Politics.

Keeping an aquarium is by and large an unpolitical hobby. Most aquarists do not look at their aquariums and think  of politics. Also many aquarists who keep and breed fish which are endangered in natureig nore the politcal contexts of the hobby. The fact is however that these contexts do exist and will not be swept under the carpet on this website

The endangerment of the Licorice Gouramis does not have natural causes, but cultural, and is the intended destruction of the Southeast Asiatic rain forests made by human beings .  It is not the authentic culture of those peoples, who are responsible for this, but the triumphant global advance of the ideas of progress, development and prosperity, as they coined/shaped the western industrial nations of today. The attempt to fight poverty and disadvantage by an economic development which brings about large scale destruction of nature  with itself, is today a world-wide political strategy. Especially  in the rich areas of this Earth such as in Europe and  Japan, can one see the consequences of this. Here only little is to be saved.

Emerging economies such as India or China practice this economically-induced large-scale destruction of nature and environment. Most of all it would be worth while to support the poverty-stricken third world countries to take a new path. The governments of countries like Malaysia or Indonesia (the homelands of the Licorice Gouramis) still see today their wide jungle regions as enticing potentials, to  transform them  into economically usable country   They sacrifice their actual wealth, which is the immeasurable variety of the bio-diversity of their natural areas – one can also say: the homeland of their indigenous peoples, in the vague hope that this pays off for them.

Licorice Gourami enthusiasts will necessarily encounter this context. They can either willingly ignore or face it. The Parosphromenus Project calls for choosing the latter. Our motto “inform and network” means in the first place to inform ourselves and also the people in these countries about the context that enables this destruction. Secondly it means to establish networks between them and us, which contribute to preventing further destruction by raising awareness and by showing solidarity. Of course this is not just about the Licorice Gouramis, it is about the preservation of the largest possible remnants of the rain forests, the valuable wetlands, its unique rich biodiversity and ( in general ) of an important natural heritage of mankind, but in particular the home of the people living there.

(PF/KM)