Humanizing Rules

CHAPTER 23RULE NUMBER SIX

Jurassic Park but for Komodo Dragons

In December 2020, a 46‐year‐old man called Elias Agas was rushed to hospital after being seriously injured at a construction site on Rinca Island in Indonesia. Rinca is part of Komodo National Park, a UNESCO World Heritage Site home to the world's only population of Komodo dragons. The Indonesian government referred to the project Agas was working on as a “premium tourism spot”; or to put it another way, a place that tourists will be able to visit to see Komodo dragons.

In case you're unfamiliar with them, Komodo dragons are wild lizards that can grow up to 3 metres in length. They have razor‐sharp teeth that allow them to administer a venomous bite that lowers blood pressure, causes massive bleeding, prevents blood clotting, and induces shock. In other words, a very dangerous animal indeed, as Agas discovered.

The project – which I'll refer to as Komodo Park – has been dubbed “Jurassic Park for Komodo dragons”, after the famous book and movie by Michael Crichton. On the face of it, that sounds unfair. After all, Jurassic Park is a fictional account of a private business that brings dinosaurs back to life, where things go disastrously wrong. Komodo Park is a government initiative to build a visitor centre for an endangered species.

Until I tell you that a promotional video for Komodo Park uses imagery that closely resembles the movie version of Jurassic Park and the actual theme music from the movie.¹ In other words, ...