Category: Environment

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Activism Environment Photography Travels

[727] Of evacuation, deepest gratitude to PERHILITAN and home sweet home

Finally, after biting more than I could chew, I’m now in Kuala Lumpur again. Pasir Kumpal in Dungun was severely flooded and I along with a few others – two professors, two reporters from The Star and another volunteer – in the end were marooned there and later evacuated by PERHILITAN; Malaysian Department of Wildlife and National Park . Will tell you later of my crazy story. If you don’t have the patience for it, visit Pelf’s blog. She’s a friend I made at Pasir Kumpal. Her entries will give you some picture of what happened there. I’ve also added her into my blogroll.

Also, this post is dedicated to PERHILITAN. Especially rangers Encik Adnan and Encik Ibrahim that took care of us – in effect, saving our lives from a major flood – and to Encik Ghazali, the department state deputy director for evacuating me all the way to Kuala Terengganu from Dungun. Not forgetting, the locals, including Rosli and Pak Long that were helpful in my time of need.

Mohd Hafiz Noor Shams. Some rights reserved

This is for PERHILITAN; for all the good works they’re doing for the environment. And for evacuating us to safety!

For now, I totally need to get some rest.

Categories
Economics Environment Poetry

[723] Of haiku on ocean and maybe, on Proton too

In bid to win $20 worth of Greenpeace merchandizes. Haiku on ocean! In Malay though:

Di ufuk sana,
biru laut memikat,
mengejar mimpi.

Roughly means, still in 5-7-5 format!

On the horizon,
the blue ocean calling us,
us, chasing a dream.

Anyway, there is a very high possibility that I will travel go to Terengganu next week and lend a hand to a conservation project . Well, a project cum holidays. I’m pretty much excited because it’s been more than ten years since I last bathe in the South China Sea. And sitting by the South China Sea, I will be vomiting more lame haikus for all to suffer!

The only thing I might about travelling to Terengganu is that, there is no rail service. And I don’t wanna drive either. So, looks like bus for me. Seven hours in a bus won’t be too kind to my ass.

While in the bus, penning a haiku or two for Proton might be something to distract me from boredom. Why Proton on all the sudden? Well, instaed of Volkswagen, Proton has a new ally; Mitsubishi. Again.

Mitsubishi Motors to form new tie-up with Malaysia’s Proton

38 minutes ago

TOKYO (AFP) – Struggling Japanese automaker Mitsubishi Motors will form a new tie-up with Proton that would help the embattled Malaysian carmaker develop new models, a newspaper reports.

The tie-up will include a technology transfer, mutual supply of auto parts, including engines, and allow Proton to create new models, the Asahi Shimbun reported, quoting unnamed company sources.

It has only been about about two years since since Proton and Mitsubishi last decided to part ways.

Proton and Mitsubishi should just marry each other. Enough with the flirting already. Hell, let’s do one haiku for Proton now.

Hail Mitsubishi!
A setting red giant star,
trying to save us.

Categories
Activism Environment

[720] Of save Gunung Jerai

Gunung Jerai is one of the more famous mountains in Malaysia. Yet, I’ve never been to Gunung Jerai which is located in Kedah, northern Malaysia. What brings the mountain to my attention is the “Save Gunung Jerai Campaign” . Given that Gunung Jerai is as popular as Gunung Ledang, I was quite surprised to find out that former needs any saving at all.

Interested, I scoured the internet from more information and I was not disappointed. It was in the mainstream media a couple of days ago and I must’ve missed it entirely. And it turned out, this thing started a couple of years back, way back to 2001.

The problem at hand is a quarry. There is a quarry operating within the boundary of a forest reserve located nearby the mountain. Just like what happened in Selangor eh? According to the Star:

The state executive council made a decision on Sept 12, 2001, to surrender Compartment 16 of the forest reserve to quarry operator Syarikat Kemelong & Sankojaya Construction as “private property”.

I’m not familiar with any related related regulation related to relabelling a section of a forest reserve as private property but it does sound fishy.

Apart from that, an activist even received a death threat from an unknown person. It won’t take a rocket scientist to suspect that the person that made the threat might be related to beneficiaries of the quarry. More at Utusan; Sorry, it’s in Malay:

Pegawai SAM terima ugutan bunuh

ALOR STAR 28 Jan. – Timbalan Setiausaha Kehormat Sahabat Alam Malaysia (SAM), Mohd. Azmi Abdul Hamid mendakwa menerima ugutan bunuh daripada seseorang yang tidak dikenali yang dipercayai mempunyai kaitan dengan projek kuari batu di Gunung Jerai, Yan.

Menurut beliau, ugutan itu diterima melalui telefon oleh isterinya di rumah, Rabu lalu yang turut mengancam untuk menculik anak-anaknya.

According to the Star in the same report, the operator of the quarry is Syarikat Kemelong & Sankojaya Construction. There isn’t too much information about the company online. The only related stuff comes from the Malaysian Department of Environment’s website. According to the DOE’s site, Glisten Environmental Consultants is the quarry operator’s consultant. A search on “Glisten Environmental Consultants” on Google doesn’t give anything interesting either. Or maybe, I’m just too lazy to find out more.

Malaysia Today reports that 12 non-governmental organizations are appealing to the sultan of Kedah to intervene and stop the operation of the quarry. Sorry, this too is in Malay.

Sultan Kedah dirayu selamatkan Gunung Jerai

Oleh Zulkilfi Mohamed

KEDAH: 12 Badan Bukan Kerajaan (NGO) merayu Sultan Kedah DYMM Sultan Abdul Halim Mu’adzam Shah, supaya campurtangan berhubung cadangan projek kuari di Kompartmen 16 Hutan Simpan Gunung Jerai yang menyebabkan kemusnahan kawasan serta bencana yang dialami penduduk setempat, akibat aktiviti pembalakan dan kerja-kerja tanah di kawasan terbabit.

Frankly, I doubt the sultan will do anything.

Lastly, a site offers a short introduction on the Save Gunung Jerai Campaign. They call it a press release but, whatever. And yeah, still in Malay.

Categories
Activism Environment Poetry

[717] Of haikus for whales!

Remember the Greenpeace’s ship that collided with Japanese whalers in the southern seas?

Well, they’re holding a haiku contest and the winner will win USD 20 worth of prizes of Greenpeace’s merchandises. Heh, and I say, why not?

Blue are the skies, seas,
Birds flying, whales swimming, safe,
Spring’s coming, rejoiced!

Haha. Lame.

p/s – a gem! Q & A: Our Omnipotent President by Fafblog. (via)

Categories
Environment

[715] Of Malaysia ranked 10th in 2006 Environmental Performance Index

It’s a miracle!

Malaysia is in the 2006 Environmental Performance Index’s top ten list . Tenth out of 133 countries. Well, ninth or tenth. We’re tied with Ireland. What does the index measure? Well, according to the New York Times:

United States Ranks 28th on Environment, a New Study Says

By FELICITY BARRINGER
Published: January 23, 2006

WASHINGTON, Jan. 22 – A pilot nation-by-nation study of environmental performance shows that just six nations – led by New Zealand, followed by five from Northern Europe – have achieved 85 percent or better success in meeting a set of critical environmental goals ranging from clean drinking water and low ozone levels to sustainable fisheries and low greenhouse gas emissions.

The official site for the index at Yale says:

By identifying specific targets for environmental performance and measuring how close each country comes to these established goals, the Pilot 2006 Environmental Performance Index (EPI) provides benchmarks for current national pollution control and natural resource management results. The issue-by-issue and aggregate rankings facilitate cross-country comparisons both globally and within relevant peer groups. The EPI thus provides a powerful tool for improving policymaking and shifting environmental decisionmaking onto firmer analytic foundations.

I find this quite surprising given that Malaysians do not have a well-developed sense of environmental stewardship. Recent illegal toxic waste case, controversial logging activities and everything that happened last year sort of convinced me that Malaysia would perform badly in any environmental index. But I suppose, Malaysia has achieved many environmental goals like clean water and other environmental needs that allow low mortality rate.

But then, the index includes variables such as biodiversity. Given Malaysia’s a tropical country, it shouldn’t be too astounding that the country would score well in that and other similar subindicies. Still Malaysia scores quite well in places like environmental health (38/133), air (13/133) and water quality (33/133). Regarding air quality, seriously, the researchers probably weren’t in Malaysia last year when the granddady of all hazes hit us. Still, that was caused by outside factor. So, can’t really blame Malaysia. And water shortage is increasingly becoming a major issue in Malaysia.

Lastly, Malaysia scores badly in renewable energy, sitting at the 98th place. This shows how Malaysia relies heavily on carbon-based fuel. This is even more apparent given that Malaysia emits 352 tonnes of carbon per GDP – that’s worse than the worst polluter in the world, United States. In Asia Pacific, only mainland China, Mongolia and Vietnam are less efficient than Malaysia.

The index will be presented in Davos for the World Economic Forum, of which, our Prime Minister thinks, attending it, is not worth his effort. WEF begins this week. Alright, alright. I’m digressing and being unfair.

Overall, there’s a bright future for Malaysia after all. But maybe not too bright if we don’t stop the rot. Orang utans are facing extinction and we could experience a drop in biodiversity score. But, surely, you and I know an extinction means more than a drop in ranking. Much more.