Categories
Economics Liberty Politics & government

[1077] Of Malaysia-US FTA is under threat

With respect to the current negotiation on Malaysia-US FTA, chairman of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs, the Democrat Tom Lantos made the most unhelpful comment:

The recently-announced oil and gas deal between Iran and Malaysia is equally abhorrent. That is why today I am sending a letter to our trade representative, Susan Schwab, requesting that all negotiations between the United States and Malaysia on a free trade agreement be suspended until Malaysia renounces this proposed deal.

According to Bernama, “abhorrent” deal refers to this:

Abdullah was reacting to a statement made by US House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee chairman Tom Lantos who demanded that US President George W. Bush suspend all FTA negotiations with Malaysia, in protest over the US$16 billion (RM57.6 billion) deal signed last month between Malaysia’s SKS Group and the state-owned National Iranian Oil Company.

All this is on top the fact that negotiation is tough:

A proposed Malaysia-U.S. free trade pact may falter if negotiators fail to make firm progress in bridging differences at a fifth round of talks next week, a U.S. official warned on Wednesday.

Negotiators will meet again for a week starting Monday in Malaysia’s Sabah state on Borneo island, where they will seek a compromise over opening up of Malaysia’s services and government contracts – two key hurdles to a deal – said Deputy U.S. Trade Representative Karan Bhatia.

Labor and environmental issues are also holding up talks, he said.

Further at Forbes by Associated Press :

Malaysia has warned it will drop free trade talks with the United States if it is asked to scrap a multi-billion-dollar gas deal with Iran, a news report said Friday.

[…]

In an angry reaction, Trade Minister Rafidah Aziz told Washington to stay out of Malaysia’s affairs and warned the government will not bow to any threats, the Malay-language Utusan Malaysia reported

While I am very keen of the Malaysia-US FTA, I have to agree with Rafidah Aziz. No one shall dictate Malaysian relationship with Iran. Besides, that oil and gas cooperation is not a government-to-government dealing.

Malaysia must have the liberty to forge relationship with anybody. It is our liberty and in my priority list, liberty sits higher than an FTA.

Despite that, I urge both the Malaysian and the American negotiators to ignore Lantos and realize a closer relationship between the two countries. It is only through trade could we guarantee our prosperity. In Kant’s words, “the spirit of trade cannot coexist with war.”

Further, what better way for Malaysia to get back at Lantos other than having a successful fair FTA?

Categories
Environment History & heritage Science & technology

[1076] Of AR4: Eroding uncertainty

According to the NYT, in the First Assessment Report (AR1) of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change published in 1990:

The unequivocal detection of the enhanced greenhouse effect from observations is not likely for a decade or more.

In the AR2 of 1995:

The balance of evidence suggests a discernable human influence on global climate.

AR3 of 2001:

There is new and stronger evidence that most of the warming observed over the last 50 years is attributable to human activities.

AR4, 2007:

Most of the observed increase in globally averaged temperatures since the mid-20th century is very likely due to the observed increase in anthropogenic greenhouse gas concentrations.

Categories
Environment Science & technology

[1075] Of AR4 is out: humanity is very likely to cause the current climate change

The much awaited first part of the Fourth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change is out. The copy is not yet available at the IPCC website and so I have not read it but according to the BBC:

Climatic changes seen around the world are “very likely” to have a human cause, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has concluded.

By “very likely”, the IPCC means greater than 90% probability.

The scientific body, in a report to be released formally today, forecasts temperatures will probably rise by between 1.8-4C (3.2-7.2F) by 2100.

Uncertainty, you say?

Further:

As discussions entered their final phase, the journal Science published a study comparing the IPCC’s 2001 projections on temperature and sea level change with what has actually happened.

IPCC models start from the year 1990, so that gives 16 years of data to compare.

The models had forecast a temperature rise between about 0.15 and 0.35C over this period. The actual rise of 0.33C is very close to the top of the IPCC’s range.

Graphically:

Copyrights by the BBC. Fair use.

There are scientists that insist the AR4 underestimates future sea level rise. At the New York Times:

In a brief report in today’s issue of the journal Science, an array of leading climate researchers said recent findings “raise concern that the climate system, in particular sea level, may be responding more quickly than climate models indicate.”

[…]

Dr. Shindell, who emphasized that he was speaking as an individual, said, “The melting of Greenland has been accelerating so incredibly rapidly that the I.P.C.C. report will already be out of date in predicting sea level rise, which will probably be much worse than is predicted in the I.P.C.C. report.”

James McCarthy, a climate expert at Harvard who was a leader in the 2001 assessment, noted in an e-mail message that the panel’s report could be changed until the moment it was made public. Nevertheless, he said he worried that unless its discussion of sea level rise was altered, the panel would so underestimate the problem that it would look “foolishly cautious and maybe even irrelevant” on the issue.

Also at the NYT:

With the clock ticking down and translators juggling six official languages, and government representatives trying to ensure that findings do not clash with national interests, tussles have intensified between climate experts and political appointees from participating governments.

Scientists involved in the discussions said today that the U.S. delegation, led by political appointees, was pressing to play down language pointing to a link between intensification of hurricanes and warming caused by human activity.

[…]

Some scientists are suggesting that the very search for consensus may now be distracting from the need for action.

That particular article reminds me of Leggett’s The Carbon War.

Regardless, can we act now?

Mohd Hafiz Noor Shams. Some rights reserved Mohd Hafiz Noor Shams. Some rights reserved Mohd Hafiz Noor Shams. Some rights reservedp/s — the summary for policymakers (SPM) of the Fourth Assessment Report (AR4) has been published. Let us read it together. If you are interested in comparing the SPM for AR4 with the previous one, do read the 2001 SPM at the UNEP. I also have the full SPM AR3 if you are interested.

Categories
This blog

[1074] Of beware of impersonator running around; Garyism

I would like to warn everybody that a person is masquerading as me and is posting inflammatory comments at several blogs. In many ways, he is damaging my reputation with clear intent.

It is highly likely that the impostor goes by the nick Abdullah Gul. One proof to back my allegation is his IP address. At Politics 101, a person masquerading as me was caught by John. The admin of Politics 101 later contacted me to confirm whether the impostor was me. Upon my confirmation, the admin deleted the impostor’s inflammatory comment and revealed the impostor’s IP address, which is 218.111.39.55. The following is a screenshot of the comment:

Screenshot of Politics. By Mohd Hafiz Noor Shams. Fair use.

The IP is associated with each and every one of Abdullah Gul’s latest comment.

Sometimes, it seems that Abdullah Gul (masquerading as some other person; usually in a hybrid pseudonym like Juferi Ooi Abdullah or Muhammad bin Merah) is masking his IP to post inflammatory comments. I am unable to confirm that but WordPress records all commenters’ IP address as well as the time any comment was made. The IP differs from 218.111.39.55. Nevertheless, I have several other recorders on my blog and those recorders state that 218.111.39.55 did visit my blog and that the time of the visits coincided with posting of the inflammatory comments.

I am currently contacting TMNet to find out more of that IP address 218.111.39.55.

The person Abdullah Gul has been posting many ridiculous comments at my blog. You could read some of his comments at various of my entries ([1050], [1048], [1036], [988], [979], [976], [973], [948], [952], [850], [695], [435] and [456]).

According to John, the same person had tried to impersonate Menj. At this blog itself, he had used Jeff Ooi and Mack Zulkifli with the obvious intent of misleading others.

The latest case of impersonation, which I suspect done by the same person, occurred at Ktemoc. There, the impostor used my nick to hit out at Rajan. At Ktemoc:

Screenshot of Ktemoc. By Mohd Hafiz Noor Shams. Fair use.

The person with the nick “__earth” is not me.

I am gathering information on the person and if I have enough evidence, I plan to make a police report. I am not sure how serious the police would take it but at least, it would get the ball rolling. After all, if left unchecked, the impostor’s comments would, sooner or later, get me into undeserved trouble.

Finally, I suspect that the person behind Abdullah Gul is also Garywbush. Several bloggers like Rajan, Bobk and even Menj are probably more than familiar with Garywbush. Garywbush has an account Wikipedia and I as well as admin Robdurbar suspected Garywbush of socketpuppetry. Both of us built a case against Garywbush but it has been left hanging after Garywbush ran away.

Recently I edited Garywbush’s user page; I was placing a bait to lure him in and it worked. After leaving Wikipedia for almost a year, he came back to undo my edit on his talk page. His latest edit at Wikipedia might be the smoking gun that I need to connect Abdullah Gul with Garywbush. I have contacted several Wikipedian admins to cross match Garywbush’s IP with 218.111.39.55, if indeed that IP address is static, or that his terminal is dynamic but always connected to internet.

Another reason why I suspect Abdullah Gul is indeed Garywbush is the fact that both had invited me to establish a Liberal Islamic Party. By the way, that is a ridiculous suggestion.

Currently, I am holding back all comments that I suspect made by Abdullah Gul as proofs.

So, be warned. Please be careful of you find the nick “__earth” posting any comment anywhere. It is possible that that is not me.

Mohd Hafiz Noor Shams. Some rights reserved Mohd Hafiz Noor Shams. Some rights reserved Mohd Hafiz Noor Shams. Some rights reserved

p/s — More impersonation:

Screenshots by Mohd Hafiz Noor Shams. Fair use.

Mohd Hafiz Noor Shams. Some rights reserved Mohd Hafiz Noor Shams. Some rights reserved Mohd Hafiz Noor Shams. Some rights reserved

pp/s — yet another:

Screenshots by Mohd Hafiz Noor Shams. Fair use.

The impostor seems to be impersonating John too.

Mohd Hafiz Noor Shams. Some rights reserved Mohd Hafiz Noor Shams. Some rights reserved Mohd Hafiz Noor Shams. Some rights reserved

ppp/s — impersonation at My Asylum:

Screenshot. Fair use.

And impersonation at The Scribe A Kadir Jasin:

Screenshot. Fair use.

Mohd Hafiz Noor Shams. Some rights reserved Mohd Hafiz Noor Shams. Some rights reserved Mohd Hafiz Noor Shams. Some rights reserved

p4/s — and yet another:

Screenshot. Fair use.

The nick “__earth” here is an impostor. The other two are possibly done by the same sad person. One trend that I learned is that the impostor loves to make an stupid comment and then uses another nick to question that stupid comment.

Mohd Hafiz Noor Shams. Some rights reserved Mohd Hafiz Noor Shams. Some rights reserved Mohd Hafiz Noor Shams. Some rights reserved

p4/s — I think I gonna call this Garyism. The ideology of Garywbush. Impostor in action at blog Where is god:

Screenshot. Fair use.

You could see the real John making a statement about the impostor.

More:

Screenshot. Fair use.

Ah. The talk of “Liberal Islam Party” again…

Also, at Ktemoc:

Screenshot. Fair use.

This is how to look for the real “__earth”. An avatar of me and a link linking to my blogger profile at Blogger comment window. A fake “__earth” will not have the avatar at the comment window. At least, so far.

And yes, that Jeff and John’s comments are really the impostor’s.

Remember, Garyism is a crime. My lawyer friend says it is.

Mohd Hafiz Noor Shams. Some rights reserved Mohd Hafiz Noor Shams. Some rights reserved Mohd Hafiz Noor Shams. Some rights reserved

p5/s — more:

Screenshot. Fair use.

Mohd Hafiz Noor Shams. Some rights reserved Mohd Hafiz Noor Shams. Some rights reserved Mohd Hafiz Noor Shams. Some rights reserved

p6/s — more:

Screenshot. Fair use.

Further, I have contacted TMNet and they say they could trace the IP, even if it was dynamically-assigned. So, all I need to do now is a police report. Once a report is lodged, it will not take long to trace the impostor.

Mohd Hafiz Noor Shams. Some rights reserved Mohd Hafiz Noor Shams. Some rights reserved Mohd Hafiz Noor Shams. Some rights reserved

p/s — it is never ending:

Screenshot by Mohd Hafiz Noor Shams. Public domain.

Categories
Environment Photography Travels

[1073] Of farms of Brinchang, Cameron Highlands

Most people recognize Cameron Highlands of its tea production. And occasionally, strawberries. The stress on tea and strawberries is really misleading. It is more than that; Cameron Highlands is a major agricultural center in Malaysia. In fact, I probably would not be guilty of exaggeration if I stated that without Cameron Highlands, Singapore would have a serious shortage of greens.

I stayed in Brinchang — one of the major settlements there — for two days last week and in front of my room was a valley of farms:

By Mohd Hafiz Noor Shams. Some rights reserved.

This is really in the middle of a huge jungle complex:

By Mohd Hafiz Noor Shams. Some rights reserved.

The environmental damage here seems to be minimal. This is probably because this area has been opened long ago. For areas such as the Bertam Valley however, the disregard for the environment is hard to miss.