Between Lavish and Famish

See the irony of the two articles below.

The rich waste what they have while the poor and less fortunate starve. Donating to the needy can be a problem due to

logistics, corruption and different political ideologies. It is indeed a sad state of affairs.

Overweight parents could be paid to walk their children to school as part of a Government campaign to fight the obesity epidemic.

By Kate Devlin, Medical Correspondent

Only 11.5 per cent of parents whose children were overweight recognised that they had a problem Photo: Ian Jones

Under the scheme people who exercise would receive supermarket-style vouchers to spend on sports gear and healthy food.

Those attending keep-fit classes or weight loss clubs could be eligible for rewards, as well as those walking to bus or train stations.

Critics claim the rewards will be a form of bribery. It is thought machines would be placed in schools or stations so parents or commuters could swipe their cards to tot up points.

The proposal will be assessed during a pilot project in Manchester, one of nine areas designated as "healthy towns".

It will be announced today by Alan Johnson, the Health Secretary, who will encourage every business to take action against obesity.

But the plans have caused controversy, with small business leaders warning that they were already too stretched and that the current economic climate was "not the right time" to ask them to do more.

Mr Johnson is expected to say that a massive effort is required to alert the nation, and especially parents, to the risks of obesity, as he outlines plans for a nationwide £325 million "revolution" on the problem.

Research for the Department of Health shows that almost nine out of ten parents fail to recognise that their children are overweight or obese.

Experts predict that half of adults could have weight problems by 2050, creating a health crisis expected to cost the NHS £50 billions.

More than 12,000 businesses, charities and local groups have signed up to help promote the Government's campaign.

But Mr Johnson has called for more to join their number.

He said: "I am today challenging every CEO of every company who can influence what we eat and how we exercise to come forward and tell us how they are going to help beat this national epidemic.

"Obesity affects us all so everyone must get involved."

But Stephen Alambritis, from the Federation of Small Businesses, said that it was "not the right time" to ask more of small employers.

He said: "If this message is targeted to the CEOs of the top FTSE companies that is understandable but at the moment many small employers are struggling to keep their staff on the payroll and it is not the right time to ask more of them."

Businesses which have signed up to the initiative include ITV, which is to run a series of programmes tracking viewers' attempts to live healthier lives, and Kellogg's, the cereal giant, which will support breakfast clubs in deprived areas.

The Department of Health said that it had also come to "unprecedented" arrangements with Tesco and Asda, the supermarkets, to offer discounts on healthy food.

"Ten million people visit their corner shops every day and 36 million shop at Asda and Tesco each week - the fact that grocers and supermarkets are on board means we can really influence what goes into our shopping trolleys," Mr Johnson said.

"It's unprecedented for supermarkets to join the Government and pledge to cut prices on healthy food. But this isn't an exclusive club. Anyone who promises to help families to be healthier can join."

Mr Johnson said that research had shown that the challenge of convincing parents to change their habits would be difficult.

He said: "The message that we received from parents was clear: we recognise that obesity is a big problem, but it's not our problem."

"The aim of Change4Life is to help parents understand that obesity is a problem for all of us and that it causes severe illnesses and premature death.

"Finger wagging and lecturing won't work, that's why Change4Life is designed to be supportive and helpful."

Research commissioned for the Department of Health shows that just 11.5 per cent of parents whose children were overweight or obese children recognised that they had a problem.

Children forced to eat insects as starvation and cholera grip Zimbabwe

Children near Murehwa, Zimbabwe, poke sticks into a termite mound to draw out insects to eat

Picture: AP

Cancer Risk in Diet Pills

The US government warned prospective dieters on Monday, 22nd December, 2008, as reported by the Star on Wednesday, to avoid close to 30 weight-loss products that contain unlisted and possibly dangerous ingredients.

The pills are advertised as " natural fat busters and have intriguing names like Imelda Perfect Slim and Zhen de Shou. Some are promoted as new versions of "ancient remedies" from Asia.

They promise an easy fix to weight problems, but the Federal Food & Drug Administration,(FDA), said that the concoctions contain unlisted ingredients, including high doses of a powerful anti-obesity drug, as well as suspected carcinogen.

When consumers buy these products online,FDA lawyer Michael Levy advises that ,"if it sounds too good to be true, it is likely too good to be true.

"The tainted products pose a risk to public health because they contain undeclared ingredients and in some cases prescription drugs in doses that greatly exceed their maximum dosages"
, says Dr Janet Woodcock, the Director of the FDA Drug Evaluation centre.

Most of the diet pills originate from China and sold mainly on the Internet.

Nearly all the pills contain sibutramine, a powerful appetite suppressant and is a cousin of amphetamines. It can cause heart attacks, strokes and heart palpitations, especially in people with high blood pressure and a history of heart problems.

Several of the pills also contain phenolphthalein, a chemical used as a laxative, but now withdrawn from the market due to its link to cancer risks.

The FDA is considering criminal charges against some of the companies because they have not responded to requests for recalls.

The products are: Fatloss Slimming, 2 Day Diet, 3X Slimmimg Power, 5X Imelda Perfect Slimming, 3 Day Diet Japan Lingzhi, 24 Hours Diet, 7 Day Diet/Night Formula, 7 Day Herbal Slim, 8 Factor Diet, 999 Fitness Essence, Extrim Plus and GMP.

Also included are: Imelda Perfect Slim, Lida DaiDaihua, Miaozi Slim Capsules, Perfect Slim, Perfect Slim 5X, Phyto Shape, ProSlim Plus, Royal Slimming Formula, Slim 3 in 1, Slim Express 360, Slimtech, Somotrin, Superslim, Tripleslim, Zhen de Shou, Venom Hperdrive 3.0.-AP

For those among us who intend to reduce weight- the safest way is still the old way as recommended by the doctors and health practitioners: ADOPT A HEALTHY DIET AND EXERCISE AS A ROUTINE.

For young people, remember what you imbibe now will only show the results when you are older. As old folks say, "disease takes time to take root and even takes longer time to heal."
Whatever eating habits you adopt now, coupled with the kind of environment you live in, has a direct impact on your future state of health.

HOW TAINTED PRODUCTS CAN KILL A BUSINESS

Chinese dairy in milk scandal faces $160M debt

The dairy at the center of China's tainted milk scandal has about $160 million in debt, state media reported Thursday, a day after the company confirmed it was bankrupt.

Xinhua News Agency said Sanlu Group Co. faces 1.1 billion yuan ($160 million) of net debt and that a branch of the Shijiazhuang City Commercial Bank was the creditor that applied to a court to have Sanlu declared bankrupt.

The Intermediate People's Court of Shijiazhuang, a city in Hebei province where Sanlu is based, accepted the filing, Xinhua said.

The report quoted Wang Jianguo, city spokesman, as saying that as of Oct. 31, the company's total assets were valued at 1.56 billion yuan ($227 million) while its total debts were 1.76 billion yuan ($256 million), the report said.

Xinhua said Sanlu also owes a creditor 902 million yuan ($132 million) in funds it borrowed earlier this month to pay for the medical treatment of children sickened after drinking the company's infant formula, and for compensation of the babies' families.

Calls to the spokesman's office of Shijiazhuang city government rang unanswered while a bank clerk who answered the phone at the Shijiazhuang City Commercial Bank said the bank's director was unavailable for comment. Sanlu's officials could not be reached.

Sanlu, like a number of major Chinese dairies, had been exempt from government inspections because it was deemed to have superior quality controls _ until high levels of the industrial chemical melamine were found in its baby formula and other products in September.

Several more dairies were also found to have doctored their goods in a scandal that was blamed for killing six babies and sickening 294,000 children.

The dairy scandal highlighted the widespread practice of adding melamine, often used in manufacturing plastics, to watered-down milk to fool protein tests.

Investigations also discovered it was being added to animal feed after finding melamine-spiked eggs.

Melamine poses little danger in small amounts but larger doses can cause kidney stones and renal failure-AP

Published: by The Star online on Friday December 26, 2008 MYT 7:29:00 AM

Toxins Lurking in Hospitals

I was shocked and scared to read an article in the December Time online magazine. "A doctor's principle code is, "First, do no harm," so it says.The irony is that the doctor's clinics or hospital may be making you more ill than when you first went in. The materials with which hospitals are made, like particleboard, PVC flooring and even conventional paint, that can leach poisonous substances. What's more, the chemicals used to clean hospitals — chlorine, laundry detergents and softeners, ammonia — contain toxic ingredients and can cause respiratory disease. In fact, studies suggest that nurses, who spend long hours at the hospital, have among the highest rates of environmentally induced asthma of any profession. Also, a patient staying too long in hospital does tend to get a hospital induced infection.

In is observed that in the typical hospital, while they are trying to treat or cure illness and disease...the staff and patients are exposed to irritants and carcinogens, and the treatments often contribute to the development of other diseases.

The international advocacy group Health Care Without Harm (HCWH) — whose 2006 study of 1,200 nurses suggested a link between the hospital environmental and health problems among the staff — has been a pioneer in the movement of creating green medicine- the effort to detoxify the healing environment and enhance patients and staff health while reducing costs.

It was HCWH, for example, that in the mid-1990s got U.S. hospitals to stop using thermometers containing mercury, a potent neurotoxin associated with health problems, such as respiratory, kidney and gastrointestinal disorders, as well as interruption of fetal development (which occurs when pregnant women consume too much mercury, usually through fish). Today most hospitals have swapped out their mercury-based measuring devices — including sphygmanometers, which are used to measure blood pressure and contain more mercury than thermometers — for safer alternatives.

Over the same time period, hospitals began eliminating their incinerators altogether, reducing one of the toxic byproducts of burning waste: dioxins. Says Gary Cohen: "In 1996 there were 4,200 medical incinerators in the country. Now there are 83."

Cohen says that the HCWH is now also urging hospitals to replace their PVC (vinyl) flooring with rubber floors. PVC can emit toxins such as dioxin and phthalates, particularly when wet, which studies suggest may affect reproductive health and fetal development, and may also trigger asthma. "Hospitals change to rubber flooring because of the toxic emissions," says Cohen, "As it turns out, switching to rubber actually cuts down on noise and reduces slips and falls, which are also a threat to patient and worker safety."

The investment in new flooring, says Cohen, also saves hospitals money, if one considers the costs over the entire life cycle of a product. Although PVC flooring is cheap to buy, it ends up costing more later; its tendency to become brittle requires frequent maintenance or replacement. The environmental costs are high as well. With PVC flooring, "the manufacturing process creates dioxin. In the end, it is burned, releasing additional dioxin. In between, there's the [emission] of phthalates," says Cohen, noting that PVC is found throughout the hospital, not only in flooring, but also in shower curtains, blood bags and intravenous tubing. "If you can have a safer IV system without exposing patients to toxic substances, especially pregnant women and babies in the neonatal intensive care unit, then hospitals have a responsibility to replace PVC with safer alternatives." Fortunately, safer alternatives exist and may cost as much or less as PVC products.

Hospitals have also managed to save money by greening their cleaning supplies. The Hackensack University Medical Center's pediatric oncology center in New Jersey swapped its toxic-chemical-laden cleaners for its own custom-made natural products, dropping cleaning costs by 15% — and, more important, minimizing employees' and young patients' exposure to irritants and harsh substances, such as ammonia.

The idea of greener — and cheaper — health is catching on fast among health-care CEOs. Some 150 registered health-care industry construction projects currently underway — involving about 30 million sq. ft. of new building space — have pledged to adopt the Green Guide for Health Care (GGHC), a sustainable design toolkit developed in part by HCWH, which helps the health-care sector construct healthier buildings from the start, according to Cohen. For example, the guide suggests ways to maintain indoor air quality, as indoor pollution can cause or aggravate many health conditions and threaten the well-being of patients with compromised immune systems.

But much can be done without building anew, and although support at the executive level is crucial, the impetus for change can come from any member of the staff. At the Community Hospital of the Monterey Peninsula in Calif., for instance, Joy Colangelo, an occupational therapist, helped launch the "Green Team" about six months ago. The team's first task was to do a "waste audit" in order to tally unnecessary expenditures, says Colangelo. She found that the hospital's heart department was churning out 20 pages of patient-identification labels per patient, but using only six.

Beyond cutting down waste, says Colangelo, the hospital also attempts to wield the "power of aesthetics to heal," with musical performances, a koi pond filled with 70 koi in the atrium, a "healing garden" and a nursing floor that wraps around a waterfall and patio. All patient rooms also have large windows that provide views of nature and lots of natural light — which cuts electricity costs and is associated with high staff morale and better patient outcomes. "Our green efforts are done under the premise that we have two patients, the environment and the ill patient," says Colangelo, "and the ill patient can't get well without improving our environment."

I wonder whether the planners in Malaysia think "green" when they built our new hospitals. The Sultan Ismail hospital in Pandan, Johor is one example, whereby the operation theatres were contaminated even before full commissioning of the hospital could be carried out.

The Power of the Sun

An article on solar energy from an online newspaper was a real eye opener.It seems that even though the sun rays shines on everyone and everything-it does not fall equally on them. The development of solar power has been hindered due to this fact of reality. Depending on where exactly in the city you live — the same array of photovoltaic solar panels can produce enough electricity to power your house with watts to spare, or barely enough to reduce your electricity bill. It all boils down to the exact amount of sunlight that hits your roof.

An engineering company in San Francisco, CH2M Hill is now joining hands with the U.S. Department of Energy to provide Internet solar maps of 25 American cities, using Google Earth technology to chart the precise solar potential of neighborhoods, literally measuring the sun's rays from rooftop to rooftop. The company has just finished mapping all of San Francisco, allowing residents to enter their address and take the solar measure of their own home. "People in San Francisco think we don't have any solar potential,' says Gavin Newsom, the city's deep-green mayor. "But the map implies that a lot more sun energy can be tapped."

CH2M Hill has already labeled all 925 existing solar systems throughout San Francisco, including commercial sites, government sites and the handful of residential sites. But the most interesting part comes when you enter in an address — any address in San Francisco — into the website. The camera zooms in to your rooftop collecting data on the size of the roof, its estimated solar energy potential, the estimated electricity that could be produced and the utility bill savings, as well as the amount of carbon savings that can be gained by converting to solar energy panels. It will estimate the cost of conversion— with the federal, state and city incentives factored in — and you will be linked directly to a number of Bay Area-solar panel installers.

CH2M Hill is not the only company conducting such solar surveys, and others are even going global. Seattle-based 3Tier is steadily mapping the solar, wind and hydro power potential of the entire planet, with its REmapping the World initiative. Utilities and businesses can use the 3Tier website to prospect for the best locations for wind power projects, while ordinary citizens can check the rough solar potential of their home address. What kind of dividends this will pay in an energy hungry, globally warming world is hard to say, but if San Francisco is any indication, they could be big ones.

San Francisco already has about 6.5mW of solar power hardware installed in the city, most of it from a relatively small number of big commercial and municipal projects. The target aimed is for 31mW of solar by 2012, part of a bigger plan to provide 50mW of total renewable energy by the same year. Mayor Newsom's office is also identifying the 1,500 business that have the biggest solar potential in San Francisco — saving them equally big money — and is offering a special incentive to solar contractors who employ graduates of San Francisco's workforce training program, part of the mayor's push for green jobs. "Everyone's talking about green jobs, but to say is not to do,' he says. "We want to actually do this.'

The shift to renewable energy won't happen on its own — it needs smart government policies and smart technological innovations. Solar mapping is a good example of both.Incentives plus innovations go a long way to make solar power a reality.

To most of us, having solar power is still a long time from now. The high investment costs certainly put many people off. The government should lead the away by making compulsory for public buildings to be green and create a demand for photovoltaic cells. At the same time, offer good tax incentives or rebates for installing them. Only when there is a healthy demand can the solar panels be made and sold at affordable prices.

Risks Faced by Obese Children

Danger ahead

By LINDA A. JOHNSON

Besides diabetes, cholesterol and heart problems, obese children also risk having liver disease.

IN A new and disturbing twist on the obesity epidemic, some overweight teenagers have severe liver damage caused by too much body fat, and a handful have needed liver transplants.

Many more may need a new liver by their 30s or 40s, say experts warning that paediatricians need to be more vigilant. The condition, which can lead to cirrhosis and liver failure or liver cancer, is being seen in kids in the United States, Europe, Australia and even some developing countries, according to a surge of recent medical studies and doctors interviewed.

The American Liver Foundation and other experts estimate 2%-5% of American children over age five, nearly all of them obese or overweight, have the condition, called non-alcoholic fatty liver disease.

Countries not known for high obesity rates – such as China, India and Iran – are also grappling with the issue. Doctors say globalisation has given these countries fast food chains and sedentary pastimes, leading to childhood obesity.

“It’s clearly the most common cause of liver disease,’’ said Dr Ronald Sokol, head of public policy at the liver foundation and a liver specialist at Children’s Hospital and University of Colorado Denver.

Some experts think as many as 10% of all children and half of those who are obese may suffer from it, but note that few are given the simple blood test that can signal its presence. A biopsy is the only sure way to diagnose this disease.

As fat builds up, the liver can become inflamed and then scarred over time, leading to cirrhosis, a serious condition, which in years past was mostly caused by hepatitis or drinking too much alcohol.

Liver failure or liver cancer can follow, but if cirrhosis has not yet developed, fatty liver disease can be reversed through weight loss.

The disease is most common in overweight children with belly fat and certain warning signs, such as diabetes or cholesterol or heart problems. However, it’s been seen in a few children of normal weight.

Genetics, diet and exercise level all play a role. It is more common among boys than girls.

There are people in their 30s or early 40s that will require a liver transplant from developing the condition as a kid, predicts Dr Jose Derdoy, head of liver transplants at Cardinal Glennon Children’s Medical Center in St Louis. He’s treated a 15-year-old, 240kg boy and many others with the condition.

Experts blame obesity, with about two-thirds of all Americans overweight. With fatty liver disease becoming more common in adults, many experts predict it will become the top cause of liver transplants by 2020.

“There aren’t enough livers to go around,’’ says Dr Philip Rosenthal of the University of California-San Francisco Children’s Hospital.

His patient, Irving Shaffino, a 15-year-old Mexican-American who lives outside Lubbock, Texas, was lucky to get a transplant a year ago. He was in end-stage cirrhosis and, at 1.64m, weighed 82kg.

Irving had been fat since age six, thanks to a high-starch, high-fat diet of Mexican food, pizza and burgers, said his mother, Guadalupe Shaffino. At age eight, she said, he had a distended stomach and by his early teens, breathing problems kept him tethered to an oxygen tank at home.

Without health insurance, the family couldn’t find a local hospital that would do a transplant.

“My son begged me, ‘Don’t let me die, Mummy,’ so I did everything in my power to find a place to help him,’’ said Guadalupe Shaffino, a restaurant cook.

UCSF Children’s Hospital, with money from a state health programme, agreed to do the transplant. Dr Rosenthal, who oversees the hospital’s paediatric liver transplant programme, took over care of Irving. The doctor said without a new liver Irving would have died, maybe within months.

“He was in bad shape,’’ said Dr Rosenthal.

Soon after tests were completed and Irving got on a transplant waiting list, an organ was found.

“It felt like a miracle, because people say you could be on the transplant list for years,’’ Irving said.

Within a couple of months of the July 26, 2007 operation, Irving had weaned himself from the oxygen tank and could go on walks, although he got winded quickly.

Back home in Texas, his medications are down from 11 to four and Irving said he’s replaced soda and fast food with fruit, vegetables and whole grains.

“I want to get into sports again,’’ he said.

Sadly, however, Irving has made little progress in losing weight. Specialists say many kids diagnosed with fatty liver disease come to subsequent check-ups heavier, and at best, just one in four loses significant weight, the only treatment known to stop and even reverse the disease.

Like heart disease, liver disease is silent. Kids may feel fine for years. Any early symptoms, like fatigue and loss of appetite, are vague and usually eclipsed by more conspicuous problems, from diabetes to high blood pressure.

“The majority of children with this still go undiagnosed,’’ said Dr Jeffrey Schwimmer, head of the Fatty Liver Clinic at Rady Children’s Hospital in San Diego. “Some kids have died.’’

The number of patients at his clinic has roughly tripled over its six years, and he’s seen one with cirrhosis just eight years old.

“Many of these children, their parents have it (fatty liver disease) and don’t know it,’’ said Dr Schwimmer.

Experts say the best way to combat the problem is to intervene early, while it can still be reversed, with a medical team working with the whole family, including liver and hormone specialists, a dietitian and counsellors.

The American Academy of Paediatrics recommended doctors do a blood test of liver enzymes every two years on obese children and overweight ones with high blood pressure or cholesterol or family history of heart disease. A trade group for children’s hospitals last year gave similar advice.

Surprisingly, some research comes from countries not known for high obesity rates: China, India and Iran. More reports come from Australia, England, Greece, Ireland, Israel, Italy and Japan. Doctors say globalisation has given even poor countries fast food chains and sedentary pastimes: TV, Internet, video games.

Scientists now are seeking the best ways to treat it.

A small study in Rome showed weight loss helped. The US Government is testing the diabetes drug metformin and vitamin E, and is funding about 20 other studies, including one that aims to determine how the disease progresses and who is most likely to develop cirrhosis or liver failure.

When her son was diagnosed with advanced liver disease three years ago, Susan Siegfried recalls being “devastated.’’ Curtis, then 12, was 1.65m and weighed 81kg. About 40% of his liver was scarred.

Her husband, Mike, decreed the whole family would change its diet, and all high-fat and junk food was removed from their home in Chester, Illinois.

Susan said her son went from being the “sit-in-front-of-the-TV, play-video-games kind of kid,’’ tired and sickly, to full of energy and very active. A new liver biopsy last fall showed huge improvement in his liver.

“I’m definitely a lot thinner than I would have been if I hadn’t done anything,’’ said Curtis, who found exercising and cutting out sugar and fat wasn’t that hard. “If you stick with it, you’ll get used to it.’’ – AP

The article serves as a reminder to us not to overfeed our young. Everybody must eat less junk and unhealthy food and exercise more. We should not let the television and video games be the baby-sitters for our young children. Children should be exposed to good eating habits from a young age. We must not adopt the adage that "eat while you are healthy because when you are ill you will not have the appetite to eat anymore" It is the unhealthy eating habits that lead to the illness in the first place.

Bukit Antarabangsa Tragedy

We do not normally switch the television on in the mornings. On Saturday, I called my sister in Alor Star, hundreds of miles away and was surprised when she said, " There is a landslide in Bukit Antarabangsa, (a neighbourhood about 3 km from my house) ".I thought she meant the landslide at Damansara Heights but she insisted that she was watching it live on TV. I immediately switched on the television and was shocked at the damage caused. This involved a greater area compared to the Highland Towers tragedy in 1993.

This time it was as if Nature has returned with a vengeance.The power of the water trapped in the soil was so strong that it could displace entire bungalows and the aftermath looked as if a storm had wrecked or a bomb had been thrown.

Rescue workers had been at the scene round the clock. There had not been able to enjoy the long weekend due to the Aidil Adha holidays. That is the real spirit of Korban.

My condolences to the four who perished and my sincere hope that the lessons learnt will not be forgotten as soon as the last corpse is buried or cremated.

Finger pointing is normal but everyone should be vigilant. Developers, property buyers and the authorities should each play their respective roles to prevent future mishaps. Life is more precious than money.

Respect of the environment must be inbuilt in everyone concerned so that whatever we do, we must consider the consequences if our actions are not in harmony with the environment.

In the case of Bukit Antarabangsa, there are so many developers. Their separate development may not be in harmony with each other. This could be the failure of the developers, engineers, planners and the authorities to synchronize. Could one developer with an overall master plan have done better? Let's see the neighbouring Ukay Perdana in 10 years time.

Below is a first hand account as reported by Bernama:

KUALA LUMPUR: The relative tranquility of Bukit Antarabangsa, a hilly township comprising upmarket and middle class bungalows, condominiums and terrace houses was broken Saturday morning following a landslide that originated from Jalan Wangsa Ukay 9 at Taman Wangsa Ukay.

Tonnes of earth and boulders rolled down several houses just before dawn, at about 3.30am, today, in an area about 1.5km from where one of three blocks of the Highland Towers collapsed on Dec 11, 1993 taking 48 lives.

The landslide happened so fast but word got around through SMSes, radio or tv, and many people made a beeline to the disaster area.

The town centre, comprising a supermarket, a petrol station and two rows of shophouses, was unusually jam-packed with cars of curious onlookers, ambulances, and vehicles from the police and civil defence.

At daybreak, this writer joined a group of onlookers at a row of abandoned houses at Jalan Wangsa 9 overlooking the disaster area.

They decided to circumvent a security tape which had been put up by security officials to prevent people from going near the edge of the slope.

The group of us was about 15 to 20 metres from where it all started.

Suddenly the earth started to move slightly and many of the uprooted Flame of the Forest trees resumed their descent.

The onlookers, many of them armed with camera phones, then ran helter-skelter.

Come to think of it, we were precariously near where disaster struck.

Many of the people there said the landslide must have been caused by the heavy rains over the past few days. This was just at Jalan Wangsa Ukay 9 today.

At the main road leading towards Bukit Antarabangsa, a handful of workmen were seen putting concrete reinforcement against a giant boulder which appeared to be tilting towards the road. A stone's throw away, water was trickling from the crevice of another boulder.

Last week this road was temporarily closed for a day when some boulders fell on to the road.

The workmen appeared to be racing against time. Another disaster could be in the offing if this giant boulder were to give way when more rain falls.

It would mean that one of the main arteries connecting Bukit Antarabangsa to the Middle Ring Road II could be cut again, just as it happened last week and a few years ago. - Bernama

Below is another excerpt from the NST:

KUALA LUMPUR: "We told you so."

Among engineers, the fragility of the slopes in Hulu Kelang, has been ringing alarm bells for years.

In conference after conference, paper after academic paper, they had warned that the instability of the soil on the hillsides of one of the most sought-after residential areas in the Klang Valley was a catastrophe waiting to happen.

Repeatedly pointed out, the lessons of the Dec 11, 1993 collapse of one of the three blocks of the Highland Towers condomimium in Bukit Antarabangsa, which claimed 48 lives and left hundreds injured, have not been learnt.

All in, 13 landslides have occurred in and around Bukit Antarabangsa since then.

The Institution of Engineers Malaysia (IEM) blamed the lack of systematic regulatory measures on the safety of hillside development as a root cause of landslides.
IEM vice-president Tan Yean Chim said it had in 2001 forwarded recommendations outlined in a position paper titled "Mitigating the Risk of Landslides on Hill-Site Development" to the government.

"We hope the government can take note of the paper's contents and seriously look at adopting the recommendations, especially on the 'Dangerous Hillside Order' on existing slopes.

"IEM is also ever ready to offer the services of its 22,000 membership to allay the growing public fear for the safety of lives and properties on hillslopes," Tan said.

In the paper, IEM said among the chief causes of landslides were ineffective legislation and guidelines on slope failure mitigation, poor engineering practice, lack of maintenance, and inadequate enforcement and monitoring by regulatory agencies and authorities.

Expressing the standard response to what has been common knowledge in the profession for some time, geotechnical engineer Datuk Dr Ramli Mohamad said "people got excited for a while and then forgot the whole thing".

"In the past, I, like many others, had offered solutions. No one heeded them.

"As long as there is gravity there will be landslides. It will pull down earth. Water will make it worse as the ground becomes heavier and the soil weakens. We live in the tropics where rainfall is high.

"We must be very careful when we encroach into hillslopes. We cannot blame mother nature."

Ramli said the planning and designing of projects, not only at hilltops but the bottom as well, were critical.

"What we do at the top of hillslopes affects what is at the foot. Sometimes, the issue becomes complex owing to land ownership. Who is responsible for which area of land?

"It costs money to do anything. The government has to take responsiblility by enforcing regulations and legislation."

Ramli had six years ago proposed that subsurface drainage be considered as a means to maintain the stability of slopes, particularly in the Bukit Antarabangsa area.

Among his proposals were the building of strong foundations, retaining walls and proper drainage.

Periodic soil tests should be carried out and "unscrupulous devegetation" prevented.

On Nov 16, the New Sunday Times reported that a study of slopes in Hulu Kelang found over a hundred landslide scars, with most of them unremedied and having the potential of slipping again.

The study, commissioned by the Public Works Department's Slope Engineering Branch, found a high likelihood of "fatal slope failures" in its mapping of the Ampang district.

With so much evidence of slope instability, civil engineer Sheikh Abdul Wahed Rahim of Jurutera Perunding GEA (M) Sdn Bhd did not mince words.

"Everybody is just talking and not doing anything about it. We are not doing the right things with the rules and regulations.

"Slopes are becoming too high-tech and it appears developers don't seem to have any idea about landslide prevention.

"The basics are not adhered to and a proper survey is not done before an area is developed."

Oldest Tortoise in the World?

The Daily Mail ( UK) reported on 3rd December, 2008 that:

Jonathan the tortoise is believed to be 176-years-old and was about 70 at the time the black and white picture was taken.

He was captured munching on grass in about 1900 with a captured Boer War prisoner stood in the background looking at him.

A spokesman for the ST Helena island's tourist board said Jonathan is owned by the St Helena government and lives in the specially built plantation on the governor's land.

He said: 'Jonathan is the sole survivor of three tortoises that arrived on St Helena Island in 1882.

'He was already mature when he arrived and was at least 50-years-old.

'Therefore his minimum age is 176-years-old. He is the oldest inhabitant on St Helena and is claimed to be the oldest living tortoise in the world.

'He lives in the grounds of Plantation House which is the governor's residence with five other tortoises who are much younger than him.

I am still wondering how they identified that the black and white tortoise is the same tortoise as in the coloured photo based on photographs as evidence.

Animals in the News

The past month has been kind of interesting as far as animals are concerned. First there was this Sarawakian zoo worker who was mauled to death by two Siberian tigers at the Singapore zoo.Then, a tapir got lost and ended up in a drain in Kuala Selangor (top right picture).The next was the hope of turtles returning to Trengganu(previous post).Before that it was the vulnerable sun bears, soon to be housed in a RM2.1 million sun bear conservation centre being built in Sandakan, Sabah, next to the orang utan sanctuary at Sepilok

Best of all, today's news relates to the wild jumbos.

The New Straits Times reported:

MARAUDING elephants took centre stage in the house of parliament yesterday as several members of parliament spoke of the damage they were causing to smallholdings.
The MPs wanted to know the steps taken by the Natural Resources and Environment Ministry to stop the wild jumbos.

Datuk Bung Mokhtar Radin (BN-Kinabatangan) complained that no effort had been made to check the perennial problem.

"I see there is no real effort by the federal and state governments to solve this.

"Countries like India and Thailand have successfully tamed their wild elephants. What about us?" he asked during the debate on the allocations for the ministry at the committee stage.

He suggested tongue-in-cheek that the wild elephants be relocated to the constituency of Fong Po Kuan (DAP-Batu Gajah) since it was named after the elephant.

Fong shot back good-naturedly, saying: "If the MP is wild, the elephants are also wild," alluding to Bung Mokhtar's often colourful antics.

She said wild elephants often invaded smallholdings and destroyed crops because humans had encroached into their habitat.

Talk about taming the wild animals, we can't even tame our Yang Berhormats, the parliamentarians!

World's First Trachea Transplant

The following news is indeed a breakthrough in medical science and deserves to be told and retold so that it gives hope to many who are in need of such medical interventions.I read the following article in the Daily Telegraph today:
(I have not edited it so as not to distort the message)
British doctors help perform world's first transplant of a whole organ grown in lab
British doctors have helped to perform the world's first transplant of a whole organ grown from stem cells, signalling a significant medical breakthrough.

Surgeons replaced the damaged windpipe of Claudia Castillo, a 30-year-old mother of two, with one created from stem cells grown in a laboratory at Bristol University.
Because the new windpipe was made from cells taken from Ms Castillo's own body, using a process called "tissue engineering", she has not needed powerful drugs to prevent her body rejecting the organ.
Avoiding the use of these drugs means she will not be an increased risk of cancer and other diseases unlike other transplant patients - another significant advance.
Five months after the operation was carried out she is now living normally and is able to look after her children again.
Stem cells are "master cells" which can be manipulated in a laboratory to become any other cell in the body.
Scientists hailed the procedure as a breakthrough and predicted surgeons could be regularly replacing hearts with laboratory-grown organs within 20 years.

The technique would "revolutionise" surgery, they claimed, and has the potential to save thousands of lives.
The team behind the operation hope to replicate the procedure to grow voiceboxes within five years and say that from there the door would be open to use the technology to create any organ including a bladder, kidney or even a heart.

Professor Martin Birchall, who grew the stem cells in his laboratory at the University of Bristol, said: "In 20 years time this will be the most common operation that surgeons are doing. This will completely revolutionise how we think about surgery and medicine."
Although doctors were able to carry out a similar operation on a bladder two years ago, Professor Birchall said that that had merely been a "patch", transferring part rather than the whole of the organ, a much less complex task.
"That was a major step forward," he said, "but this is another major step forward again."

Every year more than 1,000 patients in Britain die on transplant waiting lists, prompting scientists to consider other ways to produce organs. Ms Castillo's operation required a section of windpipe from an organ donor as a "scaffold" for the stem cells - meaning the technique will not immediately solve the shortage of donor organs. However, it is hoped that eventually artificial scaffolds can be made which would avoid the need for donor organs completely.

Without the operation, surgeons would have had to remove one of Ms Castillo's lungs, which would have reduced her life expectancy dramatically, said Paolo Macchiarini, who performed the surgery at the Hospital Clinic, Barcelona, in June.
"But now she can expect to have a normal life expectancy for a woman her age."
Ms Castillo, who is originally from Colombia but who now lives in Spain, is now able to look after her children, walk up two flights of stairs and even occasionally go dancing.

She said: "The possibility of avoiding the removal of my entire lung, and, instead, replacing only my diseased bronchus with this tissue engineering process, represented a unique chance for me to return to my normal life.
"I was scared at the beginning because I was the first patient but had confidence and trusted the doctors. I am now enjoying life and am very happy that my illness has been cured."

After suffering from tuberculosis, she was hospitalised in March of this year with acute shortness of breath which meant that she was unable to carry out simple domestic duties or care for her children.

With the only other option available an operation to remove her left lung, doctors decided to see if they could grow a new windpipe in the laboratory.
To create the new airway scientists originally started with a donor windpipe which they stripped of all its cells, using a new technique developed by Padua University, leaving just a form of "scaffold" which they then encouraged Claudia's cells to grow around.

After growing a 5 cm long trachea in the lab, the scientists then carried out the operation to transplant it into the patient.

Doctors have previously been unsuccessful in attempting to transplant a windpipe from one human to another, because the large amount of immune-system suppressing drugs needed to ensure that the body would not immediately reject the organ. Severe infections, bleeding and tissue death have led to other trachea transplants failing.
No such medication was needed in this case, because the airway had been grown using the patient's own stem cells, taken from her hip and nose.

Two months after the transplant, tests showed that her lung function had returned to normal, according to the findings published in the Lancet medical journal.
Around 300 patients a year suffer from similar problems as Claudia, caused by cancer, infection or tuberculosis.

Around 3,000 a year could benefit from a voicebox transplant while tens of thousands of lives worldwide could be saved if doctors were able to transplant hearts and other organs grown in the laboratory.

Professor Macchiarini, from the University of Barcelona, said: "We are terribly excited by these results. After one month, a biopsy elicited local bleeding, indicating that the blood vessels had already grown back successfully".
Anthony Hollander, also from the University of Bristol, said: "This successful treatment manifestly demonstrates the potential of adult stem cells to save lives".
Ben Sykes, from the UK National Stem Cell Network, said: "This is an excellent demonstration of the potential of adult stem cells as one of several possible avenues in regenerative medicine and shows that the funding which has been invested into, and continues to be invested into, bone marrow stem cell research over decades is worthwhile."

Surely for the entrepreneurs among us, this creates a host of opportunities. For the budding doctors, this could be one area you can proceed to after your graduation. For the patients among us, pray that you live long enough to grow your own cells to save your life.

Melamine Tainted Foods

Today's New Straits Times reported that:
Melamine-contaminated biscuits are still being sold openly by 24-hour convenience stores and sundry shops.The Health Minister is furious and warns retailers of stern action if they did not clear their shelves of 18 types of Khong Guan and Khian Guan biscuits at once.

"Shop owners or retailers who are found to be still selling these biscuits will be fined," Liow said.The ministry will seize and destroy all tainted products."

The source of the excessive melamine contamination was the baking agent, ammonium bicarbonate, imported from China, and not milk, as in previous cases.

Both Khong Guan and Khian Guan had been ordered to remove all 18 types of biscuits with immediate effect. The two companies were also advised to voluntarily recall other products pending checks by the ministry for melamine contamination.

To date, 22 food products containing melamine have been banned by the Health Ministry.

Apart from the Khong Guan and Khian Guan biscuits, the others banned are the White Rabbit Creamer Candy, Ego White Rabbit Creamy Candy and Taro brand biscuits.

Yesterday, the ministry also banned the Silang brand Potato Crackers for melamine contamination.

A random check of sundry shops and convenience stores in the city showed that some of the banned biscuits were still displayed prominently on the shelves. Workers there claimed ignorance of the ban.

Asked whether the onus was on the manufacturers or retailers to remove the tainted biscuits, Liow said "normally the retailers will voluntarily pull the products off the shelves and return them to the manufacturers".

A source from the Food Safety Quality division under the Health Ministry said manufacturers would be given a grace period of two weeks to remove all the banned products.

In another development, Food Safety Quality director Noraini Mohd Othman said in a statement that officials were gathering information from Japanese authorities on the frozen green beans which sickened three Japanese.

The Japan Times reported two days ago that all three experienced numbness in the mouth after consuming the beans processed by Chinese company Yantai Beihai Foodstuff Co in Shandong province.

On local news report that Chinese green beans were contaminated with the pesticide dichlorvos residue by more than a thousand times permitted by the authorities, Noraini said only locally produced mangoes with a maximum residue limit of 0.1ppm was allowed under the Food Regulations Act 1985.

As for imported food, the pesticide residue is only allowed in certain meat (beef, chicken and duck), milk, mushrooms, wheat flour, wheat germ and wholemeal wheat, with the maximum residue level allowed at between 0.02 and 10ppm.

Dichlorvos is an insecticide used to control insects, especially during storage of agricultural produce. People exposed to it may suffer nausea and vomiting, restlessness, sweating and muscle tremors. Very large doses may cause coma, suffocation and death.

So, be careful what you put in your mouths,as the Malay saying goes:Sebab mulut badan merana literally meaning because of the mouth, the body suffers.

Return of Turtles to Terengganu?

Quoting a report from Malaysiakini:

Mosques to give turtle conservation sermon
Nov 17, 08 5:36pm

Mosques in Terengganu, which was once a major turtle breeding ground, will give an unusual sermon on protecting the endangered animals this Friday, conservationists said.

Imams, or religious leaders, will stress the importance of protecting the environment and warn against egg poaching, pollution of the seas and uncontrolled fishing.

"If this attitude continues, imagine then what would be left for the future generation? Maybe one day our grandchildren will no longer know about turtles," the sermon reads according to a copy obtained by AFP.

Rahayu Zulkifli from the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), which runs a turtle conservation project in Terengganu, said the idea of preaching about conservation was a joint initiative with local imams.

"In a Malay Muslim-dominated society like this, they look up to what the imams say and this is a way to get the message down to the local communities, where turtle eggs are still consumed freely," she told AFP.

Terengganu was once famed for its population of leatherback turtles, which in the 1950s used to struggle up the beaches in their thousands to lay eggs in the sand.

A surprise return

Their numbers dwindled to the point that in 2007 none appeared, raising fears they had been completely wiped out.

This year they made a surprise return and there were eight nestings, but none of the eggs were fertilised because of a lack of males in the area, said Munir Mohamad Nawi, state fisheries department director.

"Nevertheless it has improved a lot this year and it shows positive results for our conservation efforts so we must press on," he told AFP.

"The sermon will help raise awareness among Muslims in this state on their responsibility to conserve nature, particularly the leatherback turtles, because it is part of our heritage."

Terengganu's beaches are also landing sites for green turtles - the second largest species after the leatherbacks - the Olive Ridley turtle and the hawksbill, although sightings of the latter two are increasingly rare.

-AFP

I hope it works and the people will stop consuming the turtles' eggs.

Detrimental Chemicals Poisoning our Homes

I met my former university lecturer a few years ago, when he came over to give a short lecture at the Institution of Engineers, Malaysia, (IEM). He was then already a full professor at the University of Manchester. During my days at Leeds, he has just obtained his Phd and was a young handsome lecturer.

When I told him that I was a full time housewife, his comment was that the kitchen was full of chemicals and was a place where chemical engineering was at work.

An article in the Star on 7th Oct, 2008 quoting an earlier special report in the Los Angeles Times caught my interest and reminds me of Prof Heggs.

Some chemical companies and corporations in California are implementing green chemistry to create safer substances that wont seep into our bloodstream, endanger wildlife and pollute nature.

The greenest products are 100% vegetable, made entirely from renewable, natural feedstocks that are not chemically modified. Less green are those that include minerals or inorganic materials. The least green of all use petrochemicals or animal substances.

That is good news to me. During my Chemical Engineering design lectures I remember they taught us to design process plants that only release steam to the atmosphere. In real life, the last stage is often not included to save costs... at the expense of the environment.

Awareness to save the environment has finally reached the ears of our local engineers too.I am happy to note that the IEM will be holding a talk on the Environmental Monitoring and Compliance in relation to the various recently enacted environmental laws on 24th October.

Our earth will be better looked after once the engineers who shape the world, design everything to be environment -friendly.

Effect of Dumping Exotic Pets in our Rivers

I was not surprised to read NST's reports on alien predators in the rivers of Perak. (See NST 6th Oct). I have earlier commented on this in my posting on 13th August.

The NST reported that:

Local fish in ponds and rivers in Perak and the Klang Valley are in danger of being wiped out due to two highly aggressive predator fishes which are wreaking havoc in the waterways. Environmentalists have raised the alarm that if the biological invasion by the carnivorous peacock bass and the zebra cichlid (both from the cichlid family) is not checked, it will cause havoc on biodiversity and the livelihood of riverine fishermen.

Where these two predator fish are found, they have moved to the top of the fish chain, even attacking the original "king" of Malaysian predator fish, the toman. That is why local fishermen are hauling in fewer toman, haruan, sebarau and udang galah.

These predator fish attack in groups and their prey are known to beach themselves in futile attempts to escape being eaten.

DHI Water and Environment Sdn Bhd environmental consultant Mohd Zambri Mohd Akhir is particularly concerned about the threat posed by the peacock bass.

"Now you can find these fish in Chenderoh, the most downstream dam in Perak. If it enters the other river systems in Malaysia that has unique local species, it is going to cause irreversible damage," warned Zambri.

He said the peacock bass was already robbing riverine fishermen of their livelihood as the problem had been around for nearly a decade.

"Fishermen in Batu Gajah and Tanjung Tualang are already facing this problem as their income has been steadily suffering over the years.

"The supply of udang galah is also greatly reduced, depriving fishermen of a decent income."

The peacock bass is from the Amazon in South America and can grow up to five kilogrammes. It breeds fast and protects its eggs and fry, giving it a high survival rate.

The zebra cichlid from Africa, however, only grows up to palm size, but is known for its notorious feeding habits.

Fisherman Ishanorzaman Jaimit from Kampung Gajah confirmed that there were many peacock bass in the mining ponds and rivers in Perak, but said that they only ate the small fish.

There is also increasing demand for the peacock bass. Fishermen get RM5 per kg for it, while the middlemen sell it for RM6.50 per kg.

The peacock bass is not usually available in restaurants but it is known to make it to the dinner tables of fishermen and anglers who catch it.

Vincent Chin, owner of the Malaysian Fishing Net website, however, insists that the peacock bass is a real threat.

"It was brought into the country as an aquarium fish more than 10 years ago. It is a real nuisance because it feeds on local fish. They are vicious and attack like a pack of wolves," he said.

Another riverine fisherman, Muhammad Isa, said the zebra cichlid, nicknamed ikan belang for its distinctive stripes, was a bigger threat.

"The zebra cichlid is a bigger threat to the local species than the peacock bass," he said.

"In rivers and ponds in my area, the peacock bass is noted for eating only the perimpin (freshwater version of the ikan bilis).

Mohd Zambri Mohd Akhir warned that there were also other alien species in our waterways which were bound to pose problems in the future. He said the Fisheries Department should study potential threats from other alien species and ban the import of any species that could cause environmental havoc in our waterways. He pointed to the ban on the piranha and pacu species. Nik Mohd Rahimi, who manages the Fly Fishing and Lure Casting Centre in Taman Pertanian Bukit Cahaya in Shah Alam, agreed, blaming aquarium fish enthusiasts for the dire situation. He said the arapaima, the largest freshwater fish in South America, has been spotted in Putrajaya and Dengkil.

"When owners find it too costly to maintain the fish, they just release into the waterways."

The government should make a rule to tag the imported fish electronically to prevent owners from disposing them wherever they like. See my earlier post on 17th August.

Doctors' Warning on Performance Enhancing Drinks

The Guardian newspaper carried the following warning yesterday:

Performance enhancing energy drinks should carry prominent health warnings to protect young people from overdosing on caffeine. The warning follows research in the US into 28 energy drinks that found some contained up to 14 times as much caffeine as a can of cola, or the equivalent of 7 cups of strong coffee. The market for caffeine-rich energy drinks has exploded in recent years, causing concern at the lack of regulations to ensure they are consumed safely.

In the UK, drinks containing more than 150mg caffeine per litre must be labelled as "high caffeine content", but there is no upper limit on the amount of caffeine, nor do drinks need to carry warnings of the potential risks of caffeine overdose.

The Food Standards Agency advises pregnant women not to exceed 300mg of caffeine a day.

Roland Griffiths of John Hopkins University surveyed caffeine levels in energy drinks widely available in the US and found that they varied from 50mg for a drink called "Whoop Ass" and 505mg in a drink called "Wired X505". A can of cola contains around 35mg caffeine and a cup of coffee around 75mg.

Some of the drinks are not available yet in the UK save for Cocaine Energy Drink which was launched in August. It contains 280mg or 8 times as much caffeine as a can of cola. One of the best selling energy drink, Red Bull, contains 80mg caffeine.

Prof. Griffiths noticed that these drinks are aggressively marketed to kids in extreme sports and often some of them are making subtle appeals to the illicit drug culture. People drinking 2 cans of these drinks may get caffeine intoxicated. They end up feeling lousy and may end up in the accident and emergency room thinking they have had a heart attack.

Regular drinkers of coffee and tea develop a tolerance to caffeine but Prof Griffiths feels that younger people face a risk of overdosing if they consume high levels of caffeine energy drinks at a younger age.

Prof Griffiths recommends that warning labels be attached to energy drinks. These labels should highlight the risks of having high levels of caffeine which include anxiety attacks, nervousness, rapid heart beat and nausea.

For a person sensitive to caffeine, 200mg is enough to have many symptoms of caffeine intoxication.

Earlier, the anti-drugs advisory group, Drug Education UK warned that schoolchildren are becoming dependent on energy drinks to boost their performance.
Energy drinks are being attacked because of their branding and marketing strategies.

So, my children, please refrain from imbibing the above drinks if you are staying up to study. You don't want to damage your systems and end up in the A&E when you are wanted to be elsewhere especially in the exam hall.

The Man Who Never Throws His Trash

I was intrigued to read in the latest online Time magazine that David Chameides, an award winning cameraman has not thrown out his garbage this year. An average American throws out 1,700 lbs of rubbish last year.Dave stacks all of his non-recyclable trash — including organic waste like food neatly in the basement of his Los Angeles house. He uses a tin box to hold bags of waste paper, and lines the staircase of his basement with used bottles. For organic waste, he put in a worm composter that breaks down leftover food.

Not only does Chameides carefully pack away any waste he creates at home, he also lugs back trash he may have produced outside the home. On a recent vacation to Mexico, Chameides tagged and bagged all the things he would have thrown out, and brought them back with him to the United States. Security officials at the airport in Mexico were understandably confused. "The woman in the security line opened up my bag and saw all the trash," says Chameides. "She said, 'Que esto?' [What is this?] I told her, 'Basura' — garbage. They just laughed and zipped up the bag." What a weirdo!

To reduce the amount of trash he wasn't throwing, Dave Chameides simply cut back on the amount of stuff he consumed in the first place. Given that his nickname is Sustainable Dave, that wasn't too hard. "I'm a non-consumer to begin with," says Chameides. Through about eight months, Chameides kept a little more than 30 lbs. of trash — most of which dates back to the first couple months of the year.The average American, by contrast, would have passed 1,000 lbs by now. "It turned out that it's not that hard," he says. "I'm a pretty normal guy — I just keep my garbage in my basement."

It's easy to mock Chameides's earnest habits, but his quest does highlight an environmental threat that rarely gets attention. Most Americans believe that littering on the street is wrong but throwing something out in a proper trashcan doesn't mean it simply disappears. Taking out the trash is increasingly costly, with major cities like New York now having to truck their garbage hundreds of miles to reach an open dumping space. That means energy and carbon emissions. After visiting his community's landfill, Chameides decided to begin his year of no trash."It's nearly 40 miles away, and they have 13,000 tons of trash coming in every day," he says. "It's going to close in seven years, and then they'll have to ship the trash elsewhere"

Chameides shows that what we really need to do is simply slow down and think about the waste we're creating, and the easy ways to reduce it, before we end up knee deep in our own garbage. "People ask me, 'Why are you doing this?'" he says. "It's because I want to know more about what my waste footprint is. I don't want to be part of the problem, but part of the solution." That's a sentiment that even average Americans should be able to agree with.

In Malaysia too, there are people who do not throw their trash. They keep unused things in the store for years not because they are afraid to fill the landfills but they think they will use the things they store later.I am also guilty of keeping all sorts of things, only to throw them out years later.Although I recycle what is recyclable and buries my kitchen wastes in the garden, I become sentimental when it comes to books and the children's toys. I must remember to donate all the unused clothes, books and toys. So pending that, the house is cluttered with the all these unused items.

Tracking System for Ornamental Fish

In my last post on exotic pets, I mentioned the mutant fish.I remember it now. it is called the flower horn.It originates from Central and South America and survive at water temperatures of around 28 degrees Centigrade.I wonder if it has survived in the wild.Some species can adapt and survive in alien surroundings.

I was pleasantly surprised to read in today's Malaysia Sunday Star that the Ministry of Agriculture and Agro-based Industry is considering implementing a system to track ornamental fish output as part of its efforts to meet international quality requirements as in the ISO system.This is simply a great idea! The traceability system is meant to track the health of the fish from aquarium to aquarium.

Instead of just focusing on ornamental fish the government should extend this idea to include exotic pets.Tagging of all exotic pets should be done at source either in the exporting country or upon arrival at the quarantine stations.This certainly would help in the efforts to prevent the owners of exotic pets from disposing them anywhere they like once the pets outlive their usefulness.I noticed this is already being done in some states in the USA.

Malaysian authorities should pursue this option in order to protect our indigenous animals from extinction and thus protect our biodiversity.

Wildlife Threats and Protection

Key Threats to Wildlife

1. Habitat Loss ---As population grows, in the name of development, man encroaches on the wildlife habitat by removing forests to grow crops or build new towns.Becoming isolated in the middle of large agricultural or urban developments, prevent normal interactions, healthy breeding or safe travel for many species. Some wildlife species, such as deer, are adaptable to many conditions, but other creatures have very specific plant, moisture and temperature requirements. These are the endangered species which we risk losing if we don't preserve adequate amounts of habitat for their survival.


2. Climate Change --- Because many types of plants and animals have specific habitat requirements, climate change could cause disastrous losses of wildlife species.A one or two degree change in average annual temperature will translate into large changes for many plant species (even trees) and they may decline or disappear entirely. Plants and wildlife are sensitive to moisture changes, so they will be harmed by reduced rainfall and increased dryness. Drought tolerant plants and trees will gradually spread to replace them by seed, but this process takes time.

3. Pesticides and Toxic Chemicals --- Pesticides are deliberately spread to make the environment toxic to certain plants, insects or rodents, so it shouldn't be surprising that other plants and wildlife are often harmed at the same time. While many of the worst pesticides have been outlawed in the past 30 years, scientists have found numerous worries with several pesticides which are still legal and commonly used. In addition, many chemical pollutants are toxic to wildlife, such as PCBs, mercury, petroleum byproducts, solvents, anti-freeze, etc.

4. Non-native Species --- Over the years, many non-native plants, molluscs, insects, fish, birds, mammals, and diseases have found their way to the country. These "aliens" are often aggressive competitors with native wildlife, or predatory, especially after they've left their own natural environments and controls.

5. Mismanagement --- Some native wildlife can become a problem when released from their natural population controls. In some countries,when wolves are scarce and hunters too few, white-tailed deer become overpopulated and will often strip the woods of native wildflowers and even certain tree species. Crows can become similar problems, when they scavange for scraps from our garbage heaps and landfills.

Wildlfe Protection

A love for the environment has to be nurtured to develop a healthy, sustainable society. Many of our current environmental problems are due to widespread ignorance of basic ecological facts of life, especially among our government officials and elected representatives. In addition groups and lobbyists with self interests are deliberately spreading false information which further confuses our political leaders.

To counteract this problem, we need well funded, scientifically accurate and carefully designed educational courses in our schools and universities, to raise the overall awareness of the public and government as well as elected officials.

The young generation has to learn basic natural resources and survival information from a young age, to ensure that future generations will understand the value and importance of pollution controls, resource conservation and wildlife habitat protection.

I quote a report from the Department of Wildlife and National Parks (PERHILITAN), Malaysia.In July, 2008, villagers of Kampung Lubok Bongor, Jeli, has formed Malaysia’s first community-based Wildlife Protection Unit (WPU) to reduce conflict incidences between local villagers and wildlife within their area.

The expansion of human settlements and agriculture plantations into wildlife areas has caused a surge in conflict incidences between local communities and wildlife over the last few years.

“With the help from WWF-Malaysia, the WPU will organise regular night patrols along roads and rivers, armed only with basic tools such as spotlights, air-horns and loud-halers to create plenty of noise to ward off elephants,” informed Dato’ Dr. Dionysius Sharma, CEO of WWF-Malaysia.

Twenty one villagers, ranging from farmers to businessmen, were trained in elephant conflict-mitigation methods by experts from HUTAN, a French NGO based in Sabah, and taught how to react as a team when confronted with elephants.

After just one training session, the WPU was called into action for the first time to chase away a couple of adult elephants that crossed a river to enter a nearby banana plantation. Remarkably, the WPU successfully worked together and made enough noise to send the reluctant elephants back across the river.

In the Jeli district alone, conflict incidences with elephants appear to be on the rise; 92 cases were reported in 2007 compared to 47 cases reported in 2006, according to the Jeli Department of Wildlife and National Parks (PERHILITAN).

“Utilising villagers as volunteers in this WPU programme is a good initiative as they would have a better understanding of the current human-wildlife conflict situation,” said Zaharil Dzulkafly, Assistant Director for PERHILITAN Kota Bahru.

He added that villagers should not hesitate to inform PERHILITAN of conflict incidences in their area.


Hamdan Musa, elected head of the WPU unit, reiterated that everyone should share the responsibility of reducing human-wildlife conflict. “I also believe that by helping my village ease their problems with crop-raiding elephants, I am indirectly helping myself too.”

WWF-Malaysia’s Species Conservation Programme and YTL Corporation Berhad are working together to develop Better Management Practices (BMPs) for local communities to mitigate human-wildlife conflict. Apart from forming a community-based WPU to reduce crop raids via wildlife-friendly patrols, other BMPs include the construction of barriers such as chili-greased fences around plantations, collar guards to keep out wild boars from uprooting the roots of oil palm samplings.

According to Dato’ Sharma, isolated elephants, however, needs to be trans-located urgently for their safety and the safety of the villagers.

“Inter-agency coordination in land-use planning is vital to prevent further isolation of wildlife populations. This will reduce human-wildlife conflict incidences in the long run.”

This is a good start. I wish other states will follow the example of the Jeli Perhilitan.I know of places in other states where monkeys and wild boars often raid th villagers' crops and nothing has been done to solve the problem.I notice that wild boars and monkeys are included in the schedule of protected animals in the Wildlife Protection Act 1972.As such the villagers cannot set on a rampage to kill these animals and it would be against the law.

Before the government goes about promoting agriculture as the third engine of growth, they should solve the problem of crop damage by wildlife. At the same time find solutions to prevent the extinction of the affected wildlife when they start to clear wildlife habitats for crop plantations.

Exotic Pets

Today I saw 2 interesting pets at the hypermarket.Yes, hypermarket, not pet shop.
One was an iguana like lizard with ears like the African elephants.The other is called a skink crocodile.I noticed everyone was trying to find where the crocodile was as the glass box looked empty.It must be a nocturnal animal as I found it sleeping,coiled round a small plant in a flower pot at one end of the box.It was more like a lizard with a long tail and coiled like a snake.How anyone would take it as a pet beats me as I don't fancy having such as a pet.What it decides to coil round my neck?

That reminds me of an incident I witness a few years ago in Kuala Kangsar, up north in the state of Perak.A group of people brought several sacks to the river.I wondered what they were up to.Maybe throwing durian skins into the river? People litter everywhere. It is a notorious habit.

I was surprised then, to see them releasing small red terrapins into the river.I wonder what became of the terrapins?Could they have survived or have they thrived and overpopulate the river?

I quote a report I came across recently:

1 month ago, it was reported that an Iguana was seen in Davie, Florida. Because of the rapid spread of the lizards in the South Florida area some county commissioners will seek the state Fish & Wildlife Conservation Commission to add the green Iguana to the list of "reptiles of concern".That would require Iguana owners to pay a $100 annual permit and have microchips implanted in them. Some blame pet owners for the over population saying they buy the reptiles in pet stores and when they get to big they release them in the wild where they have thrived. Many of reptiles have taken up residence in peoples back yards or along canal banks.

Closer to home I have read reports of alien sort of mutant fish that was once a craze among pet lovers, being thrown into ponds and lakes in the cities.I cannot remember the name of the fish now but it is no longer in the market.That fish could now a nuisance if it acts as a predator to our local indigenous fish.I know the "ikan Bandaraya" another pet fish that helps keep aquariums clean, can be a nuisance once freed as it can burrow and destroy cement walls in man made ponds.

So before you go rushing to buy those exotic pets for your kids, take a step back and think first. What will you do to them when your child gets tired of them?