Que Sera Sera

I like the song,'Que Sera Sera'What will be, will be.......

But I really don't agree with the song that we cannot foresee our future because what will be, will be.Of course we cannot foresee our future.Only God knows.However, our present endeavours can shape our future.What we are in the future is the result of our actions now and in the past.Only after working and praying very hard, can we be satisfied that what will be, will be.

One thing for certain,the current state of the Earth is the culmination of years of exploitation and environmental disrespect by its inhabitants.Mother Earth is nearing the end of the line, unless someone finds the solution to global warming and ecological imbalances.Oil prices which are climbing steadily up,is leading the world to economic disasters.

Can our government shield us from the effects of global oil prices and high food prices indefinitely? Right now, although the panic button has not been struck, I AM WORRIED that our national reserves will be depleted if it is not properly managed.The people need subsidies.Can the government afford it?The Economists must do something.It is definitely not Que Sera Sera!

Earthquakes-closer to home.

My son who is sitting for his final International Baccalaureate exams,suddenly texted messages to me, his Dad and sisters tonight, 'Did you feel the earthquake tonight?'It was about 10.40 pm.I immediately called him and was told that the library where he was studying, suddenly shook.The window panes creaked loudly.He and his friends were all scared and ran out of the library. I consoled him that an earthquake must have happened in Sumatra and I'll check in the internet for details.By the way, a small earthquake the day before had been felt in Tawau, Sabah on the Borneo island.
Sure enough my check on the USGS(United States Geological Survey)site had spotted an earthquake 50 km (30 miles) E of Sibolga, Sumatra, Indonesia(210 km (130 miles) SSE of Medan, Sumatra, Indonesia or 310 km (195 miles) WSW of KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia).The earthquake was measured 6.1 on the Richter scale occured at 9.26pm local time or 10.26pm Malaysian time.I checked again later and there was another tremor at 9.49pm at 5.1 magnitude.I told my son not to worry of any more tremors tonight.He has to get enough sleep as tomorrow he has to sit for the Physics paper.
By this time the local tv stations have started to flash news of the latest earthquake in Sumatra.

As I write this post,another earthquake has hit Papua new Guinea at magnitude 5.2.
It is estimated by USGS that there are 500,000 detectable earthquakes in the world each year. 100,000 of those can be felt, and 100 of them cause damage.

After seeing the aftermath of the May 12 quake in Sichuan, China and the publicity it has generated, I guess we should be grateful that our country is not in the line of epicentres of earthquakes even though we may feel the shocks.However are we prepared,if the tectonic plates were to shift closer to home?Are we prepared for tsunamis like the one hitting Penang and Kedah on December 26, 2004? Are we prepared to lose everything?

I pray this does not happen.At least not in my lifetime.

Breeding Worms

Tonight there was an interesting magazine feature on TV.The show was about vermiculture-the breeding of worms.I have always been interested in this but do not have the financial resources and time to start a venture.Tried to rear the worms I dug in my garden from what information I read in the Net,but they all died.Guess my knowledge was not good enough.There was an invitation to attend a vermiculture seminar earlier in the year but I couldn't make it. Maybe next time.

The worm farm show on TV was quite a big one but it did not give much technical information.Perhaps they were afraid to reveal their trade secrets.What put me off was the many shots showing the owner of the farm, his workers and even the reporter covering the story,scooping the earth for worms and their eggs without any gloves on.Hey!Didn't they learn Health Science in school.The people working in the worm farm must be infected with worms by now.They should check their stools to find out...

At the end of the programme, all the products of the farm was shown properly packed. There were no scenes to show how these were processed.Two products caught my attention.The face cream and hair oil- both worm extracts.I would feel uneasy using them.Imagine the worms wriggling in your hair or hatching in your face.Not knowing how they are produced, hygienic or not,is another bone of contention.

And I thought vermiculture was the breeding of worms for natural fertilizers, good for organic farming only.

Smokers and Secondary Smoke

At last it takes a woman doctor who is also a new Member of Parliament to get everyone's attention that it's not cool to smoke anywhere you like when attending parliament sessions.Syabas to Dr Lo'Lo'.If you have to indulge in toxic fumes, you don't have to torture non-smokers too.That's the message.

Recently,a leading Malaysian entrepreneur died of lung cancer. He was accompanying his wife whose cancer was diagnosed earlier.But he died first after being diagnosed in the preceding 3 months. His wife must have suffered from the secondary smoke after being married to him for about 30 years.Actually it is a pity for non-smokers to suffer from no deeds of their own.I pity the children of smokers.They did not ask to live in a polluted, smoky environment.

A few years ago, a relative died of lung cancer after four months of suffering and he didn't even smoke.I guess he was a victim of secondary smoke too.I am told that lung cancer is the worst kind of cancer.It spreads so fast and the patient will be gasping for air most of the time.Sleepless nights are spent sitting up as lying on the back would be very painful.

Being a doctor, Dr Lo'Lo' must have known the sufferings endured by lung cancer patients and was shocked and disappointed that the lawmakers do not respect the regulations imposed on them in the Parliament building itself.

Maybe we should have a campaign to champion the rights of non-smokers, especially foetuses in the womb,babies and small children.At least in the West, the pregnant mother to-be will refrain from smoking the moment she knows she is with child.She is aware that the secondary smoke will retard the growth of the child she is carrying in her womb and may result in premature birth and small birth weight.

But most smokers don't really care, for others nor most importantly, for themselves.

Neighbours and the Environment

Recently, a Malaysian Deputy Minister commented that our solid waste contractor, Alam Flora( translated as Floral World) has not done a good job in keeping our country clean. He put the blame on its foreign workers not understanding the concept of cleanliness.

I would like to put forward my 2 sen's opinion on this. I have no complaints on the the Indonesian workers of Alam Flora in my neighbourhood. They dutifully sweep the streets and collect the garbage day after day, and year after year. They clean our drains regularly. We on the other hand, chose to litter as and where we fancy.

Our children litter the playgrounds on their way home from school. Our smokers chose to toss their cigarette butts just anywhere, sometimes over their neighbour's fencing. Maids sweep their garden waste into the drains and housewives place the kitchen wastes out for the cats and dogs to salvage. And you say the foreign workers do not understand cleanliness!

Talking about neighbours, how do you tell your older neighbour not to place her rubbish in front of your house? I simply don't understand why she cannot put her carelessly wrapped rubbish in front of HER own house. To suggest that she is senile is out of the question. It's just the attitude.
Many years ago, she let her cats defecate on my balcony and when I complained, I got a ' tough luckla !' response. The other unneighbourly act that my neighbours do is to park their cars at an angle in front of their gate making it difficult for us to drive into our compound. What did we do to deserve such neighbours?

FOREST COVER

Today I learn that Malaysia has a land area of 329,847 square kilometres.This incidentally equals 32,984,700 hectares. (I had to google to find the conversion factor). Out of this, 19.52 million hectares consist of forest. That's 59%. The Republic of Laos has 70% forest cover, in comparison.

Out of our total 19.52 million hectares of forest, 14.39 million ha are permanent forest reserves.Out of which, 11.18 million ha can be logged. The rest are state land and national parks and widlife sanctuaries.

I also learn that the actual forest cover can actually increase, as in China, by having forest plantations.In China, as in Malaysia, they plant acacia mainly for the paper industry.You may think having tree plantations can solve our timber supply problems.Of course these ultra-fast growing, high yielding wonders of genetic technology can enrich a country and a community, but monoculture especially the acacia with unpalatable leaves unlike the eucalyptus, does not support wildlife existence except maybe wild boars. This means biodiversity of flora and fauna is destroyed. Wildlife have to seek food elsewhere. Thus you may find a python in your garden and a macauque in your village hall.

Forest tree plantation are the in thing now with government spending billions planting on thousands of hectares. The World Bank also helps by giving technical and monetary aids.
I am not against this. But I wish we can come to a compromise to save the planet from global warming,climate change issues and the like.
Maybe, someone can come out with environment friendly tree plantations?