Sydney Blackout

Yes, I have noticed the pattern of my postings... perhaps i should change my blog link to www.the-environmental-activist.blogspot.com ;)

This time, it is of Sydney (Australia's largest city) switching off for an hour. Sydney will be plunged into darkness for an hour on Saturday March 31st, to raise awareness on Global Warming. The first blackout ever in the world.

Paris has done something similar last month, not as heroic, but good enough - dimming lights for 5 minutes and turning off the lights of the Eiffel Tower.

According to our local daily the Star, this "Earth Hour" in Sydney has been planned for 10 months by WWF in partnership with city authorities, businesses and a major newspaper group. A thousand businesses have signed up, including many blue-chip companies on the Australian stock market. Even McDonalds is going to turn off its "Golden Arches" signs.

This definitely needs much planning and consent from people running businesses especially, as a great loss could be made by certain companies if there were to be a blackout. So it's nice to hear that a THOUSAND businesses have signed up and showed support.

Top restaurants have signed up and will serve diners by candle-light (That's not too bad...in fact, quite romantic!).

WWF Australia Communications director Andy Ridley said: "We're not asking people to go and live in a cave and eat cold beans" :)

Oh yeah, you may ask, how does switching off the power help curb global warming?
In order to generate energy (for electricity), fossil fuels are burnt and this produces Carbon Dioxide, the main greenhouse gas causing the atmosphere to trap all the heat. That explains the increase in global temperature.

Perhaps this hour-long blackout may cause people to think twice about what's really necessary in life. Some things CAN be lived without, perhaps? Think S I M P L E.

I don't know if Malaysia will ever do something like that to help the environment. From what i'm seeing.. quite unlikely.. just look at how we are making use of all the land we have (in Kuala Lumpur alone).

In Kiara/Hartamas - the place i used to go hiking is now GONE, and replaced by condominiums. In Mutiara Damansara/Damansara Perdana area - Condominiums and SHOPPING COMPLEXES!!! Haven't we got ENOUGH shopping centres around?! My god! It all contains the SAME shops anyway! Why not KEEP the land and trees and encourage lazy and materialistic city folks to go HIKING?! And they complain of the obesity rate in kids increasing. HAH!

Well, you get the idea-lah! It's all money oriented - what do they care about our environment. I'm not very hopeful of some blackout-helping-the-environment-scheme happening in Malaysia. Not in my lifetime.

Alrighty, this shall be my LAST posting on Global Warming, i promise! If any such articles pop up again in the future, it's because i can't help it ;)

Does it really work?

I received an email from a friend a few days ago, urging me to sign up and join the ‘Stop Global Warming Virtual March’ petition (if that’s the right word), or campaign. It’s great to know that there are people out there who care and are as hopeful for change.

The email says: “StopGlobalWarming.org's mission is to use the strength of numbers to urge our government to address global warming, and urge businesses to start a new industrial revolution of clean energy that reduces our dependence on oil and helps stop global warming.”

Wow, that sounds so optimistic and encouraging!! But my question is, how much difference can the ‘power of numbers’ make? I don’t mean to be pessimistic or a wet blanket, but I’ve signed many of these ‘petitions’ before without seeing any change.

Let’s see…Lately I signed the ‘Toll Hike Protest’ petition, heh… NO EFFECT… Expensive as ever! Mr Vellu is adamant. Then there’s also the ‘Stop Canada’s Massive Seal Hunt’ petition which I signed… Looks like things haven’t changed since I signed… Baby seals as young as 12 days old are still being culled. Just to name two petitions I’ve signed of late.

Oh, by the way, I am supporter number 667,009 in the petition for ‘Stop Global Warming Virtual March’. May I ask how many more names are needed to IMPRESS the Government? WHEN will the Government decide to take notice and take action? After it has reached 1 million? WHY?

I’ve also signed the ‘Stop Canada’s Massive Seal Hunt’ last year, and the name collection is still going on! Just imagine, within these few months since I’ve signed, how many more baby seals have been killed? WHAT is all the waiting?!!? I might as well not sign since it wouldn’t make a difference!

My suggestion is, we shouldn’t keep waiting, depending and putting all our hopes on the Government to do something about an issue, we should just do it – try to help out in whatever way we can. Who knows, after all the years of collecting names, the Government might just decide that “Oh, this is a waste of our time and money”, and pushes it aside. There goes all the time and hope (and LIVES)!

That’s all I have to say. I’m frustrated as always! Oh, if you’re free,
“You can join the ‘Stop Global Warming Virtual March’ by visiting: http://www.stopglobalwarming.org”

And if you have more time in your hands, you can also sign a couple of other petitions in the website below:
https://community.hsus.org/campaign/protectseals/step2

Petitions range from ‘Stop Commercial Whaling’ to ‘Tell Allergan that Mice Should Not Die for BOTOX’. See the variety!

The funny thing is, most of these petitions end with: “Together we can make a difference.”

Yeah… okay… WHEN? After the end of the world? After all the seals are extinct? WHEN?!

An Inconvenient Truth

My whole view towards Al Gore has changed ever since i watched this film. The Malaysian media always portrayed him as one nasty American, due to the fact that Al Gore and Tun Dr Mahathir used to have conflicts with each other. And that was all i knew about him - Nasty.

I think Al Gore is quite a misunderstood person (so is everyone once you get to know them better). I never knew how much concern he has over the environment, and that is what i really, totally RESPECT about him! OK, i must say that this film of his does have some elements of 'Vote for me' in it, but it's only like 10% of the film, and he is frank about it. Another thing i admire about him is his frankness, humour and he sure knows his facts damn well and is so passionate about it!

I think it's great that a politician did this film, as not only is he well-known and has some power, he also, used to being in the political scene, knows many other influential people and knows all the 'dirty' background happenings that has been hidden from the public - which he revealed in this film.

One can see that years of research has been done before this film, as he covered almost every aspect of Global Warming- politically, economically, socially, scientifically, family (heh.. yes) etc, giving viewers tons of valuable details to the WHYs and HOWs of Global Warming.

One very heart-wrenching fact he presented was of Polar Bears in the Arctic. These days, there are more and more cases of Polar Bears DROWNING! Can you believe that? Them drowning! WHY? Because of Global Warming, the ice are melting in the Arctic, leaving scarce and thin layers of ice for the creatures. They swim vast distances to look for land (ice) to rest, but find only miserable chunks of ice, so thin, it breaks as its paw touches it. So they have to swim somemore in search of a place to rest, and eventually drown of fatigue!

Al Gore also went on explaining about the cause of all the sudden flurry of hurricanes (esp. Hurricane Katrina), the heat waves in the Europe, flood and drought in China etc. It is quite sad to see all these people suffering, but, the funny thing is that, i felt more sympathy towards the Polar Bear than humans. I'm sorry to say that, but i feel the animals are so innocent. All they ask for is a place to settle and feed their family, and here we humans are, destructing the world and these animals' lives.

Al Gore also gave an interesting animated analogy of our attitude towards Global Warming. It showed 2 beakers - 1 filled with 100Celcius water, the second beaker's filled with luke warm water, but below the second beaker was a burner that's heating up the water. So, a little frog jumps into the first and immediately jumps out (because it's 100C), then it jumps into the second beaker (luke warm water).. "umm.. so nice and comfy"..

The temperature of the water slowly increased due to the burner, but the frog's still okay in it. "Yes, it's hot, but still bearable lah". Then, it slowly came to a point where the frog had to jump back out of it because it was super hot!

This is exactly what's happening to people on earth now. The temperature of the earth is increasing, and we're adapting to it. If we do not take care of our environment, it'll come a point where we realize: "Shit, this IS Global Warming", but by then, it's a bit too late.

Oops, I think i'm spilling too many beans about the film. But these are good beans :)

Right now, if we do something about it, we still can 'SAVE THE WORLD', heh.. no really, we can save our earth. Just try to cut down on activities that will emit lots of Carbon Dioxide - carpool, recycle, switching on the air-con only when absolutely necessary etc. And PLANT MORE TREES if you can :)

You know why it's called 'An Inconvenient Truth'? Because we all know about Global Warming and some of its causes, BUT are we willing to change our lives (ie: using a fan instead of air-con on a hot day; separating good for recycling; carpooling)? Most can't be bothered as it's too INCONVENIENT. That explains the title.

Be Bothered. Be Thoughtful, and go watch the film!

What's the meaning behind it?

Malaysia did it again...! This time, Malaysia's 520m-long Yee Sang made it into the Malaysia Book of Records for its sheer size. Who knows... perhaps next year we'll enter the Guinness Book of World Records.

No, I'm not here to debate whether this is a worthwhile pursuit, but if they do, there sure will be tons of chopping and slicing to do, and is that worth their time? Or should they channel their time to something more productive?

Okay.. No, my main purpose is NOT to comment on that, but on the act of mixing the Yee Sang. I know it's nothing profound but many younger chinese seem to do it without knowing the meaning behind the act.

"Yee Sang" in Cantonese or "Yu Sheng" in Mandarin, it literally means Raw Fish. But it also symbolizes Prosperity and Vigor due to its sound. The act of mixing the Yee Sang is called "Lou Hei" meaning to 'mix to Happiness' or 'mix it up high'. That is why when the Chinese mix the ingredients with their chopsticks, they always raise it high up while they utter words and phrases of good luck = raising the coming year's luck.

According to legend, a Chinese Goddess by the name of 'Nu Wa' spent 6 days creating Mankind out of mud and completed on the 7th day in the first Lunar month. That' s why the 7th day is known as "Birthday of Man". To commemorate this day, Man are not allowed to kill animals for food, instead 7 vegetables representing as many good things as possible are prepared. Some of the ingredients include Celery (symbolizing Hardwork) and Garlic (meaning ' to count' in terms of money) and many others.

But nowadays there are many other additions such as grounded peanuts and crackers, and no celery to suit the tastebuds of the majority. It has become very commercialized that it is almost losing its meaning, just like most other traditions.

So, it is good to know how these things come about and WHY.

Razzie vs Oscar

I never knew there was this award called "The Razzies", till today. Heh.. embarassing! The Razzies, as it suggests, is a parody of Hollywood's annual Oscars, saluting the worst that Hollywood has to offer each year. Obviously recipients of The Razzies rarely, or never show up to collect their award(s), which is a gold spray-painted plastic gong the shape of a Raspberry ('Razz' is short of Raspberry). Guess how much the award is worth? hehe... it can't be worth much because they should be ready for it to be uncollected. Organizers say it is worth as much as $4.97 (RM17.35)!!! Only good sports would bother to collect their Razzies. My utmost respect for them!

The best thing is that The Razzies were announced one day ahead of the Oscars! Poor Sharon Stone, still hot at 48, was awarded Worst Actress in Basic Instinct 2. This movie was also awarded Worst Picture, Worst Screenplay, and Worst Prequel. That's pretty sad... perhaps i should watch it. hmmm...

I thinkThe Razzies is reputation-ruining. It should not exist. People are bound to make mistakes, we should just leave them alone to realize. But then again, this 'award' will make film-makers, directors, actors (supporting/main) work harder to avoid The annual Razzies, which is announced before the Glamorous event - the Oscars.

Desperado Offers Best Friend to Debt Collectors

Last week, a 17-year old dropout, desperate to settle the debts to several men, "presented" her best friend to them. The girl asked her best friend to follow her to a car park, telling the victim that her brother was being assaulted. Next thing, the victim was dragged by four men to their car, hands tied and forcibly taken to a room where the men took turns to rape her.

Police managed to round up five suspects. All men were between the ages of 15 and 28.

I find it hard to understand, how anyone can just 'present' their best friend or anyone to settle their own debt. I think it's terribly selfish! This 17-year old girl should learn to bear her own responsibility. Find other ways of settling her own debts which she brought herself into. If she knows that she can't pay back at the end, don't borrow in the first place. I hope this girl learns her lesson.

Gung Hei 'Fatt Choy' !!

As the Chinese New Year approaches, demands for lots of food stuff begin to increase, especially this dried vegetable (more like lichen) called the 'Fatt Choy'. This 'vegetable' is called a 'Fatt Choy' because its outlook very much resembles human hair (in Cantonese called 'Fatt'). 'Fatt Choy' also sounds like 'Prosperity', that is why this 'vegetable' is in high demand during the Chinese New Year.

What probed me to write this is when i read the papers of a lady, grinning from ear-to-ear when she finally found her 'Fatt Choy' which she has been searching for 2years!

The reason to the 'Fatt Choy' being so hard to find is because the Chinese government has limited its harvesting. WHY? Because when this plant is being removed from the ground, the surface soil is no longer bound together. This makes the soil vulnerable to wind and water erosion, causing it to eventually become sand, or in a large scale - Desert.

Extensive harvesting has already resulted in the desertification of large areas in Northern China - Mongolian steppes and the Gobi Desert.

Another scary fact which I read in one of the Chinese papers years ago is that, in order to obtain 1kg of this 'Fatt Choy', one football field of land is being eroded and eventually turned into desert. That is real scary stuff, as 3 families can easily consume 1kg of 'Fatt Choy', think about all the chinese families around the world and how many football fields of lands are being eroded. I think it is absolutely freaky!

The only reason the Chinese eat this is because the name of the plant sounds like 'Prosperity'. But does it really bring one prosperity?

Nevertheless, Gung Hei Fatt Choy!

50 - 56 - 60

Our country's retiring age before was at 50, then it went up to 56, now they're thinking of increasing it to 60! I think that's great actually!

Our PM - Abdullah pointed out that 40 used to be the age of maturity but now people were at the prime of their life when they were in their 50s. He said that when one reached the age of 60, one could still be considered young nowadays.

And i'm in total agreement with him! I think people at 50 are still very young... too young to retire.

One thing we must bear in mind is that, as we grow older, our minds become less sharp. If we discontinue to work our minds, our rate of becoming senile increases.

Well, it also depends what job one has, if it's a labouring job, perhaps 56 is good for the body to retire; but if it's a job that involves the mind (ie. calculation, analytical etc), 65 is fine.

Research has shown the drastic decline of people's memory once they retire. So perhaps for those who'd like to retire young, try picking up mah-jong or Sudoku ;)

Soil-eating girl?

People during wartime had no choice but to eat soil and roots to survive. But now, there's a young Mongolian girl who eats soil... by choice! What an odd child.. Wuqibalaqiqige is the name.

According to www.chinadaily.com.cn, this girl started her curious eating habits last year, and said that she felt no need to eat normal food now that she had discovered how much she liked to eat soil. Hmmm.. interesting... Quite a low-maintenance girl I'd say, heh.. She can find food practically anywhere in the world, without having to pay much (or not having to pay at all). How nice! In fact, she'll even be paid a huge amount (for eating soil), if she gets herself in the Guiness Book of World Records, which she is now vying for.

She will also launch a campaign for a charity that helps people with unusual diseases. According to Chinadaily, she has already helped a woman who suffered from insomnia for more than 10 years.

Now what is that suggesting? Soil cures insomnia?? All websites i searched, NEVER elaborated on that matter - as in how the soil-eater cured the insomniac. Don't you think people will naturally assume that eating soil can cure insomnia? Well, perhaps that really is the cure, but i think the papers should clarify on that matter. Or the next thing you know, insomniacs who read the article will start eating soil in the garden.

Well, that's it for now. I need to search my garden for a soil that suits me best! ;p

PETA Protests!!!

A picture at the front page of 'The Sun' newspaper struck me yesterday. It did not get a big headline... it was merely a little 'by-the-way' news to fill up space.

This picture showed a lady, who's a member of the 'People for Ethical Treatment of Animals' (PETA), protesting in the middle of a catwalk in HongKong, holding an Anti-Fur poster, while a security personnel tries to push her off the catwalk, in order for those models to continue parading Hong Kong designer Andy Sin's (Fur) creations.

Why do people need fur in their lives??? I can never understand.

For those of you who have a fetish for fur, please check out www.peta.org. It's a really cool site!

In this site, you'd be able to see how these cute furry animals are made into your beloved furcoat. A step-by-step guide which will make you cringe and eventually send your food back to where it came!

While watching the videos, please try to place yourselves in the animal's shoes.

I hope the videos will OPEN your eyes and stop you from spending thousands on just a fur coat. Why not save that $$ on something more worthwhile.. like travelling, buying a new Rolls Royce or your latest Gucci bag or something.

If you really love fur that much, you could try looking for your furcoats in Petaling Street. As if people will be able to tell the difference between real fur and fake from far anyway.

Please, have a heart :)

*Photo from www.furisdead.com

Flood in Johor...Rubbish!

Barely has the water from the recent flood subsided in Johor, and down comes another round of heavy rain. Never has there been such a terrible flood in Malaysia... 14ft high!!!

Our beloved Samy Vellu would comment: "It's an Act of God!", while I think: "It's the Act of Human Beings!!". Malaysia IS flood prone, but never has it been this bad. Have you ever asked yourselves why all of a sudden the flood's this horrendous?? think a while...

Could it be that, idiotic people go around throwing rubbish in 'longkangs', monsoon drains, rivers etc. that when rain (a real heavy one) comes, all 'longkangs' are blocked with rubbish that there's no way of draining out the water. So where does the water go? You go figure!

Drains are for DRAINING... NOT FOR RUBBISH!

Please don't get me wrong. I think it seems to people reading this that i've no sympathy towards the victims of this flood in Johor. I do, really! But if the cause of this flood is the drainage system, then I've no sympathy towards those who don't give a fish towards the environment.

*Peace*