The World That I See - My View

Satellite images refute Taib's claim that forest intact Mar 31, 11 4:29pm 10 friends can read this story for free An environmental news website has alleged that satellite images of Sarawak do not match claims by Sarawak Chief Minister Abdul Taib Mahmud that 70 percent of the state's forests are intact. The Google Earth satellite images collected and published by portal Mongabay.com shows that the forests in Sarawak is much more sparse compared to that in neighbouring Kalimantan, Indonesia and Brunei. According to the website, which has also been cited by Yale University publication environment360 on the same topic, the images were sourced from GeoEye, TerraMetrics, Tele Atlas, Europa Technologies and other satellite programs. “(The images) show logging roads snaking across Sarawak's forest areas. Forests across international borders are substantially less impacted,” it reported. When accessed by Malaysiakini , the publicly available...

As our Boleh Land is busy with sex videos, finger pointing and political attacks, wonder if we have learned anything from the Japanese the last 2 weeks? 10 THINGS TO LEARN FROM JAPAN  #LearnFromJapan                              1. THE CALM Not a single visual of chest-beating or wild grief. Sorrow itself has been elevated. 2. THE DIGNITY Disciplined queues for water and groceries. Not a rough word or a crude gesture. 3. THE ABILITY The incredible architects, for instance. Buildings swayed but didn’t fall. 4. THE GRACE People bought only what they needed for the present, so everybody could get something. 5. THE ORDER No looting in shops. No honking and no overtaking on the roads. Just understanding. 6. THE SACRIFICE Fifty workers stayed back to pump sea water in the N-reactors. How will they ever be repaid...

Porn show okay, but not Anwar's ceramah 'Why should any speaker be allocated time by the police? I find this restriction absurd. Does the PM and other ministers also get restricted like this?' Anwar's ceramah disrupted by FRU, 3 arrested Habib RAK: The gathering was peaceful and the large crowd was listening to the explanation given by PKR leaders Azmin Ali and Anwar Ibrahim. Suddenly this changed when the police rudely stormed in to stop Anwar from speaking further. The police instigated the chaos and angered the crowd. Even my polite enquiry to the police as to why they were raiding the ceramah venue was rudely dismissed, and I was ordered to leave immediately. Nicholas Lim: In the first place, why did the police seal the many roads leading to the area, when in fact these are public roads? Not a road block, I mean totally blocked. Plus they randomly harassed people to show their IC while they were taking a walk in Melawati town. This event coul...

COMMENT So, those who surmised that the sex video revealed by 'Datuk T' was a political ploy have been proven right. The people behind it - three of them - have confessed to it. They were forced to reveal themselves because PKR's MP Johari Abdul had earlier spilled the beans on them. It all unravelled like a cheap soap opera. Former Malacca chief minister Rahim Thamby Chik, businessman Shazryl Eskay Abdullah and Shuib Lazim, treasurer-general of Perkasa, have come out to say they are 'Datuk T'. And they have the cheek to call for a royal commission of inquiry into the sex video. In the first place, they have transgressed Section 292 of the Penal Code for possessing and distributing pornographic material. Regardless of who the person in the video is, the trio are culpable. Exposing a politician's sexual activity does not protect them from the law. After their intended target, Opposition Leader Anwar Ibrahim, had lodged a police report, the insp...

The controversy over the 'Interlok' rose several notches today when the seven-member independent panel to review and amend the novel saw all its ethnic Indian members pull out this afternoon. Following a meeting held at Parliament building with Education Minister Muhyiddin Yassin today, all three ethnic Indian panellists declared they were withdrawing from the government-created body. According to writer Uthaya Shankar SB ( right ), the decision was taken after it became apparent that the other members of the panel had changed their minds and rejected one-by-one the 100 modifications that had been recommended to render the book appropriate for consumption by Form 5 students. “We feel we were betrayed,” Uthaya Shankar told Malaysiakini . He said stressed further that the panellists had reached a consensus over the matter. Source: http://www.malaysiakini.com/news/158836 seals: was there a BUY-ELECTION?

The industrial town of Gebeng, near Kuantan, will soon have one of the biggest rare earth refineries in the world, according to US daily the New York Times (NYT). Experts quoted in the report have raised concern about hazardous radioactive waste that the operations will produce. The RM700 million refinery is being constructed by Australia's Lynas Corp, which will ship rare earth ore mined from Western Australia's Mount Weld. This is Malaysia's second foray into rare earth refining, following the much-disputed operations in Bukit Merah, Perak, in the 1980s. The NYT quoted Malaysian Atomic Energy Licensing Board director Raja Abdul Aziz Raja Adnan as saying that approval was granted for the Lynas project after a thorough review by various government agencies. He said the imported ore and waste products would have low-enough radiation levels to be manageable and safe. “We have learned we shouldn't give anybody a free hand,” Raja Adnan said, referring to Bukit Mer...

Three Form Five students were yesterday taken to the Kuala Kubu Baru district police headquarters and traumatised by being questioned for 10 hours - all for wanting to return the novel 'Interlok' to their principal last Friday. Initially, seven SMK Kuala Kubu Baru students, who wanted to return the book because they were not happy with its contents, were stopped by a discipline teacher who allegedly abused them verbally. “All seven of us were walking calmly towards the headmaster's room when our discipline teacher stopped us and started making comments which hurt our feelings,” said one of the students, w h o was with four others at the Human Rights Party headquarters today . According to the student, the discipline teacher said the students were purposely creating problems because of their race. The teacher reportedly said, “ Kenapa orang India garang? India memang suka rosakkan nama sekolah. Keling memang dasar pariah sejak sejarah lagi ” (Why are the I...