An Ecological Butterfly

An ecological modernist once said :
" The dirty and ugly industrial caterpillar transforms into an ecological butterfly"
( Huber,1985)

This symbolism/analogy is very telling. Where do industrialised countries get their pulp/paper products, oil palm , timber-based products if not by feeding from the newly industrialised countries like Malaysia? Why then harp on destruction of forests , orang utans, loss of diversity, wildlife displacement? Is there more to environmental politics than meets the eye? Is there an 'overriding will' of foreign governments as they relentlessly drive Third World countries to have a stronger will and resolve in overcoming global warming while they are in the 'state of denial '?.The US which is the biggest polluter of all ( the ecological butterfly ) is still adamant in ratifying the Kyoto Protocol (1997) in reducing its green house gas emissions even by a mere percentage point by global standards ....something to think about or shall I say 'eat' as the orang utan reflects....... :)

The Rice Story

There is this unending list of global warming impacts. Like a good scrap book it keeps getting more interesting every time you re-look at it. Now it is the rice story. The story goes that global warming/climatic change causes too little rain, thus bringing havoc to the flowering and harvesting periods of rice, the staple food for more than three quarters of the world population. What are the risks?

• Political - hunger and increased poverty instigating collapse and overthrow of government
• Social - in-migration of displaced rural subsistence farmers to towns and cities compound the scope of diseases outbreak, malnutrition, unemployment and therefore much loss of human capital
• Financial- misapplication of financial resources and funds in mitigating urban poverty, slums and general degradation in quality of urban dwellers instead of using these limited funds to tackle the roots of poverty and rural-urban migration. This may lead some governments living on borrowed funds, and temporary erasure of reputational capital

Wow! Delicious pomelos!

Macy's thoughts: Not yet strong enough to climb a tree. But hey, early enough to admire these pomelo fruits. Gonna climb this tree when I grow big.
Location: Next to shoplot, while on pit stop at Selangau, along Bintulu- Sibu road.

Oil Palm farming - the eco-way

Can an oil palm holding retain bio-diversity? Preserve nature? Enhance the environment?
These questions are pertinent in view of the trend to open up more land in Sarawak for oil palm plantations, which are of the mono-culture kind. However all is not lost. As an example, an eco-farm in Bintulu has attempted to do more to nature than just mono-cropping. The kambatik eco-farm has applied these basic guidelines:
1) Retain 30 % of land for natural preservation and landscaping( natural landscaping ) e.g. stream or river courses, wildlife preserves, reintroduction of local plants for gene banks
2) Advanced planting techniques introduced to allow for various plants , trees and shrubs to colonise the areas to act as soil erosion measures, attract wildlife, provide shade( esp to workers), multiple harvest in the interim 1-3 years before the oil palm trees bear sufficient fruits to bring the hard cash
3) Suitable areas should be planted with herbs, medicinal plants, and other edible fruits that have both commercial and export values
4) Keep usage of chemical fertilisers to the very minimum, instead optimise good cultural practise
5) Plant better clones and obtain professional advise on technical and management matters

Good news for the oil palm farmer

Recent reports in the local press showed promising statistics:
1) The price of oil palm grew by almost 65% from a year ago.
2) Malaysian palm oil futures price market hit record volumes and climbed to RM 3000/tonne.
3) Malaysia palm oil exprts account for 57% 0f global palm oil trade
4) Nearly a quarter of Malaysian oil palm exports goes to China.

Kuching Flyover

We went around and about in Kuching city and found this Satok flyover clothed in bougainvillea beauty. This picture reminds me of a flyover in Singapore when the taxi driver drove me to the Changi airport years ago. Well you see this kind of planting in the cities. And Kuching has now joined its ranks.

Budding Artist

OK, in this blog I am allowed to appear on screen, once in a while. I am newly born, pre-maturely I think. You can call me Macy Grey coz my furs are grey and that excited my adopted parents to leaps of inspiration. This is me playing fun with my master hand bag in Bintulu after arriving from Kuching a couple of weeks ago. My..my..it was a long 10 hours journey and I was just about 5 days old. You think I am too young to travel? Wait! I am gonna set the Malaysia World Records in 'the most travelled cat in Malaysia '. Today I am back in Bintulu....ha ha that means I've clocked in 1200 km already! Probably I will be going again to Kuching towards the end of this week.

First Blog

Have real problems with Vista. It's no wonder why people say it is not yet stable! Anywhere, I am trying my best to see which time of the day to post...because of connection problems, uploading pictures, not to mention videos. Well I hope this is mere historical.