Jail those buggers

The recent disaster in Kampung Pasir, Hulu Klang buried four people and destroyed three blocks of longhouses (occupied by 232 people, mostly Indonesians).

No! I am not going to start blaming people or pass judgment nor am I going to try to analyse what went wrong.

As noted by Property Malaysia, 5 of the most biggest landslides in Malaysia occurred around the same area.

All 5 locations where within about 2km along the same stretch of Middle Ring Road II:
Dec 11, 1993 – Highland Towers
May 15, 1999 – Athanaeum Tower
Oct 5, 2000 – Bukit Antarabangsa
Nov 20, 2002 – Taman Hillview
May 31, 2006 – Kampung Pasir

Here are some of my suggestions:

1. STOP, I repeat stop any development (as in housing) in the area.

2. Make the river catchments protected natural reserves (which cannot be de-gazetted easily in the future) with minimal human interference.

3. Survey existing housing areas for weak points and rectify them.
For example, I read somewhere that the houses above the kampung where the landslide occurred don’t have a proper drainage system.

4. Start a massive afforestation programme in the area. Trees and plants are the best ways to prevent soil erosion.

5. Remove all illegal kampungs/ squatter settlements. Throw the owners/ developers in jail.
If the residents are illegal immigrants, deport them. If they are permanent residents (PR) or Malaysian citizens, give them low cost housing. If they refuse to leave – throw them in jail too.

Remembered a joke one of my friends told me - about Selangor becoming an Indonesian colony by the year 2020.

In a related news the Natural Resources and Environment Minister Datuk Seri Azmi Khalid announced today that developers and consultants may go to prison if their projects damage the environment or trigger landslides and other disasters.

Related links:
- Excuses! Excuses! Excuses!
- Next time there’s a landslide...: Builders may go to prison

Tags: disaster environment Hulu Klang Landslide

Jaguar mosaic and I

Yesterday was World Environment Day. It has been, every year, on the June 5th since its inception by the United Nations in 1972.

And again it passed, this time without even false promises.

According to a report by the Word Wide Fund for Nature, international funding for conservation is gradually decreasing.

At a time when the devastating effects of environmental damage are being felt further and wider than ever, governments, including the US, are considering cutting their financial support to the GEF by as much as 50 per cent.

In April 2006, WWF asked supporters to add their faces to create a photo mosaic making the picture of a jaguar. A huge version of the photo mosaic the size of a volley ball pitch was unveiled on 16 May in Berne, Switzerland. It comprised around 12,000 photos of WWF supporters from around the world. One of them was mine. Read The mosaic unveiled.



You can also view the online version here.

Tags: environment jaguar mosaic wwf

More Imaan

Went over to the Registration office in Shah Alam yesterday to register Imaan's birth and get the official birth certificate. Learnt that we can get his MyKid card only 6 months later. However, we are planning to go to UK in about 3 month' time. Don't know whether we can get a passport for Imaan without the MyKid card.

WARNING: SOME CUTE BABY PICS AHEAD!



After bath



Sleeping

Tags: Imaan Personal

Introducing Imaan

Finally got the chance to update my blog.

In case you have been wondering what I have been up to all this time ....

I would like to take this opportunity to introduce the latest addition to my family....
My son Imaan was born on the 23rd of this month by caesarean section.



Imaan means faith in B. Malaysia and Arabic and honour in Hindi.
Tags: Imaan Personal

Book better than the movie

Watched the so called movie of the year - The Da Vinci Code at GSC in 1 Utama yesterday with my wife. We had bought the tickets one day earlier, so we didn't have to stand in queue with the rest of the crowd on the big day (actually not as many as I had anticipated).

While buying our tickets, the lady at the counter was giving us seats at the second last row. I noticed that there was a row of seats (arranged in pairs) at the back, with heart symbols on them. Yes! I am observant. So I asked what those seats are for. "Oh! Those are for couples", replied the lady.

Oh! I see. Are we not a couple? We are married for Heaven's sake. And I am willing to pay the few ringgits more (RM13 per ticket).

So, we got a pair, right in the middle.

Despite what several critics wrote about the movie being dull and blah blah, I found it exciting. In fact, I enjoyed it. Made me want to fly to Paris and Scotland straightaway.

However, I hated it when they replaced the English subtitles with B. Malaysia / Chinese whenever the characters spoke in French or something else, maybe Latin or Spanish. Annoying.

Of course, the book was much better. I think I would have enjoyed it more, had I not read the book.

And the seats were terrific. Next time, it's these seats or no watching a movie at GSC anymore. Why didn't they have these places when I was still single.

Tags: Da Vinci Code Dan Brown movies

Ustaz and the contraceptives

Sometime back my wife's doctor was relating one incident where an irate Ustaz (common term for Muslim religious teacher in Malaysia) came to her office and threatened to beat her up.

What happened was that the Ustaz found contraceptives in his daughter's room and upon intense interrogation, her daughter implicated the doctor.

The Ustaz accused the doctor of spreading loose morals and leading his innocent daughter down the path to hell.

He was shocked when he learnt the truth - the girl had come to the doctor to treat a urinary infection. The doctor revealed that the girl had had an abortion and was still sexually active. She was advised that "no sex" was of course the best option but as the doctor told us, it was not like she was not going to follow the advice. The girl wanted to prevent another "mistake". So that's how the girl ended up with the contraceptive pills.

Hearing the story I was a bit sorry for the Ustaz as a father of a daughter myself.

Just wondering what I would do if I were in his situation.

Oh Yeah! for those close friends of mine who are still wondering ....

That fellow is taking his sweet time. If the situtation remains unchanged, we will be making our decision this saturday.

Tags: Contraceptives Parenting Ustaz

Going to Ikea for food

I suddenly realised that our daughter now decides many of our joint decisions. Like last Friday we wanted to go and have an early dinner and couldn't decide the venue. So we aked Rahil, our daughter who is now 2 years and 7 months old. She said "Ikea" without any hesitation and Ikea it was. It's quite funny I know. People go to Ikea to buy furniture. We go there for the food.

This morning I was listening to Mix FM and heard this ad about a new Condominium. It was too good to be true but since it is not 1st of April, I guess it is. They were offering a free car to anyone who buys a condo unit and best of all, buyers can move in straight away. I wish I had delayed my decision to buy the Flora Damansara apartment.

Till now we haven't been able to get any tenant for our apartment unit though we have received a lot of enquiries. Most people told us that it was too costly. Others wanted us to install kitchen cabinets, airconditioning and water heater, without increasing the rental. So we are still waiting.

While eating breakfast today morning, we came to the conclusion that maybe we should lower the rental (we are asking for RM900/per month) even though we would be losing money. Right now supply is more than the demand and there are other similar units available for only RM800/month rent. Maybe we made a mistake of partly furnishing our apartment. Till we get someone, it is our weekend home.

Related post: Apartment to Let

Tags: Apartment Ikea