Friday Shootout: Chaos

http://mytownshootout.blogspot.com/

http://mytownmrlinky.blogspot.com/

Member Voice for March 11 - Chaos!!
Our theme for March 11 is - Chaos! A condition or place of great disorder or confusion.A disorderly mass; a jumble. An abyss; a chasm.
Abyss -
A bottomless or unfathomed depth, gulf, or chasm; hence, any deep, immeasurable, and, specifically, hell, or the bottomless pit.

the bottomless gulf, pit, or chaos of the old cosmogonies
an immeasurably deep gulf or great space

intellectual or moral depths

a very deep or unfathomable gorge or chasm

anything that appears to be endless or immeasurably deep, such as time, despair, or shame

Jumble -

To mix in a confused way; throw together carelessly

To muddle; confuse

To be mixed in a confused way

Chaos -

a state of utter confusion or disorder; a total lack of organization or order.

disarray, jumble, turmoil, tumult


I think you get the idea..........

HAPPY SHOOTING!!


(good luck with this one...... I am stumped!)
Posted by Doreen

Hi Doreen, I am stumped too, I did see some dark dark chasms when I went to the Mulu caves in Borneo. I suppose the darkness will cause chaos.

Friday shootout: Over your head.

Here up the cliff is the mouth of the cave where a million bats fly in and out. Unfortunately for us, it poured with heavy tropical torrential rain. The bats decided to stay dry and did not perform their welcoming dance for us.




Up on top of a tree, bug scientists tied bag with holes to trap insects so they could study them. Right now, in my teaching room, I have a worm farm which also doubles as a shield bug home. The kids love watching them. one of the shield bugs laid some eggs and some of them had hatched. I would loved to show you my curious kids, but I am not allowed to. I must remember to photograph the farm.

The tour guide told us to look up the tree, everyone did that and many took photos. I took a fellow traveler looking up and taking her photo.




http://mytownshootout.blogspot.com/

http://mytownmrlinky.blogspot.com/

Member Voice for November 12 - Over Your Head
When out and about on walks where do you look? What do you see or what catches your attention? We usually are looking in front of us, to the side or sometimes we look back. Unless you are a bird watcher, do you look up? Do you notice what is above your head way up high? Well here is your chance to get creative and show us what is UP in your town. Have fun shooters!

This theme gives me another opportunity to show case my trip to Mulu Caves in Borneo.

For another photo which I posted yesterday to my other site, please go to this link. I posted a big flock of pigoens flying which would suit this theme.

http://ann-mythoughtsandphotos.blogspot.com/2010/11/skywatch-friday-flying-pigeons.html

Blog Action Day/Save our world: Water

Blog Action Day site at http://blogactionday.change.org/.">http://blogactionday.change.org/.

Change.org|Start Petition

http://reducefootprints.blogspot.com/
The following photos were taken in 1991 when I revisited the Rejang River. The river then was reddish and murky. A far cry from the 1960s when I swam and drank from the river.

uld accomo








I was born in Sibu, Borneo. Sibu is along Rejang River. We have very high tropical rainfall, about 144 inches annually. We swam in the river. Every December, part of the town is flooded. Our houses are on stilts, and the water level comes up to our thighs. I learned to respect the power of the river when after the flood, I see dead cats, dogs and chicken among the flotsam. The engineers tell me that it is the silting that is causing the floods.

A dam had been built in one of the tributaries of Rejang River. The Bakum Dam has attracted international opposition.

I saw this dead tree stump in the edge of a man made lake caused by the building of a dam. When I saw this, I am reminded of a trip in 1995 to Sarawak.

. We went by long boat powered by outboard engines. We sat in the boat and I saw lots of islands with a few trees and dead trees around them. I asked my guide what they were. She said, those were not islands, they were not so long ago, hills. When they built the dam, they flooded a whole area. So what was once a hill became an island.

She added that thousands of farmers were displaced. Instead of tilling the land they had done for generations, they now had to learn a new skill of fish farming.

This worried me because Rejang River Dam was to generate electricity for West Malaysia. The dam I saw was very small, it is not hard to imagine how much harm there would be to dam up a 350 miles long river.

The Bakun Hydroelectric Dam Project aroused widespread concern among environmental and social NGOs and indigenous peoples' organizations in Sarawak, which have been opposing this megaproject considered unnecessary -since the present and future energy demand of the country are adequately covered with the electricity produced nowadays- and negative from an environmental and social point of view because one third of Sarawak's remaining primary forest lie in the area to be affected by the dam, thus forcing the migration of indigenous peoples from the catchment area. In May 1997 the Coalition of Concerned NGOs on Bakun (Gabungan) urged ABB, the main contractor involved in the project, to definitively abandon the project.

"The flooding of the dam reservoir, the size of Singapore island, is scheduled to start next month," he said.

The Bakun problem-ridden project, Malaysia's largest hydroelectric dam, is located on the Balui River in the upper Rejang River basin, some 37km upstream from Belaga.

The construction of this dam will have adverse environmental and social consequences. At least 12 protected animal species and 93 protected plants are found within the dam's flood zone and will be destroyed if the dam is built. The dam may also have a negative impact on the Rejang River - the longest in Sarawak - by lowering water levels and degrading fish habitats and fisheries downstream. Construction work has also already forced the relocation of 10,000 people from their ancestral homes to a relocation village named Asap, where they face poverty, malnutrition and unemployment.

By the time I wrote the above, the information has become obsolete. I may have left the country of my birth Sarawak for more than thirty five years, I am still a Sarawak girl at heart. Today, my heart bleeds for the river that is crying. The country’s longest river, the Rajang at 350 miles/563km long from its source, was not navigable to all boats, big or small.

The river was like a conveyor belt in a sawmill but instead of transporting uniformly cut wood, it carried an endless flow of uprooted trees, discarded logs and all manner of vegetative debris from Kapit, some 176km away. Kapit experienced an alarming situation from about 2pm last week.

On Wednesday I wrote a post,
http://annkschin.blogspot.com/2010/10/save-worldlook-what-they-done-to-my.html

fAL1gI/s1600/rejang+river+jam+5.htm">http://www.bintulu.org/news/2010/10/07/rejang-river-flooded-by-sea-of-dead-woods-as-bakun-impoundments-underway.php

This phenomenon was also reported in China where it said to be threatening the world biggest hydro electric dam, the Three Gorges Dam.

Read more: http://www.bintulu.org/news/2010/10/07/rejang-river-flooded-by-sea-of-dead-woods-as-bakun-impoundments-underway.php#ixzz12EGTlVtm



http://indigenouspeoplesissues.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=7011:malaysia-stop-water-impoundment-prior-to-the-emergency-rescue-plan-erp-for-bakun-dam-make-available-to-public&catid=62:southeast-asia-indigenous-peoples&Itemid=84

Save the world:Look what they done to my river Ma.

http://reducefootprints.blogspot.com/
This Friday is World Blog Action Day and the topic is water. I have done my draft on the river I grew up in even before I read a flurry of emails and photos and blogs. This Rejang River is 350 miles long in Sarawak, Borneo. The river I swam in, the water whose water I drank.

When you see these photos, you will be singing and crying with me: Look what they done to my river Ma."
The photos are not mine. But I am sure they are genuine.

Please go on to this link of Sarawakiana who has videos.
http://sarawakianaii.blogspot.com/2010/10/debris-of-logs-and-branches-floating.html
http://sarawakianaii.blogspot.com/2010/10/more-videos-on-rajangs-log-clogged-flow.html


http://www.themalaysianinsider.com/malaysia/article/state-minister-says-rajang-logjam-an-ecological-disaster/

State minister says Rajang logjam an ecological disaster
By Melissa Chi
October 08, 2010

KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 8 — Sarawak Land Development Minister Datuk Seri Dr James Masing blamed loggers today for the Rajang river clog-up, in what he said was the worst logjam he had seen in the state’s history.

Masing said he had just gone to Kapit, one of the affected towns along the river, before speaking to The Malaysian Insider today.

“Although there is less debris in the water, it is still dangerous to travel along the river,” the state land development minister said.

However, he was optimistic that the river would clear up by tomorrow and that the busy Rajang river would see regular transporting activities.

“I want the relevant authorities to find out who the culprits are and once they find them, take them to task (otherwise) it will happen again,” he said.

He said there was a lot of logging activities near Balleh river, one of the main tributaries of the Rajang river, and Masing suspected that the logs and debris came from that location.

“There must be some erosion up there that caused the debris to float down the river.

“This is because some of the logging operators do not follow the rules of the game,” he said.

He said the Natural Resources And Environment Board (NREB) Sarawak and the Forestry Department of Sarawak should look into this matter.

He said the towns affected are Kapit, Song, Kanowit and Sibu.

Calling it an ecological disaster, Masing said he had noticed a massive number of dead fish which literally “drowned”.

He explained that the debris had clogged up their gills.

In addition to transportation activities which had to be stopped, fishermen were also affected by the logjam.

The estimated cost of the disaster is still unknown.

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So, if you have a friend or family member who blogs, or are part of a blogging community, we need your help in spreading the word about Blog Action Day. It doesn't matter how large or small a blog is or what topics it covers – we want everyone involved.

You can help spread the word three ways:

1. Send an email to friends: At the end of this email, we've included a sample letter you can send out to your blogging friends and family members letting them know about Blog Action Day.
2. Post to a blogger forum or listserv: If you're part of a blogging community, listserv or forum with lots of bloggers, you can use the same information below to encourage everyone to participate.
3. Write an early blog post: In addition to posting on Blog Action Day this Friday, consider writing an announcement post earlier in the week letting the readers of your blog know about Blog Action Day. Many of your readers are likely to have their own blogs, and this will give them time to register before the big day.

If you have any questions or additional suggestions of your own, please reply to this email and let us know.

Thank you for your continued commitment and support – Blog Action Day would not be possible without you.

Thanks again,

Maria & the Blog Action Day team

P.S. A number of bloggers have asked whether or not they would have to re-register if they blogged last year. The answer is yes: your Blog Action Day registration doesn't carry over so you will have to re-register your blog. But the good news is it takes less than 60 seconds!

Hey,

I wanted to let you know about an important online event I'm taking part in on October 15th, called Blog Action Day. Each year bloggers from more than 100 countries come together and blog about a single important issue, and this year's topic is clean water. The event includes thousands of blogs - including the White House blog and The Official Google Blog - and they're looking for as many blogs to participate as possible, regardless of their size and focus.

I hope you'll think about joining me for this event. If you want more information, check out the Blog Action Day site at http://blogactionday.change.org/.
Hope to see your post on the 15th!

Save the world, Green Thursday:Save endangered species

http://reducefootprints.blogspot.com/
http://workofthepoet.blogspot.com/2009/09/think-green-thursday_10.html

http://www.orangutanproject.com/content.php?p=59

I have just come back from Australia and photos from my nephew Raymond and his family make me want to go again.

This time, a holiday with a difference. Couple of years ago, when I went with Sam to the Semengoh Wildlife Rehabilitation Centre in Sarawak, I saw orang utans as a spectator. I wanted more, to be actively involved with Orang Utans.

Then I watched a documentary of the Matang centre where volunteer visitors have a hands-on experience with caring for orang utans. May be next year, I will go on this trip. Time to give back to the country of my birth.

Experience Matang Wildlife Centre. Price: US$ 1775 / US$ 2695

Orangutans are going extinct but YOU can help by volunteering in a rehabilitation centre on Borneo Island. Find out more.

To volunteer at MWC book on to our Sarawak Orangutan Volunteer Programme (4weeks) to come and be a part of what were achieving.

A rare chance to join us in Borneo, on our 2 or 4 week volunteer programme specially created for you the volunteer to come closer to the miracle of the birth of two baby orangutans at the same time, same place, but from two different mothers! Also work along side our dynamic conservation team with other animals at the centre who need immediate help such as the orangutans, sunbears, the crocodiles and monkeys.

Silky Chicken

http://sarawakianaii.blogspot.com/2010/01/mothers-love.html

Sarawakiana writes about how a Mother shows her love for her children by brewing a special chicken soup with ginseng, goji seeds, red dates and black chicken. Please click on her link to see what the cooked chicken is like and enjoy her delicious soup.

In Sarawak, Mum kept a few of these silky chicken with fine soft white feathers, but surprisingly black skinned, black meat and black boned chicken. They are very small, and I can't remember who she brewed the soup for. The meat is not very tasty after all the juice have been extracted.

In Singapore, women in confinement aka women who have given birth to a baby, have these steamed chicken for their juice, everyday for a month, till they are sick of it. They say it is better than the commercial Cerebos Brands JI GIN aka chicken essence. They steam the chicken without adding any fluid until all the chicken juice comes out.

I didn't have this luxury. 3 of my 4 kids were born in NZ, and my husband didn't believe in confinement business. When I had Sam in Singapore. I got a confinement maid, but I don't know why she didn't brew this pure unadulterated black chicken juice for me.

I took this photo in Western Springs, in Auckland. It reminded me of my teen aged years when I was the child responsible for feeding Mum's chicken, ducks and the occasional turkey.

This post is specially for Sarawakiana. This year has been very special to me. On the cyber highway, I met Sarawakiana who was in the senior class when I started secondary school. I have been away from the town I grew up in for 35 years. She has been filling me with news of home.

It is customary among the Foochows, her father's people to give gifts of live chicken. I am sending her a cyber silky chicken for Chinese New Year.

Save our world and think green: Human power vehicles

http://reducefootprints.blogspot.com/

http://workofthepoet.blogspot.com

When I was young in Sibu, Borneo, my siblings and I would not be seen dead in one of these trishaws. My great grand mother aka Ah Tai, when she saw us walking, pitied us, and kept telling us to hop aboard, and we would walk faster away from her, hoping nobody saw us.

Now, trishaws are a tourist thing. In Singapore they go in batches of 20 trishaws going to tourist places. In this picture, taken at the Mulu resort, porters transfer luggages to the chalets. Some kids think it's cool to ride in one. In Auckland, it is also a tourist thing.

A fellow blogger in Europe tells me that these rickshaws are free as they are sponsored by the advertisers. On Sunday, I saw one of these and he had lots of advertisements on his trishaw but he was charging people.

Trishaws should be used more often since they do not have any carbon footprint and tourists get to see the sights slowly and in detail.

Blast from the Past, looong loooong ago.

http://sarawakianaii.blogspot.com/
I started this year encountering old friends I had not seen for twenty years, and then friends of my siblings. This is a rare occurance as I had left my home town Sibu 35 years ago, and only made fleeting visits occasionally. But deep under, I am still a Sibu girl.

The most exciting event was finding Sarawakiani who was a senior when I started my first year in secondary. I was googling a mutual friend who is an important person in Sarawak politics when I saw her site. She would not confirm who she is and it was quite frustrating. Our fathers were friends, and I enjoyed chatting with someone I actually knew in person.

This photo is for you CY. This was taken in 1997. My Dad, John Chan Hiu Fei who taught in the school I went to, Methodist Secondary School, Sibu. He taught this batch of students before he went to study in London. The group had been having annual reunions and inviting their teachers to attend.

The distinguished looking woman standing at the extreme right is my hero. Wong Siong Ding was the first woman inspector in Sarawak. CY can confirm if she was a Police Commissioner. It was very rare for a woman to be promoted to such a high rank. Dad was always talking about her, and just before I left Borneo, I saw her once and introduced myself to her. I told her I was so excited to see her at last in person.

My Dad is the third gentleman seated from the right. To his left, the three ladies were my teachers. I didn't quite respect them then, especially the last two who were Chinese speaking only. But when I grew up, I held them in awe, they had university degrees when most girls of their generation were renegaded to the kitchen and didn't have a chance to know their ABCs.

Deep in the jungles of Borneo:millipedes

I found this millipede in the jungle when we went to Mulu caves. It was basking in the sun.

I am posting this for http://edprescott.blogspot.com/2009/09/macro-monday_20.html. What a difference from his American millipede, which looks like a ferocious monster. My is just a harmless earth worm with legs. I am not sure about this one though, the jungle species.

Indeed, I was told that ours town one is quite harmless. They come out after the rain. The centipede is a different story, they can kill.

Blast from the past: Ten years ago in 1999

Two weeks ago, I was searching for some current affairs of Sarawak, my birth land, and came across this site, http://sarawakianaii.blogspot.com/ . The more I read her posts, the more I suspect she was some one I knew. I wrote to her, I wasn't exactly her friend, or rather vice versa. I was the first year in the secondary school as a 13 year old and she was a senior. She was my role model in all aspects, she was good in sports, academic and a head prefect. She never knew how she impacted my life until yesterday.

She posted a musical "Gypsy Baron" when I was in my second year in 1968 and we knew so many friends. I am posting these photos when our American Missionary teacher revisited Sarawak duting my class 28th re-union. Miss Fries stayed with me in Singapore. The photos show some old boys and old girls of Methodist Secondary School, Sibu. These photos gave me reminiscence of the "Gypsy Baron" Days. Sadly, the gentleman in the last photo, Cheng Hua Chuan passed away recently.

Here, Sarawakiana, these photos are for you. Thanks for linking me to your post. Thank you for power of friendship.

Palm Oil : 2

The effect of oil palm shocked my nine-year-old student, Isabella Wilson who, after visiting the zoo, went home and cleared her mother's pantry of all products containing the oil.

"I stopped buying shapes, noodles and Tim Tams. Tim tams were my ultimate favourite, so it was very hard to give those up," she says.

Inspired, Isabella also gave a speech to her schoolmates at Pt Chevalier Primary.

"We have the power to stop this mindless killing. Stop buying products that contain palm oil. Demand manufacturers to use other sources of vegetable oil, or palm oil that has not been harvested in Indonesia and Malaysia," she said.

Isabella has learnt one lesson: standing up for what you believe in can cost, but it can be worth it.

Television 3, Campbell live came to school, to interview Isabella. My school kids were very excited that TV came to our school.



With the "Don't use palm oil" culture in one camp in New Zealand, and having grown up in Borneo where the controversy is all about, when I went to Borneo, I had this issue in my head. I wanted to see how much of this is true. Admittedly, I was only at the north tip of Sarawak/Borneo. The sky was hazy, visibility was low. But it was also the season of the traditional slash and burn season of the natives. The environmentalists claim that slash and burn would not result in such a big scale haze. So bad was the haze in Malaysia that they scaled down the National Day Celebration.

Here's some of the photos I took from the plane from Miri to Mulu. I did feel sad to see vast patches of jungle had been cleared. The photos are blurred either from the haze or cloud.

Oil Palm

http://annkschin.blogspot.com/2009/09/sunday-stills-rule-of-thirds_05.html

In the above post, I had a photograph of oil palm kernel. I said I would do a post on Palm oil. In today's world, palm oil doesn't have a good name. I grew up in Borneo which is now an oil palm producing state. I understand that oil palm growing is a highly controversial environmental issue. I hope I will present a balanced point of view.

My school had a student who did a research to ask to boycott oil palm because clearing the jungle for oil palm plantation robs the orang utan's natural habitat. These results in the killing the orang utans in Borneo and Indonesia. So serious the problem that the orang utans may join the ranks of the dodo and the Moa. She did it so well that she won a prize which propelled her to a television appearance and a trip to Malaysia.

The greenies cheered when KFC stopped using palm oil in their kitchens. More recently, Cadbury announced it would replace palm oil in their chocolate production. LUSH Cosmetics, a leading cosmetics-maker, will no longer use palm oil.

Over in West Malaysia, where I took these photos, the land now planted with oil palm trees were previously planted with rubber for more than a hundred years. They have not been planted at the sacrifice of the felling of virgin forest. The harm had been done during the British Colonial days.

But in Sarawak, when I was flying from Miri to Mulu, I did see virgin rainforest being replanted with oil palm. These forests were not cleared specifically for the palm oil trees. The state had benefited from harvesting the trees. Timber brings in a lot of income.

Oil palm provides jobs, and gives income to many especially the lower social strata. The government had banned burning of old leaves, and some are used as mulching, to prevent more haze.

Borneo: daughter for the return home.

There are many racial groups in Sarawak, Ibans, Bidayu, Kelabit, Malays, Melanau, Belawan, kayans, Knya, Belawan, and the nomadic Penans, and the Chinese.

Here is Sam greeted by the beautiful dancers at the Wildfower Restaurant, where a buffet dinner and show was part of our package. The Wildflower Restaurant is home to their own, well known dance group, the "Seri Melinau Dance Group", performing traditional dances from the region every evening at 8:00pm. I lalughed when the natives danced the traditional Chinese lion dance.

When we booked our tour, it was MR 859 for foreigners, and MR759 for Malaysians. It is luxurious with 24 hr power supply meaning air conditioning to cool your room. This is important if you want to feel comfortable especially when we have arrived from the middle of winter. Check up the web because today, I read the package is MR759 only.


This is one of the many limestone structures in the Lang cave. Lang was a local person who discovered the caves in the 1970s. More on this in future posts.

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I left Sarawak in 1975, and during these 34 years, I can count with my fingers the number of times I had returned for a visit.

This trip I made was to the Mulu caves. A birthday present to my son Sam. It was to be a Mum and Son's own amazing race. I have not been to these caves, a world heritage. The water engineer suggested we should do this as our last leg of our journey of our trip to Brunei, Singapore and West Malaysia.

It was the grand finale of our trip. The royal treatment given by the Royal Mulu Resort, a 3 star hotel in the jungle, the arduous tours to the caves by the Tropical Adventure, led by their guide, a local Iban, Antoli, and the magnificient greatest of the limestone and limestonecaves made me feel very proud to be born a Sarawakian. Completing the four tours including non stopping climbing of 200 steep steps gives me special sense of satisfaction and achievement as the oldest swinger in my group of fifteen..

I will be posting more on this trip when I have recovered from my jet lagged.