More raintrees

At Anson Road opp Dunlop Rd

At the entrance of the Youth Park.

At the exit of the Youth Park

HANDS OFF Relau Agricultural Center

The Star had reported that a Developer had handed a proposal to the State government to "develop" the 20 odd ha of agricutural center in Relau.......(mmm i wonder who the developer might be.....) But seriously Tan Sri Koh...we don't need another Taman of high rises in that part of pg island (we all know that there is already a glut because nobody in pg trusts the developer to manage the high rises properly...in due course the high rise apts will turn into slums probably worse than the chicago housing projects)..........neither do we need RM 1 million terrace houses....think of us the poor suffering majority living in crammed conditions....what we need is open spaces....parks and greenery....green lungs as u so rightly commented....

Penang is one of those states that do not have much state or government land...so why on earth do we want to hand over to the private sector the little that the state government got....

Penang has 1.4 million registered motor vehicles....and with only 1.4 million people...we are the world's most motorised state....come on....we are becoming the L.A. of ASEAN....as the song goes.."LA is a big big freeway...put a dollar down and buy a car"......we need wide open and green spaces....with trees...in the Relau Agricenter....we have lovely durian trees....

Except for the Relau metropolitan park, we do not have much open spaces and greenery for the peoplein this part of the island......but we have lots of private land here, which will likely be converted to housing estates.......let the Developer buy these land off the private owners if they want into property development but HANDS OFF GOVERNMENT PROPERTY......

Georgetown & its suburbs: Trees 2 -Mature raintrees

There are so many things wrong about Penang but thank GOD there are also so many things in Penang that are worthy of praise.

The trees that cover most of Penang are worthy of praise. The raintrees in particular...they are not native but are from South America...they had been deliberately planted...and how majestic they are indeed!


They provide shade and a cool respite from the unforgiving mid-day sun...

To sit under the shade of a mature raintree beats the shade of the coolibah tree anytime of the day...

Penang is blessed with lots of mature raintrees....go to the youth Park and u can see them in their amazing glory...

Some technical infomation for those who are interested:

RAIN TREE [rain tree] also called monkeypod, a large leguminous tropical tree ( Albizia saman or Samanea saman ) of tropical America belonging to the family Leguminosae ( pulse family), the leaves of which fold together in cloudy weather and in darkness. Rain trees may attain heights of 80 ft (24 m) with a branch spread of up to 100 ft (30 m). These flat-topped trees are widely cultivated throughout the tropics as shade trees for such crops as coffee and cacao. Their edible pods are used chiefly for stock feed. The durable wood has a deep, rich color and is used for furniture. Other species of the genus are grown in warm climates for timber or food and sometimes as a source of gums and tannin. Rain trees are classified in the division Magnoliophyta , class Magnoliopsida, order Rosales, family Leguminosae.

Source: Author not available, RAIN TREE., The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition 2006

Penang Public Transport - the continuing saga

Dr. Teng Hock Nan had been given the toughest assignment....he is responsible for the successful implementation of the new public transport in (Penang bus services). Tough assignment as it is....but impossible if u have not been given the power to fine, compound or suspend the errant bus companies....Dr. Teng is ask to go and heal the sick without medicines....or to fight a war but without guns and bullets....he is just cannon fodder.... John C. Maxwell (the leadership guru) have this to say: " When we give our people authority and responsibility, we must also give them the tools they need. Giving responsibility without resources is ridiculous. It is incredibly limiting. If we want our people to be creative and resourceful, we need to provide resources."

The person with the power and the tools is the Federal Minister for Public Enterprise...his ministry gave out the licences, and according to CEPAT (NGO on Public Transportation), to companies that had failed to provide adequate services....and with so much complaints against them...u wonder why there are entrusted to provide these services again.....

The Star reported today that one of the reasons that the public transport in Penang went downhill was because of too much competition....(does not sound logical...go against all the economic theory known in this world....more competition better & more efficient service...but not in this case...maybe someone can come up with a new theory and win a nobel price in economics...hehhe...)

Another section, embedded somewhere in the middle of another article said that the "leasing of the licences" to the individual drivers are the main reason....the leasor/drivers act as individual entrepreneur....the bus companies which leases out their licences...are the RENT SEEKERS..which only few months ago was so thoroughly condemned by the PM....

Yes, RENT SEEKING Bus Companies......the demise of the Public Transportation system in Penang.....

Pooor Dr. Teng...he can never win...doomed to fail even before he can begin....3 more days to go...and less than a dozen of the buses passed the PUSPAKOM Roadworthiness tests...and Dr. Teng tells us not to panic....why should we....He is the one who should PANIC....

Public Transport in Georgetown, the good old days

The Star (Metro Northern Edition) today, waxed lyrical about the good old days in Georgetown, when the living was easy and public transport good, efficient and cheap.....

Having used the public transport system during much of the 60's and into the 70's, I could not agree more....Yep as a student living in the kampong bahru area, i could catch a bus for 5 cents to prangin road and then walk to all my favourite haunts...like capitol Cinema, Cathay, Rex or from Prangin, catch another bus to tanjong bungah for another 10 cents...u hardly wait for more than 15 minutes for a bus....yes as late as 1978 when i started work...i could still use the bus...this time i lived in island glades and have to catch the earliest bus down to the jetty for not more than 30 cents...and it was still quite good...

i left Penang in 1979 and never knew why and how the public system got so very bad.....The Star sadly and very cowardly did not probe for the reasons and causes for disintegration of the public transportation in penang...i smell rats here....too many skeletons to uncover maybe....

the result is the country as whole has to foot an increasing bill of subsidising fuel, health costs, infrastructure costs because the public transport was allowed to be sucked dry....

If we don't know the causes and reasons for the demise of the public transport system...we won't be able to come up with the cure....sadly, we continue to offer the same solutions that had not worked to the same problems which was not solved....someone's definition of insanity...doing the same thing but expecting a different outcome...

Taman Ranong and not Renong....MPPP...

The MPPP (or Penang city or municipal council) does not know its history or it chooses to forget those who had contributed to the state. Ranong Grounds located next to the Esplanade and the Town Hall is just one of them. Before Dewan Sri Pinang was built on it....it was usually the site of fun-fairs...anyway we had always called it Ranong....

The name "Ranong" is important because it has historical significance to the people of Penang and should serve as an inspiration to all of us....of guts, tenacity, entrepreunership of Khaw Soo Cheang...if not also to the descendents of Khaw Soo Cheang who is amongst us in Penang...please do not descreate the memory of the name.

From the website http://www.ranong.go.th/english/khaw.html....we find this written about Khaw Soo Cheang...

In the year 1810, Khaw Soo Cheang, a young native of Changchow-fu (about thirty-five miles north-west of Amoy) in Fukien Province, China, arrived in Penang by junk. Penang was then the new, twenty-four year old, trading outpost of the British East India Company.

Penang island at that time was largely undeveloped, and virgin land for agriculture was easily obtainable from the then government. Khaw Soo Cheang applied for and obtained and eight acres plot of land at Sungei Tiram, near the present Bayan Lepas airport which is used for vegetable gardening

Yet, despite his hard work and his frugality he could not prosper. So, after six hard years in Penang, he decided to try his luck elsewhere.

He travelled by junk, following the coastline, to Takuapa in south-west Siam. Here he invested what little money he had made in Penang in a small sundry goods shop, which he name Koe Guan ("High Source"). Later he entered the coastal trade in which cloth, muskets, etc., were barter for tin, areca nut (pinang), birds' nests, copra and pepper. He received financial aid from a wealthy lady, Thawathep Suntorn, in his business dealings and he prospered. In time he found that Phang-nga had much more business potential than Takuapa and he moved his business concern, Koe Guan, there. His business activities increased in Pang-nga and he purchased a large sailing boat to convey hia goods between Penang and the small village ports of south-west Siam.

Khaw Soo Cheang traded from Penang to as far north as Ranong, a little coastal village in south-west Siam, opposite Victoria Point (the southernmost tip of Burma). The Ranong region is very hilly and, at that time, it was thinly populated because it was not suitable for agriculture. He found that Ranong was rich in tin deposits and he went into tin mining.

In 1844 (B.E. 2387) he applied for and was appointed Royal Collector of tin royalties for the Siamese government in the Ranong area, and he was given the title Luang Ratanasethi. He was also given the sole right to operate the tin mines in Ranong.

During the fourth year of the reign of Rama IV (King Mongkut) 1854 (B.E. 2397) he was appointed Governor of Ranong, with the title Phra Ratanasethi. As Governor, he was among other things, responsible for the defence of Ranong Province, and, at that time, he was also responsible to the Governor of Chumphorn.

The King was so pleased with the manner in which he performed his duties that he elevated Khaw Soo Cheang to Phraya Ratanasethi in the year 1864 (B.E. 2405) and upgraded Ranong Province by making the Governor directly responsible to the central Government in Bangkok.

The hardships he had encountered in his early years also made him a philanthropist. In 1862 he gave a big donation to the Kuan Yin Temple in Pitt Street, Penang, for major repairs to the temple. To Penang, which had given him a new start in life, he gave a large piece of land next to the old Esplanade - known as Ranong Ground - for a playing ground. To-day, Ranong Ground is the site of Dewan Sri Pulau Pinang.

He lived to be the grand old man of his day; acknowledged as a noble and a strong "pillar" of the Throne in the Siamese Court, and well known in business circles in both Siam and Penang.

He died on 25th May, 1882, (the 9th day of the 4th moon of the Horse Year of the Chinese calendar) when he was in his mid-nineties. The seventy-two years he had spent in Penang and Siam had been hard, but his lasting achievements were satisfying and outstanding.

His remains were buried on a hill in Ranong given to his family by Rama V (King Chulalongkorn). The hundred and fifty acres piece of land, on the outskirts of Ranong Town, was given by the King to the Khaw family in perpetuity for use as its own private burial ground, in appreciation of Khaw Soo Cheang's loyal and meritorious service to the Rayal House of Chakri.

Following his death, his second son, Khaw Sim Kong assumed the title Phraya Damrong Sucharit Mahisornphakdi and became the second Raja of Ranong. His other sons were also enobled by the King and appointed governors of three of the southern provinces of the country. Khaw Sim Khim, his fourth son, became Governor of Kra; Khaw Sim Teik, his fifth son, was appointed Governor of Langsuan; while his youngest son, Khaw Sim Bee, was made Governor of Trang. In 1892 Khaw Sim Bee was appointed High Commissioner of South Siam.

In 1916 when the Chinese in Siam were required to have Siamese names in order to be citizens of that country, Rama VI (King Vajiravudh) issued a Royal Decree on 1st July, 1916, giving the surname "Na Ranong" ("of Ranong") to all the descendants of Khaw Soo Cheang living in Siam. Thenceforth all the Khaws of Ranong in modern day Thailand are known by that name.

According to an old Chinese proverbs:-

"A tiger dies and leaves a skin;
A man dies and leaves a name."

A hundred and three years have gone by since the death of Khaw Soo Cheang, and the House of Ranong, which he founded, has withstood the winds of changed reasonably well. To date, it has lasted much longer than most other well known old wealthy families in this part of the world.

In fact it can be said that Khaw Soo Cheang had done the best he could for his House , and as a result of his efforts the Khaw of Ranong still have a place in the sun, in and out side of Thailand. Many of them, particularly those from the second and fifth branches of the family, still serve in the Thai civil, military,and diplomatic services, and "Na Ranong" is still an honoured and respected name in Thailand.

His Trust, Koe Guan Kong Lun, based in Penang, is controlled by his male descendants from the second, fourth and sixth branches of his family, and it is now his family centre. It is the meeting point for the Na Ranongs of Thailand and the Khaw of Koe Guan living in Malaysia.

In Ranong, Khaw Soo Cheang has become a legend. The people there consider him to be the patron saint of the province. Every new Governor, and all the new senior officers of the province pay their respects at his tomb when they assumed their new appointments their. Politicians running for Parliament make offerings at his grave during their election campaigns, and business men pray to him for success in their business ventures.

The poor immigrants from Changchow-fu had not only risen from rags to riches and power in the land of his adoption, but he had set a shining example for all his descendants to emulate, and also left behind a very distinctive mark in the history of south Thailand.

Please MPPP....correct your mistakes....

Jelutong Expressway, Penang

(Source photos: http://onthemove.penang.gov.my/proj_jeway.htm)

From Wikipeadia "Jelutong Expressway, route 1331, or Lebuhraya Jelutong in Malay is an extension of Penang Bridge which connects Georgetown, Penang to Bayan Lepas. The funding for the construction of this expressway was contributed jointly by the Malaysian Department of Works and the Penang state government. Many Hectares of land had to be reclaimed to allow the construction of the expressway to take place."

Jelutong Expressway took 10 years to complete.....why I wonder? No funds..no allocation from the federal treasury.... Highways & expressways go up in the Klang valley in a matter of months and in Penang or anywhere else outside the Klang Valley it take donkey years....I wonder why?

klang Valley is not malaysia, i think sometimes our leaders forget that...so much emphasis on the klang valley....Malaysia is so small...we could afford to spread out the development bucks.....

the expressway is only partially completed...entrance and exit into the expressway from the georgetown end is still a big pain...

u have to weave through some of the narrowest roads to get to the expressway....if u come from the dato kramat side of town, u have to weave through patani road and cut through the new flats near river road or veterani road, to jln gudawara and bridge street, across the dirtest river in the world (more like a sewer) into Jelutong road until u come to the junction of Sungai Pinang Road.....then turn left to get to the expressway....

describing it on paper is so convoluted ...imagine if u have to drive through these roads....its even worse...

nevertheless, i think the jelutong expressway is good for pg...it opens up the forgotten side of the island...ie the eastern part of the island facing perai....despite the fact that the place used to be the "dirtest side" of the island.. sewer outflows...and land fill....it has the potential to be restored and made beautiful...



if u get to the expressway....u can then get to the airport or to batu maung much more quickly than before...besides, the scenary along the expressway into the road near the penang bridge and into bayan bahru industrial area is mostly along the coast...and can be quite scenic....

economically too, it will be beneficial....it could be our multi media supercorridor....there's a e-gate next to tesco....and much land ....hopefully more trees are planted including a corridor and avenue of jelutong trees along jelutong expressway,.... that will be the day....

Monuments & Memorials

The Cenotopah at the Esplanade to remember the dead in world war 1



Clocktower to commerorate the reign of King Edward

Victoria Green to commerorate the reign of Queen Victoria

Padang Brown to remember the Brown Family (landed gentry in Penang)

Ranong Grounds (where Dewan Seri Pinang is located) next to the Esplanade to remember Penangite Khaw Soo Cheang who became the Governor of Ranong in Thailand

Ayer Itam Memorial to remember those slaughtered by the Japanese in WW2


All these ought to give people in Penang their sense of place....their history....their pride...and engender their love for their home....I bet you not many people in Penang especially the students in schools know their local history....even the people running the City Council do not know their local history...they even name the hawker square behind Dewan Sri Pinang in the Ranong Grounds as "Taman Renung"....ha ha...maybe its the Thai connection they don't like....but the story of Khaw Soo Cheang is the stuff of legends...if I have the money...i will probably ask Yasmin Ahmad to make a film on it....

What i am getting at is, the state must get the local history recorded, publicised and disseminated to people especially to penangites, young and old...especially the young, those in school....I am aware that the Penang Heritage Trust had a project on the peoples of Penang....the arabs, achinese, armenians, eurasian, gujaratis, tamils ... chinese...and it had recieved nationawide publicity through the press and their website....i wished and hope that the project will be expanded or if its dead because of lack of funds, be revived....there should also be school outreaches...i know PHT had done it...but then again, i believed the lack of $$$$ probably had stifled it....

My love for my home is the result of my father...relating to me his perspective of Penang...he was born in 1897 in Nibong Tebal and had his education in Nibong Tebal Anglo-Tamil School (later known as Anglo-Chinese School and subsequently Mehodist School) and later in Penang Free School where he had Mr. Cheeseman as his form teacher and Pinhorn as his headmaster

My love for penang is further deepened by school and scout activities, we used to hike to pg hill from many starting points besides the moongate; hikes to pantai keracut and muka head; camping along the beaches...

Penangites imbibed with a sense of history and know their place, have pride in their home will do their utmost to protect their environment, their oikos...they decry the wanton destruction of trees, landscapes and waterways.....to them penang its not just a place to make a living...its their home...their oikos...

The rains had arrived...the cool change has come

Yup for two consecutive mornings....yesterday and today...the rains had washed out the morning exercises of many in Penang....suddenly the botanical gardens and municipal park seem so quiet again...no more bad music streaming from the street blasters for line dancers...and crackling sounds of some old recordings playing chinese tunes for tai chi and qi qong practitioners....they jar into my ears and disturb my meditation when i'm jogging...interfering with the wave patterns that i so desperately want to induce....there should be law against disturbing the peace and tranquility...how come they cannot do their thing in silent mode...or at least get better music and better sound system...

My early morning gripe....but rains not only bring a certain freshness in the air, a coolness in the morning that trancends words...u have to experience it....especially in the Park or Botanical gardens...maybe it is the positive ions...i dunno....its something u rarely experience during the hot and dry season....u probably will never experience in KL except in FRI, Kepong...then again, how many people in KL actually had been to FRI....

yup, poor KL souls....kl or the klang valley have no inhabitants, they have only inmates living there....that is another blog....

thank GOD for early morning rains...they clear away the haze...u can see along way off after the rains especially if it is more than an hour of rain or so...the skies are clear and the hills providing the backdrop to the island looks so green...(not so green now...with so much encroachment) the hills seem to sparkle and light up....

Yes, the blessings that rains confer after a long dry spell.....the joy that it brings...the refreshing air...the coolness of the morning...there is yet still hope....

MYSELF

Me in the forests of Sabah - with Teak seedlings

Crowded island

With a population of 700 k crowded on the eastern strip of the island and another 700 k on the mainland, Penang is one of the most densely populated state in Malaysia.

Increasingly, the green part of the island will turn to grey and become urbanised. The conversion of the green zone will kill the island for sure and my oikos destroyed...

The central and western part of the island (remaining 2/3 of the island) needs to be conserved. The hills in the central part must be protected at all costs....no more developments....

Every year, one can see farms encroaching into the hills. Instead of green vegetation...you see brown earth and terraces.... they are increasing every year....i hate to imagine what will happen in a decade or two....then, it will be too late except to sing "don't cry for me, pulau pinang"

Skyline of Georgetown, Penang from Gurney Drive 

Oikos = Home

Ha, the word "home" conjures up so much emotions. Home is the aroma of mom's cooking...the pungent smell of fried salted fish...the taste of mom's special gulai and sambal tumis. It is the sense of place....the hills and beaches of Penang....the narrow roads of georgetown...and the special treats of delicious snack foods in some strange corner of a narrow road in georgetown. Yes, it is the sights, sounds and smells of the place that evoke memories of happy times, peaceful times....that tells you that you belong here....your place of rest and refuge...

Morning has broken 

Georgetown & its suburbs: Trees 1

Trees maybe boring subjects to most of us. However, i love them....i am fascinated by them. Trees make my home and my city liveable....in this tropical clime where my home is situated, without trees...life is unbearable....who wants to live in hell....sweltering heat ......120% humidity.... hot & clammy....

Trees provide shady respite from the blazing tropical sun...cools the ambient temperature....and for the observant, it provides... a feast to the eyes....their design and structure.....of leaves, branches and trunk....the wonderful architecture and engineering.....and the flowers, if they bloom...the beauty of colors and shapes...

Penang, and georgetown is blessed with its trees...yet many of its inhabitants pass by without appreciating any of them until they hacked down and left to rot.....

Plant more trees....God we need them desperately in this city. For its shade and for its ability to refresh us....physically and spiritually...