Mudflats of Bagan Jermal/Gurney Drive - 3

The benefits of having a fully restored Mangroves is the biodiversity that such a forest can attract. Mangroves are ideal places for all kinds of birds both local and migratory ones.....(the feathered types.....not the two legged ones that are attracted to the bright lights and where there's lots of money like casinos)

The forest is home to a rich micro-organic flora and fauna attracting fishes, mudskippers and birds....Even such a small patch around the Bagan Jermal area will bring much needed nature and add color to this urbanised landscape.....
Like the Kuala Gula Bird Sanctuary located about 50 miles down south of Penang Island, the bird life will be very rich.... a total of 165 different species from 42 different families are found there. Of these 165 species, 47 of them are migratory ones flying from the northern hemisphere as far away as Siberia to the Southern Hemisphere and stoppping-over in Malaysia.

See this link for the potential that can unfold for this Mud-flats

http://www.wildlife.gov.my/webpagev4_en/bhg_ekokgula.html

(All pictures are from the the above link)

.......and Penangites should defend this mud-flats and not lose them to developers like what happened to the Tanjong Tokong mangroves, turned now into a potential Tsunami disaster zone of the future... a time bomb waiting to happen....

Mudflats of Bagan Jermal/Gurney Drive - 2

Once the planting of Api-Api is completed at the mudflats, more soil and mud will slowly be deposited and more mud-flats will form. This process can be repeated and slowly move towards the accumulation of more land......in the end a sizeable Mangrove forest will be formed.

Once this happens, a platform walkway can be constructed for people to enter the forests and this will bring the forests to the people. An interpretation programme can be developed so that people will be made aware and learn more of this unique environment......

Just imagine a unique mangrove forest right in the middle of an urban setting.....

Mud Flats of Bagan Jermal/Gurney Drive

Man should help accelerate the natural process that will happen at mud flats of Bagan Jermal/Gurney Drive. If ecology is allowed to take its natural course, the mud-flats will be populated by a mangrove species called Api Api in Malay. This species aka Avicennia is a pioneer in the Mangrove forest......if the Mangrove forests are still around within the vicinty...the mud-flats would had been inhabitated by this particular species by now....

Api-api is a pioneer species and its' presence marks the start of a natural succession which ultimately ends up as a "climax" Mangrove forests. Although not as complex as Tropical Rainforests, it is still a very fascinating and unique ecosystem.......

Penang should help this natural succession by planting Api-api....let us help grow back our mangrove Forests in Bagan Jermal...and not reclaimation destroy our unique ecology.

Rapid Penang vs the Competition

Besides Rapid Penang, there are two other bus companies namely Milan and KGNS. They run the Yellow and Blue bus respectively......Frankly I wonder why they even bother to do so.....their busses are crappy...noisy, produce alot of black smoke (inefficient & dirty)...

While Rapid Pg buses are not the world's best but at least they are reasonably clean and the air-cond's pretty decent.....

The reason why I griping is the buses of these two companies are unroadworthy and they (their drivers which I suspect operate as sub-contractors who rents the vehicle) hog the bus lanes in Komtar...refuses to move(trying to pick up customers)....and pollutes the air for the people who are waiting for the other buses to come.....

Unfortunately the State Government which has no power because the licencing power lies in the hands of the Entrepreuner ministry & JPJ is under the Transport Ministry, can only look and see........but I saw something that gave me a little bit of hope....4 members of the police (2 man & 2 woman) were on hand to see the buses did not block the flow of the traffic....

Times Square Dato Kramat Road

At the site of the old Eastern Smelting Company, located in Dato' Kramat Road, there is a new building ...like a phoenix arising, this new landmark will definitely transform this part of the town.

I'm pretty impressed with the owners/developers...they had really done a great job....even in land scarce Georgetown, they had allowed for lots of open spaces, giving the whole complex an ambiance of grandeur....they have also preserve/conserve the old office building of the Eastern Smelting Company and planted nice bamboo around it giving an exotic Japanese feel to it...

The new building had also exposed the road just behind it...the Kampong Jawa Bahru...a very charming tree-lined road that had been forgotten by most Penangites because of its location...the road is rustic and not developed. It starts from Dato Kramat Road directly opposite Perlis Road and then turns sharply towards Brick Kiln Road or Gudawara Road where it ends. After the sharp turn it runs almost parallel to Dato Kramat road, just behind the site of the Eastern Smelting Company.

Rapid Penang

Of late I have been taking bus rides on Rapid Penang. My initial conclusion is that on the scale of 1 to 10, I would rate it a 5, and that's not bad. I rate the public transportation system in Melbourne a 8.....it wouuld gotten a 9 if not for the bad service during the weekends.

We in Pg, still got a long way to go...I hope we get there....

Penang's heritage....yes we are prepared to pay to keep them!

The REHDA Chairman of the Pg branch, said that Penangites do not know how much it will cost them to have the UNESCO heritage city status.......well I do not know how much it will cost...just as I don't know how much it will cost me to keep my "heart"....but without it I will surely die.....

So will Penang...it will lose its soul, spirit and its character, if we allow the "tear down" crowd have their way....what is heritage to them, a hindrance to them an obstacle to their desire to put in another souless building....what is the use of ole shop house except that they are sitting on a piece of land in which they want to build any high rise....flat and rectagular shapes buildings ...souless...without any spirit...blocks of concrete protruding thru the earth.... If these people have their way....Pg would not Pg anymore....it would just like any other city......just like Mcdonalds, everywhere it tastes the same.....

No Penang should be able to pay the price in keeping our place unique.....and full of its own peculiar vibrant personality.....our old buildings......our priceless possessions...they tell us where we come from who we are...it enriches us...make us who we are people of Penang....

Don't give us a souless city....like the dead PGCC......don't take the heart of Pg.....yes we are prepared to pay any price to keep our heart!!!!

Chulia Street ---Penang (1)

While the Heritage people are focussing more on the Pitt Street-Armeinan Street enclave...I think Chulia Street is more interesting...it is alive and not dead...and it is truly a living heritage....

Where else can you find Chinese and Muslim monuments & mosques string along this truly remarkable road in Penang. Formerly know as Malabar Street in honour of those Indian Muslims from the Malabar Coast in Kerala State.....the ancestral home of many UMNO politicians (not to mention our TDM)...

Starting from the Penang Road end, the road meanders its way to Weld Quay. At the start, very near Odeon, its a Madrasah...next to it a very cheap hotel......

Just walk alone the road you find many interesting shops....some old...some retrofitted....and those retrofitted shope cater for the budget backpacker tourists.....cafes......tour agents.....money changers.....

Penang -multilingual road signs.....

I was at Beach street yesterday...and just opposite the Police Station, there was this road sign that got a federal Minister issuing stern warnings about the Pg Govt diminishing the importance of Bahasa Melayu as the national language...

Looking at it, I do not know what was the big deal....first and foremost it did not replace existing road signs...the new ones were just a small plague measuring 18 inches by 10 inches the most...it is so inconspicuous...you can hardly say that it is replacing any signs...

The additional signs provide interesting information about how the various communities name the streets....and Beach Street got so many names....along the different sections...it is insteresting and part of Pg's heritage...

Surely UMNO politicians are so bankrupt of ideas.....that they took this as their rallying cry...seriously, compared to the multi-lingual roads signs in the BN run state of sarawak....the signs in Pg are nothing....even the tourism road signs in KL are much bigger & more dominating...and they are in various languages and not only in Bahasa Melayu...and nobody make a fuss...

All this and many more give rise to the perception that if it is done by UMNO members or supporters it is alright.....

How else can you explain the defeaning silence when Mahathir suddenly decide to change the medium of instruction for Science & Mathematics from Malay to English.....and not even a whimper from the so-called guardians of the language.....

Appointment of Low as Acting GM of PKNS

Shame on you, PAS......if there is only a Colin Powell equivalent in your party... you would even win more votes..... This is what Colin Powell, a Republican Party member & former Secretary of State has to say about the negative campaign against Sen Obama...suggesting that he is a Muslim (& therefore by implication an unfit person to be a President).....

“I’m also troubled by, not what Senator McCain says, but what members of the party say. And it is permitted to be said such things as, “Well, you know that Mr. Obama is a Muslim.” Well, the correct answer is, he is not a Muslim, he’s a Christian. He’s always been a Christian. But the really right answer is, what if he is? Is there something wrong with being a Muslim in this country? The answer’s no, that’s not America. Is there something wrong with some seven-year-old Muslim-American kid believing that he or she could be president? Yet, I have heard senior members of my own party drop the suggestion, “He’s a Muslim and he might be associated terrorists.” This is not the way we should be doing it in America."

Prices of goods go up fast but inches its way downwards

Bought a MAS ticket to KL and found the prices still remained the same as before even though the price of oil had plummeted from USD 140 to below USD70 per barrel.....yet the surcharge has not gone down...

I suppose all's the same including yr roti chanai...exception is the Hokkien mee in Pulau Tikus (one of the best in Pg) still RM2.50 for a bowl of the best Hokkien Mee in Pg.

Yeah it's always the same....prices are slow to come down...still got old stock lah

Walking the streets of Ole Georgetown

What a delight to walk casually along the old part of Georgetown...in particular along the roads near the banks ...the beach street-church street bishop street area....

Along Church street...the newly spruced up and restored Perankan museum is a sight to behold...I think it looks better than the cheong Fatt Tze house....

Rain in Penang exposes our stupidity

They say too much of a good thing can ruin it.....well rain has always been good for Penang...it flushes away all the filth in the streets and the sudden gush of torrential rain de-clogs all the drains and pushes all the sampah to the sea....and the great sea absorbs all the dirt and neutralizes it.

Thats' the theory anyway...but with the increase in population and the increased use of hydrocarbon based non-degradable material.......they all just float in the seas or sink down but don't disintegrate for a zillion years....piling up the garbage bin of last resort...no wonder our oceans are dying....

It is sad, how our newly acquired habits will finally ruin us. We used to wrap our stuff with old newspaper or brown paper but now we do it in plastic...we used to carry rattan baskets to the market but now we go there empty handed but come back with at least half a dozen or so plastic bags....

Slowly but surely we are choking ourselves to death....with plastic and more plastics...

Financial Melt down ---& will Pg be affected ?

If u hear what our BN pollies have to say...u would be forgiven to think that we Malaysiana are martians and we live light years awya from this planet earth..."we won't be affected."

Come on....even if our banks do not have with sub-prime loans in their portfolio, their clients business will be affected...the American consumers are already curtailing their purchases...consumers' confidence through out the world is at an all-time low....and this will translate to lower demand...& less orders for the manufacturers.... already the Chinese factories are feeling the adverse impact with many factories closing down and workers thrown out of jobs....

We will be affected and for places like Pg...the impact will even be worse....

The birds had flown away.....

Growing up in Penang in the 60's & 70's, one can still savour the sights and sounds of birds in the leafy suburbs of Penang. I used to stay with a relative at the Government Quarters located at the end of Macalister Road...and as a 7 year old boy could remember the many different birds that visited the big compounds there....

Notable amongst them are the noisy murais, a bird with a black and white plummage, that would zip up and down trees busy making a marvellous call....

The many types of Kingfishers would also call at the garden. There are the distinctively yellow ones, and a multicoloured one with blue and red feathers...

Occasionally, a pair of eagles would appear...they sometimes make a distinct call.....and at night the owls would come out and scare the 'daylights' out of me...

One thing for sure, i could not remember any black crows...they were in Butterworth near the Mitchell Pier....

But where have all the birds gone....

Blessed Penang

Came back from Laos today after a gruelling one week trip that involved trains, planes and taxis and a four hour traffic jam in Bangkok horrendous traffic......

Firstly, Penang is blessed with so many doctors, clinics, and hospitals, where any sick person can easily accessed. It does not matter whether they are rich or poor. The rich can go to the private clinics and the poor can go to Government hospitals and clinics.....

The quality of the Government hospitals and clinics here are excellent.....

Compare to the people of Laos...in my three visits to Vienchang & Savannakhet...clinics and hospitals are a rare sight...

Yes in so many ways we are so blessed... and we hardly know it!

When our leaders fail us.....what can we do

Sadly and very sadly our leaders had failed us....their sandiwara had been exposed....they were not interested in Malaysia...they are traitors to this land...

But as individuals, we, who are of Chinese descent should more than ever show love and kindness to our fellow citizens who are Malays and Indians and others......in a way that demonstrates our goodwill and our shared history and more importantly our shared futures....

Let us rise above our leaders, let us ordinary folks show our leaders that we are united in common decency towards one and another....

Disappointed in our leaders

One of the most noble political statement I heard is from John Macain, the republican nominee.....he said "I rather lose an election then let America lose the war"...he said it sinceriely....when faced with a very popular choice of calling the troops back from Iraq and then win the support of millions...he did the opposite...he supported the surge...even though he knew it was very unpopular and would cause him votes and even the nomination, nevertheless he voted and supported what he believed was right even though it was hugely unpopular and proved to be a costly decision.....

He put his nation first and his own interests, second.

Compare him with our PM......our man is but a puny weak person...fiddling while the whole nation spins off the tangent...

Many times when facing with a choice of doing the right but unpopular thing or the wrong but popular thing...he chose the popular one.....leaving the country to suffer the consequences of the bad choices he made....

Always putting himself first and the country second....thats' the perception he gave us...

Rain --what a blessing

Although it has been raining and the sun had been covered with clouds the last five days, it has been good.....the cool weather for a change is refreshing not only to the body but to the soul....hope it will cool down the inflamed passions stirred up by silly comments made by equally silly people...

Sticks and stones will break my bones but words will never do...that's my policy. Move on we must be bigger than the person hurling insults at us.....we go out to the world and achieve great things in world....

Not bad for "penumpangs' of Pg.....there is "Jimmy Choo", Prof Quah of LSE, Prof Woo etc etc..... and let the Leaders of Malaysia salivate and think what might have been.....

Sum of all our fears...malaysian fears

For years ... politicians of all ilk had been playing the race and religion card.... can they restrain themselves now? ...before the country spins out of control into a downward spiral .... like lebanon or sri lanka....

Better to cool it now....MCA...you ought to do it long ago..but you did not...now you want "show" you can defend your 'race"... forget it...we know you are doing it with an eye to the coming party elections...

Malaysians are flocking to the PKR_PAS_DAP pakatan....PAS for all....It is time to give PAS a chance...