UNESCO biosphere reserve for Penang Hill?

https://www.freemalaysiatoday.com/category/nation/2020/09/19/cabinet-approves-penang-hill-bid-for-unesco-status/

https://www.malaymail.com/news/malaysia/2020/09/19/unesco-recognition-for-penang-hill-expected-in-two-years-says-phc/1904807

From the Free Malaysia Today and The Malay Mail websites come this story about Penang Hill Corporation's bid for a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve status:

GEORGE TOWN: Penang Hill and its surrounding areas could be accorded recognition as a Unesco Biosphere Reserve within the next two years, according to the Penang Hill Corporation (PHC).

PHC general manager Cheok Lay Leng said the Cabinet has recently approved the paperwork for the application submitted by the energy and natural resources ministry.

“We have been informed in early September that the Cabinet has approved the paperwork which will then be submitted to the Malaysian National Commission for Unesco where they may take about two years to evaluate,” he told reporters today.

Cheok said the Penang Hill Biosphere Reserve will include the Penang Hill as a central park, Teluk Bahang National Park and Marine Park with an estimated 12,481 hectares of land. He added that PHC had defined the core zone, buffer zone and transition zones clearly, and areas that need to be preserved.

The Penang Hill area contains virgin jungle reserves which have been found to house 85 species of orchids, more than 100 species of birds, three iconic species of monkeys, as well as several plant, ant and spider species unique to the hill range.

Chow said Unesco recognition would benefit all Penangites and become another selling point for Penang Hill to attract more visitors. “I hope it will have the same effect as the Unesco recognition of George Town as a World Heritage Site. The tourism sector is still in its recovery stage, the Unesco Biosphere Reserve recognition will come in timely,” he said.

According to the Unesco website, biosphere reserves are areas comprising terrestrial, marine and coastal ecosystems. Each reserve promotes solutions reconciling the conservation of biodiversity with its sustainable use.

At present, Unesco’s World Network of Biosphere Reserves lists 669 sites in 120 countries, including 20 transboundary sites. There are currently only two Unesco reserves in the country, Tasik Chini in Pahang and the Crocker Range, south of Mount Kinabalu in Sabah. They were accorded Unesco reserve status in 2009 and 2014 respectively.

https://www.thestar.com.my/news/nation/2020/09/19/penang-hill039s-unesco-application-may-take-one-to-two-years-to-be-approved-says-corp?

Meanwhile, here is the report from The Star newspaper:

GEORGE TOWN: It will take between one and two years for Penang Hill and its surrounding areas to be recognised as a Unesco biosphere reserve, says Datuk Cheok Lay Leng.

The Penang Hill Corporation general manager said his team started the whole Unesco biosphere reserve application process about three to four years ago.

“We completed the first version in 2017 and subsequently, we missed the deadline for submission because we had to go through a long process of approval. There are many agencies that need to sign and have to be approved by the Water, Land and Natural Resources Ministry before we can submit to Unesco.

He said that in recent months, the corporation has managed to get it through the whole process and the ministry has signed the application. “The ministry will have to submit the application to the Malaysian National Commission for UNESCO (MNCU), ” he told reporters at the Hillside Retreat Bungalow launching ceremony at Penang Hill on Saturday (Sept 19).

Cheok added that the corporation had met the deadline for submission, which is at the end of September. “We have to wait now. It may take one to two years and the experts from Unesco may come and visit Penang Hill and then we will take it from there. The area is about 12,480 hectares covering Penang Hill as a central park, Teluk Bahang National Park and Marine Park, as well as Penang Botanic Gardens, ” he said.

He said the wait could take longer, as Unesco might not be able to send anybody to look at Penang Hill immediately due to the Covid-19 pandemic. “We will be following up very closely to speed up the process, ” he said.

According to the Unesco website, biosphere reserves are areas comprising terrestrial, marine and coastal ecosystems. Each reserve promotes solutions reconciling the conservation of biodiversity with its sustainable use. At present, Unesco’s World Network of Biosphere Reserves lists 701 in 124 countries, including 21 transboundary sites. Malaysia has two biosphere reserves – Tasik Chini and the Crocker Range. Unesco biosphere reserve is recognised by how human and economic activities can coexist with nature.

Walking

I still remember how, occasionally when the weather was fine, I used to walk from the Menara BHL Bank to the ferry terminal in Weld Quay after work. That was after the bank had moved from Beach Street to Northam Road in 1995. A one-way journey could take me an hour at a stroll and stopping to cross the busy roads and looking at life around me.

63th

I was at the AEON shopping mall in Bukit Mertajam this afternoon. Was getting to walk back to the car when I strolled past a restaurant. Noticed their promotional banner but the message didn't quite register in my brain immediately. Then it hit me. I couldn't believe what I hoped I did not read. So I turned back to take a second look. Sure enough, I wasn't mistaken. How embarrassing. The depths our command of the English language has dropped. But how do you pronounce it, anyway?

Hungry ghosts festival

Ever since we've been using this new Android television set, our main preoccupation is watching movies and TV series on Netflix. Presently, nothing is more absorbing than to watch the old BBC television series, Merlin. The series is quite absorbing and it ran over five seasons in Britain from 2008 till 2012. It can be said that my wife and I are eight years too late in watching the series. 

Right now, we have just started watching Season Four. Ever since a young age, I've always been fascinated by the story of King Arthur and his knights of the round table. How many times have I watched that animated Disney show called The Sword In The Stone? How many times have I watched Camelot in the cinemas and listened to the soundtrack of this movie? How many times have I read The Once And Future King by TH White? And how many times have I read Le Morte d'Arthur by Thomas Malory? Too many times, indeed. That is why I'm sat in front of the television set every evening to watch an episode from this series.

Today, we were watching the first episode of the fourth season: the episode called The Darkest Hour. The story is about a sorceress tearing open a veil that connected the living world with the dead. When the veil was torn, ghoulish creatures from hell were released to cause deadly havoc in the land of the living. Quite a coincidence, I commented to my wife, that we were watching this episode during the Chinese seventh lunar month, otherwise known as the Hungry Ghosts Festival. The Cailleach in the Merlin story was their medieval equivalent of the Tai Su Yah (大士爷) in Chinese culture. Interesting that some aspects of different cultural beliefs have some similarities.

During the Hungry Ghosts Festival, as we all know, the gates of hell are opened to allow the ghosts to roam among humankind. It is during this lunar month that the Chinese will pray to the unseen inhabitants of this earth. On a certain day during the month, up to each family to decide, the spirits of our ancestors would be invited to the household and offerings would be made to them. My family practice a strictly vegetarian offering of fruits or sweet desserts to my ancestors (my paternal grand-parents, my parents and my aunt); many others would prefer a non-vegetarian offering that included chicken, roast pork and other cooked dishes. 

On the 14th day of the seventh lunar month too, I would make my way down to the Swee Cheok Tong Quah Kongsi in the morning for worship, this being one of the cultural traditions that we have been observing since the early 19th Century when the first clansmen arrived from the Ow-Quah village in Hokkien Province, China. We would be praying to our resident deities and also to the memorial tablets of deceased clansmen.

Normally, it would be a challenge to find a parking space for the car along the road but it was pretty easy this time because there wasn't any makeshift outdoor stage erected along the road to celebrate the occasion. In fact, all over Penang, both on the island and the mainland, there was hardly any outdoor stage seen. No open celebration of the Hungry Ghosts Festival due to the coronavirus pandemic. No massive outdoor stages, no giant paper effigies of the Tai Su Yah, no stage shows, no open-air Chinese dinners and hence, no traffic jam on the roads. Quite a muted affair. Quite sad how the pandemic has put paid to a lot of Chinese festivals this year. Unable to go for Cheng Beng in April this year and now, unable to celebrate the Hungry Ghosts Festival in August/September. 

Of course, the absence of the roadside stages has economic ramifications beyond the Hungry Ghost Festival. The stages provide an avenue of income for the Chinese opera performers and entertainers. Normally, the stages are not removed immediately at the close of the Chinese seventh month. The Mooncake Festival of the Chinese eighth month also provides these performers with an extended opportunity to earn a living, which doesn't look forthcoming this year. It also remains to be seen whether the traditional Nine Emperor Gods processions during the Chinese ninth month can proceed this end of October. 

Self-service

This is my wife's laptop. Bought five years ago to enable her to work from home. At that time, it could boast of an Intel i5 chip and a 1TB hard disk, although a bit lacking in internal memory, what with only 4GB RAM. Solid state disks weren't popular yet and besides, were expensive. So I had plumbed for that configuration. Value for money, I thought. 

The laptop served her well enough. As she used it mostly for word and spreadsheet processing, it could be considered under-utilised. But for whatever reason, it began slowing down. Took a long time to boot up and to open programs. Sometimes, had to wait almost five minutes before she could start any work. No prize for guessing correctly who was pressured to do something about this. 

Sometime last year, I bought a 512GB solid state drive. Had wanted to replace her hard disk with it. However....every time I wanted to take away the laptop, she was hogging it. So I deferred the moment to a better time, which never came. But finally, the frustration got to her recently and she implored me to do the upgrade as soon as possible.

At first, I took the laptop to a nearby computer shop along Jalan Maju in Bukit Mertajam, which shall remain unnamed. Showed them the laptop and asked for a quotation. The shop assistant texted me on the next day. The cost for a 512GB SSD, formatting it and installing Windows 10, and setting the old hard disk into a new external casing would cost me RM698. How much was the 512GB SSD, I asked back. The reply: RM400.

I knew that I was being ripped off. They had no qualms about ripping off this old uncle. RM400 for a 512GB solid state drive? The last I checked on Lazada, this SSD was available for abour RM210. Okay, so the price has risen very slightly over the past year but it doesn't matter much. I would willingly pat RM210 for a new 512GB SSD today if I had not already have one. If the computer shop was going to charge me RM400 for an SDD that could be bought online for RM210, I wondered what other inflated prices they were going to be thrust on me.

Back to some self-research. First, it was possible, I found out, to download an officially sanctioned copy of Windows 10 from the Microsoft website. Next, YouTube showed me how to open up the laptop and do the replacement. And that's what I did. Removed all the screws. But then I hit a problem. Tried to remove the DVD drive but couldn't do so, no matter what I tried. Looked so easy in the video but I really couldn't figure it out.

Resigned, on the next day I took the laptop and the SSD to the ph&co (formerly known as PC Depot) outlet close to the Pacific Megamall. The technician took a look and asked me, "No formatting required?" "Nope," I replied. "Then it will cost you RM20 for the labour charges," he said. "Okay," I said, "please proceed. And while you are at it, please also put in another 4GB of RAM." Everything was done on the spot and the bill came round to RM119. So together with the RM205 that I had paid for the SSD last year, the total cost came up to RM324 only. 

At home, I installed Windows 10 on the laptop and then added in the old Microsoft Office 2003 (yes, I'm still using this old version!) and Kaspersky Internet Suite. That's all she really needs on her laptop. No need for any other urgent bell-and-whistles program. And it is now working fine. No more complaints from her. 

 

Antonin Dvorak's Ninth Symphony

I never realised that I owned six versions of Antonin Dvorak's Ninth Symphony in E Minor until I was looking through my compact disc and vinyl record collection this afternoon. But this is a piece of music that I can never get tired of listening to.

The first compact disc was from The Classical Collection which I was subscribing to in the early 1990s. Every week, a new compact disc featuring works by different classical composers would be released with a magazine. I was collecting diligently but never knew how many compact discs would be there in the series. I only stopped when the numbers proved too many for me. (I stopped at No.45 but should have continued till No.50.) Anyway, this version of the Ninth Symphony was played by the Philharmonia Slavonica with Henry Adolph conducting.

The second compact disc featured the modern American composer, Leonard Bernstein, who was the musical director of the New York Philharmonic Orchestra. I remember watching Bernstein on black-and-white television in the 1970s. Young People's Concert, I think his programme was called and through his explanations, he made classical music so interesting. Anyway in this compact disc, he took his New York Philharmonic Orchestra through their paces.

The renowned Herbert von Karajan and the Berliner Philharmoniker were featured in the third compact disc. A check through the Amazon website revealed that Karajan recorded this work many times; once a decade throughout his long career, so I'm told. I don't know how this 1977 version I possess would rank among the rest of them but it is impressive.

Then there was this version by the Minnesota Orchestra with Sir Neville Marriner conducting. A serious enough recording BUT with a difference. At the start or end of each movement, sonic paintings of nature were inserted, inspired by the Song of Hiawatha. So instead of the silence between movements, there would be soothing sounds of nature like water running through a stream or a thunderstorm or birds chirping. A much welcomed change but purists would certainly baulk at this compact disc. Who cares? 

And the two final versions of the Ninth Symphony were on vinyl records.From The New World was performed by the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra with Karel Ancerl conducting at a time when there was still a state called Czechoslovakia, while the New World Symphony was played by the Boston Symphony Orchestra under the baton of their musical director, Arthur Fiedler.

 

Looking down Seang Tek Road

This is Seang Tek Road. Looking down from the Dato Kramat Road end. My old neighbourhood. Had been staying on this street until 1980. If you look at the double-storey terrace houses on both sides of the road, well, they haven't changed much, if at all, except that some have been converted into businesses where once they were all residential. Even the house I used to occupy has been converted into a restaurant. 

Looking further down the road, there are several new taller buildings, built in the last 30 years or so. Three-storey buildings, four-storey buildings, one apartment building further away, even a pseudo-heritage-looking office block. And that high-rise in the background? No, that doesn't belong to Seang Tek Road. It's located at faraway MacAlister Road but obscene enough to barge its way into the picture. That not withstanding, it's always a nostalgic walk along this road. Can't help it; I spent 26 years of my life here.