Penang weather: storm's a-brewing?

Very difficult to predict the coming political storm in Penang but this is the weather forecast from Accu Weather.com:

As of Monday morning EDT, there were no active tropical systems. However, an area of low pressure over the northern Philippine Sea, east of Luzon, is becoming better organized. This feature could develop into a tropical depression or storm over the next 24-48 hours.

Try blaming ourselves for the floods and landslides in Penang

Understandably, many people are unhappy with the floods that hit Penang during the weekend because of traffic jams on the roads and dwellings getting flooded where never before had the residents experienced being under one foot of water or more!

Understandably, there's a lot of finger pointing, all being pointed at the previous state government who stood accused of licensing developers who had been levelling hills with abandon and causing soil erosion.

Of course, there is a great measure of truth in the accusations. Everywhere you go, you see hills being raped, earth being exposed and little effort being made to foresee what can happen when there's heavy rain. It's all in the name of profit, the mighty RINGGIT.

But it's not only development that's the cause of the people's misery and loss of property. If the Bukit Mertajam forest park, where's there's no development at all, can experience a landslip, you cannot totally blame development in Penang for the landslides and floods.

If there's anyone to blame, it can only be the human race: not just us in Penang but people every where. Humanity is the real cause of natural calamities. Humanity with our inherent greed, our self-centredness and disregard for the environmental rights of our neighbours. We are the ones to be blamed.

We are the ones contributing to climate change. The opening up of the ozone layer, our contribution to global warming. There are 6.721 billion reasons (estimation as at Sep 2008) why the ice shelves at the Arctic and Antarctic are being lost at alarming rates. We are the reason why storms are getting more violent. It's not only hurricane season in the United States; it's also global weather imbalance. We are seeing and experiencing unprecedented changes to the global weather patterns. And now, humanity's greed is coming back to haunt us. (Read the take by the BBC here.)

It's easy to blame the local developers, it's easy to blame the previous state government; it's easy to blame the federal government. Yes, they do have their parts to play in the calamity but at the end of the day, it's never easy to blame ourselves - both you and me. How much have we done today to save the environment or at the very least, make ourselves aware of it?

Landslip at BM Hill

I heard from various sources that the heavy rain on Saturday created a lot of havoc in Penang, both on the island and the mainland.

There were floods all over the city and the other urban areas on the island. Also the Jalan Tun Sardon which connects Paya Terubong to Balik Pulau was closed because of landslides. On the mainland, Taman Siakap in Seberang Jaya was flooded and I would suppose Chai Leng Park could have been at risk too. Correct me if I'm wrong. But Bukit Mertajam's infamous triangle comprising Jalan Tembikai, Desa Damai and Taman Sri Rambai was about the hardest hit among the residential areas. My wife's aunt, staying in Taman Sri Rambai, said that the roads were flooded and water was coming in through the back. However, it had not flowed into the house. The Prai industrial estate? I heard that the pumps at the pump houses were operating round the clock and there is no report or complaint in the newspapers. So I guess that would be alright.

Yesterday, I took my regular hike up the Bukit Mertajam hill and it seemed that the rain had not spared the hill too. At about the 3.4km mark along the tar road, a serious landslip had occurred on both sides of the road, bringing down yellow soil and a tree. The road's definitely impassable to cars.

As usual, nothing has been done to clear away the mess yet. Yesterday was a Sunday and I doubt whether the forest park's staff would even want to be aware of it. Better stay in their warm, comfortable houses. But I'm confident that they'll be notified today because people will need to drive up to the telecommunications towers at the summit.

You can see from the photos that the landslips look quite bad. There is still a passable gap between the two landslips but you'll have to tread careful and walk gingerly. The path is definitely slippery.

Beijing paralympic torch

In case you don't already know, the Beijing 2008 Paralympic Games are being held at the same venues as the Beijing Olympics. The opening ceremony last night also featured a similar lighting of the paralympic torch.

However, there was none of the simulated running around the stadium's ring ala Li Ning. All that Hou Bin did was to hoist himself in his wheelchair to the base of the torch where he then lit it.

But before then, when the paralympic flame arrived at the Bird's Nest, it was taken around the stadium by a group of Chinese paralympic participants. I think this is the most poignant of the scenes at the stadium: torchbearer Ping Yali being accompanied by a guide dog.

Inefficient new Penang Bridge blog

Ever since a few weeks back - I think it was the end of July when the authorities announced the ban on heavy and slow-moving vehicles from using the bridge during peak hours - when I noticed the old Penang Bridge blog was being reorganised, I had stopped visiting the site. Until this morning.

So what do I see now? The new Penang Bridge blog is up and running, but what a big waste of resources! It's laughable, pathetic and completely amaterurish. I don't understand how they make decisions.

The landing page shows a map of the coastal highway on the island leading to the bridge with its various bridge cams. However, if you want to see any of the bridge cams on the mainland side of the bridge, you'll have to pull the scroll bar horizontally all the way to the right.

Add to the adjectives I had used earlier, this makes it just about the dumbest web design I've ever seen.

But that's not all. What about the vast expanse of water between the two land masses to the north of the bridge itself? Here, take a look at what I saw. Stupid dumb-asses, the people behind the Penang Bridge blog. Did they employ a six-year-old to design this? What a big joke!

The saddest part of the web site? When you want to click on the link to enlarge all the bridge cams, the message you'll see is: "The specified server is currently unable to handle the request due to a temporary overloading Please try again later." I say .... I accessed the website at 7.10am on a Sunday morning. How many people are wide awake to attempt an access of all the bloody cameras on a Sunday morning until they are overloaded?? Sheesh!

What, lah!

Miscellaneous notes to myself: bus ride, book, police, stolen cars, etc

Bus ride from Kuala Lumpur
Last month as I was travelling back by bus from Kuala Lumpur, I couldn't help but notice that the Sri Maju bus was travelling by a convoluted route to Bukit Mertajam. Instead of leaving the highway at the Bukit Tambun interchange, it left only at the Juru (Autocity) interchange. This was a slightly longer route as the bus needed to loop back almost in the opposite direction.

The bus departed Pudu Raya at about 5.15pm and at about 7pm, it swung into Ipoh to drop off some passengers. That actually delayed my arrival time by about an hour. Anyway, I did notice that the bus passed the Bukit Merah interchange at 9.25pm, Nibong Tebal interchange at 9.45pm, Bukit Tambun interchange at 9.53pm, the Juru toll at 9.56pm, Juru interchange at 10.03pm, arrived at the Bukit Tengah traffic lights at 10.05pm and the Summit traffic lights in Bukit Mertajam at 10.14pm.

All in, a boring journey of five hours. Luckily, for the part where there was still daylight, I could finish reading that book by Neil Khor and Khoo Kay Peng, "Non-Sectarian politics in Malaysia: the case of Parti Gerakan Rakyat Malaysia." I was commenting to my wife just the other day that this book - which certain people in the Gerakan tried to prevent from being launched - gave me more than an insight into the Gerakan party. It was a nut-shell history of modern Penang itself, from the pre-1969 to the post-2008 period. A must read for every Anak Pulau Pinang.

Text exchanges with Colin
On the by-election day in Permatang Pauh, one of my chess kakis in Kuala Lumpur was asking me about the weather. I knew what he meant so I texted back to him that "it was a jam-packed carnival mood with prospects of good news tonight."

Then he asked whether it was true that the whole place was filled with policemen, especially the Chinese areas. Since I had returned not too long ago from my voting station in Seberang Jaya and having driven past Jalan Permatang Pauh, I could truthfully tell him that the whole area was "practically raining with them, but especially more in the Malay areas." Actually, I felt quite safe. Imagine: for a constituency with about 60,000 registered voters, we had about 6,000 policemen. That's one policeman for every 10 voters. Who wouldn't feel safe? Well guarded? Made me feel almost like a vee-ai-pee.

Colin: Shit! No wonder my car got stolen in KL. They keep pulling out the cops to put them elsewhere.

When did that happen, I asked him. Actually, four months ago, he replied. Aiyah...that doesn't coincide with the by-election in Permatang Pauh, does it? Anyway, he told me that the police were "very helpful." I don't know whether that was said with a hint of sarcasm because he continued: "They could tell me that the Myvi was the most popular, five to six cases a day for that police station, etc. I didn't bother to ask whether the case could be solved. In fact, of the eight friends I see most here, two have been robbed. Including me, that's a 33 percent hit rate!" Malaysia boleh! Colin lives somewhere in Puchong.

Opening ceremony of the other Games (Paralympics)

The Beijing 2008 Paralympic Games' opening ceremony is now going on at the Bird's Nest. A pity that there's not much publicity at home. I wonder whether Malaysia have any athletes there? But I know that South Africa's Oscar Pistorius is running in the 100m, 200m and 300m athletics competition starting Monday. More details from the official website.

Dog's feast

Would you remember this post way back in January this year? It was about a snake that had swallowed four golf balls in Australia.

This time, it's about a five-year-old black labrador in England. Recently, Oscar went under the veterinarian's knife because his owner heard a rattling noise from its stomach. All in, 13 golf balls were "rescued" from Oscar's stomach juices. One ball wasn't so lucky. It had turned black and the shell was swollen. Luckily, it hadn't turned toxic yet.

Oscar's owner, Chris Morrison, said: "We're not sure how long exactly this happened over, but it must have been a fair period - several months at least. "I felt his stomach and heard them rattling around. He normally brings a few home, but I had no idea he had eaten so many."

And according to the vet, Bob Hesketh: "I've never seen anything like it. It was like a magic trick. I opened him up and felt what I thought was two or three golf balls. But they just kept coming until we had a bag full. They must have been in there for several months."

Sorry, no photo of the retrieved balls. You'll just have to imagine them.

Weather report: rain for next few days

The weather has been bad over Penang in the past fortnight or so but the gloom has not been as bad as yesterday evening or this morning. Here on the mainland, it has been raining intermittently since about 6pm yesterday, even through the night, and though there were bright spells this morning, it's rather gloomy again right now. In fact just about 10 minutes ago, a huge patch of dark clouds moved directly over me but it's gone now. However, the drizzle has begun. Local weather forecast says thunderstorms in the morning for the next few days and either rain or cloudy in the afternoons and evenings. Can I believe it?

Bruce Lee

These are record covers but no, I don't have the records. I found these images on the Internet and decided to put them together as a little tribute to him. That's all.

Oh, the ignominy of it all

Aiyoh, aiyoh, today I'm feeling rather crestfallen
If this is the depth that our English has fallen
Is this the product of a Malaysian University?
Shoo! Begone! We don't need such absurdity!

Authorities, please sit up and take notice
Before you topple over the edge of the precipice
English, we must improve or else we will fail
Our competitiveness blown away by this gale

Where's the meritocracy in all your policies?
This advertisement has exposed all your follies
It'll take two generations at least to right this wrong
But now, we have to live with this mess all lifelong

It'll be quoted globally as your humiliation
Our education system clearly needs a fresh direction
So learn from it lest you fall again
Learn from it if you still have half a brain

To know more about this advertorial which appeared in the New Straits Times on 23 Aug 2008, please visit Lim Kit Siang's blog.

Penang is feeling good

Understandably, Penangites are feeling a bit elated - maybe a bit smug - these days. Why shouldn't we be? Ever since the General Elections in March 2008, people in Penang are sensing that we have a new future to look forward to. Never mind that the relationship between the Pakatan Rakyat state government and the Barisan Nasional federal government will continue to be rocky. The Penang people will survive.

Two recent developments have borne me out on this observation.

One was the declaration two days ago by Lim Guan Eng that the Penang Global City Centre (PGCC) project was as good as dead. What this has shown up was the concerted effort of the people to protest civilly against an underhanded greed by a few individuals to profit from an unpopular project.

The second was the announcement yesterday that Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM) has been granted apex (accelerated programme for excellence) status. Although nine universities had applied for this status, everyone expected it would eventually reduce to a two-horse race between the USM and the University of Malaya (UM), with USM being very much the under-dog. So it does come as a BIG surprise that USM got the nod from the Higher Education Ministry. With this status, USM can expect additional funding of a few hundred million ringgit to transform it into Malaysia's first world-class university.

According to The Star, a selection committee headed by former Universiti Malaysia Sarawak vice-chancellor Prof Emeritus Datuk Dr Mohamad Zawawi Ismail had short-listed USM, UM, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia and Universiti Pertanian Malaysia. But after a thorough evaluation, the committee decided that only USM truly met all the requirements required for apex status. USM had submitted a transformation plan entitled “Transforming Higher Education for a Sustainable Tomorrow” which focussed, among other things, on diagnostics, medical biotechnology, waste management, pharmaceuticals, nano-technology, membrane technology and vaccines.

So I will say to the USM: kudos to you. It gladens my heart to know that you will no longer live in the shadows of UM. Let USM and inter alia, Penang, show the way forward.

As a Penangite, although long transplanted across the channel to the mainland, I still maintain a close emotional tie with George Town, the city of my birth, the city of my youth and now a World Heritage city. A long time ago, I was blogging about the transport system in the inner city, how there used to be tramcars plying the streets of George Town. Yesterday, I heard from a friend that the possibility of tramcars being re-introduced has become very real, possibly within the next 12 months. Also, you can read Anil Netto's perspective from his blog.

Of course, a tramcar system will be excellent for our World Heritage status. But what sort of system will the state government be thinking of? Considering that in the past, George Town used to have a tramcar system on rails, can we re-use those rails or at least part of them? The uncovering of a short stretch of the old rails along Penang Road is about all I have seen but I know that the old rail system was quite extensive. It used to stretch all the way along Dato Kramat Road, past Tramway Road (opposite the Penang Gaol) beyond to Ayer Itam village. Is there any chance of recovering more tracks or do we have to lay new lines? Or is the government planning on introducing electric buses with overhead cables? We used to have that too, you know.

But I believe whatever the system, the government must look seriously into an integrated transport system that can resolve the traffic congestion problem on the island and the transportation woes of the commuters. There's no point in saying that a new tramcar system will be re-introduced if the problem of traffic congestion is not addressed properly. Look long-term and come out with a multi-pronged approach to make this tramcar system viable.

Google's Chrome on MacBook

Well, I've managed to install Chrome on my MacBook and this screenshot shows how it looks like:


Of course, I'm not supposed to be able to do this because Google said that a Mac or Linux version of Chrome is not available yet. But hey, it won't stop anybody with the Parallels program on their Macs from installing Chrome inside their Windows XP or Vista, right?

True to Google's style, Chrome is very minimalist. Where are all those dropdown menu items? I miss them. And the bookmarks? Oh, there's a little folder icon in the top right corner. It says "Other bookmarks." It's a great paradigm shift after using Internet Explorer and Firefox but I'm sure the menus won't be missed before long.

Now, I'm wondering whether Chrome has beaten the record set by Firefox 3 as the most downloaded program within a single day.....

P.S. Light blue. I still don't like this colour!

Correct or not??

Chess pieces

"Off with her head," said the Queen of Hearts.
From an email, I received this fabulous picture of chess pieces modelled after Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland.

Malaysian fuel price flip-flips

These are the types of comments that only reinforces the growing suspicion that we have a federal government that is paralysed with indecisions. Or is it a matter of too many cooks spoiling the broth? Anyway, the cooks are making flip-flop announcements at their whims and fancies , as one joker after another comes out with contradictory statements. One says Burnt Rice is good, another says Salted Fish is better, and yet another says Vinegar is sweet. Saay, fellas, don't you talk to one another? Don't you read your own newspapers?

Just see what is printed in today's mainstream newspapers: an announcement that the petrol prices will stay unchanged until the end of the month. The excuse? “Since the last review was only 12 days ago, the next petrol price review will only be done at the end of the month," according to Shahrir Samad.

This is in total contrast with a statement on 23 Aug 2008 by Ong Ka Chuan made strategically two days before the Permatang Pauh by-election that fuel prices would be reviewed every 15 days.

Of course, a day earlier on 22 Aug 2008, Abdullah Ahmad Badawi had surprised everyone by announcing that fuel prices would drop. Whether it was done with sincerity or not is debatable but people were saying that this "generous" drop was a ruse to buy over the voters in the by-election. Uncannily coincidental? Here's how I had blogged about it then.

Nobody will believe his flip-flops any more. After all, it was only on 2 Aug 2008 that he insisted that the next pump price review would be reviewed monthly from September only. From now on, we'll take the fuel price movements in our stride. You want to increase? Increase lah. You want to decrease? Decrease lah. Do whatever you want. We'll also know to do whatever we want.

Google's Chrome

Do a search on "google chrome download" and you'll see that Google has already soft-launched their browser. Frankly, I don't like the colour. It's light blue and it's missing some vibrancy.

I've just heard that Google is launching their own Internet browser called Chrome from tomorrow. Chrome is supposed to be so easy that even monkeys can start using them.

Chrome is touted to be lightweight and fast, and able to cope with the next generation of web applications that rely heavily on graphics and multimedia. The new browser is also supposed to work even better with Google's suite of web-based applications such as Documents, Picasa and Maps.

More than challenging the traditional desk-top programs, I sincerely believe that Chrome is going to give Internet Explorer and Firefox a serious run for their money! Where will it leave them? But too bad that Chrome won't be available for the Mac or Linux yet but I'll be looking forward to it.

Want to learn more? Visit Google's Chrome comic book and read the first few pages. Frankly, I got bored after the first six or seven pages.

Saving ourselves from the MCA

Earlier today, I noticed that The Malaysian Insider had carried this interview with Theng Book of the Malaysian Chinese Association (MCA). Theng's 15 minutes of fame came earlier this year when he launched the “Save MCA” campaign. I've no interest in what's going on inside that political party but I was rolling on the floor, thoroughly amused, by this last question posed to him:

When you look at the history of MCA presidents, there has never been one with a moustache. So do both Tee Keat and Soi Lek have a chance?

Yes, our presidents have never had moustaches. So both Tee Keat and Soi Lek have a chance but those with moustaches can only run for deputy like Tan Sri Chan Kong Choy and Datuk Chua Jui Meng. But in any case, Chua Jui Meng has no base support with or without his moustache.

I showed this to a friend and he remarked to me: "Such has become the state of Malaysian political analysis." Couldn't agree more with him. Sigh....

Penang downpour

Hurricane Gustav? Hurricane Katrina? Oh, that's an old one. Anyway, I hope everything will be alright in Louisiana. However, all I 'm concerned about locally right now is the totally wet, wet, wet, wet afternoon in Penang. I look outdoors and all I can see is the pouring rain. It's heavy....

The splashing of rain on my gate

Distorted view from rain on my bedroom window

Water droplets on my plants

Almost lost in the mist: transmission towers atop BM Hill

Another view of BM Hill. This time, no more towers in sight

Deodato's Also Sprach Zarathustra

I don't know why but in the last 30-odd years, I've always been under the impression that Eumir Deodato was Greek. Well, he's not. I've just learnt that he's Brazilian! A bloody good, brilliant Brazilian jazz musician in my opinion, because lately, I've not been able to get enough of his interpretation of Richard Strauss' Also Sprach Zarathustra. It's kind of like rumbling out of control in my head.

And it's all because of Dave (the VinylMorpher man) who included this track of Deodato's in his Pure Jazz Funk radio show recently. Since then, I've been listening to this song over and over again - at least 10 times yesterday in the car, over the home hifi system and on the Internet - and I've been threatened with civil disobedience on the domestic front should I continue with this obsession. You see, my family has told me that they are already quite sick of this piece of music. Nevertheless, it's wonderful music.