Kg Buah Pala: Face of anguish

 Accountability, Housing, Marginalised groups  49 Responses »
Aug 072009
 

Muniammah
Anguish etches the face of Muniammah, 75, at the front door of her home, as she stares out at an uncertain future. – Photo by Anil

Earlier, Muniammah had come up to a few visitors to the village, her hands clasped as if pleading with us for help: “Where will we go after this?” she asked, almost in tears. “We don’t have any money for rental.”

Her parents arrived from India decades ago – she doesn’t know exactly when – and her mother lived in Kampung Buah Pala until she was 90.

She showed a couple of us around her family home, her back hunched as she struggled to walk up the steep path leading from the lane to the front door.

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Buah Pala villagers miss noon deadline

 Housing, Malaysian finance/business, Marginalised groups  57 Responses »
Aug 072009
 

1300: Kampung Buah Pala residents have not met a noon deadline to accept a compensation offer by Nusmetro, according to a contact at the scene.

In a just concluded press conference, they expressed anxiety over the conditions attached to the offer. They claimed that Nusmetro’s offer itself was illegal as the temporary title to the land in the Koperasi’s name prohibited any transaction.

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The sad tale of High Chaparral

 Accountability, Housing, Marginalised groups  45 Responses »
Jul 042009
 

old-well

The old well at Kampung Buah Pala where clear fresh water reaches ground level - Photo by Anil Netto

For those of you still unfamiliar with the background to the High Chaparral issue, here’s an excellent write-up by Himanshu Bhatt in today’s Sun:

Kampung Buah Pala holds its breath

THERE is an old well said to have been dug some 100 years ago in Penang’s Kampung Buah Pala, a charming settlement of cowherds and planters, which still provides fresh groundwater for many villagers. So remarkable is this well that during the national water crisis of the late 1990s, it became the lifeline for thousands of Penangites who made a bee-line to collect its water when all other supplies failed.

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