This was the protest on Sunday against the hill-slope development projects at Sungai Ara in Penang.
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This was the protest on Sunday against the hill-slope development projects at Sungai Ara in Penang.
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I am Penang born and I have migrated to another country for over 25 years. I am a technical consultant for a leading Bank. I can still remember vividly living in Sg. Ara hills with my grandmother in the early sixties and seventies. There were no proper roads leading up the hills except jungle path with stepping rocks and gravels. There was no electricity at that time and we used to burn a type of carbide and kerosene lamps for night light. We get water supply from a water source up in the hill and using bamboo sticks as pipeline… Read more »
can Mr. Lim Guan Eng come and visit Sg. Ara during raining days or morning or after office hour? Jam like hell!
Anil, i learn green environment from you. Many thks !
Most welcome, Kee 🙂 We all need to play a role in preserving the environment.
And keep Penang Bersih from future ApaNama devastation & no more ostrich natural blindness to Barang Naiki penchant to destroy beautiful & heritage-rich Penang using Satu Lagi Projeks for the profitable liking of Gelakan minions.
For those still stuck with the mentality of Penang has a lot to offer in terms of infrastructure like shopping, food, hills, seawater hence join the herds to buy the properties thru hard-earned sweat money or via massive lifetime loans; i jus has this piece of advicce : buy a decent property elsewhere in mainland (price a fraction yet bigger size); money saved from buying crazy-priced property in Penang island shall entitle you to : a) come over to stay at 5-star hotel in the island during your holiday. b) eat and drink till you drop. c) shop shop shop… Read more »
Fit my plan for emigration to Belum nature sanctuary comes 55.
Stay healthy, fit & enjoy the best of pristine rainforest & nature adventure/exploration, and once in a while ‘visit’ my once beloved island only for a 5-day food crawling & binging at all the Ori-maestros stalls. Recuperate from all that in my Penang home & head off again to the rainforest for my leisurely lifestyle of a lifetime.
Why spend more (and have to work harder like rats) on unsatisfactory lifestyle of unending covetousness when you can get some things for free in mother nature?
Agree, but moving to smaller town is for retired people.
Me, an exception.
Retirement is but a luxury, even being debt-free.
Rather I use my precious time doing what I missed most during my racing rat years working for peanuts for calculating bosses.
Anyway, my new work (life vocation) of passion is also a play to me. Work & play in the rainforest with no bosses to boss my free time for creative passion & adventure.
Looks like you are a “green” man yeah tunglang.
I am turning green too with age catching up…
Appreciate all kinds of greens now !!!
Greens (veggies) are also very healthy!
Right, Aunty Wong, i would say that is wisdom esp if you are a retired person.
Sometimes i do wonder what is so great about Penang that everyone crave about esp prices of properties have been escalated of late ?
My friends in SP live in big houses with big compounds while Penang people squat in their apartments.
i think typical penangites don’t mind spending big during their lifetimes to acquire expensive properties. They may sweat like hell to pay the morgage BUT there are two things a lot of people not aware of : 1) “Bin Chui” – i.e Face Value. Many young profesionals live in expensive condo to show the people they are UP THERE. This to them is very important although they have to leave behind many other indulgences like eating out and travelling overseas. 2) Older penangites think of leaving something for their children. So the children may benefit from their parents sweating out… Read more »
Wow! Good on you tuakee, can afford to retire early.
Often said to my mom, let’s move to SP but she said NO.
But somehow, i feel that we still have to leave some for the children. If they are very capable, then, it is ok otherwise pity them as competition is tough these days.
kee,
SP may be a bit too far for your mother liking. Try Juru or BM or Kulim. These places are booming although i believe he property there are getting expensive lately.
if tunglang ever comes to SP, he will know there are many dishes as good if not better (cheaper n bigger servings) than in Penang island !
We got hypermarkets, cinemas, wifi, astro in SP so i don’t feel i miss much of penang really….
Ah, but you don’t have people delivering black cakes and other silly things… 😉
“Bin Chui” has its sub-demons of Kia Su, Kia Si, Kia Liao, Kia Boh Bin & Kia Lang Kong!
What an Asian culture of self preservation of the outward nice-looking image.
May we call it Asian Self Branding (And Suffering)!
anil
no blackberry cake but i do come once a while and may be get to witness live “butt or belly dancing” (hopefully by barang naik beliawanis not ex-army) or sandiawara at esplanade very sunday 🙂
anyway at SP syill can access anil’s blog so not deprived of fun and info, right ? 🙂
haha, you make me laugh! 🙂
“Bin Chui” is seeking (temporary) outside approval in the social context of material acquisition ie “I have achieved, I have arrived”.
Why has it to be so when the inner soul suffers in continuous covetousness of dissatisfaction (even if one has arrived)?
Of course happiness & meaning are subjective, but to live to a self-imposed external standard just for “Bin Chui” is short-changing one’s intended life of purpose & meaning, which leads to true happiness.
Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs theory needs some fine tuning at the higher level of Esteem & Self-actualization.
My motto: One Life, Max It (any moment).
Developers love to play on “Bin Chui”, one of the Hot Buttons of marketing to such home buyers of status-conscious & kia su mentality.
Rainy-horned property gurus & new bob-hairstyled million ringgit housing agents know better than anyone.
We should amend the global word “Joneses” to “Bin Chui” to keep up with the times (of Cosmopolitan Penangites)!
Again I would like to say that these residents are in no position to call for the protection of mother nature. Their houses sit on land which were once hills and trees. This includes regency heights, raintree etc. They are hypocrites who protest only because they know that the new development will inconvenience them. If this development was in Bukit Jambul or Balik Pulau, they wouldn’t give a damn. Where were they when Tg Bungah had a similar problem? Sleeping soundly at home in their newly built condos? That is human nature for you. They never thought about others they… Read more »
But are the residents’ homes built on slope gradients of more than 25 degrees and more than 250 feet above sea level?
Anil, those are technical specifications set by the authorities and now that they have been created I agree that they should be adhered to. Therefore, if the said development indeed breaches these conditions it should never have been approved. I have always been consistently supporting the green cause and low-density development for all of Penang (particularly arounds outside George Town). I am just trying to point out to Penangites in general, and hopefully some of the residents who may be your blog readers, that they too have in a way destroyed the environment there. I am aghast that no one… Read more »
Yes, Kevin, i agree, lots of people are like that it is ok for them to buy hillslop properties but when others are buying they will protest, that is, human nature – ugly !!!
Does that mean that if some people build houses at the base of a hill or on the foothills, it is okay for others to wipe out the forests on much of the rest of the hill and turn it into a concrete jungle?
Anil if it’s environmentally sustainable development then even if concrete with follow-up tree planting then should not be harmful. Reported in Kwanh Hwa paper that Penang gomen to send a delegation to learn from Xiamen China how to beautify the city with sustainable plants & flora to create a pleasant city. Better late than never. They can also learn from Singapore Parks who employ many Malaysians (LGE can lure back these Msians to learn the techniques fast). I think Penang administration can lern a lot from readers feedback in anil’s blog. Someone got to post Anil’s blog banner at Komtar… Read more »
This developers’ intransigent & greedy development is an Achilles’ Heel for DAP state gomen in the coming GE13.
Gelakan K & Barang Naiki minions will find enough ammunitions to ‘shoot’ at LGE for whatever reason worth their salt just to bring about anger & frustration, never mind that the state gomen has saved a lot of state money with thrifty spending unlike the ostrich years before 308.
Developers just don’t care after making piles of profit. Just jump ship to whoever wins the election! And business as usual (of cutting down trees & bull dozing hill slopes).
What drive the developers to so eagerly build on any inch of Penang Island? 1) Plentiful of ‘wildebeest’ speculators, local & foreigners. 2) Easy & fast approval of bank loan applications & low interest on already low exchange rate of Ringgit. 3) All day good news rainy-forecasts by rainy-horned property gurus. 4) UNESCO Heritage status, even though it’s not the whole island. 5) Herd mentality of home buyers. Greed & kia su ensure a profitable market for creating more ‘scarcity of homes’ fear-news. 6) Desperate buying instinct even at dizzy surreal prices. Coupled with a credit card, the ‘feel-good’ temptation… Read more »
Tahniah kepada LGE kerana dia sudah mendapat ‘demi-god’ status di Penang. Apa yang mereka buat sudah tidak perlu dipersoalkan oleh warga Penang.
Jadi, kita tutup satu mata sajalah mengenai Sg Ara dan lain-lain lagi.
Tahniah to whoever your candidate is. So, what did you buy me from NY?
I met Guan Eng for the first time tonight, informally. Nice chap. Asked him to visit anilnetto.com when he can to see me give you some heartache.
Please contribute more. We missed you.
A little bait for Gherkin? This is what a real democracy is all about, which we never saw with the hootless one. Gherkin must still be in NY.
With FSOM.
The road leading to Sugai Ara is almost the same as in the 80’s while more residential/cemmercial properties are up all these years. No wonder a horrible traffic jam there during peak hours !
Still wanna buy a hill top property there ? Think twice first.