Two hot potatoes in PGCC/Penang Turf Club deal
Utter fiasco! Here’s why CCTV cameras won’t work in Penang
Billions spent on CCTV have failed to cut crime and led to an ‘utter fiasco’, says Scotland Yard surveillance chief
Last updated at 11:22am on 07.05.08
The billions of pounds spent covering Britain with CCTV cameras has been an “utter fiasco” and failed to slash crime, Scotland Yard’s surveillance chief has said.
Detective Chief Inspector Mick Neville said a Metropolitan Police pilot project found just three per cent of street robberies in London were solved using CCTV images.
He claimed the vast swathes of money spent on cameras had been wasted because criminals don’t fear the cameras.
But Mr Neville also castigated the police and claimed officers can’t be bothered to seek out CCTV images because it’s “hard work”.
The comments from Mr Neville, who is the head of the Visual Images, Identifications and Detections Office (Viido) at Scotland Yard, will further cast doubt on the spread of surveillance in Britain.
Britain has one per cent of the world’s population but, incredibly, 20 per cent of its CCTV cameras – the equivalent of one for every 14 people.
Last year it emerged the £200m spent on 10,000 crime-fighting cameras in London had had little effect on reducing offending.
A comparison of the number of cameras in each London borough with the proportion of crimes solved there found that police were no more likely to catch offenders in areas with hundreds of cameras than in those with hardly any.
Speaking at a security conference in London, Mr Neville claimed the use of CCTV images for court evidence had been very poor so far.
He said: “CCTV was originally seen as a preventative measure.
“Billions of pounds have been spent on kit, but no thought has gone into how the police are going to use the images and how they will be used in court.
“It’s been an utter fiasco: only three per cent of crimes were solved by CCTV.
“Why don’t people fear it? They think the cameras are not working.”…
So please don’t waste public money on CCTV cameras. Rather, get to the root causes of the rising crime rate and tackle them.Meanwhile, hot off the oven:Question #47 – Mei 2008
Liew Chin Tong (Bukit Bendera) asks the Minister of Housing and Local Government to state the direction and time frame to establish local council elections to start a new chapter of democracy in Malaysia.
Minister’s Response: The Government does not plan to conduct any local council elections.
Well, we can’t wait for the BN-led Federal Government, which is so out of touch with the people’s aspirations. The Pakatan state governments must come up with a quick road map to push through local government elections.Malaysia’s folk hero Raja Petra opts for jail to prove a point
Farewell, blogger Rustam; welcome, blogger Mustafa
And so the baton is passed in the relay of life.
From one true Malaysian and leading public intellectual, Rustam, and his blog…
…. to another, as Mustafa K Anuar, the asst secretary of Aliran, kicks off his blog with his first full entry on World Press Freedom Day.When Mus told me he was starting a blog, I remarked that he would be taking up the blogging baton that Rustam has handed over. Mus is also coordinator of Charter 2000-Aliran, a citizens’ media initiative to promote press freedom, and fellow of the Asian Public Intellectuals (API) programme.
Some of the best journalists in Malaysia today were taught by Mus and his colleagues – and they will undoubtedly be delighted to see his blog.
Rustam and Mustafa – both wonderful people with a broad, universal outlook; both involved in the media; both passionate about the cause of justice; both Aliran members – and both genuine Malaysians.
One blog goes dormant and another springs to life.
Mus says he is starting his blog because he has
“this nagging desire to know how it feels to be a monkey, a prostitute and an unemployed, among other unsavoury things!
For the uninitiated, these ‘labels’ were hurled against Malaysian bloggers by the powers-that-be especially before the 12th general election”.
Visit Mustafa’s brand new blog.
Odds and ends on World Press Freedom Day
Meanwhile, Raja Petra, when asked if his posting contained seditious elements, replied: “The whole website (is seditious). The whole Malaysia Today (is seditious)”.
So there! What a guy…On another note, someone sent me this link with the message:Lim Guan Eng spotted by Ning Baizura’s manager/agent at the airport and on a plane. Click here.
Have we have finally found a Chief Minister truly for the People?
You’ve got to give credit where credit is due. To the other CMs in Malaysia, watch and learn.Finally, blog reader Maliku has highlighted the latest threat to Penang’s hills:There is a piece of land on a slope just behind the leader garden condominiums in Tanjung Bungah, Penang where we saw surveying points and cleared brushes/trees during one of our runs in the hills. It is located just beside a catchment area and about 200 to 300 feet high on a little valley in the hills. Could it be earmarked for residential development? Can Ms Anil (err, I’m male!) check this out and bring it to the authorities’ attention because we need to preserve the remaining hills before Penang Island become a barren land!
Can anyone verify this? Those living around that area for instance?Bridge near Shanghai works out cheaper per km than second Penang bridge
Penang Turf Club: Here come the vultures
Banana-leaf lunch with cartoonist extraordinaire Zunar and blogger Fazlina
One of the most rewarding aspects of my line of work is that I get to meet some outstanding Malaysians. Really cool people.
Like Malaysia’s most famous political cartoonist, Zunar, and his wife Fazlina, who runs the Roti Kacang Merah blog.
A couple of colleagues – Ramakrishnan of Aliran and Kris, a human rights activist – and I caught up with them for lunch at a banana-leaf restaurant in Penang.
Zunar was in town on work. He is the editor of Suara Keadilan, which has just received its publishing permit, three years after their first application.
“Instead of saying thank you, Prime Minister, my thanks would go to our readers, vendors and printers, who have been intimidated in the past,” he told me. “We have been denied a permit for three years, so his announcement is three years too late … These reforms are half reforms, too late and too little.”
Contrary to earlier impressions, the sales of the fortnightly paper remain restricted to party members, though I guess the authorities will have a tough time enforcing this ridiculous and oppressive condition.
According to Zunar, Suara Keadilan’s circulation has jumped from 30,000 before the general election to close to 100,000 presently.
We had some good laughs. Zunar, who also contributes cartoons to Malaysiakini, has this hearty laugh that almost shook the walls of the restaurant. The man obviously has a great sense of humour and he has the gift of spotting the funny side of political life. Fazlina is bubbly and chatty and clearly appreciates his wit. Such a warm and down-to-earth couple. Check out her impression of our lunch together.
They were on a trip that took them from KL, past Perak to Penang and southern Kedah. “It was a good feeling to know that our entire journey was in Pakatan Rakyat territory,” they laughed.
I told them, yeah, you didn’t have to bring your (political) “passports” along! So it’s not just Celcom territory, eh…
How times have changed.
How different will the Pakatan’s economic policies be?
Thank God for the “mega setback” to Penang infrastructure projects
- Expand the ferry service and build more ferry terminals at different locations
- Introduce trams
- Build a cross-channel rail link perhaps alongside the Penang Bridge
Abdullah’s last stand
Malaysia’s leading public intellectual Rustam Sani passes on
This morning, at around 2.30am, Rustam Sani, social critic, political analyst, author of books on Malay and Malaysian nationalism, former lecturer and politician, newspaper columnist and fellow blogger, passed away. He had been unwell for some time.Rustam Sani, an Aliran member, was famously described by Jomo as “arguably Malaysia’s leading public intellectual”. It was only last night that Aliran posted his last commentary piece on its website – about Mahathir.He was the son of one of the great tokohs of the independence era, Ahmad Boestaman of the Angkatan Pemuda Insaf. Boestaman would go on to become the first MP to be detained in independent Malaya.More than that, I will miss Rustam because he was a good friend of mine. I would occasionally phone him when I was writing articles and he never failed to shed new insights into the local political situation.These were the last two occasions I spoke to him when writing articles in December and March, after the general election:‘Neo-liberal policies fuelling protests, not race’
I am glad he lived to see the sweeping political changes in the country.When he failed to update his blog, I would call up to find out what happened and he would tell me he was busy working on his books.He had just completed two – “Failed nation: Concerns of a Malaysian nationalist” and “Social roots of the Malay left” – which all of us should get copies of, in recognition of this unsung hero. The book launch was actually scheduled for 26 April. (I hope it goes ahead as planned.) (Update: Just spoke to Rustam’s daughter Ariani: She confirms that the book launch will go ahead at the Selangor State Library in Shah Alam this Saturday at 3.00pm.) These should be collectors’ items for all concerned Malaysians.I met him for the first time in 2000 in KL, when he was already not too well. Sharing a conversation over drinks, he struck me as a humble, open, friendly person with a sharp wit – a true Malaysian in his thinking. I feel privileged to have known him.Later, he would tell me that blogging suited him as he was not as mobile as before.Malaysia has lost one of her finest sons. May his soul rest in peace. And my deepest condolences to his family.Farewell, brother Rustam.If you know him or are familiar with his work, share your thoughts about him or pay your tribute to him in the comments below.
Independent ACA: Oh, really?
ACA to be made full-fledged commission by year-end
2008/04/21
The Anti-Corruption Agency (ACA) will be made a full-fledged commission to include a system of effective checks and balances and will be more independent in terms of its operations, Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi said today. The prime minister said this was one of the four key reform initiatives that would be carried out by the government by year-end in the move to address the public concerns on corruption in the country.
Abdullah said the key element of the commission would be the establishment of an independent corruption prevention advisory board whose members would be appointed by the Yang di-Pertuan Agong on the advice of the prime minister.
“Board members will advise the commission on administrative and operational matters. The board will also be briefed on cases that involve public interest and consequently can enquire or recommend that certain measures be undertaken.
“Most importantly, the board will act to assure the public that these public interest cases are being dealt with appropriately and adequately,” he said in a keynote address at the Asean Integrity Dialogue 2008, here.
Abdullah said a parliamentary committee on the prevention of corruption would also be established, to which the commission would table its annual report. Members of the committee could seek further clarification and explanation on the report.
He said the three other reforms were adding 5,000 more officers at all levels from various fields of expertise in the next five years to enhance the anti-corruption force as well as offering attractive new terms of service; introducing a legislation to provide comprehensive protection for whistle blowers and witnesses; and improving the public procurement process through measures that target and address specific problem areas in the system.
“I have directed the chief secretary to the government to work together with the Pemudah team to formulate a framework to improve the public procurement process, making it more transparent and accountable,” he said.
(Pemudah is a public-private sector initiative which aims to simplify business operations in Malaysia by improving government services.) Elaborating on the commission to reporters later, Abdullah said that though the commission would be required to table its annual report to the parliamentary committee, he would be responsible for the commission.
“There’s always a minister, anywhere in the world, responsible for any institution set up. And I will be responsible for the institution. In all the cases that we have studied it is the same because the government is responsible to parliament. They are representatives of the people, so they have to explain everything (to the people),” he said.
Touching on the independence of the commission, the prime minister said it would be independent in terms of recruitment as well as having its own policies, among others.
“It will have the power to hire and fire (personnel). It will have its own policies in terms of what it has to do. So that’s how they are going to operate.
“The Securities Commission also operates in the same way but it still has the minister responsible – the Minister of Finance,” he said, adding that it also meant more power for the commission to make decisions on many matters on its own.
Abdullah said the commission would be established based on the models of various countries known to be among the best in the world, such as Hong Kong’s.
On the parliamentary committee members, he said he would discuss with members of parliament on whom they wanted to sit on the committee.
To a question whether today’s announcement and the other reforms announced by him over the last several days were in response to the people’s message through the ballot box in last month’s general election, Abdullah said it was part of his efforts to fulfill the promises made during the 2004 general election.
“My critics will say anything. If I had done it before they would say I want votes. If I don’t do it, they would say I have forgotten my promises. All of these were in my manifesto for the 2004 elections.
“The manifesto of the 2004 elections is not just for a four or five-year term. It is intended for the longer term. Vision 2020 is what we want to achieve. It is a matter for whoever the prime minister is at that time but we must take the motion to make the reform.
“Reforms cannot be made quickly without really thinking about what needs to be done. You just can’t reform for the sake of reform. If the reforms are not effective, then they don’t mean anything,” he said.
Abdullah said he could not deliver on his promises much earlier as there were other matters that demanded priority. “But I don’t forget my promises. I will do it (fulfill them) when the time comes,” he said.
On a question about the legal protection of whistle blowers and witnesses, Abdullah said the attorney-general had already begun to work on it.
“But I would like to remind that while it is necessary to have this protection, it doesn’t mean there is unfettered freedom to just write about anything and everybody. I want them to be responsible for their report. They must know exactly what they say and the basis of their report,” he said.
Earlier, in his speech, Abdullah said he and the government were still very much committed to their pledge to fight corruption in the country.
He said vigorous efforts taken by the government over the past four years had yielded some positive results but the public expected more due to the fact that today’s citizens were better educated and more sophisticated in their thinking.
Abdullah said that following initial feedback from the public, the government found that the public’s frustration with today’s situation stemmed from three main sources.
“Firstly, people feel that the institutional and legal framework for anti-corruption remains structurally weak and therefore prone to abuses. They point to the need for a clear separation of powers between the institution of government as well as a higher degree of transparency and public accountability from enforcement agencies,” he said.
Secondly, said Abdullah, people perceived that anti-corruption enforcement was slow and inconsistent as some had said that the so-called “big fish” were protected while the “small fry” faced the full brunt of the law.
“Thirdly, many people feel that the existing public procurement system and procedures for awarding government contracts are rife with opportunities for corruption,” he said….
Watch out! They are still talking about monorail and Porr
27-03-2008: MRCB: Subway system is several times costlier than monorail by Jose Barrock
KUALA LUMPUR: While the suggestion from Penang’s new Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng to build a subway system in Penang as opposed to a monorail is technically feasible, it will cost considerably more, said Malaysian Resources Corp Bhd (MRCB) managing director Shahril Ridza Ridzuan at Invest Malaysia 2008.
MRCB was picked to build the monorail system by the Federal government.
“Engineering-wise it is not so much an issue. At the end of the day, it is whether it meets the requirements of what they (the state and federal governments) are trying to achieve on a technical point, or whether from a cost point of view it is attractive.
“A tunnel solution for public transport will cost substantially more, you are talking about maybe a factor of four or five times more depending on soil conditions,” said Shahril.
Lim said recently that a subway rail system could be considered over an overhead structure, as a subway system could also double up as a flood mitigation tunnel.
If the state government led by Lim insists on a subway system and not a monorail, this could trigger a bout of fresh negotiations. The estimated cost for the proposed overhead monorail system, which spans 35km, is RM3.5 billion.
A consortium headed by MRCB (other members include Scomi Group Bhd and Penang Port Sdn Bhd) had been given a letter of intent to build the Penang monorail system late last year. The letter of award, however, is pending with negotiations on the salient features still ongoing.
“At this stage, we have been awarded a letter of intent and we are in the final stages of negotiations with the potential client, Syarikat Prasarana (Negara Bhd).
“Syarikat Prasarana and the state will have to work together closely to determine the configurations. We stand ready to be guided by our potential client as to how they want to take this further,” Shahril added.
MRCB had recently commenced base level negotiations with Syarikat Prasarana, a company under the Minister of Finance Inc, which is in charge of the country’s public transportation system. However, it is still awaiting the conclusion of negotiations with the state authorities.
In Penang, other than the proposed monorail or subway project, MRCB’s Shahril said the group would also bid for the RM1.1 billion Penang Outer Ring Road project, which was mooted by the Government during the last budget. If secured, these projects would give a strong boost to MRCB’s existing orderbook of RM3 billion.
For the financial year ended Dec 31, 2007, MRCB posted a net profit of RM40.7 million on the back of RM903.7 million in sales.
MRCB closed three sen lower at RM1.36 yesterday. The stock has shed about 50% of its value since the beginning of the year.
In contrast, Edinburgh (pop 500,000) is one of latest cities to opt for trams. And like Penang, Edinburgh is a heritage city, its streets not any wider than Penang’s. The city is looking at trams to complement its excellent bus service. Check out this report. Notice that “every £1 invested to introduce trams provides £1.63 of benefits for Edinburgh. This return makes it an extremely good project”.Why trams?
Edinburgh has an excellent bus system, and the highest bus patronage per capita of any UK city except London. However, even with the current excellent bus services, further public transport improvements are essential to keep pace with the increasing growth of the city. Trams add a new element to Edinburgh’s existing public transport network and trams are more appealing to car users. Trams will be reliable, fast and will carry about 260 passengers each, reducing the environmental impact of vehicle emissions and helping to alleviate congestion.
The tram has been planned to work with the city’s bus network. Both Edinburgh trams and Lothian Buses will be owned by the City of Edinburgh Council, creating ideal conditions to run the bus and tram network as a truly integrated system. Trams will also work with other bus and train companies to try to achieve integration across the city and the region.
What are the benefits of trams? Trams are an efficient, attractive and reliable way to get around. They will be easily accessible, particularly to those with mobility difficulties, and will provide level boarding at all stops. Other features will include highly visible stops, real time information, easy to purchase tickets and security measures which include passenger attendants on every tram.The introduction of trams will have a positive impact on the image and status of the city. Benefits include attracting investment, increasing the attractiveness of Edinburgh to business, improving access for customers and staff, encouraging tourists to visit the city and an increase in civic pride and civic status.
Trams enable more people to travel to the city centre and retail areas. For example, Dublin has seen a 35% increase in footfall at an end-of-line shopping mall. In Strasbourg, the number of shoppers in the city centre on a Saturday rose from 88,000 in 1992 to 163,000 in 1997 after the opening of two tram lines.
Trams will help reduce congestion and are aimed to be successful in attracting motorists. Recent research shows that 20% of peak hour and 50% of weekend UK tram passengers previously travelled by car. In Nottingham and Dublin, two other cities which have recently introduced trams, passenger numbers have exceeded expectations. 8.5 million passengers used the Nottingham tram line in its first year, surpassing the predicted levels by around 14%. In the second year, there were 9.7 million trips, a further rise of 8%. One year after opening in June 2004, the LUAS tram system in Dublin had carried nearly 16.5 million passengers.
Also, every £1 invested to introduce trams provides £1.63 of benefits for Edinburgh. This return makes it an extremely good project. How were the tram routes selected? The routes were assessed on a number of criteria, in line with guidance from the Scottish Executive. These included environmental impact; economic and employment benefits; integration with other transport modes; improved safety and security; and ease of access to the residential and business community.
The line from Leith to Edinburgh Airport provides direct links from the city centre to the city’s economic growth areas, both commercial and residential, in the west of Edinburgh and Leith. It will also see the creation of major transport hubs at Haymarket, the foot of the Walk, St Andrew Square and Edinburgh Airport.
And how about this BBC report:
‘Trams bring many unique benefits’
Work on the project to bring trams to Edinburgh is well under way. Phil Wheeler, Edinburgh City Council’s transport convener, looks at the benefits he believes they will bring.
Over the past few years Edinburgh’s economy has been booming and all indications are that this period of prosperity is likely to continue.
With forecasters predicting as many as 30,000 new jobs in the next 10 years we have to plan for how a small city manages this type of growth.
We cannot build roads to meet the needs of our future, and present citizens, nor can we create more car parks to accommodate the growing number of vehicles coming into the city.
Edinburgh just does not have the space for this. So we must look for practical solutions and creating an integrated, high capacity public transport system is just such a solution.
Trams are integral to this. While Edinburgh has excellent bus services, buses are not the answer on their own.
They share the road network with other users, and can suffer from the consequences of road congestion, which means less reliability and higher operating costs.
‘Growing demand’
With a dedicated track and many sections off-road, trams are less susceptible to these problems and can carry three times more people than buses.
Without trams, there is no practical way to meet the growing demand for public transport along the booming waterfront to Airport route.
Buses will continue to be a hugely important part of our transport network though and will be integrated with trams.
Evidence from other cities where the introduction of trams has been hugely successful shows that commuters, residents, businesses and visitors enjoy quicker journeys to work and shops, more investment in the city, more accessible public transport and cleaner air.
Trams bring many more unique benefits to a city. People love using trams, so they bring new shoppers and residents into areas.
Critically, businesses know just how popular and beneficial trams are and are so very keen to be sited near them.
Extensive planning
This leads to more investment to a city. This can take the form of new jobs, new shops, new housing and new leisure opportunities.
Of course we’re aware that you can’t make an omelette without breaking eggs and there will be disruption across the route while construction of the tram scheme is under way.
We do apologise for this, but the work that’s gone on so far has been undertaken with extensive planning and consultation with local communities and our contractors have striven where possible to ensure any disruption to homes and businesses is kept to a minimum and this will continue whenever a new work site gets under way.
It’s taken us a long time to get to this point and the proposals have not been without their detractors.
However, I believe the case for trams has been well made and I look forward to seeing them up-and-running on our streets in 2011.
So how is Penang any different from Edinburgh – though our bus service still has a long, long way to go. The point is why opt for expensive multi-billion ringgit solutions with either questionable returns or environmental problems? Notice that the RM4.3 billion (and rising?) second Penang bridge has already been delayed by nine months before actual construction work can even start. If we go down this path, expect huge cost-overruns, further delays and more disputes between consortium partners. What will happen to the fishing communities? Or are they irrelevant in this age of rising food prices?
Public transport can be improved in several ways:
- Come up with a state-wide public transport master plan to make sure the system is integrated. Don’t make the same mistakes that KL did with its piece-meal LRT and monorail systems.
- Get the interchanges right between ferry terminals and trams/buses, between trams and buses, between cross channel over-sea rail link and buses/trams, between KTM rail on the mainland and buses/trams. This is crucial for an integrated system.
- Think of a cross-channel rail link instead of the second road bridge. The additional lane on the Penang Bridge could be used for rail transport or build a parallel rail link.
- Expand the ferry service and build more terminals at other locations on both the mainland and the island. Remember, the ferry service has been intentionally neglected ever since the Penang Bridge was built, contributing to the congestion on the bridge. The old ferry terminal (which operated alongside the new one) that collapsed in Butterworth was never rebuilt. In fact, today there are only about half the number of ferries compared to the number plying the channel in the 1970s.
- Allow for trams and buses to complement each other. For an excellent bus network, check out the Curitiba rapid bus transit system.
- Appoint independent public transport consultants with no vested interests in large companies selling their monorail/LRT/subway/bridge wares. The prime objective should be what’s good for the people of Penang including local communities, and the state rather than for the order books of giant infrastructure firms.
- Discourage private vehicle ownership and stop building infrastructure for cars and other private vehicles. This will be easier to do once we have an excellent public transport system so that people have a viable and attractive alternative.
- Remember pedestrians and cyclists. Make the streets safer for them. Turn some of the streets in Penang to pedestrian walkways with sidewalk cafes.
- Don’t reinvent the wheel. Learn from Curitiba’s rapid bus transit system and its innovative urban development programme. Small can be beautiful and visionary too!
Curitiba and its visionary mayor
Residents of Curitiba, Brazil, think they live in the best city in the world, and a lot of outsiders agree. Curibita has 17 new parks, 90 miles of bike paths, trees everywhere, and traffic and garbage systems that officials from other cities come to study. Curibita’s mayor for twelve years, Jaime Lerner, has a 92 per cent approval rating.
There is nothing special about Curitiba’s history, location or population. Like all Latin American cities, the city has grown enormously – from 150,000 people in the 1950s to 1.6 million now. It has its share of squatter settlements, where fewer than half the people are literate. Curibita’s secret, insofar that it has one, seems to be simple willingness from the people at the top to get their kicks from solving problems.
Those people at the top started in the 1960s with a group of young architects who were not impressed by the urban fashion of borrowing money for big highways, massive buildings, shopping malls and other showy projects. They were thinking about the environment and about human needs. They approached Curibita’s mayor, pointed to the rapid growth of the city and made a case for better planning.
The mayor sponsored a contest for a Curibita master plan. He circulated the best entries, debated them with the citizens, and then turned the people’s comments over to the upstart architects, asking them to develop and implement a final plan.
Jaime Lerner was one of these architects. In 1971 he was appointed mayor by the then military government of Brazil.
Given Brazil’s economic situation, Lerner had to think small, cheap and participatory – which was how he was thinking anyway. He provided 1.5 million tree seedlings to neighbourhoods for them to plant and care for. (‘There is little in the architecture of a city that is more beautifully designed than a tree,’ says Lerner.)
He solved the city’s flood problems by diverting water from lowlands into lakes in the new parks. He hired teenagers to keep the parks clean.
He met resistance from shopkeepers when he proposed turning the downtown shopping district into a pedestrian zone, so he suggested a thirty-day trial. The zone was so popular that shopkeepers on the other streets asked to be included. Now one pedestrian street, the Rua das Flores, is lined with gardens tended by street children.
Orphaned or abandoned street children are a problem all over Brazil. Lerner got each industry, shop and institution to ‘adopt’ a few children, providing them with a daily meal and a small wage in exchange for simple maintenance gardening or office chores.
Another Lerner innovation was to organise the street vendors into a mobile, open-air fair that circulates through the city’s neighbourhoods.
Concentric circles of local bus lines connect to five lines that radiate from the centre of the city in a spider web pattern. On the radial lines, triple-compartment buses in their own traffic lanes carry three hundred passengers each. They go as fast as subway cars, but at one-eightieth the construction cost.
The buses stop at Plexiglas tube stations designed by Lerner. Passengers pay their fares, enter through one end of the tube, and exit from the other end. This system eliminates paying on board, and allows faster loading and unloading, less idling and air pollution, and a sheltered place for waiting – though the system is so efficient that there isn’t much waiting. There isn’t much littering either. There isn’t time.
Curitiba’s citizens separate their trash into just two categories, organic and inorganic, for pick-up by two kinds of trucks. Poor families in squatter settlements that are unreachable by trucks bring their trash bags to neighbourhood centres, where they can exchange them for bus tickets or for eggs, milk, oranges and potatoes, all bought from outlying farms.
The trash goes to a plant (itself built of recycled materials) that employs people to separate bottles from cans from plastic. The workers are handicapped people, recent immigrants, alcoholics.
Recovered materials are sold to local industries. Styrofoam is shredded to stuff quilt for the poor. The recycling programme costs no more than the old landfill, but the city is cleaner, there are more jobs, farmers are supported and the poor get food and transportation. Curitiba recycles two-thirds of it garbage – one of the highest rates of any city, north or south.
Curitiba builders get a tax break if their projects include green areas.
Jaime Lerner says, ‘There is no endeavour more noble than the attempt to achieve a collective dream. When a city accepts as a mandate its quality of life; when it respects the people who live in it; when it respects the environment; when it prepares for future generations, the people share the responsibility for that mandate, and this shared cause is the only way to achieve that collective dream.’ (globalideasbank.org)
An impassioned plea to save the environment from a 12-year-old
Severn Cullis-Suzuki (born 1979) is an environmental activist, speaker, television host and author. Born to writer Tara Elizabeth Cullis and Canadian geneticist and environmental activist David Suzuki, Cullis-Suzuki received a B.Sc. in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology from Yale University in 2002. She has spoken around the world about environmental issues, urging listeners to define their values, act with the future in mind, and take individual responsibility.
In 1992, at the age of 12, Cullis-Suzuki raised money with members of ECO, the Environmental Childrens Organization (a group she founded) to attend the Earth Summit in Rio De Janeiro. Along with group members Michelle Quigg, Vanessa Suttie, and Morgan Geisler, Severn presented environmental issues from a youth perspective at the Summit, where she received a standing ovation for a speech to the delegates. The group also addressed delegates at the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED).
5 state govts back call to free ISA detainees, Guan Eng tells Makkal Sakthi crowd
No letting up: Some 3,000 Makkal Sakthi and Hindraf supporters call for release of ISA detainees
For one moment, it looked as if the general election campaign was not yet over. The orange shirts were back in numbers. A similar crowd had packed the Penang Chinese Town Hall in the run-up to the general election.
Makkal Sakthi is still alive and kicking – and the newfound sense of solidarity has not abated one bit.
But how was Hindraf, the organiser, able to get a permit so easily for this gathering? Well, I suppose it helps if your star speaker is the Penang Chief Minister! Not that permits should be required for such gatherings. A couple of uniformed cops sat in the audience, a couple more outside the hall.
Syed Ibrahim, the coordinator of the Abolish ISA Movement (GMI), gave a run-down on why the ISA had to be abolished. Also on stage was human rights lawyer Latheefa Koya. It has been a long time since I had seen such a huge crowd enthusiastically calling for the release of ISA detainees. In between, cries of Makkal Sakthi! and Valga! (Long live people power!) pierced the air.
Grand reception: ISA detainees’ family members enter the hall to a rousing welcome
How times have changed. If we want to look at it from a racial point of view, you had a Malay activist addressing a largely Indian crowd at the Chinese Town Hall!
The fear is gone: Young girls sign a petition calling for the release of ISA detainees as Fadiah from the GMI/Bar Council Human Rights Sub-committee beams
I don’t think I have seen so many people queuing up to sign petitions calling for the release of ISA detainees. (Some of these detainees have been held for more than six years!) Where previously people would have been afraid or reluctant to sign such petitions, tonight there was no such fear. People were distributing all sorts of anti-ISA literature. Volunteers collected donations for the ISA detainees’ families. Amazing! Surely, it can’t be too long before the ISA is totally abolished.
Crowd puller: Guan Eng is mobbed outside the hall by Makkal Sakthi and Hindraf supporters after giving the five state governments’ backing for the release of ISA detainees
It was an especially meaningful occasion for Guan Eng. Tonight was exactly 19 years to the day since he was released from ISA detention in 1989.
Guan Eng delighted the audience in the packed hall when he told them, “You are not alone in your call for the release of ISA detainees. You have five state governments backing this call and I will take this message to Parliament!” he said to loud applause. He told the crowd that the huge swing in their votes had made a big difference in the general election this time.
The entire gathering rose to their feet to cheer when a petition calling for the release of the ISA detainees was later handed over to the Chief Minister.
Later, after the event, I ran into a few pals, J, M and S, at a hawker centre. Politics was the hot topic. J wanted to take a bet (beers and kacang!) that Anwar would be Prime Minister by 1 Sept while S and M looked sceptical.
All three of them wanted the ISA abolished. But M and S said they would first like Mahathir to experience what it felt like to be unjustly detained in Kamunting and cut off from loved ones. “Just for six months and then we can abolish the ISA!” said S.
I looked at S. He was serious.
J and I, however, felt that this would be wrong. No one deserves to be detained without trial, not even Mahathir or whoever else has used this harsh and evil law. Everyone has the right to a fair trial.
Powerful corporate interests penetrate Penang local councils
People not happy with councillors appoint & list. old wine in new bottle. expect you guys to deliver your promises during election.
Also received another email from a concerned Penangite. Interesting that he also describes it as “old wine in new bottle”:LIVE COVERAGE: PM announces Judicial Commission, stops short of apology
Why spend only RM4 million on trams when you can spend billions on mega projects
The old tram tracks of George Town, freshly uncovered and preserved on Penang Road. Getting a basic tram service up and running will cost only RM4 million, says a consultant.
George Town once had a remarkable public transport system. It had these fascinating trams, which were affordable and people friendly.
Cities across the world, especially heritage cities, have found trams to be a cost-effective and reliable mode of transport. Some of the trams look really futuristic like those in Nottingham (please click this link to see what a modern tram looks like). Others blend in easily with the historical backdrop like some of those in Milan. Then there are variations such as the O-bahn in Adelaide.
Who says trams are old fashioned. This is a modern tram in Istanbul:
Now, imagine if we had this on the streets of Penang. The major advantage of trams is that they stop at street level, making it more accessible for passengers to hop on and off. Trams are suitable even in cities with narrow streets.
The Penang state government should speak to tram expert Ric Francis, who has been passionately advocating trams in Penang instead of a monorail. I attended a talk by Ric once and he was telling us how easy and inexpensive it was to get a tram system going in George Town. When the Jelutong Expressway was being constructed, he said it would be so easy to incorporate tram tracks along the highway.
It’s a real pity that no one who mattered was interested in listening to Ric. I wonder why – but then again, why build an inexpensive RM4 million tram system when you can spend billions building a monorail or a subway system. You know-lah why they like all those mega projects…
The Star Thursday, 9 November 2006 by Emmeline Tan
Bring back trams
Keep the monorail out of George Town and bring back the trams for the sake of the environment and heritage.
Engineer Ric Francis, who has been in the tram industry for 38 years, said there were many pitfalls to the proposed RM1.2bil monorail system that would connect the entire Penang island.
“Once the huge monorail structures are built in George Town, the heritage buildings will be totally eclipsed.
“Trams on the other hand, provide a nice, quiet, scenic journey,” said Francis, co-author of Penang Trams, Trolleybuses and Railways – Municipal Transport History 1880s-1963.
COLONIAL TRANSPORT SYSTEM:Francis showing his book on Penang trams.
Giving a lecture at the Penang Heritage Trust at Church Street recently, Francis said George Town Municipal electrical trams used from 1905 to 1936 reaped high profits until World War I when the supply of replacement parts was hampered.
He estimated that less than RM3.8mil (US$1mil) was needed to get an electrical tram system up and running in George Town.
“Old tramlines such as from Prangin Mall to Weld Quay still exists underneath the bitumen road and can be restored for use,” he said.
A 50m tramline was unearthed at the Chulia Street-Penang Road junction in 2004 during road works and was preserved by the Penang Municipal Council.
“There are many second- hand trams in other countries that are for purchase.”
Existing street poles could be used to support the one-cable electrical wiring for trams, he added.
“Trams are pollution-free and are being used in cities with narrow roads such as Amsterdam and Lisbon.
“There would not be the high cost of diesel to pay, and very little maintenance of parts compared to buses.”
To me, a tram system is much more cost-effective and aesthetically pleasing than a monorail network, especially for a heritage city like George Town and surrounding areas and even in Butterworth and Prai. The tram system could link up to a cross-channel light rail service alongside the Penang Bridge. Together with an expanded ferry service, an improved bus system, safe cycling paths and more pedestrian walkways, trams could transform Penang into a model city for sustainable public transport, besides enhancing George Town’s heritage setting and its quality of life.
Let me sign off with a lovely song (‘Peace Train’) by Yusuf Islam (formerly Cat Stevens), who was inspired to write this while on a train.
Ten reasons why the second Penang bridge is not a great idea
Controversial second bridge: The site at Batu Kawan on the mainland as it looks now
- It will add to traffic congestion on the island. Even with an additional third lane, the existing Penang Bridge is expected to become congested again in a few years. That’s the rationale given for building a new bridge. But then, what will happen to the roads on Penang Island with all that traffic coming in? Green Lane and Scotland Road are already congested with no room for further widening. Has an independent EIA and traffic study – analysing the impact on surrounding areas and roads on the mainland and the island – been carried out for this project?
- We should be moving away from private vehicle transport and turning to public transport, not spending more money on infrastructure for private cars.
- Higher global oil prices costs will burden bridge users, what more if the bridge is more than 22-24km (17km over water) long. Oil prices will rise even further in coming years while Malaysia will become a net importer of oil in a few years.
- Toll charges on the second bridge are likely to be much higher than the RM7 on the existing bridge (a rate of RM9.40 has been mentioned), bearing in mind that the proposed bridge is over twice as long as the Penang Bridge. How many regular bridge users will be able to afford the higher toll and petrol charges?
- Higher toll rates on the new bridge will lead to hikes in the existing Penang Bridge toll (from RM7.00 to RM9.40 and no more 20 per cent discount for Touch ‘n’ Go users?) and ferry fares. (If the Penang Bridge toll and ferry fare is lower, few people will want to use the new bridge.)
- That would mean the tolls for the existing Penang Bridge will continue indefinitely even though the cost of the bridge has been recovered many, many times over.
- In July 2007, the estimated cost of the second bridge was RM2.7 billion. By October/November 2007, it had crept up to RM3 billion. By January 2008, it was between RM3 billion and RM4 billion. And now, it is at about RM4.3 billion! How much will the final cost come to upon completion of the bridge? (An expert familiar with bridge building told me that the cost of materials for a new bridge, based on the estimated built area, would quite likely be less than RM1 billion. So how do we get RM4.3 billion? Can we have a breakdown of this figure?) How were the contracts awarded to a joint-venture comprising China Harbour Engineering Corp, a unit of the state-owned China Communications Construction Group (CCCG), and United Engineers Malaysia Bhd, also a state-controlled company? The lack of open tenders could lead to inflated contract estimates. Penangites could end up saddled with the cost of the bridge and higher tolls for years to come while the toll revenues go to UEM/Putrajaya. The people of Penang could well have to stump out many times the cost of the new bridge in tolls, just as they have for the existing bridge. And what is the additional cost of making the bridge resistant to major earthquakes?
- The new bridge is likely to hurt the fishing industry in the southeast of the island, where fisher folks are already complaining about drastically reduced catches as a result of land reclamation. A Bernama report on 17 January said that the start of the second Penang bridge project had been delayed as the state government wanted to resolve several matters involving fishermen as well as fish and cockle breeders who would be affected by the project. Former chief minister Koh Tsu Koon said the project could affect the livelihood of 1,500 fishermen and the breeders, who were worried the project could threaten the area’s ecosystem. Will this deplete fish stocks and lead to higher seafood prices in Penang, making it affordable only to the elite? Has a study been done on the impact of the bridge on fisheries in the state?
- The money spent on the bridge would be better spent on quality public transport, social housing (instead of creating more high-rise slums), public health care and schools.
- The projected carbon footprint, the increased traffic, and the impact on global warming of this project is likely to be enormous. How many tons of raw material including metal, concrete, cable, electricity and fuel will be consumed in the construction of the bridge?