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No free plastic bags in Penang

Anil Netto
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29

It seems that plastic makers are saying they are going to distribute 150,000 free plastic bags next year to counter the Penang state government’s ‘no free plastic bags’ policy.

The news was published all over the Chinese-language media on Sunday. See a Guang Ming report here.

Let’s take a poll to see what kind of support the state has for its policy.

[poll id=”60″]

The Penang state government has asked NGOs to back its policy. Here is a response from an anti-plastic bags activist:

I am not sure whether the state government has a strategy to counter the plastic manufacturers who had been attacking the Penang State government since it first started the no plastic bags campaign.

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More US cities turn to light rail systems

Anil Netto
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16

More and more American cities are turning to light rail trains at street level to reduce congestion in cities.

From a cost-benefit perspective, these systems make good sense. They can complement the bus service and transform the image of public transport, making it more attractive to more commuters.

Check out this NPR article:

It’s hard to find a city in America that isn’t planning, proposing, studying or actually building a light rail system. Cities as diverse as Dallas, Seattle and Washington, D.C., all see light rail as part of their future — a way to reshape their development.

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Local council transparency: Try this

Anil Netto
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17

I wonder how many of our local councils can achieve this level of transparency.

A billboard in Auckland - Photo courtesy of S H Tan

We still have a long way to go. Even in the CAT land of Penang, the MPPP (the council for Penang Island) still does not put up its annual budget on its website for public view. It only has the annual accounts.

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Group Lotus ties up with Renault F1

Anil Netto
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15

Now what do you make of this? Proton’s wholly owned subsidiary Group Lotus plc is tying up with the Renault F1 team.

We should learn the lessons from Honda, Toyota and BMW quitting Formula One. See this BBC report:

Toyota has confirmed that it is pulling out of Formula 1 racing after posting its worst financial loss.

The world’s largest car manufacturer will concentrate on its core business.

Toyota president Akio Toyoda said the Japanese team had no option but to pull out citing “the current severe economic realities” affecting the world.

The team failed to win any of the 139 races it entered after making its F1 debut in 2002 but was fifth in the 2009 constructors’ championship.

Toyota’s withdrawal leaves the sport with no Japanese team after Honda left F1 at the start of the 2009 season. They become the third manufacturer to quit the sport in the last 11 months after BMW announced it was leaving in July.

Apart from this, if we are serious about curbing climate change, preserving depleting oil reserves and promoting green technology and public transport, an oil-guzzling motor racing sport may not be the most appropriate choice for a GLC to be involved in.

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GM crops: Wikileaks exposes US push

Anil Netto
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8

Cables released by Wikileaks have exposed United State diplomatic efforts to strongly back the corporate push for GM crops to be accepted in Europe and elsewhere.

Not only that, the US diplomats under the Bush administration recommended retaliatory action against a list of ‘targets’ in Europe for failing to embrace GMOs. In a leaked cable, US Ambassador to France Craig Stapleton wrote:

Country team Paris recommends that we calibrate a target retaliation list that causes some pain across the EU since this is a collective responsibility, but that also focuses in part on the worst culprits. The list should be measured rather than vicious and must be sustainable over the long term, since we should not expect an early victory.

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PMR exams and ‘Little Einsteins’

Anil Netto
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55

“Guess how many students scored straight As in the PMR exams?” I asked a relative while reading yesterday’s newspaper.

“Twenty?” came the reply.

I laughed.

“Why? Hundreds-ah?”

“No, over 30,000,” I said.

Actually, 30,836 to be precise. With so many ‘geniuses’ running around in the country, it is surprising we are in the state we are in.

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Why we need an IPCMC

Anil Netto
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18

Kugan, Aminulrasyid … and now Chia Buang Hing. Another reminder why we need an Independent Police Complaints and Misconduct Commission – to look into complaints such as this.

Penang port X’mas bonanza for Bukhary

Anil Netto
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45

Look what Santa pulled out of his sack – again – for Syed Mokhtar Al-Bukhary! The well-connected tycoon, the eighth wealthiest Malaysian with a net worth of RM5.3 billion according to Forbes, has reportedly landed Penang Port, days after his MMC, along with Gamuda, was awarded the job of KL MRT project delivery partner.

See Insider report here. The news is made public at a time when most Malaysians are in holiday mode and soon after MCA president Chua Soi Lek was appointed as chairman of Penang Port Commission. The chairman of Penang Port Sdn Bhd is Hilmi Yahaya, a Penang state assembly member from Umno. Redza Rafiq Abd Razak,a PPSB director, is the head of the Umno Cyberjaya Centre branch and Chief Executive of The Northern Corridor Implementation Authority

Appallingly, the port has not been handed over to the Penang state government to manage. The federal government had already spent about a  billion ringgit of public funds in upgrading the port areas in Penang. Now, it looks as if even the iconic Penang ferries will also fall into private hands.

The larger issue, apart from handing over public assets to well-connected individials/firms, is the scourge of privatisation (at what valuation?), which undermines the spirit of public service and community solidarity.

[poll id=”59″]

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Wikileaks and ‘The War You Don’t See’

Anil Netto
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31

It’s time for people to come out and defend the work of Wikileaks. Many governments are often afraid that people might find out the ugly truth about what they are actually doing.

Award-winning journalist John Pilger interviews Wikileaks founder Julian Assange and discusses the hidden, almost permanent state of war that most people do not see.

Among the Wikileaks disclosures in the video-clip (part six): watch the Apache gunship cockpit video footage showing how Reuters news reporters/cameramen in Iraq are gunned down on the streets. And the reaction? “Nice.” And look at how those who try to remove the bodies and save the critically wounded are treated. These are war crimes.

Below are parts six and seven of a seven-part series of the ‘War You Don’t See’.

Some 700,000 have signed a global petition by Avaaz.org to defend Wikileaks. The organisers are targeting one million signatures.

[poll id=”58″]

‘Times’ are hard

Anil Netto
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59

These must be tough times for the New Straits Times. Promoters on a roadshow in Penang over the weekend latched on to a novel idea to try and stem the paper’s flagging circulation.

A promoter plastered with newspaper stands motionless while his colleague pretends to read a giant cutout of the NST (with nothing inside)

The promoters above were spotted at lunch-time at the entrance to the Batu Lanchang market hawker centre. They said this was part of a roadshow and their next stop was Queensbay Mall.

According to audited circulation figures, daily sales of the New Straits Times had plunged from 139,468 (for the year ending June 2006) to 111,158 (in the six months ending December 2009).

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