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Demolition of shophouses along Magazine Road

Anil Netto
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The Penang Heritage Trust has come up with the following statement on the demolition of several shop-houses in George Town.

Photos by Penang Media

The PHT regrets the initial demolition by the state government of the traditional shop-houses along Magazine Road which is part of the historic ‘Sia Boey’ enclave.

We had earlier inspected the buildings and spoken to the residents of the area on their invitation. While these buildings are not situated strictly within the heritage enclave (which is bordered by the Prangin Canal), they nevertheless form part of the established communities living and providing services in the inner city.

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Artists capture last impressions of Kg Buah Pala

Anil Netto
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While many Penangites and other Malaysians fail to see anything of value in Kampung Buah Pala, 14 of Penang’s top artists felt otherwise.

This morning, a downpour did not deter them from descending on the village to capture images of the village for posterity.

As the artists caressed their canvases with deft flicks of the brush, the thuds of ongoing demolition work broke the tranquility of the village – no doubt, music to the ears of the developer. A herd of cows grazed on a hillock behind while a couple ambled closer as their curiosity got the better of them.

Among the renown artists were Chong Hon Fatt, who runs an art gallery in George Town, and Ong Choon Hoo from Bukit Mertajam.

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Fire in a kampung

Anil Netto
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A morning blaze in a kampung off Mengkuang Road in Butterworth

Fire in a kampung

From a distance, grey plumes
Darken the morning sky,
Someone’s in trouble,
Someone’s home is ablaze.

Passers-by gawk in awe,
Fire-fighters frustrated,
As hoses run dry,
Valuable moments lost.

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Pg Transport Council’s biggest test could be Porr

Anil Netto
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The Penang State Exco has set up a Penang Transport Council, whose motto is “moving people, not cars”. The biggest and most formidable challenge for the Council, however, is how it responds to any attempt to revive the highly controversial Penang Outer Ring Road (Porr) project.

The formation of the council, chaired by state exco member Chow Kon Yeow, is a step in the right direction. The Council’s task is to tackle transport problems especially trying to get the public to move away from “over-dependence on private transport to a more economically and ecologically sustainable public transport system. The system will be people-centric and part of the council’s task is also to increase public awareness, participation in and acceptance of such a system.”

The council is made up of “state and city council members, civil servants, university professors, professionals, stakeholders, and members of the public with interest in and knowledge of transport issues”.

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Beware the perils of health care “liberalisation”

Anil Netto
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Michael Moore’s must-see documentary, Sicko


And then came the expose of a PR campaign by the private health care industry to discredit Moore’s documentary…

I was reading the latest edition of The Edge – I am interested to see how the business folks think and what motivates them – when I came across a report that private hospitals are full because of the H1N1 alert.

You would think that this would keep these private hospitals busy. But folks in the private hospital industry are actually worried – not because of the H1N1 outbreak – but because these flu patients do not bring high enough revenue yield! “Flu patients could occupy the beds for up to five to six days and yet make less money [for the hospitals] than those that come in for higher-yield procedures such as minor surgeries but who would only occupy the beds for about three days,” an industry observer told The Edge.

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Smog hits Sarawak, Kalimantan

Anil Netto
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rghz
Source: Environment Division of Asean Secretariat

Just heard from a friend that Kuching is blanketed by a haze. Visibility is down to just about 1km.

The Department of Environment reveals that Sibu and Sri Aman both have API readings of 105 (unhealthy) at 11.00am. But the readings for Kuching and Samarahan show only 84 and 99 (“moderate”).

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Buah Pala leaves bitter taste

Anil Netto
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Buah pala or nutmeg, along with other spices bearing exotic flavours, once drew hordes of traders to these parts. Today though, the mention of Buah Pala is enough to leave a bitter taste as the village that bears its name – where the descendants of those who laboured in the spice plantations of yore now reside – faces demolition.

Folks today are more interested in ‘whacking’ the villagers for their political miscalculations and for being “greedy” because they did not jump at the offer of “double-storey terrace houses worth RM500,000”. At the same time, the Koperasi/Nusmetro’s greed is rarely mentioned; they have already made a huge unrealised profit on the land, even before any work has begun, after having bought the land for peanuts. (Purchase price approx RM10 per sq ft vs market value approx RM100 psf ==> for 6.5 acres, that works out to a cool RM25 million profit just on the vacant land).

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Kg Buah Pala in more hopeful times

Anil Netto
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Just spotted this on Youtube; it could explain some of the disappointment among the villagers, who desperately wanted to preserve their settlement.

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Whose “reputation” needs managing?

Anil Netto
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In case you missed it, a foreign PR firm, APCO, is claiming that the Malaysian government has enlisted its help “to assist in evaluating its capabilities to communicate through new media”.

It is opening a brand new office in Malaysia (see here).

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Humble Penan resist logging, oil palm giants

Anil Netto
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Penan forest inhabitants are battling to save their ancestral lands from the might of plantation and timber companies, who have already stripped most of the primary rainforests in Sarawak.

Whatever happened to the much touted “sustainable forest management”? How were primary rainforests flattened for acacia tree and oil palm plantations, dealing a devastating blow to biodiversity?

Look at the greed of these logging and plantation firms. And when it comes to the interests of these giant firms vs those of ordinary people (like the Penan, in this case) – you know whose side the politicians will be on, as usual.

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