China's Climate Change Playbook is Worth Reading

By Jonathan Lash

The Olympics are an opportunity for the U.S. and China to better understand each other and move forward together on fighting climate change.

In a few weeks, elite athletes from around the world will gather in Beijing. Press coverage of the Games is likely to highlight competition between America and China about which will win the most medals. Media coverage will also—as it has already—focus on air quality and environmental conditions in China.

As we compete on the playing fields, China and the U.S. should not lose sight of where our interests coincide—climate change. And looking beyond the recently sooty skies of Beijing, China is clearly taking many positive steps to address its energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions. The Olympics offers an opportunity for the U.S. and China to better understand each other and move forward together on fighting climate change.

China and the U.S. are the world’s two biggest producers of greenhouse gases. The U.S. can no longer use China as an excuse for inaction. Contrary to popular belief, China is already implementing a comprehensive energy policy that addresses climate change.

While China’s climate-change challenge equals the U.S. in scale, China’s emissions footprint is fundamentally different. In the U.S., one-third of energy use and CO2 emissions come from transportation. In China, transport accounts for just 10 percent of emissions, and industry is the biggest contributor by far. So, Chinese policy appropriately focuses most strongly on reducing emissions from industry. China is replacing old inefficient power plants with state-of-the-art new units. It closed down more than 1,000 inefficient cement plants and hundreds of power plants last year, as well as steel mills, smelters, and glass and paper manufacturers, resulting in more efficient, less polluting industries.

Over the last three years, the Chinese government has introduced a series of regulations on energy conservation, resource use, and recycling. The stance of China’s leaders is that energy conservation and efficiency come first—well before the search for new fossil fuel sources.

But are these policies translating into action? It looks like they are. The “Thousand Enterprises Program“—which forces the country’s biggest companies to make specific energy-reduction commitments—is meeting its goals. By 2010, this program will reduce China’s coal consumption by 100 million metric tons, approximately 5 percent of annual CO2 emissions for China or the U.S.

We will all see the results of strenuous short-term measures, such as closing power plants, staggering working hours and limiting vehicles, during the Olympics. But China also has long-term policies in place for reducing coal dependence, increasing the use of renewable energy and reducing pollution.

Visitors to Beijing this summer will experience a greatly improved public transportation network, including two new subway lines added to the three that already exist, light-rail to its airport, several new dedicated bus rapid-transit lanes, as well as special buses with easier navigation for Olympic visitors. The Olympics has spurred completion of these projects in Beijing, but a dozen other Chinese cities also have mass transit improvements underway.

Visitors will also be treated to venues demonstrating state-of-the-art green technology, including the elegant and energy-efficient airport and the Water Cube swimming facility, which uses the building itself to capture outdoor heat to warm the pool. As for ordinary new building construction, reported compliance with energy-efficiency building codes has jumped from 5 to 50 percent in the last several years – a substantial improvement. China also plans to install 150 million compact fluorescent lights by 2010 – substantially reducing the 14 percent of electricity China currently devotes to lighting.

China has already taken impressive strides toward meeting its ambitious climate policy goals. But these goals would be more attainable if the U.S. government would “toe the line” with a serious commitment to reducing greenhouse gas emissions globally. Perhaps some of these discussions can take place in the stands during the Olympics, while the athletes accomplish their own amazing feats out on the field.

领袖崇拜还是民主政治？

2008年第7期《火箭报》呱噪无罪专栏

在政治工作中，我最害怕看见的一种场合，就是人们看到一些明星型政治领袖，便一窝蜂涌上前，争相与之合影、拿签名。

我认为，政治明星的政治生命是由人民赋予的，没有必要过于推崇任何一个领袖。

我最害怕看到的另一种心态，就是人民等待政治领袖带来改变的希望，因此，人们轻易地对一些政治领袖的谈话闻鸡起舞，凡是这个领袖所到之处，必有万人蜂拥，几乎到达那种若领袖跳进粪坑，也会有千万人跟着一起跳进去那样。

我还是相信，每个人的命运必须靠自己进行探索，再结合集体的意志，才能筑起一座希望的城堡。

我国政治改革正像蜗牛般缓慢地挪行。从纳吉夫人被指出现在蒙古女郎凶杀现场、到赛夫体验报告证实鸡奸案纯属虚构等，每天都有新鲜的故事、惊爆的进展。看着那些政治领袖在报章上对喊，一般老百姓买报纸当连续剧追看，除了看这些民选领袖在搞什么，也实在找不到自己可以插一脚的地方，做些什么。最后，大部分会写的人就只能写写豆腐块文章；大部分会讲的人，就播打电台节目或电视台时事评论的电话发表几句，或者在咖啡店做评论员。

人民发表意见的空间的确比308之间广阔了许多。然而，有识之士也开始担心，在这段形态五花八门的政治转型期，民间的思维并没有相应地与政治改革一起成长，大家还在等待“英雄”来说几句话，做一些事。

就比如大家都会埋怨家门前的马路洞坑换了政府还是没人补，但就是没有人会拿起电话直接向地方政府或工程局投报 。就连一些自诩进步组织的民间机构，也不见民主的实践，不仅组织能力差强人意，能动性低，领导层还想死抱寡头政治进棺材。

大多数人还在等待一小撮人为他们做一些决定、制定一些政策来改变自己的生活，这往往却是选举政治最可悲之处，要扭转这种可悲的结局，还有赖于每个人的主动性、参与度与求变心。

若人民思维不变，换了领导人，就像僵尸换了一个人头，始终还是一具僵尸。

老天爷的礼物谁来定价？

第7 期《火箭报》专稿

吉打州州务大臣阿兹占在6月18日宣布批准了在吉打比都（Pedu）、慕达（Muda）及阿宁（Ahning）三个集水区的伐木申请。

上述三个集水区位于吉打东北区，其中慕达森林保留区还是著名的旅游景点，上述集水区顺流汇集成的慕达河，为槟州提供的80％的水源。此外，吉打州的水，也是吉打数千农民、玻璃市、浮罗交怡岛人民、经济活动的命脉。一夜之间，阿兹占成了众矢之的。

森林与水源可说是一切人类活动的起源，除了石油，也可说是我国最宝贵的天然资源。这场森林与水源之争，也让许多环境问题在媒体上获得额外的版位，包括在森林蓄水区伐木不仅犯法，也将导致区域性暖化、旱季缺水、雨季洪水泛滥的严重后果。

中央未缴付1亿

据了解，阿兹占出此下策，主要是由于中央政府没有兑现承诺，缴付当年吉打州政府答应不伐木所应获得的1亿令吉。如果吉打州的森林门户开放，能为吉打带来额外的160亿令吉，何乐而不为？

阿兹占“最经典”的谈话，是将保护森林与宠溺小孩相提并论。他说：“我们太过沉溺于保护森林，不砍伐他们，我们让树木自然枯萎，它们死亡后、倒下，甚至影响其它生物的生长。”

他还说：“树桐是老天爷送给我们的礼物，我只是要用它来赚钱。”

环境价值难估算

槟州首长林冠英当然无法苟同阿兹占的说法。他说，若吉打州政府要以木材赚钱，但最后却造成环境破坏、损害人民利益，那将得不偿失。他也致函吉打州务大臣，希望对方认真考虑收回批准伐木的决定。

从经济角度来计算，吉打州或许会说：为什么要我保住森林，平白失去160亿令吉的收入？我们得知，槟州人民的平均用水量超过全国每个人的平均用水量，如果人民再不节约用水，那些用水量高的人是否应该多付一点水费，以示对环境的补偿？

在环境课题里，我们其实很难将天然资源按照传统的经济学，将之量化，然后算出成本、供求的价值。吉打州若选择短期内赚取160亿令吉，但它必须承担一切风险，除了环境恶化后无可估计的“善后损失”，政治上，它很有可能失去与周边州属的友好关系、也失去人民的信赖。

Views in The Rocket (Issue 2008-3)

Transboundary natural resources have always been at the root of disputes throughout human history.

Kedah Menteri Besar Azizan Abdul Razak’s decision to approve the logging of the forest reserves surrounding Pedu, Muda and Ahning-an area covering 122,798 hectares- has triggered a barrage of criticism from environmental groups as well as neighbouring states.

The people’s concern is not unfounded. Logging will change rainfall patterns, degrade the ecosystem, destroy the area’s rich bio-diversity. It will also be detrimental to the people as this particular water catchment area supplies water for irrigation, domestic and industrial use to Kedah, Penang and Perlis. In fact, 80% of Penang’s water comes from Kedah.

The Kedah government has claimed that the federal government had failed to honour its agreement to compensate the state government RM100 million for sparing the forest reserve from being logged. If the state government goes ahead with the decision, it would bring a hefty RM16 billion.

Azizan has even compared forest conservation with ‘pampering children’. He said: “We are too obsessed with preserving the trees that we don’t cut them. We leave the trees till they get old and rot. The trees die and fall and affect the growth of others.”He also contended that“Timber is God’s gift, and I want to make money from it.”

What more, Azizan explained that the state would initiate a form of sustainable logging practice in which only three trees would be chopped for every hectare of the forest reserve, how is he going to convince people that his enforcement team will not be able to cut down a forth tree, or more?

In his response to the logging plan, Penang Chief Minister was quick to express his disagreement over Azizan’s views, lamenting that logging activities in water catchment areas was problematic and could jeopardize projects under the Northern Corridor Economic Region. A letter was sent to urge Azizan to reconsider his decision.

If we look at the issue using conventional economic approach, Kedah would probably ask: What are you asking me to keep a forest which will make earn us RM16 billion?

However, when it comes down to Penang’s high water usage, is it rational to control water usage by imposing a higher water tariff on consumers to compensate for the loss of the environment?

On environmental matters, it is very difficult to find a way to quantify our natural resources (so-called common goods), and price its value by conventional cost-and-benefit, supply-and-demand models.

If Kedah insisted on cashing in on the forest reserves, it will have to bear the risk as well as the external cost of environmental degradation. Politically, not only could it jeopardize the relations with the other states, but also the people’s trust in the state government.

Study: Orangutan populations declining sharply

By MICHAEL CASEY 6 Jul 2008

BANGKOK, Thailand (AP) — Orangutan numbers have declined sharply on the only two islands where they still live in the wild and they could become the first great ape species to go extinct if urgent action isn't taken, a new study says.

The declines in Indonesia and Malaysia since 2004 are mostly because of illegal logging and the expansion of palm oil plantations, Serge Wich, a scientist at the Great Ape Trust in Iowa, said on Saturday.

The survey found the orangutan population on Indonesia's Sumatra island dropped almost 14 percent since 2004, Wich said. It also concluded that the populations on Borneo island, which is shared by Malaysia, Brunei and Indonesia, have fallen by 10 percent. Researchers only surveyed areas of Borneo that are in Indonesia and Malaysia.

In their study, Wich and his 15 colleagues said the declines in Borneo were occurring at an "alarming rate" but that they were most concerned about Sumatra, where the numbers show the population is in "rapid decline."

"Unless extraordinary efforts are made soon, it could become the first great ape species to go extinct," researchers wrote.

The number of orangutans on Sumatra has fallen from 7,500 to 6,600 while the number on Borneo has fallen from 54,000 to around 49,600, according to the survey on the endangered apes, which appears in this month's science journal Oryx.

"It's disappointing that there are still declines even though there have been quite a lot of conservation efforts over the past 30 years," Wich said.

Indonesia and Malaysia, the world's top two palm oil producers, have aggressively pushed to expand plantations amid a rising demand for biofuels which are considered cleaner burning and cheaper than petrol.

Wich and his colleagues said there was room for "cautious optimism" that the orangutan could be saved, noting recent initiatives by Indonesian leaders.

Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono announced a major initiative to save the nation's orangutans at a U.N. climate conference last year, and the Aceh governor declared a moratorium on logging.

Coupled with that are expectations that Indonesia will protect millions of acres of forest as part of any U.N. climate pact that will go into effect in 2012. The deal is expected to include measures that will reward tropical countries like Indonesia that halt deforestation.

"There are promising signs that there is a lot of political will, especially in Aceh, to protect the forest," Wich said, adding however that much more needs to be done.

Michelle Desilets, founding director of Borneo Orangutan Survival Foundation UK, praised the study for offering the first comprehensive look at the species population.

"What matters is that the rate of decline is increasing, and unless something is done, the wild orangutan is on a quick spiral towards extinction, whether in two years, five years or 10 years," Desilets said in an e-mail.

In their paper, the researchers recommended that law enforcement be boosted to help reduce the hunting of orangutans for food and trade. Environmental awareness at the local level must also be increased.

"It is essential that funding for environmental services reaches the local level and that there is strong law enforcement," the study says. "Developing a mechanism to ensure these occur is the challenge for the conservation of the orangutans."

The study is the latest in a long line of research that has predicted the orangutans demise.
In May, the Center for Orangutan Protection said just 20,000 of the endangered primates remain in the tropical jungle of Central Kalimantan on Borneo island, down from 31,300 in 2004. Based on that estimate, it concluded orangutans there could be extinct by 2011.

Bacteria Eats Plastic; What Could Go Wrong?

Bacteria that can eat (biodegrade) plastic have been discovered by a teen-aged science fair contestant. Daniel Burd may have figured out a way for humanity to take care of the five hundred million plastic bags tossed into landfills and the ocean every year.

Burd had an idea; what if nature had already solved this problem? What if there was a microorganism that could do the job? With this question in mind, Burd collected soil samples from landfills and started feeding the bacteria contained therein a constant diet of ground up polythene bags.

He found that a combination of Sphingomonas and Pseudomonas bacterial types worked the best together; he estimates that a complete degradation of a polythene bag could take as little as three months.

Plastics are a new trick that humans have played on the environment; if no organisms exist to decompose them, it is estimated that plastic bags and bottle will last for at least 400 years. Even then, the small bits or molecules of plastic may remain much longer.

As soon as I heard about this discover, I started to worry. Bacteria that can eat plastic has already been discussed by science fiction writers, and it's not all good news.

In The Plastic Eaters, Gerry Davis and Kit Pedlar wrote about a biological time bomb that could destroy necessary infrastructure.

"On the surface, in the freezing December air, the smell of the rotting plastic began to hang permanently in the air. A cloying, wet, rotting smell similar to the smell of long-dead flesh. It filled streets and homes, basements and factories. Traffic lights failed, causing irresolvable jams.... The breakdown of plastic spread into Broadcasting House.... A gas main with polypropylene seals on its pressure regulators erupted into flame.... Plastic cold-water pipes softened, ballooned, and burst, flooding into shops, homes, and restaurants.

"Slowly and inexorably, the rate of dissolution increased; failures occurred in increasing succession until, within forty-eight hours, the centre of London had become a freezing chaos without light, heat, or communication."

Earlier still, Michael Crichton wrote about it in his 1969 novel The Andromeda Strain.
"the organism...Mutated to a noninfectious form. And perhaps it is still mutating. Now it is no longer directly harmful to man, but it eats rubber gaskets."

"The airplane."

Hall nodded. "National guardsmen could be on the ground, and not be harmed. But the pilot had his aircraft destroyed because the plastic was dissolved before his eyes."(Read more about Crichton's plastic-eating bacteria)

Let's hope that these plastic-eating bacteria can be kept in the landfills, where we need them.

Dissolving the plastic bag problem

By rights the world and its dog should now know the name Daniel Burd. For Daniel Burd has an eco-friendly solution for disposing of the plastic bag menace. About half a trillion plastic bags are produced globally each year, but they take up to 1000 years to decompose. In the meantime they can migrate to the oceans and be ingested by wildlife, with fatal results.

Burd's discovery is bacteria which he reckons in combination can eliminate poly(ethyl)ene bags in about three months. The judges of the 2008 Canada-Wide Science Fair in Ottawa agreed, and awarded Burd top prize. You can read the report he presented ("Plastic not fanastic") here (pdf)].

Burd started with the idea that if plastic bags are being degraded by microorganisms in nature, it should be possible to isolate them. He collected soil samples from a local landfill site, and spent three months culturing them up on a diet exclusively of ground-up polythene bag. At this stage, he reasoned, if there were bacteria of interest, there should be enough of them to make a measurable difference. And so his experiments began.

The cultured broth was introduced to weighed amounts of polythene film strips, and the two were allowed to commerce for six weeks. Measure against a control sample of boiled broth which showed no change, the active samples showed a promising 17 per cent weight loss.

Burd then grew the broth on agar and found it contained four different types of bacteria. These he worked to separate, and tested them individually and in pairs for their polythene appetites. While one type of microbe showed a marked predilection for plastic bag, he also observed that a combination was even better at eliminating polythene. An identification kit enabled him to identify these as Sphingomonas and Pseudomonas types. Pseudomonas has been cited in previous research, but his discovery of the much more ravenous Sphingomonas, and the rest of his experiment, is new.

Further research by Burd on his microbe consortium, as his paper terms it, showed that their rate of digesting polythene was affected by temperature, population density, and by the level of concentration of added sodium acetate. He eventually achieved a stonking 42 per cent elimination of polythene in six weeks. On this basis, Burd projects that a complete dispersal of polythene is possible in under three months.

DIY decomposition
You can do this at home, folks, and you don't need lab equipment, or even to chop up the plastic bags. Burd is reported as having tried five or six whole bags in a bucket of his special goo, and the process worked just as well.

"All you need is a fermenter . . . your growth medium, your microbes and your plastic bags." said Burd. He points out that little energy is required as an input, as the microbes produce heat as they work, and they generate a meagre 0.01 per cent of their body mass as waste CO2. So we are unlikely to change the climate by helping nature's little helpers dispose of plastic bags the Burd way.

......read more at :The Register

寻找雪山

最近，我常常想像一种情景，我正从高高的，冰冷的雪山往下一跃。。。
然后，我就从此消失地无影无踪。
那应该会是我人生中最快乐的一刻，
往下坠、往下坠，就快没知觉。
所有的虚无感、悲伤的感觉就会被长久地被冰封在不知名的山谷中。

生命的确有时值得被歌颂、被珍惜。
但是谁能逼每个人一定要有如此的想法？
反正每个人的路，总结来说，都是那一条死路。

若有一天，找不到我，别找了。

结束了。

活着，毕竟是虚着。

寻寻觅觅，雪山。

This is not a flat world

Sunday July 6, 2008
A struggle to survive

By JOSEPH LOH and RASHVINJEET S.BEDI

For people living in poverty, life has always been a constant struggle. So how are they supposed to cope with the increasing prices of goods and services?

WITH increasing prices of goods in Malaysia and everywhere else around the world, people now more than ever are feeling the pinch. However, for those who are living in or at the edge of poverty, struggling to make ends meet is nothing new.

For this unfortunate group of people, making enough money to survive was difficult enough before. Now, their quality of life has deteriorated even further.

Single mother's struggle
Single mother R. Kaur earns RM900 a month doing housekeeping work. With her meagre earnings, she has to support her family of six children. While three of her children are more or less self-sufficient, she still has three school-going children.

More distressingly, her house rental alone is RM650, which leaves her with just RM250 to spend monthly. What amount of money she has left goes to utility bills, food and transportation. “Actually, everything costs more than what I have. Frankly, I do not know how I survive. God is so good; He has helped us through all these years.”

Urban woes: Siti’s 11 grandchildren share a home with nine others. Living in the city is harder for the orang asli as they have no land to grow vegetables or rivers to catch fish.

With high food prices, she serves very basic meals. “I cook rice and usually just one dish of rasam (a spicy soup) with maybe some tofu in it.”

Sometimes, she forgoes her own meals so that her children can have a little more to eat.
“I don't have lunch, and it has been years since I had it. Now I am used to it. We have to cut out one meal and eat the same food every day; we have no choice.

For medical treatment, she goes to the the Kuala Lumpur General Hospital. In the case of any emergencies, she is fortunate to have her brother who is living abroad to call upon for help.
The typical loving parent, her life is devoted to her children, and she wishes nothing but the best for them.

“My older children have not finished their education. They are working now so they can save money for it. Even so, they always try to help me out first and put their education second.

“My children have to be independent, and it is a good thing in one way. I told them to finish their Form Five, but I tell them that I cannot provide beyond that, so they do what they can for themselves.”

When asked what improvements she would like to see in her life, she says: “It would be nice if we didn't have to depend on anyone. I just don't want prices to rise anymore. We were already on a budget before, now it is even worse. We lead a simple lifestyle. How do I cut more costs?”

Poverty in the city
Jane Pragasam and her 16-year-old daughter survive on her late husband's pension of RM290, social welfare of RM80 and RM100 from day-care of a child – a total of RM460.

She stays in a dilapidated flat in Jalan Sentul, Kuala Lumpur, for which she pays RM124, and her utilities cost her about RM45.

She cuts cost mainly in one area – food. “Before prices went up, I needed about RM500 a month. Now I cut down on food. I don't eat much and I do cooking only on weekends, when my daughter is around,” she says.

Making ends meet: R.Kaur’s family lives on rice and rasam every day. ‘I do not know how I survive. God is so good; He has helped us through all these years.’

For her daily consumption, she eats the leftovers from the weekend and bread; one loaf can last her about four days.

“If we need food, I buy one roti canai, maybe one or two idli which I share with my daughter,” Jane says.

She does receive some aid from the church she attends – in monetary form for her daughter's tuition classes and some dry goods and food provisions.

She has even foregone an operation for a hernia problem because she says she cannot afford it.
Jane has always put her daughter's needs before her own.

“She is a teenager, and she needs things like clothes and books. I am not educated, have no job, am not very healthy and I can't do much. But whatever she wants, I try my level best to provide.”

Jane says that she is not asking for much, but wants to ensure that the needs for her daughter’s future and education are taken care of.

More worrisome is the fact that she has been asked to vacate her flat and move to low-cost housing. “I do not have the money to move. There are moving expenses I cannot afford.”
Despite her situation, Jane places her faith in God.

“The one thing I have is trust in God and hope He will provide, and that is why I manage.”

Living amid the residents of bungalows and apartments in Desa Temuan, Petaling Jaya, is a group of orang asli who were given the accommodation there when they were relocated from reserve land in Bukit Lanjan,The area they live in belies the fact that they are struggling to make ends meet.

“It looks as if we are living luxuriously, but we are suffering to fill our stomachs,” says Siti Aishah, 50, who stays home to take care of her grandchildren.

Siti's household has almost 20 people, including her 11 grandchildren, all sharing a good-sized house with very old furniture in poor condition.

She says that with a combined monthly household income of almost RM2,000, they have to operate on a strict budget.

“It's very tough. The price of everything is up while the salaries have not increased,” she laments, citing the example of salted fish, which used to cost RM1 a plate but costs double now. Once a month, they treat themselves to beef, mutton or chicken.

“The adults have to eat less; our priority is the children,” she adds.

In the mornings, they have rice, salted fish and eggs or fried rice while lunch and dinner usually consists of a meal of rice with vegetables and soup. A 5kg bag of rice lasts them a week.
Siti says that it was easier to live in the village where they could plant tapioca, bananas and vegetables while chickens could be reared easily in the backyard.

“But the land here is not suitable for planting.”

They used to catch fish from the rivers but now they would have to pay RM10 an hour to fish at former mining pools – even then, the catch is rare, claims Siti.

Ramli Nemat, 53, who operates a sundry shop in Desa Temuan, says there is a 30% drop in sales ever since the latest round of petrol hikes. He says that there was no option but to raise prices of the things he sold.

A 10kg bag of rice, for example, has increased from RM18 to RM28 while the prices of flour and other essentials have also risen quite drastically.

According to Ramli, a former orang asli affairs officer, many do not prioritise education and end up with low-paying jobs such as gardeners, security guards or cleaners. Some work in the forestry department while there are those who still tap rubber.

“Their pay is not much,” he says, sharing that they earned about RM30 to RM40 a day.
“If the situation worsens it would be better for them to stay in the village where they can go and look for forest produce,” says Ramli.

Refugees in Malaysia
If Malaysians are struggling to cope with rising prices, the situation for refugees is far worse – they have no income. Even with a United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) card, they are not allowed to work.

Myanmarese couple Ram Lian, 57, and wife Mary, 43, are coping the best they can.

Before getting a volunteer job, Mary used to stay in Jalan Ipoh, Kuala Lumpur, where she and her husband would fast for six days a week, taking nothing but water. Now, they fast four days a week as a form of prayer for their lives to improve.

The couple were forced to seek refuge in Malaysia because they were not allowed to practise their religion in northern Myanmar. At present, they volunteer at a school for refugee children in Puchong, teaching English, Bible studies and music.

They live in a small room with only a mattress and cupboard. They do not receive a salary, and are fortunate not to have to pay for food or accommodation. Even then, the couple are affected by higher food prices.

“We have to pray for the best. Life is difficult but God will help us,” says Mary who believes in the power of prayer.

Her brother, who lives with his wife and two children in Jalan Ipoh is worse off. Her brother is a wireman and only gets occasional work.

“They are struggling,” says Mary, adding that they had to depend on donations.
For Mary, she is preoccupied with how to repay her debts.

“I was forced to borrow money but hope to give it back someday, although I don't know how I am going to do it,” she says with tears in her eyes.

Sui Tin Tial, 26, from Myanmar who is seeking refuge here with her mother, cousin and adopted sister, says that they cannot be wasteful.

“For us refugees who cannot get a job, even RM1 is precious. If we see 10sen on the road, we will pick it up,” she says.

Sui has been volunteering at a local school for refugees for eight months teaching English, Science and Mathemathics. For Sui, she must learn to eat whatever she gets.

“We must like it wherever we go. There is no choice,” she says, while admitting to being afraid of the authorities.

Sui says that some workers are taken advantage off and not paid their remuneration by their bosses at the end of the month.

道路規劃應人性化

此文于2008年7月2日刊登于星洲日报言路版

2008-07-02 19:33

星洲日報於6月29日星期天出現兩則相映成趣的新聞。首先是全球暖化加劇，北極融冰加速，甚至可能在今年9月完全變成汪洋，北極熊將連立足之地也沒有。

接著在副刊有這樣的消息。法國的巴黎、里昂早在3年前，就開始領先帶動交通革命，在市內設立自助式腳踏車網。兩個城市分別有750個租借點和200多個腳車租借點，為全市提供數千多輛腳踏車，人們可以在A點租了腳車，騎到C點還車。

據報導，里昂的一氧化碳排放量減低了，汽車流量也減少了4%。而這股交通革命的熱潮正蔓延到美國的華盛頓、紐約。

隨著檳州州議員鄭雨周最近騎腳車周遊列國為慈善團體籌體，也讓筆者對於在市內騎腳車蠢蠢欲動。偶爾和朋友聊起都愛隨口問：“假如市內增添腳車專用道，你會騎腳車到處走嗎？”

收集到的回應大多如下：“看去哪裡… … 如果距離很遠就很難了……”、“這邊天氣那麼炎熱，常常突然下雨，怎麼可能？”、“市區很多車，很危險。”看來，若要在大馬城市地區鼓勵人們以腳車代步，除了面對硬體設施不足的問題，我們還需以各種宣傳手段、獎勵方法，來鼓勵人們改變生活習慣。

大馬各大城市的交通規劃本來就缺乏“人性化”，除了一些主幹道路設有電單車通道，在很多地方， 別說巴士道、腳車道，就連像樣一點的人行道都付諸闕如。

從道路規劃的角色來看，很大程度上也可以看出政府要討好哪些階級的人民。當官的出入大房車、有司機載，添油、還過路費又不需要他們掏腰包，這些人就算懂，但誰又能真正體會公路使用者的痛苦？

就拿人行道來說，如果城市規劃者能在車來車往的路旁設計出具分隔欄、寬敞、夜裡通明的行人道，相信電單車攫奪匪也沒那麼容易有機會下手。

如果有朝一日，大馬的城市能像中國、日本那樣，開闢巴士道、腳車道，改進公共交通系統，這才能彰顯施政者已經下定決心，大刀闊斧進行交通改革，不再害怕失去擁車一族的選票，這樣才能有效減少私家車的流量，也改善城市的空氣污染狀況。

若要大夥兒一同為了我們的生活環境改變一點生活方式，我們需要一群有誠意、有遠見、真正為國謀福利的領導人，以及願意為未來安全、健康、美麗的環境犧牲一點點個人自由的人民。

令人痛心的是，目前各政黨、政客繼續忙於私利、權位鬥爭，所擬定的政策也必將趕不上生活環境惡化的速度。希望這種烏煙瘴氣的政治氣候快快過去，而我們的民選領袖也應儘速回到為人民多思量的本位上。