Forest fire in Kalimantan,Indonesia has been causing a lot of environmental problems to it's neighbouring countries for the past decade. Malaysia has been affected significantly by this problem as it is one of the nearest country to Indonesia.
There are lots of problem caused by this forest fire and one of the major problem is air pollution. During the period of this forest fire, haze formed in Malaysian skies causing visibility to plunge to a very low level. Other than that, it also caused many Malaysians to fall sick with respiratory problems especially children and senior citizens. The number of children diagnosed with asthma has been rising steeply since this crisis came to light in 1997. Other health problems such as eye and skin irritation are effects of this forest fire. Even though this problem did not result in any casualties, it has tremendously affected the quality of living of most Malaysians.
Air pollution caused by this forest fire also has affected the environment significantly. The haze blocks out most of the sunlight causing green plants not able to make enough food through photosynthesis. Other than that, dust particles which covered up the leaves of plants have affected the respiratory system of plants. Animals also have been affected affected tremendously by this forest fire as they too had suffered with respiratory ailments. Forest fire had also caused water pollution as when it rained, the dust particles would end up in water sources. This had affected tremendously the supply of clean fresh water.
Malaysia's economy too was hit hard by this forest fire. The haze caused by it made tourists to stay away from Malaysia in order to avoid health problems. The tourism industry had suffered from huge loss of revenue as the number of tourist coming into Malaysia had decreased significantly during this preiod. Schools were forced to close as parents were advised by the government to keep their children indoor.
In conclusion, Indonesia has to take precaution in order to avoid this disaster from happening again. Forest burning by farmers should be banned and severe actions should be taken against those who doesn't comply with the law.
Sunday, January 27, 2008
Saturday, January 26, 2008
My Life's Meaning
LIFE, what does this actually mean? Why are we here? What is the reason for our existence?
Most people would have came across with similar questions in some part of their lives. Maybe I am assuming this as these questions have been running through my mind for quite some time.
The most intriguing question that always pop up in my head is 'What is the reason for our mere existence?' I still have no idea why we exist and there is not much credible sources which could clarify my doubt. Most of the sources which tried to explain what life is basically was religious texts from various religions where each of it has its own story. So, lets forget about these religious themes and think with a neutral and unbiased mind, 'What is the reason for our existence?'
Some people say that life is God's given gift to us. In some parts of my life (I'll let you know when I felt this way), I felt like giving back this so-called 'gift' back to the so-called 'God'. In reality, we suffered more in life than we actually enjoyed it. In all parts of our life, we need to undergo various type of sufferings or let's say sufferings of different magnitudes. First, we were rudely 'awakened' from nine months of sleep where nothing bothered us and we were at almost completely safe environment away from any danger(sufferings). Then, our sensors were activated that we can now feel the pain of sufferings both physically and emotionally. Now,let say it has been 20 years since being 'awakened' abruptly and we would have gained lots of experience and also would have undergone many personal sufferings throughout these years. Some people might disagree with me at this point saying that they had a great life without any sufferings. This is completely untrue. Let's count the number of times you fell sick in the past 20 years,the number of time you met with accidents,the number of times the people you care for met with accidents, the number of close friends that you lost contact with,the number of time you broke up with your girlfriend(s)/boyfriend(s), the number of pets that died, the number of family member who fell sick or even past away and many more. So do you still think that life had always been full of happy faces or let's say a fairytale or how about let say, always been filled with Teletubbies?
We faced lots of sufferings and still how could we still get on with life? How come we are still sane after facing all these problem in life? The answer for these questions came to me when I actually attended my grandmother's funeral. As she was lying there motionless as the final rites were being done, I was still in shock of the reality that my grandmother was gone. After a while, I started thinking about the good times that we(my siblings and I) and my grandmother had and that actually made me smile while we were grieving for her. It had been almost 5 years since that day and the memories of my grandmother still made me smile till today. Then, I realized that even though we undergo sufferings in life, all the good memories in life actually helps us to carry on with life.
I came to a conclusion that love was actually the driving force in life. We are willing to go through sufferings just to experience the feeling of love. The love that I am saying is the more general type( not just the boy-girl love). Love can be anything. For example, parents' love for their children, children's love for their parents, love towards our pets, love for nature and many more. There is so many variety of love that it is almost impossible to compile all of them together except by describing all of it with one word which is 'love'. We always fall in love even when we know that nearly everything in this world are not permanent. For example, a person falls in love with another person even though he knows that eventually they would be separated(maybe he or she finds a new person in life or death did them apart). So, why are willing to go through this situation when we can completely avoid it. When you come to think of it, we actually appreciate the great things that we had in life when we lost it. For example, we don't appreciate our parents until we have left home to continue our studies or when we start working. We would fully appreciate their role as parents when we become parents ourselves. What I am actually trying to say here is sufferings that we experienced in life helps us to appreciate the good time in life. If we never suffered at all, we might not value life.
We all need to love and appreciate things that happened in our lives in order to enjoy life itself. Let us love all that exist around us as this is the path where we would suffer less and actually enjoy life.
In memories of my Nicko who had always been faithful to me and always been there to protect my family. May 'God' bless you.
Most people would have came across with similar questions in some part of their lives. Maybe I am assuming this as these questions have been running through my mind for quite some time.
The most intriguing question that always pop up in my head is 'What is the reason for our mere existence?' I still have no idea why we exist and there is not much credible sources which could clarify my doubt. Most of the sources which tried to explain what life is basically was religious texts from various religions where each of it has its own story. So, lets forget about these religious themes and think with a neutral and unbiased mind, 'What is the reason for our existence?'
Some people say that life is God's given gift to us. In some parts of my life (I'll let you know when I felt this way), I felt like giving back this so-called 'gift' back to the so-called 'God'. In reality, we suffered more in life than we actually enjoyed it. In all parts of our life, we need to undergo various type of sufferings or let's say sufferings of different magnitudes. First, we were rudely 'awakened' from nine months of sleep where nothing bothered us and we were at almost completely safe environment away from any danger(sufferings). Then, our sensors were activated that we can now feel the pain of sufferings both physically and emotionally. Now,let say it has been 20 years since being 'awakened' abruptly and we would have gained lots of experience and also would have undergone many personal sufferings throughout these years. Some people might disagree with me at this point saying that they had a great life without any sufferings. This is completely untrue. Let's count the number of times you fell sick in the past 20 years,the number of time you met with accidents,the number of times the people you care for met with accidents, the number of close friends that you lost contact with,the number of time you broke up with your girlfriend(s)/boyfriend(s), the number of pets that died, the number of family member who fell sick or even past away and many more. So do you still think that life had always been full of happy faces or let's say a fairytale or how about let say, always been filled with Teletubbies?
We faced lots of sufferings and still how could we still get on with life? How come we are still sane after facing all these problem in life? The answer for these questions came to me when I actually attended my grandmother's funeral. As she was lying there motionless as the final rites were being done, I was still in shock of the reality that my grandmother was gone. After a while, I started thinking about the good times that we(my siblings and I) and my grandmother had and that actually made me smile while we were grieving for her. It had been almost 5 years since that day and the memories of my grandmother still made me smile till today. Then, I realized that even though we undergo sufferings in life, all the good memories in life actually helps us to carry on with life.
I came to a conclusion that love was actually the driving force in life. We are willing to go through sufferings just to experience the feeling of love. The love that I am saying is the more general type( not just the boy-girl love). Love can be anything. For example, parents' love for their children, children's love for their parents, love towards our pets, love for nature and many more. There is so many variety of love that it is almost impossible to compile all of them together except by describing all of it with one word which is 'love'. We always fall in love even when we know that nearly everything in this world are not permanent. For example, a person falls in love with another person even though he knows that eventually they would be separated(maybe he or she finds a new person in life or death did them apart). So, why are willing to go through this situation when we can completely avoid it. When you come to think of it, we actually appreciate the great things that we had in life when we lost it. For example, we don't appreciate our parents until we have left home to continue our studies or when we start working. We would fully appreciate their role as parents when we become parents ourselves. What I am actually trying to say here is sufferings that we experienced in life helps us to appreciate the good time in life. If we never suffered at all, we might not value life.
We all need to love and appreciate things that happened in our lives in order to enjoy life itself. Let us love all that exist around us as this is the path where we would suffer less and actually enjoy life.
In memories of my Nicko who had always been faithful to me and always been there to protect my family. May 'God' bless you.
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