JEN Thoughts

Snail Story

2008-04-18T00:36:00.000-07:00

蜗牛的故事

我养了一只蜗牛，晚饭后，我决定带它去散步，我走了十步，
它还末能够走过一尺。我心急了，拼命拉它，它痛了，用求情的眼神
来乞求我，似乎在说“我已尽了力”。我仍然觉得它走得太慢，
我再大力拖它，令它身体受到损害，开始流血。我才猛然醒觉，
我的散步方式跟蜗牛的散步方式不同。
我的慢，跟它的慢，根本就有天壤之别。

在我眼中，它太慢，在它眼中，已经尽了最大的努力。
我以为我在散步，它认定我在亡命的奔跑。
原来，每一个人，对不同的事物，都有他们自己不同的理解。
有人觉得“我每天工作八小时，然后其余时间留给自己去享受生命，
我赚得虽然不多，但活得充实，够了。
但这样的人生取态在另一个人眼中，就会变成“这个人怎么这样懒惰，
不思进取！！以他这样的年纪，他应该每天工作二十五小时，
不眠不休，像我一样，人生才有意义嘛！

朋友，每一个人对生命都有不同的看法，
不要企图把自己的一套加诸第二个人上。
这个世界上，有人喜欢做蜗牛，有人喜欢做白兔，各自精采.！
而我？我只想做回自己喜欢的工作，而心底深处，我正努力去学做一只蜗牛

一生都要學習做人

2008-04-18T00:06:00.000-07:00

星雲大師有一位徒弟，台大畢業後，到夏威夷讀碩士，又到耶魯讀博士，花了好多年的時間，終於得到博士，非常歡喜。有一天他回來，對星雲說：「師父，我現在得到博士學位了，以後要再學習什麼呢？」星雲說：「學習做人。」學習做人是一輩子的事，沒有辦法畢業的。星雲覺得人生，不管是士農工商、各種人等，只要學習就有進步，今天要跟大家分享需要學習的事。

第一、「學習認錯」。人常常不肯認錯，凡事都說是別人的錯，認為自己才是對的，其實不認錯就是一個錯。認錯的對象可以是父母、朋友、社會大眾、佛祖，甚至向兒女或是對我不好的人認錯，自己不但不會少了什麼，反而顯得你有度量。學習認錯是美好的，是一個大修行。

第二、「學習柔和」。人的牙齒是硬的，舌頭是軟的，到了人生的最，牙齒都掉光了，舌頭卻不會掉，所以要柔軟，人生才能長久，硬反而吃虧。心地柔軟了，是修行最大的進步。一般形容執著的人說，你的心、你的性格很冷、很硬，像鋼鐵一樣。如果我們像禪門說的調息、調身、調心，慢慢調伏像野馬、像猴子的這顆心，令它柔軟，人生才能活得更快樂、更長久。

第三、「學習忍」。這世間就是忍一口氣，風平浪靜，退一步海闊天空；忍，萬事都能消除。忍就是會處理、會化解，用智慧、能力讓大事化小、小事化無。各位要生活、要生存、要生命，有了忍，可以認清世間的好壞、善惡、是非，甚至接受它。

第四、「學習溝通」。缺乏溝通，就會產生是非、爭執與誤會。現在中國大陸、香港和台灣，兩岸三地最重要的就是溝通，相互了解、相互體諒、相互幫助，大家都是龍兄虎弟，互相爭執、不溝通怎麼能和平呢？

第五、「學習放下」。人生像一只皮箱，需要用的時候提起，不用的時就把它放下，應放下的時候，卻不放下，就像拖著沉重的行李，無法自在。人生的歲月有限，認錯、尊重、包容才能讓人接受，放下才自在啊！

第六、「學習感動」。我們看到人家得好處，要歡喜；看到好人好事，要能感動。感動是一個愛心、菩薩心、菩提心，在我幾十年的歲月裡，有許多事情、語言感動了我，所以我也很努力的想辦法讓別人感動。>第七、「學習生存」。為了生存，我要維護身體健康，身體健康不但對自己有利，也讓朋友、家人放心，所以也是孝親的行為。

How Manners You Are?

2008-04-10T06:51:00.000-07:00

It was a situation that I met this afternoon when I’m on my way to NUS. I was taking the train from Yishun to Jurong East. When I was taking the other train towards the Clementi station, a few seconds after the train left the Jurong East station, I heard a man shouting towards an old man behind me. I was shocked by the voice. The words that used by the man was so rude. After seeing this happen, I have a few questions in my mind. Why there was no one giving the seat to the old man? Why the man can’t tolerance to the old man? How manners we are to others? As we always heard the slogan in Singapore, ”Courtesy is our way of life. Make courtesy our way of life.” Is it true?

Interesting question, isn’t it? In the Age of Rudeness, we may be losing touch with what etiquette and good manners are all about. In fact there may be those among us who haven’t experienced it.

Good manners are civilized behavior. That’s as opposed to wild behavior. Whether that was a particular rule in your household, or culture, all cultures have “rules” and they are learned, not innate. All cultures have rules and if you violate them, you’ll be excluded. Manners must be really ingrained; a matter of who you are, not how you are. The attitude must be without thinking, but the particulars require great thought. It’s always easier to revert to the feral state. There are those among us who still blurt out “thank you,” “you’re welcome,” ”excuse me,” and “May i?”But there are a lot more among us who don’t!

So, to have good manners we must learn the actions- the “trivialities of deportment” – and then stop and think when we’re with others. Then we can avoid being tactless. Avoiding being rude, has a lot to do with emotional intelligence which, like good manners, can be learned. EQ requires self-awareness and empathy – the ability to understand how your behavior affects others and their feelings. It requires a strong interface between emotions and thinking.

It’s easier to be rude and it’s harder to be polite. But what happens when everyone behaves that way? Then we have a rudeness epidemic. And how will we change that? One person at a time! As Mother Teresa said, when the house is dirty don’t complain or call a committee, pick up the broom and start sweeping.

Causes of deforestation in Southeast Asia

2008-03-30T22:16:00.000-07:00

After four billion years of organic evolution on this planet, life reached its greatest diversity and complexity in the tropical rain forest (Sponsel et al., 1996). Yet in recent decades this diversity has become endangered. This is due to the deforestation that has been at work for centuries and the rate of deforestation in the tropics is still increasing rapidly. According to Repetto, the current rate of deforestation has exceeded 0.4 hectares per second (Sponsel et al., 1996), and each hectare may contain millions of species. There are more and more species extinction from year to year. Thus, deforestation has become one of the major environmental issues that directly affect not only countries and locations, but also the earth as a whole. In general, we can classify the causes of the deforestation into three main groups, which are the timber industry, agriculture development or expansion and major development projects that are implemented by the local government.

Firstly, according to the UN’s Economics and Social Commission for Asia and Pacific (ESCAP), “Logging is undoubtedly the primary cause of degradation and indirectly of deforestation too (Sponsel et al., 1996).” Logging for export is a major factor of deforestation in Southeast Asia and it has been playing a significant role in Southeast Asian nations economic development. For example, in 1985, Malaysia, which was the largest exporter of tropical hardwood logs, exported 11.4 million cubic meters of logs (Sponsel et al., 1996). The revenue that was brought into Malaysia from this exported timber reached the value of RM1.6 billion (US$650 million) in 1985 (Hurst, 1990). The high revenue potential leads to illegal logging, which further destroys the forest area. Even though the Malaysia government has implemented a number of regulations to control logging operations, the timber extraction is still dominated by economic consideration. Thus, due to the economy benefit, logging is just a first step in the chain reaction of deforestation.

Secondly, the agriculture expansion is another major cause of forest clearance. Rural population growth and the promotion of cash crops for export are the underlying causes of demand for new land. As the population grows, large numbers of people will be seeking farming land and moving to the cities. For example, in Malaysia, forest clearance for agriculture development has been co-ordinate by the federal government’s Federal Land Development Agency (FELDA) since independence (Hurst, 1990). The main purpose of FELDA is to help provide land for the landless. They provide large areas of rubber estates or even now oil palm plantations to the landless as an agribusiness or commercial agriculture. The FELDA policies have created job opportunities for more than 500,000 people (Hurst, 1990). According to Marcoux (2000, June), oil palm plantations are a major catalyst of deforestation in Malaysia and Indonesia. These two world’s biggest palm oil producers had about 6.7 million hectares of oil palm plantation in 2002 (Marcoux, 2000). Hence, the rapid expansion of agriculture will further clear-cut the forest and there will be one day when Malaysia is running out of land.

Thirdly, some major development projects that are implemented by the local government or some private agencies also contribute to the deforestation. The expansion of the road network is one such project that provides a significant effect to the forest. For example, the North-South Expressway (NSE) in Malaysia which is the longest expressway in Malaysia running from Bukit Hitam in Kedah to Johor Bahru in south Malaysia, opened up millions of kilometers of previously inaccessible forest to link up many major cities in western Peninsular Malaysia, acting as a ‘backbone’ of the west coast of Peninsular Malaysia. Another development project is dam construction. For example, some of the largest dams that have been constructed in Thailand like Bhumibol (318 sq. km); Khao Leam (353 sq. km); Sirikit (260 sq. km); Sirindhorn (292 sq. km); Srinagarind (419 sq. km) and Ubolratana (410 sq. km) have collectively led to a total of 2052 sq, km of forest loss due to a deforestation (Hurst, 1990). The surface areas indicate how much forest has been destroyed. The construction of such dams also causes farmers to lose their lands, and as a result, the government needs to provide resettlement programs to find new lands for them. In the end, more forests will be clear-cut. Thus, these unavoidable rural development projects have brought a great “pain” to the forest, which is still being attacked.

In conclusion, as the population increases with the demand for land, a degree of forest destruction is inevitable. Furthermore, the timber industry, agriculture development and major development projects that are implemented by the governments have directly caused the deforestation. Thus, there is a need to consider the development solutions of the crisis in the social, environmental, economic and political aspects, or else it will bring serious consequences to the environment and human.

References

Hurst, P. (1990). Rainforest politics: Ecological destruction in

Southeast Asia. London: Zed Books Ltd.

Marcoux, A. (2000, June). Population and the environment: a review

and concepts for population programmes. Retrieved

March 9, 2008 from United Nations, Food and And Organization

Website:

http://www.fao.org/sd/wpdirect/wpan0050/htm

Sponsel, L. E., Thomas, N., & Bailey, R. C. (1996). Tropic

deforestation: The human dimension. New York:

Columbia University Press.

Zero waste and land filling

2008-03-18T21:48:00.000-07:00

According to Collins (2002), the amount of household rubbish will double by the year 2020 and more than 40 million tonnes a year in the new European Union. To manage all this waste is quite a “headache” in every country all over the world. Singapore, as a small “Lion City,” is facing the same problem too. There are two waste disposal schemes proposed by the government in Singapore, which are land-filling and “zero waste.” In my opinion, the “zero waste” is more suitable in Singapore due to the limited land issue in Singapore.

Nowadays, we can notice that the government is promoting a “zero waste” scheme all over the place in Singapore. “Zero waste” is a clean environment process that promotes a “recycle,” “reuse,” or “repair” of material. By this “zero waste” scheme, we manage to minimize the amount of waste. For example, Britain is currently recycling 11% of household waste, burning 8% and dumping the rest, within six years of a change in policy Canberra is recycling 59% of its rubbish and Edmonton, Canada, has reached 70% (Collins, 2002). From this statistic, we can see that “zero waste” scheme plays an important role in reducing the waste. Thus, “zero waste” scheme is more suitable in Singapore.

Land-filling, which is the waste disposal scheme that currently is used in Singapore, is the scheme that is not environmentally friendly. It is because the government needs to provide huge area of land to bury or collect all the waste. With the increased percentage of waste, the government needs to find another side just for burying the rubbish. Singapore is a small island and we are not able to provide such a huge area to handle these wastes. Hence, land-filling is not suitable in Singapore with the limited resources of land in Singapore.
In conclusion, by comparing the applicability and suitability of both waste disposal schemes in Singapore, “zero waste” scheme is the most applicable and suitable scheme where no extra land is needed to handle the waste.

References

Collins, J. (2002, Oct 3rd). Radical plans for waste could herald a big clean-up. The Guardian Weekly. p.25

Cause of Deforestation in Southeast Asia (Essay - Review from draft 2)

2008-03-12T05:48:00.000-07:00

Firstly, according to the UN’s Economic and Social Commission for Asia and Pacific (ESCAP), “Logging is undoubtedly the primary cause of degradation and indirectly of deforestation too (Sponsel et al., 1996).” Logging for export is a major factor of deforestation in Southeast Asia and it has been playing a significant role in Southeast Asian nation’s economic development. For example, in 1985, Malaysia is the largest exporter of tropical hardwood logs which had exported 11.4 million cubic meters of logs (Sponsel et al., 1996). The revenue that was brought into Malaysia from this exported timber had reached the value of RM1.6 billion (US$650 million) in1985 (Hurst, 1990). The high revenue leads to illegal logging which further destroys the forest area. Even though the local government has implemented a number of regulations to control a logging operation, but the timber extraction is still dominated by economic consideration. Thus, due to the economy benefit, logging is just a first step in the chain reaction of deforestation.

Secondly, the agriculture expansion is another major cause of forest clearance. Rural population growth and promotion of cash crops for export are the underlying causes of demand for new land. As the population grows, large numbers of people will be seeking farming land or moving to the cities. For example, in Malaysia, forest clearance for agriculture development has been co-ordinate by federal government, Federal Land Development Agency (FELDA) since independence (Hurst, 1990). The main purpose of FELDA is to help provide land for the landless. They provide large areas of rubber estates or even now oil palm plantations to the landless as an agribusiness or commercial agriculture. The FELDA policies had created job opportunities for more than 500,000 people and have been relocated in more than 100,000 family units (Hurst, 1990). According to Marcoux (2000, June), oil palm plantations are a major catalyst of deforestation in Malaysia and Indonesia. These two world’s biggest palm oil producers had about 6.7 million hectares of oil palm plantation in 2002(Marcoux, 2000). Hence, the rapid expansion of the agriculture will further clearly cut the forest and there will be one day where Malaysia is running out of land.

Thirdly, some of the major development projects that are implemented by the local government also contribute to the deforestation. The expansion of the road network is one of the projects that provide a significant effect to the forest. For example, North-South Expressway (NSE) in Malaysia which is the longest expressway in Malaysia running form Bukit Hitam in Kedah to Johor Bahru in south Malaysia, opened up millions of kilometres of previously inaccessible forest to link up many major cities in western Peninsular Malaysia, acting as a 'backbone' of the west coast of Peninsular Malaysia. Another development project is the dam construction. For example, some of the largest dam that had been constructed in Thailand like Bhumibol (318 sq. km); Khao Leam (353 sq. km); Sirikit (260 sq.km); Sirindhorn (292 sq.km); Srinagarind (419 sq. km) and Ubolratana (410 sq. km) (Hurst,1990). The surface areas indicate how much forest had been destroyed. Furthermore, the construction of the dams will cause farmers’ losing their lands and therefore government need to provide resettlement programmes to find new lands for them. As a result, more forests will be clearly cut. Thus, these unavoidable rural development projects have brought a great “pain” to the forest and it is still continuing “attacking” the forest.

In conclusion, as the population increase and with the demand of land, a degree of forest destruction is inevitable. Thus, timber industry, agriculture development and major development projects that are implemented by the local government directly caused the deforestation. Thus, there is a need to consider the development solutions of the crisis in the social, environmental, economic and political aspects, or else it will bring serious consequences to the environment and human.

Save Nature

2008-03-08T21:01:00.000-08:00

Our planet earth cries out. Is anyone listening? Our failure to hear the cries has pre-destined our demise. Refuse to treat the planet earth the way it needs to be treated, and we seal our own fate. We have completely altered earth’s health, result from a course of growth, and development, and its ability to defend, or protect itself. In turn losing its ability to protect us, feed us and allow us to flourish. We were supposed to consider the planet, before we consider ourselves.

The planet “allows” us to exist here because of its own specific components, which we have basically destroyed, and keep destroying. Man made these decisions for totally selfish, self serving reasons. There was no board meeting for debate whether these choices were acceptable to earth. There was absolutely no consideration for earth whatsoever. People of earth were given life because of the Earth, and sun. Out utter indifference to that fact, is where the wrong path for mankind was chosen.

The planet earth provides us with every necessary component, nutrient, cure, and element to sustain life for millions of years, and beyond. Our lack of fore site, our sheer ignorance, and continued indifference has caused, and will continue to cause extreme permanent damage. We were supposed to live off the earth, and gear things in such a way as to allow the planet to flourish, in turn allowing us to flourish in harmony.

Gear your life around “Only What Grows from the Earth”. We already have all the replacements for everything from oil, to heating, to electric, etc. If our concentration were geared towards more land oriented production, to feed the planet, and replenishing the planet, we could survive, and Mother Earth would blossom and flourish. We have a vast array of options which would be beneficial for both human survival, and Earth’s preservation. We just need to wake up and realize each small family unit can make a huge difference by making all the necessary changes starting right at home.

So, care about our beautiful planet, and let our children, grandchildren, can look back in history, and be thankful that we corrected it before it was too late. Let’s “Get Up”, and fight for our Mother Earth.

Orang-utan population and Deforestation in Indonesia

2008-02-24T07:56:00.000-08:00

Indonesia is facing a problem of deforestation in its tropical rainforests. The deforestation has been a result of developed countries multinational corporation need for wood, along with the Indonesian government lack of vigilance in an attempt to maintain some protection for its own rainforest. As a result, 40% of the Indonesian rainforest has been deforested. As the logging continues, a great area of biodiversity is lost and the orang-utan is the one animal in the rainforest that suffer the most from the deforestation.

While deforestation occurs, the orang-utan population decreases. The habitat destruction is occurring due to legal and illegal logging operations in order to clear land for agriculture purposes, and the logging is destroying the primate’s main food sources which are fruit trees. Thus, to reduce the destruction of the orang-utans habitat, Indonesia government should immediately stop the Indonesian resettlement program that is overcrowding its outer islands and to vast tracts of deforestation for agricultural purposes or build rehabilitation centre in Indonesia for orang-utans that have lost their habitat and have suffered from malnutrition, caused by being poached and sold as pets on the black market.

Another hazards form deforestation that the orang-utans face is the building of the roads for the low –land harvesting of timber. Not only does the road construction hasten the erosion processes that will take place within the orang-utan habitat, but they also effectively isolate orang-utan individuals from one another, leaving the primates with no migratory corridors with where to travel to search a mate. Hence, to save orang-utans, we should restore the connection between separated populations of orang-utans with the destruction and replanting of commercial logging roads or do not permit as many new roads to be built within the rainforest.

In conclusion, to help orang-utans, the habitat protection should be the highest priority. The Indonesian Government should increased permanent protection forest against any type of encroachment upon the land for either agricultural purposes, or for the purposes of poaching endangered species.

Causes of Deforestation in Southeast Asia version 2

2008-02-24T05:31:00.000-08:00

Deforestation is a process that involves a competition amongst different land users for scarce resources, a process exacerbated by counter-productive policies and weak institutions. Nowadays, deforestation has become one of the major environmental issues that not only directly affected countries and locations, but also a global perspective. In general, we can say that deforestation have a direct causes form population growth, commercial agriculture and infrastructure development.

Firstly, a growing population in Southeast Asian is the most important cause that underlying tropical deforestation. Southeast Asian nations with 570 million in population has lead to the facts that 570 million people requiring food, shelter, paper, water, wood and all others that come from the forests.

Secondly, commercial agriculture can directly result in deforestation. Normally, a commercial or plantation agriculture is often agribusiness practiced by corporations. For example, oil palm plantations are a major catalyst of deforestation in Indonesia and Malaysia. These two world’s biggest palm oil producers had about 6.7 million hectares of oil palm plantation in 2002.

Thirdly, infrastructure development is also result in deforestation. The construction of new roads has a great impact on the forest. For example, North-South Expressway (NSE) in Malaysia which is the longest expressway in Malaysia with the total length of 966 km (600 miles) running form Bukit Hitam in Kedah near the Malaysia-Thailand border to Johor Bahru in south Malaysia. This expressway opened up millions of square kilometres of previously inaccessible forest to link up many major cities and towns in western Peninsular Malaysia, acting as the 'backbone' of the west coast of Peninsular Malaysia. As a result, more secondary roads that penetrate deeper into the forest eventually producing a wide swath of deforested land on either side of the road.

In conclusion, deforestation is the product of the integration of many environmental, social, economic, cultural, and political forces at work in many regions. Thus, without proper solution, it will bring serious consequences for the environment.

Causes of Deforestation in Southeast Asia

2008-02-13T08:01:00.001-08:00

Southeast Asia countries likes, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Thailand, and Vietnam lost nearly 800 square miles of forest every year from mid-1970s to mid-1980s. From this figure, most of the forests had been converting to an agriculture land. Thus, the agriculture expansion is the primary cause of the deforestation.

Southeast Asia region with the highest proportion of forest, which is 33 % in the world, has been reducing rapidly in the past ten years. According to an analysis from Chandra Giri of Science Application International Corporation (SAIC), 81 % of the deforestation from 1985 to 2005 was the result of agricultural expansion. This conversion to agriculture land may be result from an increasing of human needs and road expansion. Southeast Asian Nations with a combined population of about 570 has increase the amount of human daily needs. Thus, the expansion of the agriculture is necessary to meet these daily needs. In the others hand, the road development to improve overland transportation of goods may cause a limited amount of the deforestation. The road building towards a timber area and agriculture land also causes a limited amount of deforestation. Thus, the uncontrolled deforestation that due to an improper development in agriculture in Southeast Asia must be publishing and a proper solution must be carrying out.

Figure 1. Deforestation in continental Southeast Asia (excluding Malaysia and Indonesia) from 1973 to 1985. The black represents forest, the lighter areas deforestation. The dark gray represents cloud cover, and white areas are places for which no satellite information was available. During this time period, about 50,000 square miles was deforested. China and India are included on the map but no assessment of their forest cover was made.

(My blog buddy is Steve,Liu Zhen)

Fight Against Criminals in Malaysia

2008-02-04T06:55:00.000-08:00

According to the Deputy Internal Security Minister Datuk Fu Ah Kiow, there are total of 1,830 rapes have been reported in the first seven months last year. In other words, there are nine girls and women being rape in every single day. Malaysia’s crimes rate has reached an alarming rate, especially this concerning the matter of life and death. As a Malaysian citizens, we need to act fast to find out the solution for the problem. To solve the problem, government and the citizens play an important role.

For government aspect, having someone who is capable to lead is the most important. Locate the right person in the right position may help to attend the problem more effectively. For example, addition police officers are necessary to increase the police force in every state. Re-hire a retired police officers and civilians to take over administrative jobs while training for new blood may overcome a police shortage issue. However, the quality of the police force must be taking seriously too. Corruption between polices is the most common news we heard nowadays. Thus, the police force needs to polish their image to serve people better and always ready to help citizens in need.

For individual aspect, self-awareness is most important. Either becomes a crime or a victim is base on our education system and social environment. Our current education system is too much focus on academics achievements while ignoring the building of moral conscience. We must have awareness in preventing the crime. Avoid walking alone on the street and staying outside at night is some of the precaution steps that we should be aware. For example, the 5-year-old missing girl, Sharlinie Mohd Nashar, which until today is still an unsolved case. Even though there is a RM 100, 000 award to solve the case, but what most people concerning is the life or death of the girl. Thus, we need to have self- awareness to protect the ones we love and ourselves. If not, it will be too late for us to regret.

In conclusion, the increasing rate in crime in Malaysia is not rise in one day. This is a long-term challenge for our government and citizens as well. In this critical situation, there is useless to blame the government in a lack of leadership in every level of government leadership, police department, immigration department, parliament and education system in Malaysia. We, as a citizen of Malaysia, have our responsibility to co-operate with government to fight against the criminals.

Below are some of the latest news regards the crime in Malaysia

The Star Online - Cops: Crime rate in KL down by 7%
http://www.thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2008/2/6/nation/20250346&sec=nation>

New Straits Times - Fewer violent, property crimes
http://www.nst.com.my/Current_News/NST/Wednesday/National/20080206073715/Article/index_html>

Critical Environment Problem In Malaysia - Water Pollution

2008-01-30T04:52:00.000-08:00

Malaysia, one of the 'Asian tiger' economies, has enjoyed remarkable growth over the last few decades, with industrialization, agriculture and tourism. But today, Malaysia faces problems of deforestation, pollution of inland and marine waters, soil and coastal erosion, overfishing and coral reef destruction, along with air pollution, water pollution and the problem of waste disposal. Among these problems, water pollution is the most critical.

Causes of the Water Pollution:

Basically, water pollution in Malaysia originates from point sources and non-point sources. The point sources pollution includes sewage treatment plants, manufacturing and agro-based industries and animal farms. Non-point sources are mainly diffused ones such as agricultural activities and surface runoffs. According to Malaysia Environment Quality Report 2004, the Department of Environment has recorded 17,991 water pollution point sources in 2004 comprising mainly sewage treatment plants (54%), manufacturing industries (38%), animal farms (5%) and agro-based industries (3%). The distribution of the water pollution sources is shown in Figure 1 below.

Why is the Water Pollution More Important than Others?

Firstly, water pollution will cause the dangers in human health. Human infectious diseases are among the most serious effects of water pollution. Waterborne diseases occur when parasites or other disease-causing microorganisms are transmitted via contaminated water, particularly water contaminated by pathogens originating from excreta. These include typhoid, intestinal parasites, and most of the enteric and diarrheal diseases caused by bacteria, parasites, and viruses. Among the most serious parasitic diseases are amoebiasis, giardiasis, ascariasis, and hookworm. Malaysia is not immuned to the problem of infectious waterborne diseases. Thus the transmission of disease agents such as bacteria and cysts via contaminated but poorly treated municipal water is more common than it should be. Every year, a lot of people are sickened by contaminated water. This is only partly due to drinking water—contamination of recreational water (such as beach water) is also a problem.

Secondly, water pollution will cause the water
shortage and affect the quality of the supplied water. Once the water is polluted, people will face the water shortage problem. When the water is polluted, it will affect the water supply. Reservoir collects the water from rivers, once the river is polluted, the water quality in reservoir will be low. For example, Eutrophication occurs when lake water is artificially supplemented with nutrients, which causes abnormal plant growth. Eutrophication can produce problems such as bad tastes and odors as well as green scum algae. And also the growth of rooted plants increases, which decreases the amount of oxygen in the deepest waters of the lake. A common chemical change is the precipitation of calcium carbonate in hard waters. Thus, Eutrophication makes some lakes void of life. Hence, this will affect the quality of water or government need to find other water sources which is a time consuming project.

Thirdly, water pollution will affect the aquatic ecosystems. Many types of chemicals have mixed into our waterways. These types of chemical contamination are considered "point sources" of water pollution. Non-point-source chemical pollution also occurs via pesticide run-off from farm fields and homeowners' lawns, as well as run-off of automotive fluids and other chemicals from roads, parking lots, driveways, and other surfaces. Severe chemical spills and leaks into surfaces waters usually have an immediate effect on aquatic life (fish kills, etc.). Thus, there will be more and more affects on aquatic life, and as a result, human are the one that suffered.

In conclusion, water is a basic need of human. Without water, human are not able to survive. Thus, to prevent more damages on our water sources, there is a need to focus on this water pollution problems and find out the solution.

(My Blog buddy is Wee)

NEWater

2008-01-26T23:01:00.000-08:00

As we discuss in class last time, i think NEWater is quite general in Singapore now. But a lot of people still worry about the quality of the NEWater. Thus, i shared a weblink about the information of the NEWater in Singapore which is publish in PUB website here.

http://www.pub.gov.sg/NEWater_files/index.html

Hope the information may help everyone in understanding about the NEWater and what goverment strategy to solve the Singapore water issue.

Enjoy reading.

Question on Environmental Problems

2008-01-23T05:05:00.000-08:00

How does the increase in population in Malaysia affect the physical environment?

The Meaning of My Life

2008-01-22T07:58:00.000-08:00

Is human life just a dream? Or are we submerged by our feelings, by our loves and hates, by our ideas of good, bad, beautiful or awful? There are billions of people in this planet. Everyone has their own life, whether the life is meaningful or not, is not for us to decide. In my opinion, the meaning of life is joy and feelings of harmony connected to happiness. Without the happiness, life loses meaning.

I was born in a small village in Malaysia. My father was a rubber tapper.From the age of 7, I started to help my father in the rubber plantation. Besides study, helping my parent in the plantation was the only leisure activity I had. From young, I have learned to save, because it was my father “hard earned” money. I understand that the only way to achieve a better life is by gaining a knowledge. Thus, since young, my only dream was graduate from university.

After finished my primary education, I continued my secondary education at Malacca. From there, I have learned to be independent. Thanks to my childhood experience, from the schoolwork to the housework, I was able to manage everything. I continued my A-Level studies at Kuala Lumpur, and my only dream was further my studies overseas. But I was wrong, and I realized that my dream becomes a burden to my father. I was regret that causing my parent felt awkward. But I do not give up my dream. Thus I joined Singapore Polytechnic.

After graduate from polytechnic, I started to work and saved my university’s education fee. Now as an undergraduate student, I feel grateful to my parent which created such a challenge environment for me. Without those experience, I won’t be able to understand what my life is, I won’t be able to value what I have and the people around me. I have learned not to give up my dream. No matter what problem is it, I choose to face it and solve it. I have learned to create my own life, and this life will always be meaningful and colorful to me whenever I wake up in the morning.

Happiness or unhappiness is depends on our own decision. I always choose to be happy and bring my happiness to the people around me. Having someone you love and who love you is a great happiness. I think the happiness from the heart is the most meaningful. Never giving up my dream, no matter how tough is my life and what will happen in future. Work for my dream and I will never regret.

Sometimes, the life is uncertain. Only your own heart, your own experiences teach you to make a decision for our life. Do not afraid about your future, start working what you dream now and there is your future.