Fragment of Memories: Haze

Wednesday, October 18, 2006

Haze

Indonesia's Vice President asked Malaysia to be "fair" in responding to the smoke haze that has been enveloping neighboring countries.

"The oxygen produced by the forests of Kalimantan and Sumatra has benefited Malaysia... If they want the benefit, sometimes, when something bad happens, they shouldn't feel bothered..."

Does it make sense? I mean to relate the oxygen that produced to the haze problem. It is not very wise to critic about other people (or even boast about your contribution to other people to pull yourself up a bit) when you yourself are making mistakes. Furthermore, Indonesia has yet to ratify the ASEAN Agreement on Transboundary Haze Pollution that was signed by all 10 members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations in year 2002 (Yahoo!, 2006)

Read this http://asia.news.yahoo.com/061015/kyodo/d8kourlg0.html

There are more than 570 hot spots detected in Sumatra, Indonesia. From June to August this year only, the country recorded 8,476.5 forest fired in seven provinces (ANTARA, 2006).

(Maybe the haze contributed by the forest of Indonesia is outweighing the benefits, oxygen produced in particular?)

Anyway, Indonesian government really should do something about the haze problem that will come back and strikes the region every year.

Defending your own mistakes will never bring you any good. That is what I believe.

References:

Yahoo!. (2006 OCT 15). “Indonesia’s Kalla asks Malaysia to be ‘fair’ about haze issue” in Yahoo! Asia News. Retrieved on 18 October 2006 from http://asia.news.yahoo.com/061015/kyodo/d8kourlg0.html

ANTARA. (2006, OCT 4). “Some 570 hot spots detected in Sumatra” in AntaraNews. Retrieved on 18 October 2006 from http://cc.msnscache.com/cache.aspx?q=4156953854382&lang=en-SG&mkt=en-SG&FORM=CVRE2

*note: The website is cached because the original article could not be found anymore.

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Some of the before-and-after photos at NUS.