Political Blackmail
I have to say this before I go off for the weekend. I was enjoying my favourite 'wan tan mee' this morning (actually I was a little upset that the lady raised thr price to RM3.00 per bowl now instead of RM2.70; the wan tan still looked microscopic despite the price increase); and I was browsing through the newspaper (browse is all I can do these days, no time to actually read).
What caught my eye was the report of another minster in one of our East Coast state asking the Federal Government to compensate them for not logging!!! Last week, another chief minister of an East coast state caused a furore in the Parliament by telling the media to 'go to hell' for their alleged misreporting of him asking the Federal Government for similar compensation. The reason they claim is that they need an 'alternative' source of income.
These people said they are all for 'conservation' but....only if they are compensated!!! To me, this is nothing more than political blackmail. It's like telling some one, I won't pollute your air/water/environment if you will compensate me. Pay me and I won't destroy your life. Soon, rapists will say, pay me and I won't rape your children; or thieves will say, pay me and I won't steal your stuff. A little too harsh I know, but you get the picture.
That's stupid. It makes my blood boil. I say, go ahead, cut down ALL your trees for all I care and someday you shall pay for it. All these people are just morally corrupt with no vision. All the Federal Funds cannot ever compensate for the loss of our fragile ecology. It just makes my blood boil.
And it makes me madder still to know that the little boy who throws his used plastic bag out the school bus window, causing whatever beverage he was drinking to splash onto my windscreen; or the idiot who throws all kinds of rubbish out their car windows (haven't they heard of an ash tray?), might eventually be a policy maker sitting in our parliament. I shudder to think about this.
One thing I saw in Beijing (and Kuching, in Malaysia) was how clean they were! You can't find rubbish on the road. I once saw a man in Beijing puffing on his cigarette and after every 2 or 3 puffs he walked to the nearest rubbish bin to deposit the ash. In a city of 17 million people, they had the will power to keep the place clean. In preparation for the coming Olympics, they are planting trees by the millions!
And here we have politicians asking to paid not to cut down trees. Shame on us.
I have to say this before I go off for the weekend. I was enjoying my favourite 'wan tan mee' this morning (actually I was a little upset that the lady raised thr price to RM3.00 per bowl now instead of RM2.70; the wan tan still looked microscopic despite the price increase); and I was browsing through the newspaper (browse is all I can do these days, no time to actually read).
What caught my eye was the report of another minster in one of our East Coast state asking the Federal Government to compensate them for not logging!!! Last week, another chief minister of an East coast state caused a furore in the Parliament by telling the media to 'go to hell' for their alleged misreporting of him asking the Federal Government for similar compensation. The reason they claim is that they need an 'alternative' source of income.
These people said they are all for 'conservation' but....only if they are compensated!!! To me, this is nothing more than political blackmail. It's like telling some one, I won't pollute your air/water/environment if you will compensate me. Pay me and I won't destroy your life. Soon, rapists will say, pay me and I won't rape your children; or thieves will say, pay me and I won't steal your stuff. A little too harsh I know, but you get the picture.
That's stupid. It makes my blood boil. I say, go ahead, cut down ALL your trees for all I care and someday you shall pay for it. All these people are just morally corrupt with no vision. All the Federal Funds cannot ever compensate for the loss of our fragile ecology. It just makes my blood boil.
And it makes me madder still to know that the little boy who throws his used plastic bag out the school bus window, causing whatever beverage he was drinking to splash onto my windscreen; or the idiot who throws all kinds of rubbish out their car windows (haven't they heard of an ash tray?), might eventually be a policy maker sitting in our parliament. I shudder to think about this.
One thing I saw in Beijing (and Kuching, in Malaysia) was how clean they were! You can't find rubbish on the road. I once saw a man in Beijing puffing on his cigarette and after every 2 or 3 puffs he walked to the nearest rubbish bin to deposit the ash. In a city of 17 million people, they had the will power to keep the place clean. In preparation for the coming Olympics, they are planting trees by the millions!
And here we have politicians asking to paid not to cut down trees. Shame on us.
posted by Jimbo @ 4/29/2006 10:27:00 AM
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