Tuesday, January 28, 2020

Has Humanity conquered nature?

Looking at the effects of devastation caused by climate change,do you think Man has conquered forces of nature.From wild fires that strike dry areas of California,bush fires in Australia,floods due to global warming,more severe tsunamis and hurricanes,tornados,have we reached the anthropocene age in which the effects of men's activities has changed our environment to the irreversible point.
                 When temperate fruit commercial farming on a large scale drains up the groundwater,loss of trees for retention of ground water,increase in surface temperature due to global warming ,overgrazing of plant cover due to animal husbandry,building of dense residential and commercial districts requiring massive water supplies, all may possibly contribute to droughts,famine and lack of drinking water in the near future.how prepared are world government for dealing with natural disasters on a regular basis?
              We need to question the powers that control the circumstances of people in all countries.Governments need to consider and address problems concerning environmental destrruction -farming that drains ground water that is a source of drinking water for humans,deforestation leading to desertification,the melting of polar glaciers that cause rise in sea level and threaten coastal cities,wildfires cause widespread loss of lives and property
             Humans are the only species hell bent on self destruction.Through centuries ,the population boom was controlled through natural disasters like earthquakes,volcanic eruption,or drought and famine or manmade disasters like nuclear war and pandemic.With science we managed to mitigate the devastations of natural disasters but still initiate manmade disasters to drive ourselves to extinction.
          So when we overconsume ,we tun to mass commercial farming to increase food production with effects of pollution of the soil and water.Pesticides,herbicides and so on cause loss of fertility of soil and toxify the food chain.
      To increase survival rate of mass production of livestock like hens and pigs ,we pump them with growth hormones and antibiotics,so when a strong antibiotic resistant virus mutates like avian and swine flu,it will decimate huge populations of livestock with poor immune system.Instead those  wildlife stock retain a strong immune system and when people consume wildlife like nomad hunters eating infected monkeys or infected blood of primates come into contact with open wounds of humans,,AIDS virus is transmitted to human or when wildlife infects human host,we are vulnerable to these alien virus.So humans should stop consumption of exotic anamals like pangolin,civet cats,bats or snakes  to prevent driving wildllife to extinction and driving ourselves to extinction by  infection with strong mutated virus.Maybe vegetaranism is the more sustainable lifestyle for the future.But cultural traits are hard to erase like Japanese consumption of whales,dolphins,sea urchins and Chinese consumption of wildlife like rats ,snakes and bats.

Tuesday, January 21, 2020

writing uncensored

When people are "oversensitive" and take offence at anything they perceive as a slight or insult,then freedom to create without restraints and censorship becomes a hindrance to creatives from advertisements,animation,drama or novels.Malaysian creatives likke Tash Aw,Tan Twan Eng,Preeta Samasaran,directors like Tsai Ming Liang,writers like Huzir Sulaiman can thrive only in a foreign land.Then we claim them as Malaysians but far from the restrictions of the motherland,they have space to grow.Only Kee Thuan Chye could get away with We could F@$ you Mr Birch as it was satirising whitemen.
           I exhort readers and viewers to read between the lines as that which is left unsaid speaks volumes.Why dont we hear narratives about the Hindu Buddhist digs at Bujang Valley or did they know many parts of SEA were ruled by ancient kingdoms of Majapahit or by the Chola kings of southern India.We have to learn to dig up our own facts and not rely on books written by blinkered writers who can whitewash information.So why deny that the MPAJA had played a role to fight against the Japanese invaders who were victimising the Chinese? Why make the comfort women into "greedy prostitutes" when they were forced against their will to be sex slaves?
 History is written by victors so we need Howard Zinn to open our eyes to the suppressed story of Red Indians,the black slaves and etc.If we dont learn from history,we're doomed to repeat it.Keep the narratives of nuclear bomb victims alive so that before they release nuclear contaminated waste into surrounding oceans,the suffering of these victims serve as canaries in a cold mine.