Saturday, April 28, 2012

Fixies

Fixies are a speciality, not practical bicycles in my opinion, but many people especially younger people like them. They look flashy and people who rides them prefers not to use the helmet. There are more than 1,000 riders participating in today's ride and I saw many fixies including one with only one pedal, the other one has somehoew come off but he rode the bike anyway using the right pedal. Saw three falls and all of them were riders using fixies - I think it was due to riders' error, either being inexperienced or simply indisciplined and not focussing on the ride. Riding in a group requires some concentration.

Sunday, April 01, 2012

Not so earthly earth hour



Earth hour last night. So there were a lot of support from the general public about being green and so being earth-fiendly. But the way people live, the way development is carried out it would not make any difference. People and industries will continue to pollute. River water quality have not been improving but instead has got worse.
Housing estates (given the misnomer - “Taman” – making it as if building something good and green) can and have sprung up everywhere, anywhere. Flatland, hillland, mining land, plantations even forests – there’s no stopping its march. Housing for the people? Maybe. Profits for developers more like, and property speculators. Greed. Green belt is non-existence in this country except maybe in so-called forest reserved (a forest reserve near urban area will not be a forest reserve for long).
Government gave land to developers and then tries to control how development is carried out. Like not to build anything on slopes. Hardly effective. To maximize profits developers will find ways to build on anything. The solution is easy – just don’t give or sell land to anybody if no development is allowed in any plot of land. With greedy developers flushed with money it’s not going to happen.