Hazy days

12 August 2005.

Haze?What haze? Over here in Alor Star situation is normal, visibility is good. Terrible condition over there in Selangor & the Klang Valley in the news today. API more than 500 in places and the government have declared a state of emergency in some places. A relative in KL confirmed that her school is closed until the weekend. It seemed that the haze is the worst over the years - it can only mean that 'we' have not learnt our lessons. Once the haze is over, we go back to our old ways, and again the forest fires in Sumatra are blamed, same thing as in previous years. Those people does burns to earn a living, how can we blame them? What alternatives are there? Here in the north, two kinds of large open burning that has been going on albeit seasonaly, are the burning of rice stalks after harvesting season and the burning of sugar cane plants prior to their harvesting. Try and solve these too in our own backyard.

13 August 2005.

The haze has arrived. API is reported to be more than 100 at 5pm, that's unhealthy though nowhere near emergency level of 500. The sun hardly made it through the haze and as you stand under the sun, you don't get any shadows. It's a calamity if this goes on for any length of time, lets hope people concerned would be sane enough to get to root of the problem, whatever it is, wherever it came from.

14 August 2005.

Lots of news regarding this haze in the newspapers and the most embarrasing one must be that Malaysian Companies operating in Indonesia may be guilty of doing open burning in Sumatra and Riau. In Alor Star the haze is clearing and is much better today.