Sunday, April 22, 2012

Bersih 3.0

28 April 2012 should be like any other weekend for people living and working in KL but it will be an unwelcoming day. Why? Well,because Bersih 3.0 will be holding a sit and protest rally to the Election Commission for a fair and clean election. The venue for this rally is The Merdeka Square,Kuala Lumpur.

The Merdeka Square (Independence Square or Dataran Merdeka) is situated in the centre of the city. It's close to the Gombak river, the Masjid Jamek, Central Market and China Town. It's the core of KL's history.

Surrounding the square are many buildings of historical interest including the Royal Selangor Club Complex which is situated on one side of the square, the Sultan Abdul Samad Building, the National History Museum (formerly the Chartered Bank Building) and the Memorial Library, a building dating back to 1909, St. Mary's Anglican Cathedral, a Gothic style building which is more than a hundred years old, the original Kuala Lumpur Railway Station (next to the Sultan Abdul Samad Building), the 102-year old Sanitary Board fountain and the impressive Dayabumi Complex.
A 95-meter flagpole, one of the tallest in the world, marks that spot with a flat, round black marble plaque. It is located at the southern end of the square.

Now,Bersih 3.0 is protesting to the Election Commission for a fair and clean elections,right? Well,the Election Commission Head Quarters is not located anywhere around Merdeka Square.So why have a rally at a place not relevant to Bersih 3.0 cause but is seen as more to create problem to people living and working in KL. Why not rally at Election Commission HQ instead? Why choose a place that is surrounded by historical buildings that will cost millions to restore if it's damaged because of this rally.

What guarantee do Bersih 3.0 gives to ensure that their rally will not turn into a riot? I'm sure a lot of people living in KL is unhappy with Bersih 3.0 decisions to hold their rally a Merdeka Square,who can ensure that these unhappy people would not act to respond to Bersih 3.0 act in disrupting their lives?

The Royal Malaysian Police already say they will not get involve in Bersih 3.0, I can understand why as Bersih 2.0 cost the PDRM millions of RM and this is money wasted on something that does not benefits anyone. Government money should be spend on a lot of things that give benefits to the people but not this.

Malaysians participating in Bersih 3.0 is also participating in tarnishing the country image to the world. This act will only distort our economic growth, our tourist visits, our foreign investors but it will not affect the Election Commission in any way whatsoever. It's not relevant to EC but relevant to working Malaysians and also to our foreign investors who is operating in KL especially within the Merdeka Square area.

Just one stupid act can turn a supposed peaceful sit and protest rally into a riot.

Thursday, December 16, 2010

Public Complaints Bureau - Prime Minister's Department

Dear Fellow Malaysians:

Should or If you were to ever face problems when dealing with Government Agencies or Department, please bring your issue to the attention of:

PUBLIC COMPLAINTS BUREAU - PRIME MINISTER'S DEPARTMENT
LEVEL 6,PARCEL B,BLOCK B1,
FEDERAL GOVERNMENT ADMINISTRATION CENTRE,
62502 PUTRAJAYA, MALAYSIA
TEL.NO.: +603-8872 5777

OR

You can make a complain online at www.pcb.gov.my


"People Precedes, Performance Emphasized"

Friday, November 19, 2010

Vertical/High Rise Farming





Vertical farming (VA) or high-rise farming is a proposed indoor, urban farming technology involving large-scale agricultural production in multi-story buildings.
It is an intensive farming strategy which mainly employs advanced techniques such as hydroponics and aeroponics to produce crops like fruits, vegetables and edible mushrooms continuously. It also includes the raising of livestock and fishes indoor.

Intensive Horizontal Farming

Imagine a large farm land today being used for the production of various food commodities applying crop-livestock-fish integrated farming and under an intensive system of management. Farming operations are mechanized with implements available from land preparation to harvesting. Irrigation water is supplied, using state-of-the-art technologies.

Both labor and capital are available, and everyone is paid handsomely so that work output is efficient. Men possessing the highest educational credentials with long records of field experiences are there to ensure that the right inputs are provided. Whatsoever is needed is there.

Will such a large infusion of capital, coupled with appropriate technology, cause a significant increase in food production both on a per unit area and total area?

Expectedly yes, notwithstanding the high cost of production.

So how will vertical farming make a difference?

With vertical farming, an equivalent area of land that is used in horizontal farming will be converted into a facility on which a multi-story building will be constructed. It will be located in the urban center. Important food crops will be grown in this building on soil-less media, employing mainly the techniques in hydroponics.

In 2001, Dickson Despommier, who was responsible for conceptualizing vertical farming, and his students introduced the first design of a vertical farm. It consisted of a building 30 storeys high, occupying an area about the size of a Manhattan block. A city block of Manhattan, NY, USA, has dimensions of about 80 m x 270 m (Wikipedia, October 30, 2010) or an equivalent area of 21,600 sq. meters or 2.16 hectares.

Accordingly, the design was capable of producing sufficient food for 50,000 people, or a mere requirement of about 0.43 sq. meters (21,600 sq m/50,000) of horizontal land for one human.
Multiplied by 30, this is equivalent to 12.9 sq meters of indoor floor area for every mouth to feed. The plan involved the growing of about 100 different fruit and vegetable crops on the upper stories while the lower floors are intended for the production of chicken and fish with plant wastes as feed.

On May 19, 2009, Dickson Despommier was interviewed by Miller-McCune.com.
His statements on how VA would work are summarized briefly here:

1. The farming operations will be fully automated. Monitoring systems will be installed in each floor of the building to detect plants’ need for water, nutrients and other requirements for optimal growth and development. Likewise there will be detectors to signal the presence of pathogens. A gas chromatograph will analyze the levels of flavenoids, giving reliable information on the right time to harvest. The specific technologies are nothing new, it’s just a matter of applying them.

2. Vertical farming will end the reliance on soil for the conventional production of food crops. It can be done anywhere, even in the middle of a desert or in Iceland. Reitano, et al. (2006) also suggested that a vertical farm can be built at sea in the form of a ship. The ship can be based twelve miles from the seashore in the tropics where there is calm weather.

Origin of Vertical Farming

In 2006, Dickson Despommier wrote to Trunity (The Encyclopedia of Earth) that he and his students had been exploring, for the past 9 years, the feasibility of indoor crop production in multistory buildings within the urban center. This indicates that the concept of vertical farming was born in or about 1997.

But high-rise farming did not just appear spontaneously. It started with the medical ecology class under Despommier at the Colombia University’s School of Public Health in New York, USA. He challenged his graduate students to feed the entire population of about 2 million of Manhattan on a daily diet of 2,000 calories using 13 acres (5,261,000 sq m or 5.261 ha) of rooftop gardens. But the students' calculation showed that only 2 percent (about 40,000 individuals) could be sustained.

This means that the capacity of rooftop gardens to supply food is 131 sq m for every human. This seems high enough, but Despommier was not satisfied. Without so much thought, he suggested the indoor production of crops, vertically. The idea took hold and sparked the imagination and resourcefulness of the students. The concept of vertical farming was born.

Since then many scientists, architects, and other supporters around the world have been working intensely to perfect the technology. Architectural plans have been developed. The proposal has sparked interest for adoption in countries other than the US such as South Korea, United Arab Emirates, China, France, and India.
However, just like any technology that has not been tested, there are many contrasting views against its full implementation.

Technical Feasibility of Vertical Farming

Food production through indoor farming is a well promoted strategy. With vertical farming, however, this technology will be applied more intensely to cope up with the projected increase in the need for food due to the addition of billions of population in the years to come.

Hydroponics, the basic technology to be applied, is the production of crops in soil-less nutrient solutions. This technology is likewise not new. Thousands of acres have been used worldwide in putting up structures for crop production through hydroponics, using multi-layered vertical racks. It is widely used in producing tomato.

As to the stability and safety of a large skyscraper that will be constructed for vertical farming and capable of carrying a heavy load, the expertise of modern architects and structural engineers can be depended upon.

Around 600 B.C., King Nebuchadnezzar started building a man-made mountain with exotic growths. It was later to be called the Hanging Gardens of Babylon, one of Philon’s Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. They were not really hanging gardens, but gardens on balconies or terraces.

The "mountain" consisted of a square building 400 feet high (80-300 feet in Encarta Encyclopedia, 2009), containing five terraces supported by arches climbing upward, each thickly planted with grasses, flowers, and fruit trees, supplied with irrigation water from below pumped by slaves and oxen. (Wallechinsky, et al., 1977).
While hydroponics was not employed, the Hanging Gardens shows that crops can be grown in high-rise buildings, even at a time when the science of engineering was in its infancy.

PNB RM5billion Menara Warisan (Heritage Tower)

Is it necessary? For me yes but not now & definately not at current proposed site.

Fact - 1. Menara Warisan is owned by PNB(Permodalan Nasional Berhad)
2. Who owns PNB? So PLEASE..
3. RM5 billion is a lot of money to be wasted on a high rise building when KL
is already a congested concrete jungle.

History Lesson:

When Tun Dr.Mahathir was Prime Minister,he did not straight away approve the build of KLCC or KL Tower,these high rise all comes later after he improves transportation by building North & South Highway. This benefits a lot of Malaysians & now we can even say these highway is essential to us.

He improves the Transportation 1st before approving the built of KLCC,KL Tower etc..

Prime Minister Dato'Seri Mohd Najib should look at transportation again before building more high rises especially in a congested area like Petaling Street.

RM5 billion is a sufficient amount to actually build a high speed railway link which will improve the current sad state of KTM. High Speed Trains connecting Perlis to Johor is more beneficial that a 100 storey tower in KL.

Imagine should they actually do this instead?Travelling from Perlis to KL can take around 2 hours & Perlis to Johor just for 4 hours.This would actually benefitted a lot of people & believe it or not will also ease the current traffic jam on highways & in cities. I for 1 will definately travel back to my hometown in Penang by Trains during holidays & festivals.

A person staying in Perak or Malacca can actually travel everyday to work in KL as the travelling time is not long (Ipoh - KL = 1 hour or Malacca - KL = 50 minutes?)

Wednesday, December 30, 2009

2 Missing Turbojet Engines

This is a huge setback to Prime Minister Dato'Seri Najib Tun Abdul Razak.

2 Turbojet Engines belonging to Royal Malaysian Air Force (RMAF) worth RM50 million each went missing somewhere in 2007/2008.

No report were made even in Government 2008 Audit Report.

No inquiry were made on the missing turbojet engines.

Current Defence Minister Datuk Ahmad Zaid Hamidi is the Minister who exposed this wrongdoing.

Current Prime Minister was the Defence Minister when this mishap happens.

No satisfying explanation were given on the matter other than the termination of 41 RMAF employees for poor work performances.

Something is not right somewhere.

1 Malaysia - People Precedes,Performance Emphasized.

Tuesday, December 29, 2009

BN Members of Parliament

Recent Parliament sitting to pass the 2010 Budget nearly backfires for Prime Minister Dato'Seri Najib Tun Abdul Razak. If the 2010 budget were not passed on the sitting, The Federal Government will be put in a difficult position at least for 3 months before a new or same budget is proposed & if enough BN MP's attended the sitting then maybe passed without difficulties.

BN has 137 MP's in the Parliament.
PR has 87 MP's in the Parliament.

14 December 2009 marks a new dawn in Parliament when its sitting to pass the 2010 budget was welcome with a panic response from BN MP's when the attendance of BN MP's in Parliament is less then 50% while PR MP's came almost in full force.

Out of 137 BN MP's, only 64 came in for the 1st count to pass 2010 budget & during the 2nd count, 2 more BN MP's arrived making the total no.of BN MP's in Parliament on that day in total is 66 MP's. This is out of 137 Parliament Seats that BN commands at the House. Even at 66 MP's in attendance for BN, this is still less than 50% of MP's who attended the sitting.

This is in contrast with PR MP's who command a total of 87 seats but their turnout is 63. That's way more than 50%.

The action by BN MP's create a lot of questions on their role as Members of Parliament for BN & their contribution to the house. If they keep on missing/skipping the sittings, then why appoint them as MP's in the 1st place. Whether they know or don't want to know their role,this should be determine before BN name their candidate for Parliament Seats in the election.

The action by BN MP's who did not attend the sitting without reasons only bring disgrace to BN Party .This should never happen. Not when BN commands the majority of seats in the Parliament.

Prime Minister effort to get back Malaysians to support BN is jeopardised by his own MP's in Parliament.

And late report from the local press did not contribute to people having/giving more trust to BN as they are being seen to cover or try to cover up the incident.

1 Malaysia - Peoples Precedes, Performance Emphasized.

Wednesday, October 14, 2009

Valuable Advise To All Malaysians Esp.Politicians!

This words of advise was quotted to me today by Datuk Rahim Baba - President of UKHWAH Coop. He says there's 3 most important thing that should not be politicized by anyone especially politician who likes to seek publicity and glamour.The 3 are:

  1. Religion - all religion in Malaysia must be respected by all without discriminating other respective religions teachings.
  2. Judiciary
  3. Education

I won't be saying much on No.2 & No.3 , but overall i could not have agree more with DRB. If only Malaysians politician open their eyes & minds to understand these 3 important things.