Archive for October 13th, 2006
Today while walking around the Bali Bombing anniversary area, I wore my Aussie hat. Packing onto the outside of my daypack, it got a little bent, but nothing I can’t deal with. The sun was shining and it was a glorious day here in Kuta. I’m sure most people snicker behind my back, espeically the Euro’s here in Seminyak (’who does he think he is, a cowboy?), but who cares.
A report on the BBC website points to people like me, with reddish hair, or at least reddish genes, have a high chance of melanoma, if they are not careful. Leaving the house today I slapped on a handful of ’sun sauce’, wore a black long sleeve shirt, and wrapped sarong around my neck. I didn’t look very exotic, more like frozen fish finger in a packet, but that’s the hand I’ve been dealt. Paradise has its price and for me its a big hat.
source : www.baliblog.com
October 13th, 2006
The annual haze that originates in Indonesia, and covers much of the region, causing respiratory problems, damage to transport sytems and loss of tourist revenue, has inspired SE Asian leaders to hold an emergency meeting in Pekanbaru, Sumatra. Clearly frustrated the continuing situation, Malaysia has openly criticized Indonesia recently. Here’s more fom the Jakarta Post.
Indonesia hosts emergency meeting to find solutions to yearly hazePEKANBARU, Riau (AP): Indonesia was hosting an emergency meeting Friday on how to fight annual brush fires that send thick smoke over much of the country as well as neighboring Malaysia and Singapore, disrupting air traffic and triggering health warnings.
Facing criticism for its repeated failure to prevent the blazes, Jakarta said Thursday it would sign a regional treaty to boost cooperation in tackling the problem, and President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono earlier this week apologized for the smoke.
Environment ministers from Indonesia, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand and Brunei were to meet Friday in Riau provincial capital of Pekanbaru on Sumatra island, one of the areas worst hit by the annual haze that has plagued the region since the 1990s.
“We are truly ashamed by this haze, but are unable to fight it alone,” Chairul Zainal, head of hard-hit Riau province’s environmental impact agency, told The Associated Press.
“It is really disturbing the health of the people and hitting the economy.”
Residents of Pekanbaru said the air had improved because of recent rainfall, but many were skeptical the government would be able to solve the problem.
Zaiaibi — a mother of two children — complained that authorities had failed to act earlier. She said her children “are suffering respiratory problems and have had bloodshot eyes for weeks.”
The fires on Sumatra island and Indonesia’s portion of Kalimantan (Borneo) island are mostly set by farmers or companies as a cheap way to clear land for plantations. The peaty soil often smolders for weeks or months.
Teams of firefighters are trying to extinguish the blazes, and police have arrested scores of landowners in recent weeks.
However, officials have said that seasonal rains — forecast to fall in the next few weeks — are the only way to snuff all the fires out.
The land-clearing fires resulted in Southeast Asia’s worst haze in 1997-98, when smoke from Sumatra blanketed much of the region and was blamed for losses of nearly US$9 billion in tourism, health costs and business.
source : www.baliblog.com
source : www.baliblog.com
October 13th, 2006
The news right now is full of articles about the SE Asian ‘haze’, which blankets part of the region, in wood smoke, created for the most part in Kalimantan and Sumatra.
Reasons behind the haze are the clearing of jungle for farmland and the burning off of crop waste. How are these a part of Indonesian customs? Let’s look at farming in Indonesia.
There are
2 main systems of cultivation used in Indonesia,
sawah and
ladang.
Sawah is wet rice cultivation, whereby the terrain is terraced into level layers. This technique can be used up to 1,600 meters above sea level. You usually find sawah in monsoon areas of the low-lying plain, where water is abundant. Tabanan in SW Bali is a good example, and water flows 365 days a year.
Sawah is an intense form of farming, it demands rich soil, plentiful rainfall and sunshine, huge amounts of labor, to construct and maintain, and an organized water supply system. In Bali that system is called the subak.
Ladang means a shifting cultivation system. People using this basic system, use simple tools, to cultivate a section of dry land for food. Maybe 40% of Indonesians take part in ladang farming in some way.
The way ladang works, is unirrigated land is prepared by slashing and burning jungle. It is then cleared and planted with a selection of fast growing food crops. Ladang farmers will work in rows, going uphill anf over rough ground and other impediments. Men will poke holes in the ground with sharp sticks, while the women will follow, dropped rice seeds into the hole.
Ladang farming is less productive per hectare, than sawah and needs about 10 times the area to produce the same volume of food. It is practiced on soil that is unsuitable for sawah, such as the non-volcanic and will be exhausted in 2 years. The land is then left to the jungle for 10 years, allowing the farmer to return once more. If the jungle does re-grow and the area is covered by alang alang grass, the soil will be permanently unsuitable for farming.
In Indonesia, ladang farmers tend to live in permanent villages, rather than following a nomdadic lifestlye. Ladang farming is especially popular in the drier eastern islands such as Flores, Timor and parts of Sulawesi.
Here in Bali, if you go to the Bukit peninsula, you will see a vastly different style of farming, basically cattle and a few crops. Also is East Bali, there is a point where the rice belt stops and the corn belt starts. Its dues to the terrain, rainfall and soil.
The SE Asian haze is something that must be addressed, but just how the government, is going to deal with ladang farming remains to be seen. Recently in the news was an article stating that we collectively have reached thep oint where our environment on Earth is in ‘debt mode’ meaning the amount of resources we use and the amount of pollution we create, cannot be rectified by nature. Maybe Indonesia is a micro version of that, by which I mean that initially, a commnity of people in Sumatra clearing a hectare of land wouldn’t make any difference to anyone. Now the population has increased and the areas getting cleared are much larger, we’ve reached the point where their actions are affecting the whole region.
source : www.baliblog.com
October 13th, 2006