June 24, 2013
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The Haze.
Incase you haven't heard, it’s been two weeks since bad haze started to terrorize the people of Malaysia and Singapore, due to the burning of forests in the northern region of Sumatra Island of Indonesia.
As I understand it, the burning was done to clear the land to make way for new crops for the palm oil estates, owned by several private companies. Due to the lack of restrictions from the Indonesian government side to regulate the practice of forest burning by private sectors, the smoke resulted from this burning severely polluted the air of Malaysia and Singapore, as the wind brought the smoke north-west direction.
links:
the haze
palm oil companiesThe result is one of the worse hazes in air pollution history for Malaysia and Singapore, resulting in closing down of schools and a halt in many regular daily activities, as people are advised to stay indoor. Many who have to venture outside would need to cover themselves with a face mask, prompting a speedy sales of the said masks, despite the escalating price in tripled to quadrupled from the original over-the-counter price.
links:
closing down schools
singapore mask sales
malaysia mask salesAir quality reading is measured on regular basis and it is said that some parts in Malaysia had it as bad as PSI 800, while Singapore had it up to PSI 400. PSI readings become the regular daily concern that it is all the people of Malaysia and Singapore talk about. A friend from Singapore even jokingly sent me this picture, to show how regular people would measure PSI reading in their neighborhood.
I’m hoping this air disaster will soon pass and with legal reprimands given to the companies responsible for the burning. All these talks on the haze is giving Indonesia a bad rep.
Comments (13)
Monye is the ruler at the companies. I hope they realize they are killing the people.
Wow, what a bad rep for Indonesia - especially with the neighbours. I have actively avoided the news the past few weeks because it always a downer, so I didn't catch this.
BTW, I like how I know what pi sai means because that's what we call it in Teochew!
LOL I like that chart.
I remember reading about the haze in Singapore, but I had no idea it was effecting Indonesia and Malaysia as well. I really hope this situation serves as a wake up call to the government of those countries of what kind of damage such a mass burning of forests does to the air quality.
Not only is the devastation and loss of so many trees absolutely horrible, the fact that the air quality has been made so poor that people can't even go outside without having safe air to breath is just unacceptable. The governments of those countries clearly need to come together and do something to make sure something like this never happens again.
And the companies responsible for causing so much pollution and bad air quality should be fined big time because one can not put a price on the damage that their actions are doing to peoples' health. Clearly common sense is missing from many of the worlds' businesses and politicians still and unfortunately the innocent citizens are the ones to pay the price for this negligence.
I hope the air quality improves super soon in your region and that strict measures are taken to make sure this won't happen again. I will definitely be doing some more reading up on this issue as well ! Take care and have a great start to the week, bye for now.
Kyle
Last night on the news I saw the haze in Singapore, resulting from the burning of forests in Indonesia. That looked awful.
This is so sad.
I'm sure the companies know the damage they are causing...
From the photos I've seen on facebook it looks horrific...and I live in LA!
Simply aweful and shameful!
I was right here in the middle of it! Last Thurs was the worst. It felt like Armageddon. I have some photos. I should post them.
@Fatcat723 - let's hope they do N feel remorse about it.
@stepaside_loser - lol... yeah, PI-SAI is also what we call it in Hokkien.
@beowulf222 - me too. so funny.
@kyle061685 - believe it or not, this is actually almost an annual problem.
@ZSA_MD - yeah. very awful. i feel for them.
@Devilzgaysianboi - let's hope they do. N that they'll do something about it.
@CareyGLY - it's worse than downtown jakarta, actually. and certainly close to what beijing is going through.
@Kliente2 - shameful indeed.
@icepearlz - yes, you should. post them so we all get to learn what singapore really has to go through.
@Devilzgaysianboi - I doubt the companies' owners care. It's all about the profit.
I saw a satellite picture of the smoke and haze. It still boggles me that after all these years, the govt still can't do anything about it.
@beowulf222 - yeah. most of them do think that way.
@ElusiveWords - i know. i wonder if the government actually getting under the table payment from those companies all these years.