Let us see who gets RM566mil

The Federal Gov't Rural and Regional Development Ministry is giving Sarawak RM566.7 mil next year for various development projects in rural areas.

RM420.1 mil would be allocated for rural infrastructure, utilities and social amenities such as roads, power supply and water supply.

Another RM40.5mil would go for poverty eradication projects while the remaining RM106.1mil was for human capital development, rural economic activities, land development and information and communication technology development.

Anyone can have a good guess of who owns the companies that will undertake these projects. Hint: There is only one company that undertakes road works in Sarawak.

Sarawak Rivers Hazardous to Humans

As reported in The New Straits Times, Dr. Pengguang Manggil of Sarawak Natural Resources and Environment Board highlighted that several rivers in Sarawak have high bacterial concentration and are hazardous to humans. Such rivers include Sungai Bintangor and Sungai Sekama. The rivers such as Sungai Padungan and Sungai Maong cannot even be used for irrigation.

These rivers are polluted by effluents ands wastes dumped from food outlets, heavy industries, river-plying vessels and households. Rivers such as Sungai Sarawak are polluted with effluents and wastes from agricultural activities, land clearing and mining.

As the Sarawak continues to have Taib Mahmud and Barisan Nasional in power, our land and rivers will continue to be devastated. And we'll continue to destroy what we should preserve for the future generation.

Now is the time to remove Taib Mahmud and Barisan Nasional. We owe that to our future generation.

Ingenious - Solar-powered slug

Eat a plant and become photosynthetic. That's an ingenious energy efficiency model. And it's green, too.

A lurid green sea slug, with a gelatinous leaf-shaped body, has ability to run on solar power. Mary Rumpho of the University of Maine, has now discovered how the sea slug gets this ability: it photosynthesises with genes "stolen" from the algae it eats.

She has known for some time that E. chlorotica acquires chloroplasts – the green cellular objects that allow plant cells to convert sunlight into energy – from the algae it eats, and stores them in the cells that line its gut.

Young E. chlorotica fed with algae for two weeks, could survive for the rest of their year-long lives without eating, Rumpho found in earlier work.

Through evolution and advances in bio-technologies, could humans be photosynthetic?

Najib Churns Out Another Rhetoric on Education

Source: The Star Online

The Malaysian Smart Schools Flagship Application was created during the time when Najib was Minister of Education. If you read the Blueprint for the Malaysian Smart Schools System, what Najib said in his opening speech at the Seminar on Creating a Blue Ocean in Education and Training Sectors today is no different. He spoke of the need to achieve the same things that were in the Smart Schools blueprint.

Najib just loves to shout rhetorics. After spending a billion ringgit of taxpayers money on the Malaysian Smart Schools project, there is hardly any result to show. What is the status of the project? The project has perhaps died. Last year Hishamuddin, the current Minister of Education introduced yet another Education Blueprint.

Anyone can talk. Our education system will never rise above the level of thinking of our ministers.

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At another function on early education and ‘Each Child is a Gem of the Nation’ (Permata), Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak said the government had recently approved the Permata curriculum and programme for children ages four and below and there would be a national roll out of the programme next year.

He said RM200mil had been set aside under the 2009 Budget for child early education (from age one to six), adding that the Permata curriculum would be made mandatory for private centres.

Najib said there were 8,814 kindergartens in the country, most of which were privately run.

He also noted that as of 2007, only 10% or 3.1mil children in that age group attended day care centres, which was far below the 80% in developed countries.

He said the government recognised that the first four years of a child’s life were formative years and that 90% of rapid brain development happened during these early years and hence there was a need for a holistic type of early education.

Najib’s wife, Datin Seri Rosmah Mansor is the chairman of the Permata committee.

Dead Rivers of Sarawak

Twenty five years of Taib Mahmud's rule and Sarawak's many rivers are badly polluted, some classified as "dead".

That's Taib's politics of development. Plunder the land, pollute the rivers. For future generations, Taib Mahmud will leave behind dead rivers and raped land.

Ketuanan Melayu wld not have been if not for Sabah and Sarawak

Led by Gagasan Melayu Perak, this is a group of more than a thousand people marched to the Istana Kuala Kangsar to submit a memorandum to Sultan Azlan. The Sultan spoke of the need for people to respect social contract and Ketuanan Melayu.

Melayu memang mudah lupa. Have they forgotten that without Sabah and Sarawak, UMNO would not be ruling today and that Ketuanan Melayu would have been at ground level?

Why don't Gagasan Melayu march over to Sabah and Sarawak to pay homage and respect to East Malaysians for having protected the downfall of BN last election. UMNO and Malays will forever owe Sabahans and Sarawakians their dignity and morale.

See the pics here to understand why we need to protect these weaker and more sensitive people. Poor guys, they need to run to the Sultan for protection at the slightest provocation.

Apa Itu? Dayaks Insulted by Taib Mahmud

On Saturday, 1 November 2008 at the Sarawak Agro Fest 2008, Taib Mahmud arrogantly embarrassed and insulted the Dayaks saying that the shifting cultivation of the Dayaks created 2 mil acres of native customary rights land. His words, “You see, they (Dayaks) have two million acres under NCR lands just because of shifting cultivation. Apa itu?”

There is more than 7 million hectares of timber concessions which benefit Taib Mahmud dynasty and cronies.

Five companies control more than 5 mil hectares of timber concessions in Sarawak. Apa itu? Read more on Sarawak Headhunter blog here.

Obama - World's Most Powerful Man, 44th President of USA

All Things Are Possible. Similarly, change will come to Sarawak soon. For Sarawak, the long road ahead starts now - the immediate removal of Taib Mahmud, Alfred Jabu, George Chan and all the BN state cabinet members. Our climb will be steep. We may not get there in one year or even one term, but Sarawak - I have never been more hopeful than I am now that we will get there. I promise you -- we as a people will get there soon.

Well Put

Source: The Star Online

The Star puts it perfectly - Sarawak is stunning.

But for how long? Some rivers are already so polluted and some are already dead zones. Towns, factories, farming and settlements along the rivers must now switch to eco-friendly practices. We cannot depend on the government alone to conserve Sarawak. It's our personal responsibility to our future generations.