Hazing the Neighbours....

This picture was taken earlier today, at 10.50 am. Nope, it wasn't fog. It's the bloody haze.

My school is on top of a hill, Bukit Merchat (or Mer-chut Hill to you English speaking people). We have a spectacular view of the surrounding, and from over elevation, can see kilometres away. The haze has made this impossible for months now...

Indonesia is on fire.... The country surrounding Malaysia is burning its jungles for new plantations. Smoke and ash are spread throughout South East Asia and the neighbouring countries like Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand and the Philippines are affected. This happens EVERY FREAKING YEAR!

The air was so polluted that some states close schools because of the high API (air pollution index). In the picture, our API is about 128.... Just imagine in south Sumatra, Indonesia, some parts reached 800 - 1000 units.

And yesterday in the news, a minister from Indonesia asked why must they apologize for the haze?

....... some people are born stupid it seems....

Of Facemasks and Poor Innocent Pigs

I should've touched this topic a long time ago.... but you know what? YOU guys made me do this. NONE of you (at least that I am aware of) had touched about the H1N1 devastation in your blogs. So as a morbid explorer of things not-very-nice, here we go again...

Months ago when the first outbreak of the virus in Mexico, the rest of the world was in total indifference, including truly yours. "Oh, it is so far away. Good luck for you Mexicans and serve you right for eating pork."

And now, H1N1 has came knocking on the front door, with a few fatalities so very near to my workplace!! The horror! The dread! The revulsion! (not)

And as usual, during a crisis, some people are so quick to make a few extra bucks. The price of facemasks sky-rockets to 500%. I say this is one of the evil in capitalism. I never wear a facemask myself, because (*snigger*) it make people look like invading amateur ninjas. And I loaded up myself with vitamins and garlic to avoid getting sick. And successfull for now at least.

The new urban legend; You eat pork, you get the virus. Even if it starts with the pigs, the H1N1 virus does not widely spread with our porchine friends. People spread the virus - I taught all my students, so don't blame the pigs. People got into aeroplanes and buses and irresponsibly sneezed / coughed in public, spreading the virus at an alarming rate. So imagine the travel plans for the virus, from Mexico to your very own neighbourhood... It's very global minded :)

And why oh why when I see people from abroad in tv, most are still not wearing facemasks? Are Caucasians (excuse me if I am wrong) immune to the said virus? This I-don't-care-attitude is the main ingredient for the world wide spread.

And come to think of it, the spread of the virus reminds me of the RESIDENT EVIL series (in films and games) where people turns to zombies by a virus. It's Umbrella Corporation fault again :)

p.s. - and this pic is of some female teachers in school wearing masks. They are not going to thank me doing this, but hell, they never monitor my blog anyway. :)