What’s the deal with haze?

It’s been a little hazy these past few weeks. Not suprising really. Not to say that it’s as certain as death and taxes but it’s been something you expect to happen yearly living in this part of the world (in Singapore, that is).

I remember browsing the magazine racks in the library sometime last year and I came across Asia! magazine, which I think has amazing content and in-depth insights on the region. I came across an article on haze in the August 2008 issue. It had some new reportings on haze that the rest of media usually do not include.

When haze gets really bad, when I am  reminded of it with each breath that I take, I really cannot help but think: if the effect of haze is this bad in Singapore, which is thousands of miles away from Sumatra, I can’t imagine how it must be like for the people who actually live there. Which is why it’s hard to understand why there are people who would do that year in and year out.

In my attempt to understand the reasons behind the annual choking season, these are some of the reported findings:

• One main driving force behind forest loss in the Riau Province of Sumatra is this company called APRIL (Asia Pacific Resources International Holdings Limited).

• It owns about 697,400 hectares of the 700,000-hectare landscape of the Kampar Peninsula landscape of Riau, a peat swamp habitat which it converted into a timber plantation. This company practically owns the entire area, with other local companies it is directly associated with.

• It also operates a 2.2-million-tonne pulp mill in Riau. How big is this  operation in the scheme of things? It’s HUGE. Even back when the mill started running in 1995, it is the largest single lined pulp mill in the world. It now runs a number of pulp mills around the world.

• Haze events have been recorded in 1983, 1990, 1991 and 1994, even before the pulp mill was built. 

• APRIL has been planting lots of trees that it would later cut to feed the pulp mill. But according to the company it will not be able to supply its pulp mill with the plantations before 2008 even if everything goes as planned. Up to that date the pulp mill uses wood originating from natural forest clearings. I’m not sure if natural forest clearings mean forest burning.

• APRIL is a Singapore based company.

• APRIL is under the subsidiary of RGM International, owned by the richest man in Indonesia, Sukanto Tanoto, accordingg to Forbes in 2008. He relocated to Singapore and based his operations here in 1990s.

• This is my favourite bit: The company received numerous awards and labels from environmental bodies for being ”Green”.  I’m not sure what “Green” means in this case.

• Does the product below look familiar to you? If you use paper for print, you probably have used this. Most, if not all print companies use this. Not just in Singapore but in many parts of the world. APRIL makes this stuff.

Public opinion on the haze issue has been to blame Indonesia and it’s authorities for being laxed on forest regulations. The media (the conventional ones not independent ones) never mentions the Singapore based company’s huge involvement in forest clearing in Riau. This hole left out by the media when reporting on haze is not giving people a complete picture of what’s really going on.

I’m not shocked by what the company does. They make paper. The world wants paper. Lots of it, and faster than new trees can be planted. Although it doesn’t sound like enough profits and effort are being chanelled to finding out better ways to make paper. They’ve been burning forest since the crazy 80s and old habits die hard. But that guy Tanoto make so much money from paper, what is he doing to find sustainable ways to make paper?  See, the Indonesian authorities can’t do that. Even if they pass some regulations to ban forest burning (if they haven’t already), it’s a freaking dense forest how are they going to catch the forest burner? Islam prohibits the burning of tree even during a war, let alone during a time of peace. I don’t think that planting new trees give anyone a right to cut them, or worse, burn them.

What I find inappropriate is that people are putting the blame on Indonesia alone for this. That’s not solving the problem. Indonesia is suffering the worst of the haze. Imagine the old and the young choking on smoke in Sumatra. Towns and villages literally blinded by thick smoke every year. This haze is part of the price that we are all paying for using so much paper so cheaply and maybe so mindlessly as well. We have blood (or shall I say smoke) on our hands, baby and we didn’t even know it.

Traffic road fatalities or terrorism: which pose a bigger threat to your life?

The recent bombings in Jakarta, Indonesia surely is shocking. There is also something else that I find extremely shocking and unacceptable: more people die from fatal road accidents than from terrorist violence. Many of these accidents are preventable, if people adhere to basic road safety and if road safety regulations is stepped up sufficiently. The true sad fact is that in most cases road safety doesn’t receive half the amount of attention that the fight against terrorism does. There are more drivers who drive like there’s no tomorrow than there are terrorists.

Let’s get back to Indonesia for a second. Here’s a look at some of the 2007 statistics from World Health Organization:

Reported road traffic fatalities (2007)

16 548e (73% males, 23% females)

1. Reported road traffic fatalities (2007) : 16 548 (73% males, 23% females)

These numbers tell a story: 73% of reported road casualities in Indonesia are men. Fathers, sons, husbands. Breadwinners. Think about the struggles affected families have to deal with financially and also emotionally.  These are reported cases. There are probably more cases which went unreported.

By comparison, Indonesia’s biggest death toll from terrorist violence was from 2002 Bali bombing, at 202. If you combine all the number of deaths from terrorist violence in Indonesia, it won’t even come close to road traffic deaths in 2007 alone: 16 548.

[note: these are not just numbers and statistics. these are real people. people with mothers, fathers, and loved ones. people with dreams and hopes.]

2. Road traffic deaths in Indonesia have been steadily increasing since 2002.

Safe to say that whatever we are doing to prevent road traffic deaths is far from sufficient. It’s not even on our minds or our to-do lists.

These are just numbers from road deaths. We have not even included air plane crashes and sinking ferries. Almost each year without fail, especially during the  holiday seasons, we hear of sinking ferries where hundreds die, because the ferries were overloaded with people beyond capacity and also not enough life jackets. Such cases are most definitely preventable. Haven’t we learned at all from past events?

What I’m trying to say: While terror violence reports are hogging the headlines, and while we step up security and do our best to fight terrorism, let’s not forget the bigger silent killer here that are taking the lives of our fellow Joes and Johans on the street every single day.

Thin line

“Fine Art is about personal messages and Design is about communicating someone’s message for them.”

- Rei Inamoto | AKQA

Build bridges, or better still: BE the bridge

“[Leonardo Da Vinci] combined art and science and aesthetics

and engineering, that kind of unity is needed once again.”

~ Ben Shneiderman, 2002

“[Leonardo Da Vinci] combined art and science and aesthetics

and engineering, that kind of unity is needed once again.”

- Ben Shneiderman, 2002

P a r e n t s

The Prophet peace be upon him said:

” For any Muslim who has two Muslim parents and who goes to them every morning obeying their requests, Allah opens two doors to heaven. If he has one parent Allah opens one door to heaven for him. If he displeases either of them, Allah will not be pleased with him until that parent of his is pleased with him. Someone asked: even if they are unjust to him? He answered: Even if they are unjust.”