myth 85

'Haze, an amazing Indonesian myth' The Asean Ministers attending the haze conference were so simplistic in their approach to the haze problem. To them, the haze was caused by irresponsible plantation owners and small farmers clearing land for cultivation and development. The solution is thus very simple. Set up effective laws against such practices, enforce them, and put the culprits behind bars. Unfortunately they were so far from the truth and the Indonesians were there to educate them on the problem and how to solve them effectively. To the Indonesians, the haze is a natural disaster, something like the tsunami. And one way to tackle it is to provide a good early warning system like a dedicated satellite so that the affected countries will have enough time to react before the haze hit and will not be drown. The second cause of haze is the smouldering fire under the debris of fallen trees and peat. To prevent such fire which can burn for a long time to re ignite the forest, the solution is to build a lot of dams to raise the water level so that all the grounds are virtually flooded and no fire can be kept alive. Still the Asean Ministers don't get it and failed to understand these ingenius analysis of the problems and the well thought out plans. All the Asean Ministers are concerned is cost. To have a dedicated satellite and building dams across Sumatra and Kalimantan will cost hundreds of millions. And they are not going to spend those money. So they told the Indonesians to set these ambitious and clever plans aside and just go and catch the fire starters. Now, without spending the money, how could the Asean Ministers expect the haze to go away? And there are no fire starters. These are natural phenomenon. Blame nature.