Are we prepared for a haze emergency?

This has been the question in everyone’s mind. And the answer is obviously no. There was no standing committee on standby for such an eventuality. The only committee to deal with a haze crisis is still in the pipeline with Eng Hen being appointed to look into it. The distribution of N95 masks in the stockpile is another piece of evidence that even this is an issue. They are still distributing the masks after one week. If it is a deadly epidemic, a few days are all it takes to take down a big portion of the population. Perhaps no one sees this as a crisis. The crossing of the 400 PSI was still treated as normal. And to minimize the concern, the people were told to look at 24 hours average than the real PSI at the moment. And many have pointed this out as a major flaw and mistake in thinking that an average reading is more relevant than the actual situation. Unbelieveable, really!

So, how proactive are we in tackling such a national crisis? There was no emergency procedures on hand and everyone was looking at one another second guessing what should be done next.

On the other hand there could be some emergency procedures in hand but not realized or understood. Everyone was looking for a haze emergency procedure. What about the SARS emergency procedure? Could not this be activated? The similarities are there and the procedures and steps needed to be taken can be quite similar with some modifications or omissions.

But Singaporean thinking is such that they are looking for a specific sign, like a U Turn sign to make a U Turn. So if the emergency procedure does not have the word haze on it, and worst, if it is stated clearly for SARS, then it cannot be applied to a haze problem.

The way the masks were distributed, it makes people wonder whether it is a new procedure that was worked out in the morning or was is an emergency procedure that has been thought through and planned well in advance. The execution was slow and inefficient in every sense. It was a few army boys trying to do some logistic delivery tasks.

The obvious is that all the medical and grassroot institutions could be mobilized into a distribution network. The CCs, RCs and the Neighbourhood Police Posts, NTUC FairPrice or even Seven Eleven could make reaching out to the people more penetrating and extensive.

And why are the men from the Civil Defence not activated? This is a job cut out for them. And the air raid siren would definitely come in very useful to sound the alarm when the PSI hits 300 or 400, to tell the people to go indoors. The tricky part is whether it should blare at 3 am in the morning to wake everyone up from their sleep.

Maybe all this will take shape after a haze emergency task force is formed and the details worked out. For the moment we shall thank God that we had a near miss, a lucky escape. We are given a second chance to sort things out, to get things right and to protect our backside safely the next time round.

PM Najib declares emergency in Muar and Ledang, API surpasses 750

Author: Online Press
(KUALA LUMPUR, 23 Jun): Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak has declared emergency in Muar and Ledang districts with immediate effect after API readings in the two areas surpassed the 750 mark.

Earlier, Natural Resources and Environment Minister Datuk Seri G Palanivel earlier this morning had said Muar recorded the highest with 750, followed by Bukit Rambai, Malacca (357) and Malacca City with (364).

The highest API ever recorded in Malaysia was in Sarawak in 1997 with reading of 860….

The above is reposted in TRE. The Malaysians are using the API system. I am not sure of the equivalent to the PSI. Whatever, the situation is dire. If this were to hit us today, many of us will still be having problems getting our N95. But staying in doors and using wet towels should help at least.

The respite we have may not last and the PSI could go north again, like in Muar. Be prepared.

N95 mask price - Random search in the net

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approximate price per mask | case = .78 each mask

Foreign sportsmen - Paying for whatever we want

This is a follow up to the ‘pay solution’ to solve the haze problem. Either we pay the plantation owners on the ground or the regional commanders or those in Jakarta, the idea is to pay as little for the best result. Paying the plantation owners to clear the land without fire is likely to be the cheapest option.

This is the mantra to the success story of Singapore as a City of international citizens. Everyone is welcome as long as he/she is a talent. Our latest talent is the short putter from China in a non revenue pursuit called sports. Why would a country, sorry, I meant city, want to spend so much money on an unnecessary and wasteful pursuit, all for some fetish glory really beats me. I thought those were the days when we were kids and anything that could boost our ego a little was worth pursuing. We flew kites, fought spiders, played all kinds of games to be the winner. That damn shiok feeling for a fleeing moment was enough for all the effort.

As a first world city, should be sikit atas in the head, are we really thinking or sick up there to spend millions on such silly things when the money could be better spent on training our own citizens instead of international citizens? So what if our citizens could not win medals, at least the money is well spent to encourage and promote sports as a healthy lifestyle? And to think that the money could be made available to help the needies, it is quite a sickening feeling.

Would the MPs, or would the non ruling party MPs, raise this issue in Parliament, that the Govt must account for spending on the unnecessary and the wasteful, like paying international citizens to win medals? If they are desperate for medals, it would be cheaper to buy from Sungei Road or from those past winners of third world countries on hard times.

There was a photo of several ATM machines being destroyed in the Today paper last week with this caption.

‘This bank of ATMs was destroyed by vandals during clashes in Rio de Janeiro on Monday. Youths clashed with police in Rio as over 200,000 people marched in Brazilian cities to protest against the billions of dollars spent to host next year’s World Cup and the 2016 Olympics, while areas such as education, hospitals and security see little improvement.’

The Brazilians are angry with their govt for wanton spending on the unnecessary while education, hospitals and security of the country and people are neglected. They want their govt to prioritise and spend public money wisely and not on gimmicks and fantasies.’

Our people are more civil and restrained and would just go as far as Hong Lim to sign petition and sing songs of protest. It is still a very long way to agitate and anger our people to force them to march through the streets and run riot. We can still have the few MPs in Parliament to raise question, of course nothing would come out of it except to make a few red faces for unpopular policies. Let’s make this wasteful spending of public money an issue in Parliament and put a stop to it once for all. The money of the people must not be foolishly spent by adolescents to satisfy their fetish craze for a few sports medals. Our public money must be carefully distributed or used to benefit our citizens and not international citizens.

Demand that this issue be put to a vote and those who voted to pay foreigners to win medals should use their own money to support their crazy hobby and not to touch public funds.

Solutions to a hazy problem

We are getting a little reprieve from the full onslaught of the haze problem for the moment. Last week was frightening and if the haze did not subside yesterday, we are in for big trouble when our logistics and great contingency plans failed to react fast enough. A simple thing like 9m masks could not find their way to the people who needed them. They are probably kept in the deep silos or high security bank vaults and no one has the key to open it.

The economic cost of the haze can come into hundreds of millions, or as one analyst guessed, could even hit a billion dollars. And that is not counting the damage to the health of the people, the ecological system and the cost of medicare. And the numbers did not include the cost to our neighbours in the north. The cost to the people in Riau is their own problem and for them to take care of.

Can there be a long term solution to the haze problem? The plantation owners, big and small, are going to clear land as economic growth and making money are the end alls of life. So they will continue to burn, like an annual religious ritual. There is an almost simple and effective solution to this problem, that is to allow them to do as they pleased as it makes economic sense to the companies to do so. For the cost of a match, they could bring down thousands of hectares of vegetation. Why pay for the bull dozers and the manpower to do the hard and expensive way? The hundreds of millions or billions of losses to Singapore and Malaysia are not their concern.

It only takes the Indonesian Govt to decree that burning can only take place in the month of October after the North East monsoon has started. The haze will go to the Indian Ocean instead. How the Riau people going to live with it by being in the centre of the haze is still a problem but not ours to care.

Another way is to pay for the solution. With the damage done to Singapore and the Malaysian economies in the hundreds of millions or billions, it would be pragmatic and economically expedient to pay the companies what they need to clear the land. This could be only a few millions dollars. Why not, it makes economic sense isn’t it? It is a win win solution. The plantation owners got their land cleared and we have clear skies, and the cost is only a fraction of the damage that the plantation owners would have inflicted on us in Singapore and Malaysia.

Yes, it is like paying a ransom to the thugs to leave us alone while they feast on the loot. Isn’t this the thinking of the day, that as long as it makes economic sense, just do it. We gambled by bringing in millions of foreigners just to increase our economic numbers with not a care about the dire consequences now and into the future. We allowed our banking and finance industry to indulge in all kinds of unacceptable high risk ventures for short term profits, employing the crooks from New York, London and Mumbai to run our financial institutions to the ground. Some may not think so as it is still looking like a rosy apple from the outside while the worms are growing within.

The cost of the solution to pay the plantation owners for clean air is nothing. It only costs a few million bucks which is small change really. The pay of a top banker is enough to foot the bill with change to spare.

What do you think? Oops, I know, talk is free and talking nonsense is a good weekend escapee.