Keningau girl is a possible astronault

A kadazan girl from Keningau, a small interior town in Sabah will stand a chance to be selected as the first astronault from Malaysia.The 24 years old girl will be competing with 26 other Malaysians for the position. Best of lucks!

New terminal for out-station buses

The only one word to describe the situation at the new bus terminals-confusions! Why can't the authority do a trial run before the real thing? Why is the rush?

Life-hanging-onto a hanging bridge

I remember posting a similar situation somewhere in this blog before. This time it is at another location, but the scenario is the same. About 300 students of Sekolah Menengah Kota Marudu II have to cross a suspension bridge across Sungai Sumbilingon to reach the school daily. It is no big deal if the 150m long bridge is in good conditions. But the bridge is in very bad shape due to age (built 20 years ago) and lack of proper maintenace. Out of the original 5 floor boards, only 1 remained. The students have to cling tightly to one of the cables and tread carefully on the single floor board. Any slip,they will fall into the waters of the river below. The students are from the near by villages : Salaping,Popok,Mangkupa,Radu and Kampar. The village heads of these kampung had appealed to the local authority for assistance but there seem to be no response. Guess it is the Malaysian way,nothing will be done until a tregedy happens,then everyone will be pushing the blame around and finally there will be some actions. I pray this will not happen!

Preserve the Heart of Borneo

WWF Malaysia chairman Tengku Datuk Adlin appealled to the 3 countries sharing the Borneo Island namely Indonesia (East Kalimantan),Malaysia (Sabah & Sarawak) and Brunei to take actions to preserve the lowland rainforest on this island. This stretch of rainforest is the "Heart of Borneo",keeping the balance of the ecosystem by recycling the carbon dioxide,decay animals carcasses,decay dead plants. If the logging and the shift-cultivation activities are not checked in time the Kalimantan portion will soon disappear. So let's work together to save this green lung of our land.

Sabah Wetland Conservation Society

The Likas Wetland Sanctuary Management committee is now called the Sabah Wetland Conservation Society when it obtained approval from the registrar Of Society. It now has the status of a non government organization,receiving only moral support but no financial support from the government. The Sabah branch of the Natural Resources and Environment Ministry has formed a working committee headed by Sabah State Secretary,Datuk K.Y. Mustafa to plant more mangrove trees along Sabah coast lines. The Sabah Wetland Conservation Society is expected to be a key player in the project to be funded under the 9th Malaysia Plan. One of its subsidiary, the Kota Kinabalu City Birds Sanctuary's manager- Puan Ainon Salam is elected to sit in the committee also. She told reporters that Sabah will not have any problem in getting enough seedlings for the project because it has abundance of mangrove trees--about 1/3 of Malaysia's mangrove trees are found in Sabah. Puan Ainon also disclosed that the KK City Birds Sanctuary will open earlier by 2 hours every day on the suggestion of Tengku Datuk Zainal Adlin,Chairman of Malaysia WWF. In the past the Birds Sanctuary had received complaints from visitors that there was no birds in the sanctuary to watch. One reason could be due to the center opened only at 8.00am,by then the birds have all left to hunt for food or hiding in the redwoods forest (mangrove) from the hot sun. She also pointed out that the birds sanctuary is different from a birds park,where all the birds are kept within the vicinity with nesting or cages. Whereas in the birds sanctuary the birds are free to come and go as they like,the number varies with the hours of the day also with the seasons of the year. They will fly here to seek shelter when the climate in their home countries is getting cold and will go home when the climate at home gets warmer. The number of birds here are growing due to the good works of students from various school and volunteers who helped to clean up the rivers and the surroundings. As the water becomes clean,more fishes will grow and attract more birds to come. Keep up the good work everyone!

Out-stations taxi terminals

According to the statements of the Chief Minister of Sabah yesterday,the petition campaign by the 7 taxi drivers associations will not deter the Sabah state government's decision to relocate the long distance taxi and buses terminals out of town.In 3 months time they will be relocated to Tg Aru (The South Terminal) for taxi/buses plying the towns on the south,and to Inanam (The North Terminal) for taxi/buses going to northern towns. Ummm......3 months is a long time,maybe the government will change its mind after one month,after all the taxi drivers and the pasar hawkers are good party election campaign workers.One should respect their wishes,else comes election time..........