Comments on: Look who’s back

By: langkau

langkau — Sat, 08 Aug 2009 01:00:46 +0000

Well, maybe Goetzl will give a different approach in his presentation in KL? I guess if you’re around that area, it wouldn’t hurt to see what he has to say. :)

Wow. Heart attack is serious indeed. :) There are a few areas that I’ve in mind we can visit. I lived with some of them some years back.

By: laych

laych — Fri, 07 Aug 2009 16:24:52 +0000

Gee thanks dude for the info. Guess I don’t have to hear him talk after all. But will get back to you on Penan visit. Yesh, as serious as a heart attack :)

By: langkau

langkau — Fri, 07 Aug 2009 08:33:05 +0000

Just got back from that Goetzl talk. If you’ve watched Al Gore’s movie, then no need to attend this fellow’s talk. He talks about deforestation and climate change in general terms but did not touch in any specific issues. I asked him about the importance of ‘people component’, specifically the forest dwellers affected by this, but he evaded by first, saying it’s an important question (duh!), and second, that yes it is important issue BUT he doesn’t know what could be done about their predicament. He did not even give his opinion on it.

He also had this funny hypothesis: the more educated people become (as in ada tinggi sekolah lah), the more the environment becomes more secured (as in people don’t kacau it cincai). How is that, I asked him. He said, “Well, the more educated people are, the lower the birth rate. And lower birth rate means less impact population have on the environment” I scratched my head when he said that.

He also said “The higher per capita income the country has, the lower deforestation rate becomes”

I was totally not impressed, especially evading the questions. He didn’t even talk about his take on the deforestation issues in Malaysia, let alone cakap pasal the Penan. Maybe he’ll change his approach when he’s in KL. I don’t know.

Nothing new lah.

By: langkau

langkau — Fri, 07 Aug 2009 05:59:00 +0000

Really? You want to ikut to the Penan kah? If you’re serious, email me lah and then we can arrange for the trip.

By: laych

laych — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 07:45:01 +0000

Ooooooooohhhhh, yes am very interested. Kalau boleh aku nak ikut! Email coming yr way soon. Don’t worry bout commenting, mate. Interesting stuff never equals flooding!

By: langkau

langkau — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 15:46:22 +0000

Will let you know after the meeting lah so you can adjust your rate from 6/10. :)

If you want “examples” on the communities here that have been affected by all kinds of such problems, you can email me the questions. Outside work, my friends and I have been working with the communities relating to these issues and the kinds of organizations that say they actually do something on the ground but in actual fact…bleh. Just more than a week ago the EU group came over to ‘observe the plight of the Penan’ and later, told the media that they’re actually doing well. But they were in Mulu NP, where Penan have a regular job and things like that. Mau cakap pun bikin my darah naik only…I can email lah if you want to know more about this…or email me what you’re interested in..

Sorry to flood your comment column with this. :)

By: laych

laych — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 11:59:34 +0000

You’re meeting Goetzl on Friday? Oooh, more of an official meeting I suppose? I’m really curious about what he would have to say about the faith of tribes like the Penan when it comes to deforestation. I’d want to know what he knows about other tribal communities facing such problems and how they’ve dealt with outreach progs etc & development. Like, I want examples! And like you said, how to actually do something on the ground lah. :)