UNPLEASANT DEMONSTRATION IN PENANG

I was down in Prangin Mall doing some shopping when I received a call from my Dad saying that there was a protest demonstration down in Komtar. Surprisingly, I did not feel any threats at all as everything in the mall seemed to be normal. When I left the mall around 2.30pm, I saw that there was a crowd gathering in front of Starbuck shouting “Merdeka!” This was the first time I saw so many people gathered in front of the Chief Minister’s office building in protest on his decision towards the New Economic Policy (NEP).

There were many policemen and Federal Reserve Unit (FRU) personnel surrounding the mall area barricading some of the major roads. The traffic was rather chaotic. There were even two helicopters flying over the building to inspect the situation. Tensions began to grow as most of the Prangin Mall area roads were filled with swarms of people. Luckily there were no unwanted incidents when the crowd dispersed hours later. Here are some of the shots of the gathering below.

FIRST MALAYSIAN BLOGGER IN PARLIAMENT

The blogosphere created history today by having our fellow blogger, DAP's Jeff Ooi, 52, becoming an MP. Jeff Ooi became the first Malaysian blogger to have won the three-cornered fight for the Jelutong parliamentary seat with a 16,246-vote majority in Penang yesterday. He was contesting against Gerakan's Dr Thor Teong Gee and Independent’s Badrul Zaman.

The opposition party (DAP+PKR+PAS) denied the national coalition BN their 2/3 majority in this election by claiming 5 states, namely Penang, Perak, Kedah, Selangor and Kelantan. Even though BN has secured their seats for forming the next federal government in this election, it is obvious that the public wanted a change in having THE MALAYSAN rather than having a country breaking up in separate races.

Let us see what the new change will have in store for us with all the new faces in the Malaysian politic. For more information, you can check for updates in Malaysiakini or the election 2008 results.

PRESERVING OUR NATURE

If you are a nature’s lover, you should go to one site which I frequent a lot. The Nature Conservancy is one organization that I would give a thumbs-up for what they did since 1951. They are the leading conservation organization working around the world to protect ecologically important lands and waters for nature and people.

Since their founding, the organization had protected more than 117 million acres of land and 5,000 miles of rivers worldwide with more than 100 marine conservation projects globally such as in the region of Africa, Asia Pacific, Caribbean, and USA. They have also addressed threats to conservation involving climate change, fire, fresh water, forests, invasive species, and marine ecosystems. It will be a waste if you did not check out their stunning jaw-dropping photograph collections on the Coral Reefs, Forests, Freshwater Ecosystems, Great Rivers, Islands, Marine Ecosystems, Rainforests or Tropical Forests.

If you plan to help in the conservation practices in you daily life that will affect the natural world around us for the benefits of your future generation, you can always start by assisting in the bird conservation, improving the quality of the rivers, combating invasive species by not dumping them into where they should not be and helping in protecting the coral reefs.

Here are some of nature’s wonderful colors to share with you all. Won’t it be sad if such nice places are polluted by human’s uncivilized actions? Think before you throw your next bit of rubbish onto the grounds, seas or rivers!