Sunday, July 30, 2006

They don't build 'em like they used to

In my recent trip to Nias, an island off the west coast of Sumatra which was recently hit by a series of earthquake and of course the 2004 tsunami, we were told that some traditional architecture withstood the test of nature.

In fact, these architecture were so fantastic that it attest to the traditional indigenous knowledge of the people on the island. They were familiar with the concept of earthquake-proofing their homes.

Unfortunately, these homes are no longer built on the island due to the loss of knowledge and the lack of materials. I guess each house would require the depletion of a good piece of primary hardwood forest.

Round Traditional House

There are two designs, representative of architecture from different parts of the island. At this point in time I cannot remember which is from the south and which from the north.

Square Traditional House

One has a roundish design and one a squarish one. Personally I prefer the round one. Of course they are on stilts. And if you look closely at the round one, not only are they on thick trunk stilts, they are also crossed and double crossed at the bottom which make for very stable foundations.

None of these houses were reported to have collapsed during the multiple earthquakes over the last 2 years.

Unfortunately these houses are expensive to maintain and when we interviewed the homeowners, they reported that the houses were built in the times of their grandparents about 2-3 generations ago and now nobody knows how to do it and also do not know why the houses were built on stilts or in the manner that it is. In fact, the grandma from the square house said that his grandfather built the house himself. Now they just reguarly replace the the thatch roof and it's as much as they can do. Did I mention that I heard these homes were built without nails?

Dog

How long will these informed and intelligent, tried-and-tested-against-time architecture last on the surface of this earth? In Thailand, researchers are helping to preserve traditional architecture and building method by having the last of the men with the knowhow to teach them to scientists and academics who would then record them down and for the technique to remain for future generations. However, even in Penang, when I visited the building guild, the beautiful nail-less wooden sedans and intricate constructions built generations ago are now rotting away in a little room with none of the guild members able to reconstruct or replicate its grandeur.

Why do we often let these knowledge slip through our fingers and not realizing, or perhaps never realizing even after it's too late.


Read full article here

Wednesday, July 26, 2006

Modules ARS4 AY0607 Sem 1

To spare you the drama I save only for the unlucky few, here are the modules I am taking this upcoming semester:

GE4101 Development of Geographic Thought
GE4214 Remote Sensing and Spatial Handling
GE3237 Geographies of Migration
SE3213 Rice, Spice & Trees: Peasants in SE Asia
GEK1535 Our Atmosphere: A Chemical Perspective

It felt good to read that I am now listed as a SOCIAL SCIENCES HONOURS student, undertaking a BACHELOR OF SOCIAL SCIENCES WITH HONOURS.

What a way to start my day.


Read full article here

Monday, July 24, 2006

Travelogue: Ximending, Taipei, Taiwan

4 years ago when I was planning to go to US, I bought an airticket that requires me to have a layover in Taiwan for 6 hours. Then, I already decided I want to make my pilgrimage to Ximending - the Shibuya of Taipei, Taiwan.

However, as things turned out. I never made that trip. Still, I constantly hear references on TV and watch shots from the place on taiwanese programming on TV. I must admit, despite all appearances, Monkey is very ha-tai. That basically means that instead of being a jpop or kpop nut, I'm actually a tpop monkey. lol You can see why...


My house is at Ximending!

Unfortunately, as circumstances would have it, my companions for this trip were not very cheena and find no excitement whatsoever in this "shopping district". Well, I will have them know that it is more than just a shopping district. This is a mecca for youth culture thankyouverymuch!


Look! Even miaomiao comes with its own shrine here. (Postscript: I think this photo was taken beside Shilin MRT station instead of Ximending)

Enough talk from me, just look at the pictures!





Some of the highlights of the short one-hour whirlwind tour of ximending included some students doing hiphop dancing along the street. There were also some people doing breakdancing in front of a hiphop clothing store which I dare not take picture of. I'd look too much like a hick lol or perhaps not at all since isn't it asian culture to snap snap snap? lol



Of course Monkey couldn't resist taking photos with the cutiedolls and the Da Ding Dang (read: big doraemon)



It was just too bad that we didn't see any cosplay girls (and guys) in action! We did see one at Shilin market area and she had a witch/maid outfit with a frufru umbrella, sitting at the MRT station waiting for her friend. Was hoping to see more in Ximending. Oh well. But perhaps this could pass off as some costume-play.



It's interesting how the indigenous people of Taiwan has costumes similar to the Native Americans. And more interestingly, a visit to the indigenous people museum near Yangmingshan and a very indepth and interesting conversation with one of the museum staff who was also of a ethnic-native background informed monkey that the tribes in Taiwan are of a austronesian background and have closer links to the maoris than to the tribes of sino-tibetan origins. *phew* that was a long sentence. In fact, none of the tribes have concept of the sea so they could not have had migrated through seafaring. The only tribe with such a concept was the Yami people who were from Philippines and travelled by sea to Taiwan and they are the "newest" people in Taiwan, well apart from the Han Chinese who arrived just a few hundred years ago.

See more photos from taiwan at my flickr account.


Read full article here

Friday, July 21, 2006

Back

Although I am back, have been and will be very busy. Will blog about my adventure in Indonesia soon, especially the flight fiasco on the last leg of the trip.

Will be helping out with Homecoming 2006 tomorrow and then taking a trip to Pulau Sekudu with Wildfilms hopefully. Just got to secure some kind of transport now.

Need to blog about my Expedition H during Heritage Fest to the North Indian community. Today bumped into our guide for Expedition H at the STB info centre at sommerset. Turns out a couple of seniors from the geography honors class 2005/6 are also on attachment there and I bumped into one there today as well. I was actually there with some friends from China who are here for the LKY Global Business Plan competition finals. One of them was my fellow Bayer Ecominds representative in Philippines. She was representing China, naturally.

As the Earth spins, the world gathers in my little island called Singapore.


Read full article here

Tuesday, July 18, 2006

Pulau Nias

Selamat Bagi!
 
From 17-20 July 2006, I will be at Pulau Nias, Indonesia, off the coast of Northwestern Sumatra helping out with a Geographic Information Systems (GIS) capacity training for local officials and the staff from Banda Restoration and Rehabilitation (BRR) in Nias. These are the people who essentially help to rebuild homes for the Niasan who lost their homes in the 2004 tsunami and the many subsequent earthquakes. In fact, there was just an earthquake last week.
 
It is to no surprise on my part when my mother called me yesterday with a worried tone in her voice asking me if I was alright because on the first day we arrived here in Nias, an earthquake of magnitude 7.2 hit East Java, subsequently causing a tsunami. Of course there were some concern by some of our team that the tsunami would hit Nias which is nothing more than a small island.  However, I rested well, assured by my basic geographical knowledge that any tsunami from the Pacific side of Indonesia would take quite a bit of effort to reach the Indian Ocean where we are.
 
The island is really rather fantastic. I took several videos and hopefully will one day share with everybody. Maybe even upload on Youtube or something. It’s just beautiful here. Settlements line the road along the eastern coast of the island where we are. The main tourism of the area involves hardcore surfers. That’s how rugged and pure this place feels to me. I visited a local Christian Orphanage where our NGO liaison volunteers. It was quite the experience. Also we saw a US hospital ship pulled up near the shore and people were registering to get on board for treatment. I almost wish we could stay here longer.
 
Currently we are staying at a house maintained by the United Nations Development Program (UNDP). Surely if I don’t ever get to work for UN, at least I can say I’ve once in my life stayed in an UNDP accommodation. Yes, yes, I know it’s just cheap thrill.
 
Today we make the handing over ceremony of various work that we did with the remote sensing images and GIS datasets. I am also trying to learn as much Bahasa as I can. I knew I should have taken Bahasa last semester. Instead now I am just confusing my Thai, English, Mandarin, Spanish, Bahasa Melayu and Bahasa Indonesia! *lol* The good part is that some knowledge of Bahasa Melayu is coming back to me. Very very slowly though. Thanks to the lesson from itik a while back ago, visits to Frasers, ordering food from Malay stalls and just watching tons of Malay TV when I was a kid is really paying off. Haha!
 
While I am writing this in our living room right now, I would be posting this online from the headquarters of BRR that comes equipped with free wireless!
 
Stay tuned for more!


Do you Yahoo!?
Next-gen email? Have it all with the all-new Yahoo! Mail Beta.


Read full article here

Old School (Edited Version 2)

Old School Kicks Ass
By November
 
Earth! Fire! Wind! Water! Heart!
With your powers combined, I am Captain Planet!
 
Many 20-somethings amongst us would remember these familiar words from the popular American cartoon series, Captain Planet and the Planeteers. It was created in the 1990s to champion the environmental as Captain Planet battles villains like “Sly Sludge”, “Doctor Blight”, “Verminous Skumm”, and “Duke Nukem”. He is weakened by pollution, radiation, toxic waste and smog just as you would probably imagine our planet is being weakened by these very same things in reality.
 
However, these pollution-fighting, “save our environment” themed cartoons did not just begin in the ’90s. In fact, they started as early as the ’80s with the Canadian cartoon “The Smoggies” which is about an island-dwelling, environment-loving race called the Suntots, who are fighting a family called the Smoggies who live on a ship just off the coast and pollute the Suntot’s beautiful island and pretty much everywhere they go. When the show was introduced to USA, it was even approved and endorsed by the Greenhouse Crisis Foundation!
 
Once in a while I get random questions from people asking me when I started being environmentally conscientious and decided that I want to be an environmentalist when I grow up. It may be rather embarrassing to admit this to other consumerism-bashing environmentalists but the truth is… it all began from watching television – the greatest icon of consumerism of all times.
 
Still, imagine this – constant exposure to cartoons that celebrates the environment and teaches children the importance of protecting your environment from big bad polluting baddies. Surely a child would get the message after a while. In fact, I am proud to say that I am a card-carrying Planeteer, complete with mask and sticker book!
 
It was a time when air and water pollution were a main concern with oil spills regularly reported worldwide and the ozone hole was a global crisis that captivated the world’s attention. There was definitely a lot more attention paid to the environment back then. In fact, even popular cartoon series such as the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles started including themes like social, environmental and animal rights issues!
 
Old school cartoons did make an impact. For me, it changed my life. When I meet up with budding environmentalists of our generation from all over the world, almost every one of them has heard of Captain Planet and sing the song proudly. It was almost as if we were brought together, just as the Planeteers were, by the powers of Mother Earth, Gaia, to champion the planet.
 
On the other hand, I really don’t remember any recent cartoons that have a strong environmental theme as before. What happen to our animated sword-brandishing environmental knights in shining television land? Alright, so recently there was that animated movie Over the Hedge. It was funny and best of all it touched on serious and updated issues like urban sprawl, especially in the US, where animals are losing their homes to our homes. Singapore has long passed the point of urban sprawl to urban domination. The movie would definitely serve as an answer to why the monkey crossed the road. Yes my friends, it is precisely why we find road kills on expressways, especially the one called BKE that cuts right across our Bukit Timah Nature Reserve.
 
The kids of today definitely need more of the vintage heroes we had that kicked some environmental ass. Maybe it’s not so much about oil spills or ozone layers anymore these days but we definitely need more heroes to defend our planet Earth on the silver screen. That will be the day when Barney the purple dinosaur starts giving great big hugs to trees and perhaps a kiss or two to endangered species!
 
Even the “big kids” of today get our share of environmental programming on our television screens. I recall vivid memories of days when friends begin a conversation with what they saw on Discovery Channel and Animal Planet the previous day that involves the fornication of African Elephants and battles to be the Alpha Male of the herd. Yes, sex and violence sells. However, it also brings to attention issues like conservation of endangered species. Local programs about the little known nature areas of Singapore is also a big hit. Without the media, Chek Jawa would never have been saved without the masses being alerted to its near destruction.
 
However, if we are just going to sit at home in front of our television sets, watching elephants having sex without batting an eye when people are appealing for help to “save the elephants”, then surely, the media has failed. If people merely indifferently watch on as Chek Jawa was destroyed without actually standing out and speaking up for its preservation, then the media is nothing more than blasé entertainment. It is really a very thin line between apathetic and proactive. As Captain Planet always says, “the power is in your hands”!


Do you Yahoo!?
Everyone is raving about the all-new Yahoo! Mail Beta.


Read full article here

Saturday, July 15, 2006

Pitched green roof at renovated part of Botanic Gardens

By Joanne Leow, Channel NewsAsia
15 July 2006

Visitors to the Singapore Botanic Gardens will be able to enjoy a host of new facilities as its renovated Tanglin Core reopens to the public.

Tanglin Core will have a pitched green roof - Singapore's first - that showcases hardy plants like ferns and orchids.

A pilot project, the roof is part of NPark's efforts to use new technology to promote skyrise greenery.

Other high-tech facilities at the Tanglin Core include an orchid breeding and micropropagation lab.

But a sense of history is also important in the Botanic Gardens.

It has a library of 30,000 books and journals dating from 1875.

And its Herbarium, a plant museum that houses over two centuries of accumulated knowledge and plant collections, has attracted international scientists.

There are some 650,000 herbarium specimens at the museum, the oldest from 1790. - CNA/ir


Monkey says...
"Wow this is exciting news. Must visit the newly renovated botanic gardens!"


Read full article here

Friday, July 14, 2006

Spotted on the MRT

Spotted!

Months ago, I was approached to give some ideas from my recent NHB work/research for the heritagefest MRT adverts.

Today I finally spotted it first hand on the way home from downtown!

upclose

How exciting... to see one's work in public. Well ok, I didn't write it neither did I design it but I gave them the idea, researched it and mailed them my writeup so as to use this little bit of information as a bit of enticement for the heritagefest :)

Honestly I like the cricket peeing one a whole lot more. *sigh*


Read full article here

Sunday, July 09, 2006

Old School Kicks Ass

Earth! Fire! Wind! Water! Heart!
With your powers combined, I am Captain Planet!


Many 20-somethings amongst us would remember these familiar words from the popular American cartoon series, Captain Planet and the Planeteers. It was created in the 1990s to champion the environmental as Captain Planet battles villains like “Sly Sludge”, “Doctor Blight”, “Verminous Skumm”, and “Duke Nukem”. He is weakened by pollution, radiation, toxic waste and smog just as you would probably imagine our planet is being weakened by these very same things in reality.

However, these pollution-fighting, “save our environment” themed cartoons did not just begin in the ’90s. In fact, they started as early as the ’80s with the Canadian cartoon “The Smoggies” which is about an island-dwelling, environment-loving race called the Suntots, who are fighting a family called the Smoggies who live on a ship just off the coast and pollute the Suntot’s beautiful island and pretty much everywhere they go. When the show was introduced to USA, it was even approved and endorsed by the Greenhouse Crisis Foundation!

Once in a while I get random questions from people asking me when I started being environmentally conscientious and decided that I want to be an environmentalist when I grow up. It may be rather embarrassing to admit this to other consumerism-bashing environmentalists but the truth is… it all began from watching television – the greatest icon of consumerism of all times.

Still, imagine this – constant exposure to cartoons that celebrates the environment and teaches children the importance of protecting your environment from big bad polluting baddies. Surely a child would get the message after a while. In fact, I am proud to say that I am a card-carrying Planeteer, complete with mask and sticker book!

It was a time when air and water pollution were a main concern with oil spills regularly reported worldwide and the ozone hole was a global crisis that captivated the world’s attention. There was definitely a lot more attention paid to the environment back then. In fact, even popular cartoon series such as the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles started including themes like social, environmental and animal rights issues!

Old school cartoons did make an impact. For me, it changed my life. On the other hand, I really don’t remember any recent cartoons that have a strong environmental theme as before. What happen to our animated sword-brandishing environmental knights in shining television land? Alright, so recently there was that animated movie Over the Hedge. It was funny and best of all it touched on serious and updated issues like urban sprawl, especially in the US, where the animals are losing their homes to our homes. Singapore has long passed the point of urban sprawl to urban domination. The movie would definitely serve as an answer to why the monkey crossed the road. Yes my friends, it is precisely why we find road kills on expressways, especially the one called BKE that cuts right across our Bukit Timah Nature Reserve.

The kids of today definitely need more of the vintage heroes we had that kicked some environmental ass. Maybe it’s not so much about oil spills or ozone layers anymore these days but we definitely need more heroes to defend our planet Earth on the silver screen.

Note: This is written for an environment column im helping to start in the ezine Uberture. It's really raw and rather badly done in my personal opinion. The theme for the next issue is vintage and I was really trying very hard to make a point which I myself am not too clear about. Give me some comment but please be gentle.


Read full article here

Tuesday, July 04, 2006

Bye Bye Monkey

Tomorrow I will be leaving for Taiwan to board the Semester at Sea boat at Keelung, Taiwan.

Regarding my itinerary, not too sure since I will be on the boat mostly. Am thinking of joining the following classes:

SEMS 106: Environmental Ethics and Human Rights
SEMS 101: Global Studies (mandatory)
SEMS 160: Special Topics: Biogeoscience
SEMS (# to be determined): Environmental Geology

Sounds interesting.

For my itinerary in Taiwan:

5 July: Arrive in Taiwan
6 July: Day trip to Taroko Gorge
7 July: Yangmingshan Park

Itinerary in Singapore:

Boat docking on 12 July, rushing to school for honors briefing at 10am then will be back to boat, bring people to Ubin on 13 and then perhaps I will be off to E's home for dinner.

I heard there will be wireless access onboard the ship so I hope to be checking my email and blogging the many things I simply havent had the time to blog about recently.

See you in a week!


Read full article here

Saturday, July 01, 2006

NEA YEE Project Sharing @ Landmark Hotel

Cellphones take over the world!

Not that this photo has anything to do with the project sharing today but after the session, (from left) Otterman, Anand and Acroamatic had dinner with monkey where a myraid of discussion occurred. Somehow batman, superman and wannabe dune worms from B-grade horror Tremors were pitted against each other for best storyline. Somehow skype, msn, yahoo messenger and strategy towards buying a macbook was discussed as well.

What an evening but nothing new and absolutely enjoyable.

Of course the project sharing was fun and I took lots of notes. Expect many posts to follow. Especially in Pulau Ubin Stories although a move is currently in the works to migrate to Wordpress. Blogger is just being hell for my patience when it refuse to uploads to the NUS server. Of course I'm being slack while away from Singapore. I haven't even been to the island for the last 2 months! Instead, in 2 weeks time I will be leading a group of min 22 visiting foreign students to the island. (clarification: im bringing the students to "the island", i.e. Pulau Ubin)

*sweat*

Anyways back to the project sharing. Weisong and Otterman did their little (and not so little) presentation with the participants taking it all in with Otterman's usual captivating powerpoint show and vivid storytelling. Even I who have heard 70% of the talk before had to laugh at a few "old" jokes. Otterman is a good storyteller and he knows it. After a while, I notice toddycat guides taking on similar ottermanish traits in their guiding techniques. Before you know it there will be an Otterman School of Guiding.

Weisong at workOtterman and the peat swamp associates

I enjoyed catching up with a few friends after my stint in Thailand. In fact, there is a food project (about choosing the right fish) which I might get in on. Afterall, it's similar to the fish project I did in US and has things to do with food, primary production and ecological footprint. Afterall, asians are the biggest consumers of seafood in the world! More details on the project to follow if it goes through.

Wheres Monkey

For more photos, visit my flickr set.


Read full article here