termites

If you drive around in the villages in Negeri Sembilan, you'll notice that the number of "heritage" houses overgrown by semak belukar (bushes for the lack of a better term) is not small. The reasons for the abandonment are numerous but often it's because nobody bothers about the house or the kampung (household compound).

If you're the adventurous type, I encourage you to check out these houses. Yes check them out. Get out of your car and get close and personal with the houses. You'd be surprised that despite the years of abuse from the weather, the weight of lianas on the walls, roofs and floors, these houses can remain standing.

And maybe you'll notice the bee hives hanging on the beams or the trails of termites on the woods.

Speaking of termites, in Australia these white ants cause more damage to homes than storms and fire combined and this problem is a major concern for the country's Department of Housing.

I wonder if anybody is worried about termites eating up our heritage homes.

Citizen Science

That's a phrase that I just learned today, although it was coined many decades ago (just “wikipedia” it to find out more about its history).

If citizen science allows people with no formal scientific training for that particular project to participate effectively, e.g. conducting bird counts in some remote site (notice that a physicist is a scientist but she’s not trained as an ornitologist), how can we do the same for heritage conservation? That is, how do we involve “ordinary folks” to be interested and thus participate in heritage project?

citizen heritage, anyone?

ownership of heritage

going green

different places, same t-shirt.

village shop

My BC

Happy New Year 2008!

I was born, and it's stated in my birth certificate, in 1973. So that means I'll be 35 years old this year.

My birth certificate is a work of art. By that I mean the "facts" contained in it can be beautiful, but not necessarily correct.

For example, it's stated in the BC that at the time of my birth my father was earning a living as a rubber tapper. I asked my father about this and he said at that time he'd just retired from the Askar Melayu Diraja (makes a lot of sense to me) and was not tapping rubber. He added that he wasn't all that sure that I was born in 1973 because they, for reasons still unknown to me, decided to report my birth to the authority several months after I was born!

At any rate, I love my BC.

Kuala Pilah – Seremban route

I OVERHEARD A CONVERSATION BETWEEN TWO MEN ON A BUS YESTERDAY...

The two men were actually sitting on the rear steps of the bus, and I was seated about a meter away from them so I could hear them well. It was late in the evening but the bus was full with people wanting to go back to the city. Most people decided to remain quiet, perhaps still thinking of the weekend’s fun at home, but these two men decided to make friends:

Duduk sini saja uncle
Sini boleh ka? Oklah
Uncle kerja mana?
Saya kerja kontrak KL, you?
Saya kerja Nilai
Apa buat Kuala Pilah?
Saya ada kawan sini. Uncle kerja apa?
Saya kerja kontrak bina rumah. Renovation.
Saya pun bina rumah
You buat apa? Sapu cat ka?
Macam-macam, uncle sudah lama kerja?
Sudah lama, syarikat kecik saja dalam 8 orang, lu kerja company besar ka?
Besar juga ada dalam 20 orang
Ooo itu besar punya
Lu orang mana? Indonesia ka?
Saya orang Sarawak, Kuching
Sana banyak balak, bukan?
Ya, getah pun ada juga
So, you tau banyak pasal kayu, itu jati, setang
….
Setang, orang panggil setang
….
Akasia
Akasia, itu boleh buat kertas
Baik buat kertas, kayu banyak lembut, jati orang tanam banyak jugak, kawan saya tanam 80 hektar Kuala Pilah, senang hidup
Tapi kena baja kalau sudah banyak ekar, uncle
Ya, tanah pun kena baik
Ya, mesti sejuk

This conversation continued for a while until we neared Bukit Putus and the “Kuching” man decided to stand up, perhaps he was getting dizzy from the meandering bus ride.