I read this letter in Malaysiakini from "Malaysian with Children" with profound disgust and outrage at the way Barisan Nasional is leading the nation straight to hell with their myopic, greed-driven, environmentally and morally ruinous schemes...MALAYSIA GOING NUCLEAR FRAUGHT WITH DANGERMalaysian with Children
Aug 24, 2009 3:31pm The sun has been the main energy source for all life on the planet for billions of years. In Malaysia, we are blessed with a bounty of sunlight.
Yet, our Malaysian government is pushing for nuclear energy as though it is the best and only option for Malaysia's future energy needs.
The government seems to be brushing aside the dangers relating to nuclear power plants, as if they were issues that didn't exist or could easily be remedied in the near future.
Developed countries are having serious difficulties with their own nuclear programmes. In the US, there are problems disposing of nuclear reactor waste.
In Finland, construction of nuclear power plants have been delayed and gone way over cost due to shoddy work on the concrete foundations.
What more of the situation in Malaysia, where we tend to have even less oversight in commercial dealings? Where is the safety or economic sense in all that?
From what I have seen, there is no detailed information available to the public on Malaysia's nuclear plans. Where will the reactor be located - maybe in Ipoh, or maybe Putrajaya?
What type of reactor will it be? Who will we buy the uranium to run the reactor from? How much will it all cost and who is paying for it?
If those weren't enough questions, what about the waste generated from our nuclear power plant - where and how Malaysia will be dealing with its own nuclear reactor waste - waste that remains highly radioactive for thousands of years?
Will we dump it in deep geological recesses off our coasts? Will we bury it in the jungles of Sarawak, Sabah or Pahang? Will we be reprocessing it in factories in Miri or in Kota Baru?
The world got into the mess of climate change and global warming because we went the quick, easy and convenient way.
We did not look at the long-term consequences of burning fossil fuels, perhaps because in the beginning, we didn't really know the consequences.
Our oceans and rivers are now choking on plastic pollution, because we needed cheap and lightweight material for packaging.
But we do know, right now, that nuclear energy will produce highly radioactive waste, even if it is in small amounts, every day a nuclear plant is open.
We do know, right now, that this highly radioactive waste must be disposed of somewhere on our finite planet. We do know, right now, that we have no technology to make this waste safe.
And as more countries build nuclear power plants, more of this waste is dumped into our Earth, the planet that sustains our lives.
It is unforgivable that we, as governments and responsible adults, knowingly create such dangerous waste without a concern for tomorrow.
We are already leaving our children with our legacy of global warming, and choking pollution.
And now we wish to leave this massive mess of nuclear waste and closed reactor sites to our grandchildren, leaving them with the burden of trying to figure out how to solve the problem that we ourselves have no idea how to solve.
I know I'm afraid, very afraid.
Here's an eminently sensible letter in response...SOLAR ENERGY A BETTER ALTERNATIVEHai Hiung
Aug 26, 2009 4:03pm I'm writing in regards to the following letter: "
Malaysia going nuclear fraught with danger." I agree with the author, Malaysian with Children.
For reasons unbeknownst to most of us ordinary folk, TNB is pushing hard for the use of nuclear energy for generating electricity. The studies they used to justify going nuclear is biased.
First, they used South Korea as their case in point. South Korea is nothing like Malaysia in terms of the availability of solar energy.
In a year, South Korea would probably enjoy less than six months of effective sunlight for solar energy generation, compared to Malaysia's year-round sunshine.
Secondly, the cost cited by nuclear experts is inaccurate at best. In my opinion, TNB has been ill-advised on the cost of security.
The cost of guarding the nuclear plant itself could easily outweigh the cost of operation and the cost of nuclear waste disposal.
Even though Malaysia is relatively safe from terror attacks, there is no guarantee that terrorists would not target Malaysia in the future.
Having a nuclear plant sitting on Malaysian soil makes us that much more vulnerable to terrorism.
Third, the justification that by the time the plant is opened, we should have proper maintainance procedures in place.
We still don't have a good track record where that is concerned if you see how TNB and our public trains are concerned.
Fourth, First Solar recently opened a RM2bil plant in Kulim. So, we actually have a solar panel manufacturer here on our shore.
Yet, it never occurred to TNB to approach First Solar to setup a solar power plant.
If France, a Mediterranean country, finds using solar energy good enough to be part of its energy-generation needs, then we must ask TNB - why can't Malaysia do the same?
MY COMMENT: Ask TNB? Ha ha ha. The world is plagued with dinosaur technologies because it is secretly run by dinosaur dynasties. Whether the family name happens to be Rameses, Thutmose, Amunhotep, Ming, Han, Sung, Borgia, Medici, Hapsburg, Plantagenet, Rothschild, Rockefeller, Morgan, Bush, Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, Windsor, Razak, Taib or Mahathir... we're dealing with powerful bloodlines that absolutely believe they are entitled to ownership and exploitation of the Earth and all her inhabitants.
These are the so-called Master Bloodlines that have utterly misunderstood the meaning of Mastery. They measure the power of a Master by the number of Slaves at his command. Little do they realize that a TRUE MASTER is master only of his own destiny and the way he responds to his environment.
Because they are so reliant on other people's weakness for their own sense of power, they are terrified of technologies that liberate rather than enslave. That's why they are invariably drawn to colossal and expensive methods - especially capital-intensive schemes that can further enslave the human race and ensure that traditional power hierarchies are perpetuated ad infinitum.
The Serbian supergenius, Nikola Tesla, produced a host of breakthrough inventions that might have freed humanity from drudgery and enslavement and enabled real wealth to spread throughout the social spectrum. Of course, he was thwarted at every turn by avaricious and cynical capitalist elites who understood and cared for nothing but profits, profits, and always fatter profits.
The arrogance of police power
Instead, for the past week, the image that emerged is of an uncaring police force intent on protecting its reputation and its manliless, aggressively demanding that its word is accepted at face value without question.
Khalid Abu Bakar (left) also insisted that the public should believe his policemen's story and showed a callous willingness to label a schoolboy a criminal on the unproven assertion that a parang was found in his car, and arrogantly threatened politicians who took up the issue and questioned police accounts.
PM Paper Doll by Sharon Chin (ink on paper)
As you must be aware, there is worldwide concern about events relating to this prominent opposition leader’s current situation, thus putting a critical spotlight on Malaysia. As prime minister, you are undoubtedly concerned, for example, that the respected Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) recently declared that Anwar’s current trial on a charge of sodomy is riddled with defects.
Democracy and the power of the mind 
Imagine my surprise when I got a phonecall out of the blue this morning from Charlene Anne Ravi. She had kept my name card all this while and suddenly thought of calling me when she found herself in a tight spot.
So I suggested that I help her in a different way - by blogging about her urgent request for help in the hope that at least a handful of those who follow this blog will be inspired to play Good Samaritan and deposit some cash in her account pronto - just to tide a sweet young woman over a financial rough patch.
Charlene and her mum (from her Facebook album)
Aminulrasyid Amzah (15 January 1995 - 26 April 2010)
Shot dead in a hail of bullets by the cops after a latenight car chase...
Aminulrasyid was a good-looking kid and he knew it
Form 3 student at Sekolah Menengah Kebangsaan Seksyen 9 Shah Alam
A typical teenager, really...
Fond of fooling around with his pals, playing air guitar...
Posing for Facebook photos...
Making monkey faces for the album...
WE DON'T WANT TO LIVE IN 
My father in 1981
Lee Hong Wah was born May 1st, 1916, in Johore Baru, the fifth of six siblings. In his youth he played saxophone and drums in a ragtime combo. He also rode around on a BSA motorcycle and kept a pet cockatoo, which perched nightly on his bedstead (and was trained to turn around and shit on a newspaper).
Only much later did I realize how much like my dad I actually am. The main difference between us was that I decided to grow a mustache when I was 19 - and he was cleanshaven throughout his life. I also took up smoking (like my mother) when I was 15, while my dad never went anywhere near tobacco (and thus never discovered the dubious delights of potsmoking).
And, like my dad, I have always been a keen worshiper of the Sacred Feminine. He enjoyed photographing his girlfriends in the nude (with a Kodak Brownie camera he borrowed from me, taking care to develop and print the negatives himself). When he was in his mid-eighties, he fished out his secret photo album and enjoyed watching me gasp in astonishment at his many "conquests."
I've opted to share a few of the more "discreet" photos here because the girls are probably all grandmothers by now... or a few might even have left the planet. If any of you happen to recognize any of the pretty ladies in these photos, please leave a comment or email me. I would love to know a bit more about them. After all, they all loved my father.
Around dawn on 14 October 2004, whilst he was being sponged by several pretty nurses, my father breathed his last. I'm sure there was a real sweet smile on his face.
