Re: Life in a Forest Fire
 

:hysterical:Is that a typo JC3...did you mean High IN Penang...:nod:

Re: Life in a Forest Fire
 

You might think that, I couldn't possibly comment. Especially as explaining a joke is like dissecting a frog. You understand it better but the frog dies in the process !

JC3

Re: Life in a Forest Fire
 

Here's an interesting link to NASA showing fires burning all over the world.

https://firms.modaps.eosdis.nasa.gov/firemap/

I'm a bit website-challenged with it, so maybe someone a bit cleverer than me can interpret better but, holy moly, there's a lot of fires out there. Wouldn't like to be in the middle of Africa right now :scaredhair:

There's even quite a lot of fires in the USA :sneaky: Texas and thereabouts looks about as bad as Indonesia, unless I am misinterpreting this somehow. Texas wildfires??

Re: Life in a Forest Fire
 

A very interesting map BB. I guess the haze itself is mainly due to climatic conditions (humidity, lack of wind etc) and the smoke gets locked into this and can't get away into the upper atmosphere.

Re: Life in a Forest Fire
 

It seems someone might at last be willing to take some action https://sg.news.yahoo.com/indonesia-...054555481.html

Re: Life in a Forest Fire
 

Malaysia closes schools as Indonesia smoke haze worsens, SE Asia News & Top Stories - The Straits Times

Well, say what you all will. Maybe all of us born in the west are all nuts for thinking that living in a windswept burning out of control massive forest fire and 30 million people blindly accepting it is normal. To me, this is Communist Eastern Europe post WWII.

Rather than raising shit storms, the "media" does nothing but blindly report how many people are now sick and advise people to barricade themselves inside air conditioning while once again, climate change makes it worse by the day. I don't get how leaders can even live in this themselves. Does power make people so crazed they would rather willingly poison an entire generation than allow some peaceful protests, real media reporting and drastic solutions?

Looking out the window at the raging 40MPH wind reminds me of pictures from the 1991 Oakland Hills, California firestorm that killed dozens. Except I'm stuck in it and obviously made a poor choice for my future which will b shortened if I stay in this. No human beings should be forced to live in this and what makes it worse is an inability to voice strong opinions in a supposed "democracy". They've sure trained the masses to be good ants.

My post on Another forum was deleted by the administrator for paranoia that he'd be shut down by someone having the gall to "instill action" in readers (his words)

Fascinating to experience censorship disguised as democracy. Oh well: too bad our stuff is on the way. Looks like it will make a 360 for an inexpensive Latin American nation that's mostly influenced by American polices (which means breathable and livable air)

Re: Life in a Forest Fire
 

I can 'hear' the angst in Rodi's posts on this subject and I don't blame him. If it's any consolation I think it fair to say that it HAS captured the attention of the Indonesian Gov't and they ARE trying to find a solution.
Here is a link to today's digital Jakarta Post where page 3 covers all the reporting on the haze problem.
You should click on 'reportage' and scroll thru' to read.....

PressReader.com - Connecting People Through News

Re: Life in a Forest Fire
 

Whilst I sympathise Rodi, nowhere is perfect, and where countries have a low cost of living, enabling an earlier retirement for Westerners perhaps, this can affect you in lots of unforeseen ways however good your initial research.

Corruption, personal safety issues, tax, unregulated building, problems with utilities, no or little regulation on smoking, gun laws, bureaucracy. It’s never going to be like ‘home’.

If you’re heading for the Ecuador watch out for smoking in restaurants. At least Malaysia doesn’t allow smoking in any aircon restaurants. And of course Malaysia doesn’t tolerate guns, unlike the USA. For more on smoking see: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_smoking_bans

If you’re heading for Panama remember, ‘manana’ doesn’t mean tomorrow, it means some other day, not today or tomorrow. Oh and the waste water system is overloaded so it can stink at times.

If you’re heading for South Africa remember there’s not enough electricity to go round, so you may have to endure load-shedding, and some cities are not too safe.

If you fancy Bali, remember everyone is very nice, provided that is you keep giving them money.

And so on…

JC3

Re: Life in a Forest Fire
 

Your point is completely valid and we are not oblivious to that fact. Part of life is that you get what you pay for. Ultimately we were super lucky to be able to choose retirement at age 44 and 50 but it does mean living somewhere that will differ quite radically from want we take for granted. We have been to all the places you mentioned and still think Malaysia was a better choice


I guess the purpose of my posts can't accomplished here due to the censorship issues and fear from the public of retaliation by authorities. We take a lot for granted in the USA and my blogs and forums have always resulted in good healthy debate, pro and con, that can inspire people to do something about problems. That is not possible here and that may frustrate me but ultimately I accept it because am a visitor. We're not used to citizens being prohibited from expressing outrage; God knows the USA has dozens of horrible problems and the guns are the main reason I left because we prefer safety even over the right to express opinions in a supposed democracy


But if Canada was doing this every year, it would quickly end but since we're not going back to work in California any time soon, we will take the bad with the good and hope the winter brings normal skies. With 4 million hectares unclaimed this insanity will continue for the next five centuries as long as the world demands computers, cheap food and all the other bi products of Palm


Sadly, the burning began as a direct result of the 1997 financial crisis and that part of the story is more complicated. As a 30 year employee of the evil industry responsible for who gets a good life and who doesn't, I won't burden you with those issues here

Re: Life in a Forest Fire
 

Hi Rodi...you can get a flight Penang-Bali for around MYR500...the weather here is still gorgeous...sunny daytime and cool breeze at night.

We're having an Italian Pasta night around our villa pool for a few friends tomorrow night (my wife is a great cook)...you are welcome to join.

Re: Life in a Forest Fire
 

Hi. Thanks so much for the offer. We were actually thinking about a quick trip to escape it for awhile. If you are up for meeting and we can find somewhere cheap to stay quickly we would love to come. Can you pm me your email and we can chat? Thanks

Re: Life in a Forest Fire
 

Done Rodi....btw I contribute to the BE Indonesia forum where questions you have about Indonesia/Bali may have already been answered but I'm happy to answer here anything I can....just don't want to get too far off topic.

Re: Life in a Forest Fire
 

Seriously, I think it's just unfortunate that Rodi has landed here at this moment in time. If you'd arrived during the nice wintertime and endured the rest of the year, you might not be so miffed about several weeks of haze. (Which doesn't mean it's right to endure this, of course.)

I think I would be inclined in future years (I haven't been able to up to now) to just jump on a plane to Bali or wherever and get away from it.

My feeling this year though is that we are now September 19th and, compared with other Septembers, we've really not had the wall-to-wall monsoon rains. Global warming or what? And is that what is making it seem so bad this year?

Re: Life in a Forest Fire
 

BB is right. It's not just the wrong month but also the wrong year you have arrived in Penang. This year has been exceptionally strange with prolonged haze which I guess is mainly due to El-Nino effect. As far as I remember, haze in the past years usually lasted for few days or sometimes a week but not months like this year. Having said that, I believe the haze problem now will be ending soon as it is rare to last till October.

Re: Life in a Forest Fire
 

Couple of thoughts here
We lived in California. Many on this side of the globe are unaware of the severity of the current five year drought that has plagued the western USA. For the past three winters we've had about three to four days of measurable rain in what's supposed to be a four to five month wet season. Climate change is a hot topic in the USA but really shouldn't be. It's not a hypothetical discussion topic, it's already here. This means one thing and one thing only

I keep hearing how the haze is extended this year. El Niño makes aconvenient excuse also. Those of us that have lived through our reservoirs at 10% full for years understand that this is a global event. It's already here. Monsoon seasons will only get shorter and what used to be a couple of localized fires is now becoming raging out of control forest fires that will keep the haze around longer and longer as time goes on

Yet again, all I hear is complacency and acceptance that this is just fine and part of life. It's only a matter of time until all of Malayisa begins getting daily readings in the 300s and higher. Clouds seeding is scientifically useless. The answer is so obvious but will never happen. Nobody says Indonesians shouldn't be allowed to profit from their resources but not at the expense of three countries and the health of 60 million humans. The leaders that are too busy at conferences with China and building luxury condos for foreign investors to care about the people they are supposed to represent.

I'm sorry to bust everyone's bubble but this is not "an unusual year". Its climate change and it's not going away. Americans simply deal with drought by paying more money for water. Banks extend more credit, everyone gets a bit poorer and life goes on. But the forest fires that rage all over California every year don't affect the health of the citizens except the ones living very close because legislation passed over years prohibits farmers from simply burning shit to make a quick profit. In fact, nobody can simply burn things and for the most part, nobody does. Only education can help "developing countries" but the citizens need to be allowed to exercise their supposed democratic rights to express outrage and demand change.

Politicians will never change but situations can. Sadly, they usually only change when the superpowers benefit. When Reagan said "tear down the wall", life changed for millions of Europenas and of course the USA benefitted by being one of only two remaining empires. But it did end Communism and proves that when leaders really want to effect change, it's possible. The USA has no interest in this region except perhaps the shipping routes so only the citizens can change their situation. From what I see, complacency and excuses trumps common sense and nobody seems to get that this van only get exponentially worse as droughts continue worldwide.