Daze Over The Haze

Open burning in Sumatera has been causing haze in West Malaysia and Sumatera itself. Malaysia has been complaining about the pollution caused by Indonesia for years but there are still no drastic actions being taken. Partly is also because most of the estates that used open burning to clear their land belong to wealthy Malaysian palm oil plantation companies.

Since my son was born in 2006, we have had several hazy situations in Klang until my wife had to bring the baby to Ipoh. During my first trip to Palembang back in 2006, the haze situation was so bad until the visibility is only 10m! Throughout 2007-2009 there were not many "hazy" occurances in Palembang except for last week.

Open burning is still very prevalent in Palembang. We have neighbours who burns their rubbish and trees in the open without considering that the smoke is flowing into to others' house. This is very similar to the smoking situation where the inconsiderate smokers puff their second hand smoke in your face!

My son started with a fever during the weekend. This was followed by a bad cough that lasted until today. My wife is starting to have itchy throat and complained that something is irritating her nose. She has been having sniffles since the weekend.

We tried to give our son Echinesia (a herb & root extract that helps boost the body's immune system) and my wife cooked herself some garlic & ginger drink (kills germs). Coughs and colds are common in areas that has haze. We just have to drink lots of water and pump ourselves with vitamin C to overcome the effects of this haze season (normally occurs during the hot season). Supposedly the rainy season will only start in October but it poured quite heavily last night. Hopefully it will wash away the hazy elements in the air.

Living in a 3rd world country, you will have to sacrifice quality of water and also AIR!

Images of the skies across the straits of Malacca

Here are some shots from the plane of the skies and cloud formations when we flew from KL to Palembang.

Indonesian Independence Day

The Indonesian Independence Day falls on Aug 17 every year. 2009 is the 64th anniversary of Indonesia's independence from the Dutch. Every year, sporting events and games will be held in schools and also in housing complexes. The common activities include:

1. tarik tambang (tug of war)
2. bakia (multiple persons wearing one set of big slippers)
3. walkathons - normally around the housing complexes
4. lomba makan kerupuk (cracker eating competition/race - as shown below)
5. lomba kelarang (spoon race. "Lomba" means race or competition)
6. Panjat pinang (palm tree climbing)
   

Same as last year, I took my son to participate in the "lomba makan kerupuk". Every is supposed to just chew and nibble off as much crackers from the string without touching their food. The fastest will win. However my boy still wants to hold it and eat it.....

The rest of the kids competing are older, so I had to line up for mine to register for the competition.

What a big bite!

Don't know why my son likes to put his hand on one of his friend's shoulder? He kept his hand there the whole time when we were watching the "panjat pinang" event.

A group of men tried to climb up this palm tree which has presents dangling at the top. The palm tree trunk is covered with grease. I think they all tried like 20x but still not able to get to the presents. In the end of the day, they had to bring down the tree to get the presents.

PhotoBlog - Toddler Birthday Party

Birthday boy with his presents:

Construction Vehicles

(Can't really tell if this is a fake smile or not?)

Birthday Party with games... so hard to round up everybody!

The Menu:

1. Black forest cake
2. KFC
3. Pempeks (fish/flour local delicacy)
4. Home made Spaghetti
   

The decorations: many thanks to our driver for helping out

Futsal on National Day

When I was still working in Port Klang, the factory staff always organized futsal competitions on the National Day because that is the day that all employees of the factory get a day off together. Along with the futsal event, we normally have drawing competitions for their kids (no games for their wives though!).

Therefore, for the first time since the Palembang plant has been commissioned, I proposed to the staff for something similar to what we had in Malaysia.

The last time I played futsal was almost 3 years ago (see photo). Don't know if I still have the stamina to play. So I told my staff to put me as one of the reserves in case I collapse...;)

Everyone from the company was excited and looking towards this even except for the admin staff (majority ladies). However, I managed to throw in a couple of traditional Indonesian holiday games on top of the futsal event so that the kids can have more fun:

1. Coloring competition


2. Spoon & marble race


3. Cracker eating competition (crackers hung on a string and kids had to eat them up as fast as they could without using their hands)

So far we had a projected attendance of 120 heads. Hope that they all could come on the National Day (17 Aug 2009) to participate in this event.

Getting On My Nerves

Me & my wife both came from "traditional" families where our parents used to spank or cane us when we were kids. It was believed to be the most effective disciplinary method according to old timers. However, after years of research and analyses, physcologists discovered that corporal punishment might lead to the development of "rebellious traits" when kids become teenagers. Spanking is believed to make children think that problems could be solves through violence.

We do not normally spank our toddler son but sometimes he just gets on our nerves. We read that warning them verbally "1-2-3" before spanking them like how our parents used to do to us in the past does not really help. Therefore, we had to resolve to a softer approach, which is coaxing. Sometimes he will listen. However, when he wears his "rebel hat", his cheekiness + refusal to follow orders + whining could drive us in sane!

I could still recall bending and hiding all my parent's canes when I was young so that I could get rid of the "pain punishments". We used to "run away" from the canes but they kept landed on our backsides no matter where we hid. My wife told me that she also did the same too and his brother even threatened her mom that he will report her to the authorities!

My parents never let us learn martial arts when we were young. They said we might mis-hit our kids but I think people who learn martial arts will be able to control their actions more?

We do not want to use the cane as a disciplinary tool, so we don't have any at home. We tend to give in to him often and not spank him (but not pamper him). We used to use our hands to spank him but thought it might land too hard on him. In the end we resorted to using a wooden spoon (used for stirring in a pot) in place of a cane. We want our son to treat us with respect and not fear. Whenever he acts mischeviously, I will warn him that it is not good to do so. If he still does not listen then I will try to use persuasion (sometimes a little bit of bribery & threats) & taking away his priviliges (keep his toys on top of the fridge or pretend to give them away).

If all necessary measures have been taken but he still refused to obey, I had to smack his backside with the wooden spoon (not too hard though). I know that it is not painful but he will always break into tears. Sometimes we hit him with the wooden spoon on his palm.

I hope he does not use this post againts us in the future as proof of receiving corporal punishment from his parents!