Islamic Honor Killings: Tulay Goren

Bradley FarlessLeave a comment

You know that “hot stories” sidebar thing on the right side of the Facebook newsfeed?  Well, I happened to click through on an article from Mail Online about a father accused of murdering his 15 year old daughter as an ‘honor killing’.  I’d read about another instance where that happened in Canada.

If you’re not familiar with honor killing, here’s a quick definition from Wikipedia:

An honor killing (also called a customary killing) is the murder of a family or clan member by one or more fellow family members, where the murderers (and potentially the wider community) believe the victim to have brought dishonor upon the family, clan, or community. This perceived dishonor is normally the result of (a) utilizing dress codes unacceptable to the family (b) wanting out of an arranged marriage or choosing to marry by own choice or (c) engaging in certain sexual acts. These killings result from the perception that defense of honor justifies killing a person whose behavior dishonors their clan or family.
The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) estimates that the annual worldwide total of honor-killing victims may be as high as 5,000.[1]

It’s a common relatively occurrence in Arab culture, which is where the majority of Muslims come from. So, it has become one more item on a long list giving Islam a bad reputation in the eyes of the rest of the world.  As if they needed anything else, what with extremists blowing themselves (and the people around them) up left and right.

I understand that there are differences in culture, but I also believe in the priceless value of human life.  It should never be taken for something as ridiculous as a perceived loss of honor.  How can a culture ever hope to mature if it continues to practice such outdated and obviously flawed ideologies?  It’s not ok to kill your daughter just because she wore shorts to school instead of a Hijab.

Article aside, I was more disturbed by the comments being left in Facebook, which seemed to paint all Muslims as being evil terrorists bent on the destruction of the world.  I’m not Muslim myself, but I’ve had the opportunity to know quite a few Muslims and I can say with some assurance that none of them want to blow me up. So, I pointed out in the comments that Christianity has been used as a reason to commit horrible acts, like the Crusades, Inquisition and even the Salem Witch Hunts.

The response was that those weren’t ‘real’ Christians and that Islam is violent, and that it’s evil in general.  I had pointed out that if Christians lived according to some of the stuff that’s in the Old Testament we’d seem pretty odd and scary too.  So, this person lambasted me, saying that Jesus did away with all that Old Testament nonsense.  That being the case I pulled out a bunch of quotes that are less than pleasant about slaying people and burning them that’s in the New Testament.  I also pointed out that you can’t blame the whole for the actions of a few, that there are extremists in both groups.  Another person chimed in that Christ didn’t abolish the law of the Old Testament.  He said that He came to fulfill it.  Christians still observe the 10 Commandments so there must be validity to that statement.  I also threw in some quotes from the Qur’an that I found that support the idea of Islam not advocated wanton murder.

In any case, this person wouldn’t have any of it.  The person is hell bent on believing that Islam “advocates violence and oppression and murder” and that “JESUS never advocated violence, oppression and murder”.

So, I told her this:

“But as for these enemies of mine, who did not want me to reign over them, bring them here and slay them before me.”

Luke 19:27

The message never really got through to her and I don’t believe it will. There are people who are so blinded by popular media, bad personal experience, or a combination of the two that they will refuse to see reason.  From what I’ve seen, different news channels in the US slant things different ways.  It’s a ratings game.  They don’t tell the news.  They cater to their audience.  I’m kinda starting to prefer Al’Jazeera, because it seems more impartial and maybe I just feel comfortable with a 3rd party (usually Brits) reporting on matters.  Of course, Al’Jazeera is funded by Qatar, so who knows?  Maybe there’s no such thing as unbiased reporting anymore.

I’m sure there are violent aspects of the Qur’an, Shari’a, and other Islamic religious texts, but the same can be said of Christianity and Christian religious texts.  Both religious groups have committed travesties over the course of history.  Does that mean that people that belong to particular religious groups are inherently bad?  I don’t think so.

I think we all just need to keep things in perspective.  Just because someone’s Christian doesn’t mean they’re going to drink poisoned Kool Aid and commit mass suicide, and just because someone’s Muslim doesn’t mean they’re going to strap on a bomb and blow themselves up.  Get a grip on reality.

Note: This is not a debate about the validity of either religion. Any comments left on this post bashing either religion, rather than discussing the idea proposed here, will be removed, and depending on what’s said, the commenter will be banned by IP address.  NO hate speech.  Thank you.

Geylang, the Other Side of Singapore

Bradley Farless2 Comments
Geylang - 001

Geylang - 001

When you get into Geylang it’s like you’re entering another country.  The buildings are all old and slightly run down.  The ground is covered with trash.  It smells funny.  It’s just a really seedy type of place, especially when you contrast it with the rest of Singapore. 

Geylang - 004

Geylang is a place that has developed a certain reputation, both good and bad.  The good part of it is that Geylang is reputed to have some of the best food in Singapore.  I have yet to find this out for myself, because during both of the times I’ve found reason to be there I already had a full stomach.  I did see some frog congee I’d like to try sometime soon.  Maybe I’ll do that next weekend!  Geylang is also well known for prostitution.  While we were down there last night I only saw a few hookers running around, but it must be a big problem, considering this sign:

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The last time I was there I saw quite a few more.  Maybe there’s been some sort of crackdown recently.  I did see two uniformed police officers standing in a back alley where there are typically a few hanging around.  My wife thinks that they’ve all moved to the clubs where it’s a bit safer for them to ply their trade, if you know what I mean.

Update: Prostitution in Singapore is legal.

And per HumanTrafficking.org:

Singapore is a destination country for women and girls who are trafficked from Thailand, the Philippines, the People’s Republic of China, and Indonesia for commercial sexual and labor exploitation. Some women voluntarily migrate to Singapore to work as prostitutes but are later coerced into sexual servitude.

Geylang - 002One thing that I find surprising about the hookers in Geylang is that they’re actually very attractive.  In the US, the stereotypical hooker is pretty rough looking, especially when you start heading towards the southern parts of the country.  In Singapore, they’re usually poor immigrants from surrounding third world and developing countries.  They’re brought over on promises of legitimate work and are then forced into prostitution.  That’s a story for another post though…

Something else you can find an abundance of in Geylang are cheap cigarettes.  You’ll see guys, or women, standing along the sides of buildings, or by pillars under overhangs with little baskets of cigarettes.  They won’t call out to you to buy but it’s obvious what they’re up to.  The reason these people are selling cigarettes on the street is that Singapore puts a heavy duty (or tax) on cigarette sales in Singapore, putting them in the 10.40 – 11.60 SGD price range, on average.  In Geylang they go for about 5.00 – 6.00 SGD if you buy them from one of these people.  That’s about half, and a really good deal.  The way they do it is they bring in cigarettes from the surrounding countries where they’re a lot cheaper.  This is actually a huge business for smugglers, but it comes with a very high penalty too.  I remember reading stories in the paper of people being fined upwards of 10,000 SGD for trying to smuggle in shipments of foreign smokes.  This is based on rumor, but I hear that some of the cops in Singapore wear plain clothes, and it wouldn’t surprise me if some of the people selling smokes are actually cops.  So, if you’re going to go that route, be mindful of that fact and scout your potential supplier before you just walk up like an idiot and try to make a purchase.  Smuggling them into the country carries a fine, but so does buying them.  Only cigarettes stamped with the SDCP logo on the stick itself, and with the Singapore seal on the pack are allowed to be sold, purchased, or consumed in the country, with the exception of the open pack you might have on you when you enter the country as a tourist.

Geylang - 005

It was kind of hot tonight as we walked around Geylang, but we enjoyed ourselves anyway.  Like I said, it feels like you’re in another country.  It reminded my wife of some places in the Philippines, and it seemed a bit like Phuket in Thailand to me.  There were people everywhere.  People were packed in tight at the food stalls watching football (soccer) on the TVs or playing cards while drinking and smoking.  Besides those gathering around the TVs, there were a lot of folks simply roaming around.  I guess Geylang is a spot where people naturally congregate during the late hours to hang out.  The oddest part was that there were a lot of people just standing around or sitting on the pavement.  Some of them were talking on phones, but many of them were just sitting there smoking.  We also passed a lot of fruit stores.  I would’ve been cooler with that except they all had huge supplies of durian for sale and the odor was very very strong and very very unpleasant.  We did stop at one to buy a big round looking pear and an apple, but we haven’t eaten it yet.  I hope they’re good.  They were kind of expensive.

Geylang - 008

I took the above photo while sitting down and drinking kopi.  We’d walked past them before and it looked like they were doing some sort of gambling.  There were quite a few of these tables set up.  Shortly after I took the photo I glanced back over and they were gone.  It was weird.  I thought I’d been discreet but I guess not.  Later we walked past the same guys in an alley and as I came alongside the table they tore it down right away and everyone scattered.  I wonder if it was because of me or because someone they had set up as a spotter had seen police coming?  Or maybe there’s another reason.  I thought gambling was legal in Singapore.

Night Rider 7 Bus

We had a pretty good time walking around Geylang, taking in the sights, having some kopi and stretching our legs.  We wound up walking around until about 12:30 am, when we realized we should try to hop on a bus to get home.  The last trains run at 11:30 pm.  We missed the last of the regular buses that were heading to Pasir Ris, so we had to wait for about an hour to get on the NR7 to Pasir Ris.  That’s a Night Rider bus, which is meant for late night travelers who had to stay late at the office, or for drunks.  I think they go all night.  It was a fairly quick ride, given that it stopped so many times.

I’m looking forward to going back to check out the food.

The Cats of Seashell Park

Bradley FarlessLeave a comment

A few months ago my wife and I took a walk through Seashell Park.  It’s a small park that’s located behind a hawker center in Pasir Ris.  It’s not incredibly well maintained, but it’s nice nonetheless.  One of the things I enjoy about Singapore is that despite it being a city, there are still plenty of open areas where you can try to enjoy nature a bit, manicured though it may be.

While walking through the park we were surprised at the number of cats we saw.  It seems to be a home for many of them.  There was one (not pictured below) that had a collar on, so I think that some of them must leave their houses during the day to enjoy the sunshine and then go home at night.

The problem of strays in Singapore is a pretty big one.  People don’t seem to understand the value that cats hold in pest control, but rather think of the cats themselves as pests.  I for one am all for the humane treatment of cats, even when they’re strays.  There’s a better method than culling, which is what many residents and Town Councils seem to think is the answer to everything from cat ‘nuisances’ to there being too many pigeons in the area.

That’s really a story for another blog post though. I just wanted to share a few pictures of the cats we saw up there in the park.

Google Wave Is Not Impressing Me

Bradley FarlessLeave a comment

Google Wave was supposed to be the hottest thing since sliced bread, but it’s really not that great.  I’ve been using it for a while and I’m just not that impressed.  It’s still in a development phase, so who knows?  It may be completely different on official release and really blow everyone away, but as it stands now it’s interesting at the most, and damn sure not an e-mail killer.

It’s got its perks, like being able to drop in all sorts of files and embed videos, but that’s really nothing revolutionary.  The ability to watch people type in real time is a frill, but not really anything to get excited about.  In fact, I would say it’s a step backward, because if anyone wants to use this seriously, for business purposes, then it’s going to cause embarrassment.  When you’re typing a document you go back and forth rewording things, fixing spelling mistakes, or reworking sections.  Well, in Google Wave other people can watch you struggle along, or if they aren’t there to watch it in real time they can use the Playback feature to watch you do it anyway.

Speaking of business, one thing I heard about Google Wave is that people think it can be used for company wikis.  Well, maybe.  I’m sure there are other platforms that are more apt for something like that though.  The Waves and Blips just don’t seem conducive to hosting documents.  They don’t seem all that conducive to sharing large amounts of information or pictures in either, unless you have a very big or very high resolution screen.  It’s not bad when I’m using my 1680×1050 17″ MacBook Pro to view, but on my wife’s laptop, which doesn’t have a widescreen and runs on a lower resolution, the content often runs off the right edge of the Wave frame.

Now, let’s talk about another aspect of Google Wave that’s supposed to be game changing: the ability to edit other people’s Waves.  That’s great in theory, except that you get people editing things out that you don’t want edited out.  Or they add things you don’t want added.  The worst part is that there’s no authenticity to who input the information.  Sure, the particular Blip will say who all has contributed to it, but who said what exactly?  You could use Playback for that I suppose, but when you’re looking at a Wave that’s had 600 changes or more, it becomes pretty rough trying to sift through it all.  Not to mention it’s slow.  In short, I think this image can sum up this problem for us fairly well:

Daniel Lewis erased an entire Wave because he didn’t like the subject and there was nothing anyone could do to stop him.

That brings me to another point.  Google Wave is heavy on resources.  It spins up your fans pretty quickly and will drag at times, especially in larger Waves.  It’s probably going to be hard to run this on any older systems.  My wife’s laptop is only two years old and was struggling in larger Waves, most especially with the Playback feature going.

I think Google reached way too far with this one.  I think a much simpler solution would’ve just been to create a hosted e-mail that you could invite other people to look at and comment on.  Well, that’s sort of like a blog post.  Or, you could just use Google Docs, which already allows multiple users to view and edit documents.  The only part of Google Wave that really seems neat to me is that you can share files.  Though, that’s not really that special.  You can’t modify the contents of the attachments within Wave, so you still wind up with say, 10 people opening it and making changes and then re-attaching 10 different versions.

I suppose Google Wave does pull a lot of things together, but it just feels way too crowded and way too complicated.  This is the age of easy.  People want things that are fast, simple to learn, simple to use, elegant, and time saving.  Wave is a great idea, but I just don’t see myself getting all that much use out of it, even with all of my friends aboard.

Posted via email from Bradley’s Posterous

Hungry Ghost Month, Singapore’s Halloween?

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These photos are from a celebration of Hungry Ghost Month. Hungry Ghost Month is celebrated on the seventh month of the Chinese lunar calendar and is a tradition that originated in China. During the Communist Cultural Revolution (around 1966 I believe) it was stamped out there, but the tradition is still practiced in Singapore, Hong Kong and Taiwan.

There’s a lot of superstition surrounding the event and people avoid moving to a new house, don’t get married during that time, and won’t travel unless they have to. During Hungry Ghost Month, it’s believed that the Gates of Hell are opened and the spirits of the dead walk the earth, looking for offerings from descendants and potentially making victims of the unwary.

In an effort to appease these ghosts, offerings of food are made. Also, paper effigies of money, little houses and even maids (human sacrifice?) are burned to assist the dead in the afterlife. This is also a time when people will set up parties, like you’ll see in the pictures below. I suppose the parties are to celebrate life and to remember ancestors. At these parties, though, there will be one table that’s set but left empty. That table is set for the dead.

Oddly enough, Hungry Ghost Month is a time when a lot of people feel that they’ll find lucky numbers for the lottery. Some people will even go to graveyards with talismans and offerings, asking the dead to provide them with lucky numbers.
I happened on this event when it was still being set up and asked a few questions about what was going on. I only got a general idea, since the person’s English wasn’t very good, but it seems like they were going to have an auction. There were also buckets with prizes of food. I’m not sure where the proceeds went, but there was an attendance fee for the function. I believe it was 70 dollars, and it was open to members of a certain group. This was a few months ago so I’m fuzzy on the details.

I kinda saved this for October though, because to me it felt like the Singapore version of Halloween. Well, they’re not really the same, except that they deal with ghosts, scary stuff and superstitions. It seems fitting though, especially with the whole Gates of Hell thing.

Also, I thought it was interesting how the ceremonies honor the dead. In popular media, you get the impression that it’s something that only goes on in Japan.

Offerings for the dead perhaps?

Buckets full of auction goodies? Or maybe take-home door gifts?

A picture taken later, when the event was in full swing.

Switching to Ubuntu (9.10 Karmic Koala) Not As Hard As I Thought

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ubutnu-logo.jpgMy wife had been having issues with her laptop for quite a while.  Well, that’s normal for Windows anyway, but her laptop was starting to slow down.  Normally I can do a few maintenance things to get it running at a relatively decent speed again but it was becoming less and less effective.  Not to mention it was getting old having to do it over and over.

I wasn’t really sure what to do about it until someone cool I know in Rome started talking about Ubuntu on Twitter.  She mentioned that it nearly doubled the speed of her laptop, even when switching over from XP.  That really got me thinking, because that was the main problem with my wife’s laptop, which was running Vista.

I still wasn’t too sure about the idea of installing a Linux based operating system though.  I mean, it was Linux.  That was supposed to be some wild, hard to use, super tech nerd operating system right?  How the hell could I get it running?  But then I realized that it couldn’t be that hard.  Not if so many people were using it.  Plus, the instructions on the website seemed pretty straightforward as well.  Best part of all?  You can do a test run before installing it.

So, I downloaded the disc image using BitTorrent, burned it, and then stuck it in the drive.  It’s called a Live CD/DVD and it lets you run the OS on your system without actually installing it, so you can get a feel for it before taking the plunge I suppose.  It ran surprisingly fast, considering it was running from a disc.  That made me a bit nostalgic.  Every time I would click on something, I would hear the disc spin up.  It reminded me of when I was a kid, playing games on a Commodore 64.  I don’t know why…  That was about 20 years ago.  Anyhow, I was impressed with how easy to navigate it seemed, and with how polished Ubuntu looked, even running from a Live CD.

So, we started the process of backing up all of her picture files and music and documents and whatever other clutter she had.  It was amazing how many files she found hiding in corners.  I stuck it all on an external USB drive.

The next day I did the actual installation.  It was fairly pain free.  After getting Ubuntu installed, the PC ran incredibly fast.  Everything was clean, easy to find, and very snappy!  The best part is that it feels so … utilitarian I suppose.  It doesn’t feel cluttered.  It was like crawling out of the wreckage of a downed airplane and finding yourself in a zen garden.

screenshot-synapticpackagemanager.png

The only hiccup to the whole switching over process for me was understanding repositories.  The easiest way to translate it into easy terms for people coming from Windows and OS X is this:  It’s a way to install program that let’s them get auto-updated along with system files.  They’re managed, (mostly) to some degree by the Ubuntu team so they’re pretty safe bets for installing without worrying about malware and the like.  You get to your repositories by clicking on System < Administration < Synaptic Package Manager.  This is where it’s sort of like Windows Update.  You click on ‘Reload’ to make sure you have the latest repositories.  Then you click on Mark All Upgrades.  Then you click Apply.  I suppose you don’t have to upgrade, but it’s probably best.  Anyhow, the ugly part of repositories is that it’s mostly a bunch of file names.  It’s hard to figure out what you’re looking for.  That’s where Google comes in.  Just Google the program you want along with the term repository and you can usually find out if it has one or not, and what it’s called.  Also, some third-party programs that aren’t in the repositories already can be added in, though you should only do that with companies you trust.  Basically, anything you need to do you can find help for with a quick Google search.  Since Ubuntu is open source, the community for it is huge and there are help articles and threads everywhere, including Ubuntu’s own help pages.

ubuntu1.png

Another thing that Ubuntu has going for it is that it’s like a blend of Windows and OS X for me.  It feels a lot like OS X but it seems to honor the keyboard shortcuts of Windows.

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Ubuntu really isn’t as steep a learning curve as I’d thought it would be.  It’s easy to figure out.  The OS is free, and all the software that you get for it is free too.  Well, there are free alternatives anyway.  I think I’ve seen a few paid programs while poking around, but there’s no need for them at all.

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I also realized that a lot of people like Ubuntu after installing it on my wife’s laptop.  Friends tell me they’d use Ubuntu exlusively if not for iPod/iPhone syncs requiring iTunes, which only runs on OS X and Windows.

Personally, I’m loving it, and I actually enjoy using it more than OS X.  I use my wife’s laptop when she’s not on it just because it’s more interesting!  The only thing I miss is Apple’s Mail.app.  There’s just no good replacement for it, though Ubuntu’s built in Evolution e-mail app comes close.

By the way, I’m using Ubuntu 9.10 Karmic Koala, which is where these screenshots are all from.  It’s in it’s final beta stages now with the final release set for the 22nd, so I felt it was safe to just go for it.

Blog Action Day 2009: Climate Change

Bradley FarlessLeave a comment

If you’ve been keeping up with Blogger news, either via the Blogger Twitter account or on the official Blogger Buzz blog, then you’ll have heard about this already. If not, here’s a quick rundown:

Blog Action Day is an annual event, held on October 15th (which is already is here in Singapore), where a single issue is chosen as a topic to be addressed by bloggers around the world. The idea behind it is that if enough people talk about the issue on one single day, and the web is inundated with news about it, it’ll be more likely to catch otehr people’s eyes, and thereby spread awareness. The topic for this year is climate change.

It’s an interesting coincidence that climate change should be the issue of this year’s event, given recent weather problems in Asia. There have been numerous typhoons in the past few weeks in Asia that have left trails of destruction behind them, most notably in the Philippines. I can’t recall a source for this, but gleaning over news I recall seeing where people were speculating that climate change caused by global warming is influencing the weather systems in Asia and making the typhoons more powerful than they would normally be. I’ve also seen speculation that a related topic, pollution, is partly to blame for the flooding in Manila, though with or without trash clogging gutters the area would’ve flooded anyway, given that it’s a basin that sits below sea level.

Photo via NewsHopper

What we’re doing to our planet is, basically, really screwing things up. The problem with “green” solutions right now is that they are more expensive than what we’re doing now, and they’re less profitable for companies in the long run. So, there’s no real incentive in it for the average joe, or for the businessman. No one wants to think long-term, about what we’re doing to be looking at in 50 years, or 100 years.  It will take government intervention on a global level to take on this problem, but with the way international politics stand now, I don’t see that happening. Politicians already fail too often in areas where it matters less than this, or in similar areas, like building more bombs when we should be building less and using those funds for other things, like curing diseases, creating better crops, or extending human life.

So, for now, all we can do… those of us that care… is try to keep an eye on how we’re affecting the environment through our daily actions (and if in a position to do so, place a vote where it counts). Heading downtown? Reduce emissions by taking the train. I know the cab will still be driving around with or without you in it, but over time if more people use public transit the demand on cabs will lessen, meaning the number of cabs will lessen. (Let’s not get into a debate about cutting jobs in a recession right now ok?). Car-pooling is another way to not only save on emissions, but cut personal costs as well. I’m not claiming to have all the answers, or even to know what the answer to this problem is… so I snagged this list from About.com (^_^) :

1. Reduce, Reuse, Recycle

Do your part to reduce waste by choosing reusable products instead of disposables. Buying products with minimal packaging (including the economy size when that makes sense for you) will help to reduce waste. And whenever you can, recycle paper, plastic, newspaper, glass and aluminum cans. If there isn’t a recycling program at your workplace, school, or in your community, ask about starting one. By recycling half of your household waste, you can save 2,400 pounds of carbon dioxide annually.

2. Use Less Heat and Air Conditioning

Adding insulation to your walls and attic, and installing weather stripping or caulking around doors and windows can lower your heating costs more than 25 percent, by reducing the amount of energy you need to heat and cool your home.

Turn down the heat while you’re sleeping at night or away during the day, and keep temperatures moderate at all times. Setting your thermostat just 2 degrees lower in winter and higher in summer could save about 2,000 pounds of carbon dioxide each year.

3. Change a Light Bulb

Wherever practical, replace regular light bulbs with compact fluorescent light (CFL) bulbs. Replacing just one 60-watt incandescent light bulb with a CFL will save you $30 over the life of the bulb. CFLs also last 10 times longer than incandescent bulbs, use two-thirds less energy, and give off 70 percent less heat.

If every U.S. family replaced one regular light bulb with a CFL, it would eliminate 90 billion pounds of greenhouse gases, the same as taking 7.5 million cars off the road.

4. Drive Less and Drive Smart

Less driving means fewer emissions. Besides saving gasoline, walking and biking are great forms of exercise. Explore your community mass transit system, and check out options for carpooling to work or school.

When you do drive, make sure your car is running efficiently. For example, keeping your tires properly inflated can improve your gas mileage by more than 3 percent. Every gallon of gas you save not only helps your budget, it also keeps 20 pounds of carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere.

5. Buy Energy-Efficient Products

When it’s time to buy a new car, choose one that offers good gas mileage. Home appliances now come in a range of energy-efficient models, and compact florescent bulbs are designed to provide more natural-looking light while using far less energy than standard light bulbs.

Avoid products that come with excess packaging, especially molded plastic and other packaging that can’t be recycled. If you reduce your household garbage by 10 percent, you can save 1,200 pounds of carbon dioxide annually.

6. Use Less Hot Water

Set your water heater at 120 degrees to save energy, and wrap it in an insulating blanket if it is more than 5 years old. Buy low-flow showerheads to save hot water and about 350 pounds of carbon dioxide yearly. Wash your clothes in warm or cold water to reduce your use of hot water and the energy required to produce it. That change alone can save at least 500 pounds of carbon dioxide annually in most households. Use the energy-saving settings on your dishwasher and let the dishes air-dry.

7. Use the “Off” Switch

Save electricity and reduce global warming by turning off lights when you leave a room, and using only as much light as you need. And remember to turn off your television, video player, stereo and computer when you’re not using them.

It’s also a good idea to turn off the water when you’re not using it. While brushing your teeth, shampooing the dog or washing your car, turn off the water until you actually need it for rinsing. You’ll reduce your water bill and help to conserve a vital resource.

8. Plant a Tree

If you have the means to plant a tree, start digging. During photosynthesis, trees and other plants absorb carbon dioxide and give off oxygen. They are an integral part of the natural atmospheric exchange cycle here on Earth, but there are too few of them to fully counter the increases in carbon dioxide caused by automobile traffic, manufacturing and other human activities. A single tree will absorb approximately one ton of carbon dioxide during its lifetime.

9. Get a Report Card from Your Utility Company

Many utility companies provide free home energy audits to help consumers identify areas in their homes that may not be energy efficient. In addition, many utility companies offer rebate programs to help pay for the cost of energy-efficient upgrades.

10. Encourage Others to Conserve


Share information about recycling and energy conservation with your friends, neighbors and co-workers, and take opportunities to encourage public officials to establish programs and policies that are good for the environment.

There are lots of good reasons to take action when it comes to preventing climate change. The most obvious is what I mentioned before (weather changes) and flooding, but you have to think about things in the long run. For example, the flooding in the Philippines destroyed a lot of crops, farmland and killed farm animals. Here, check out this excerpt from an ABS-CBN article:

MANILA – Total damage to crops, livestock and infrastructure wrought by the two successive typhoons that hit the country has reached P18.4 billion, according to the latest report released by the Department of Agriculture’s Center Action Center (DACAC) on Tuesday.

The DACAC said the losses—P6.8 billion from “Ondoy” and P11.7 billion from “Pepeng”—were recorded in all of Luzon’s seven regions.

The typhoons destroyed some 121,949 hectares of croplands, resulting in the loss of 925,523 metric tons of rice, corn, and high-value crops. Fishery products, livestock and poultry were affected while farm infrastructure worth P2.7 billion were ruined.

Rice areas were the most affected, with some 109,188 hectares reported to have no chance of recovery.

So, climate change doesn’t just affect the weather. It doesn’t just mean that it’s going to be sunnier, or that you’ll have to run the air conditioner more. It also means that it’s going to cause problems with food supplies around the world. It could cause famine, higher crime rates, and even war if the need escalated high enough. Just look at Japan. Their need for imported materials from the United States during the height of World War II, and our denial of those materials, is what drug the United States into the war in the first place with the retaliatory bombing of Pearl Harbor.

Do what you can, day to day, to reduce your impact on our planet. If not for ourselves, then for those who come after us. Don’t shit in the next generations’ crib before they’re even born.

Now watch this nifty video, and then click through on the link below it to find out more.

Blog Action Day 2009 

Roti Paratha (prata?)

Bradley FarlessLeave a comment

Just one of the many delicious dishes I’ve had the chance to enjoy since moving to Singapore. I’ve said it before, but I’ll say it again. Letting stereotypes pushed on you by the media influence the way you behave towards certain people is ridiculous and it could cost you some mighty good meals too!

If you’re not familiar with this dish it’s a flat bread that can come with a few types of fillings. The ones I’ve seen are cheese, cheese and egg, and even sardine I think. It’s similar to murtabak, and sort of reminds me of eating American pizza crust.

Posted via email from Bradley’s Posterous