My mind’s been occupied for the past week and some of the thoughts have been disturbing. No, not disturbing as in cutting someone’s throat and drink its blood. Nothing like that. It’s disturbing as in I do not know what to do with me and this strange thing called ‘life’. Yeah, I know. Cliche. But it’s like I’m living in a tangle-up ball of thoughts, extremely disorganized, dangerously intense, eerily contagious, and I’m totally helpless to do anything about it. Oh well…
Random snippet #1: Many more dams to come…
Oh great! As if there’s not enough controversy in this big world of ours these days, another one had to pop up in a newspaper article today. Well, it’s easy to ignore every social issues that are happening in our own backyard and thus, erase the whole idea of a ‘controversy’. But that would be irresponsible, wouldn’t it? Anyways, one of our ministers announced today that 12 more dams will be built in Sarawak sometimes between now and year 2020. By then, Sarawak will be generating 7,000MW which is electrifying, I think. Actually, this news is nothing new. When the 2400MW Bakun hydroelectric dam project was proposed in the 1990s, it was met with disagreements by local communities, environmentalists and social activists. The project, of course, fell deaf on the gomen’s ears and more propagandas, political rhetorics ensued in the mainstream media saying how this damn project is necessary. At one stage, there was even some arguments that said it is be to build more smaller dams along the Rajang river rather than build one huge environmentally-destructive dam like Bakun. Of course, the gomen of today refuted by asking them why build many dams when we can build one huge dam that would be mother of all dams? The project, as we know today, continues. And my friends, not only we will have the ongoing Bakun dam mega project, now we will also have those ’smaller’ dams that were initially proposed (and rejected) prior to the construction of Bakun!
Ok, it was reported in the paper that “Currently, Sarawak’s energy output is 933MW and it does not need any more energy. However, there are plans to expand the aluminum-smelting industry in the state which will need the planned output.” We’re gonna have aluminum plant in our backyard? And also, the fuckin’ dams are also necessary so that we can score some points in achieving that industrialization status thing. In the process of it all, the faces of life will be completely altered beyond recognition…*sigh*
Tiu lah…
Random snippet #2: Another bite…
I woke up at 6am yesterday morning at the sound of my dogs barking. I was very sure that no one was attempting to break into my house because, somehow, my dogs do not bark at strangers. Yes, what use are they, right? So, I peeked out of my window and saw they were barking at something outside the gate. I went to check it out. It was a kitten frozen in its footsteps with fear. So, I went upstairs to put on some more clothes otherwise the neighbors would think I’d be crazy walking outside in my underwear. Then, as I went upstairs, my niece was going downstairs on her way to work. Since my head was still a little fuzzy, I just blankly asked her “Going to work?”, and of course, her answer would be ‘yes’ but I wouldn’t have cared anyways. While I was putting on my clothes in my room and thinking on what to do with the kitten, a thought suddenly struck me. The dogs. The kitten. The gate! I quickly ran downstairs and shouted at my niece not to open the gate. Alas! It was too late, my dogs were on the loose chasing after the kitten. The white dog got to it first but I ran passed my niece, and managed to grab hold of the kitten and pulled its head out from my dog’s mouth. In the process, the kitten planted a deep bite on my left hand (I was holding it in my right arm) and it didn’t let go. I quickly ran inside the house, into the kitchen and managed to dislodge its teeth from my left middle finger. Man, and that was pain defined! At that stage, it felt more painful than the crab bite I had last year. It was crazy. I don’t really like cats, to be honest. But watching a kitten being killed by one of my dogs that don’t know the meaning of ‘No, stop it!’ didn’t look right at the time.
The kitten I ’saved’ and in its appreciation, bit me!
I didn’t know what to do with the kitten so I brought it work with me. I’m sure there are kitten lovers at the workplace, I thought. I certainly can’t leave the thing in my house. If it ‘meowed’ in my house while I’m away, my dogs would go bezerk! This is especially true with Kabang – the white one – who has this tendency of disobeying orders. It’s either disobedience or stupidity at its best. Just last week, I found a dead cat on my lawn. I came back late at night and I saw my two dogs wagging their tails with excitement. They were standing over something but I couldn’t see it then. At first, I thought it was a rug that the dogs usually pull down from the clothesline. When I walked closer to the dogs to have a look, I saw a dead adult cat lumped on the dirt, motionless and obviously, dead!
So, yeah, I brought the kitten to my workplace and let it roam the office. I also went to the clinic to get some medication and a tetanus shot for the bite, just in case, y’know. I don’t want to suffer infection and that fever thing I got from the last crab bite. That was nasty. I couldn’t even enjoy my beers then! Besides, I don’t know where the kitten came from. It must have been foraging through the rubbish outside when it got disconnected from its family. Anyways, while it was feeling comfortable in my office, one of our cleaners asked if the kitten was mine. I said, for heaven’s sake, no. “Can I take it? I’ll buy it from you”, she said. I told her to take it away for free. She was happy and I hope the kitten is bloody happy about this arrangement too!
Damn, it’s like every cat that enters my house is having a death wish or something…*sigh*
Random snippet #3: Danu and the dam nearby
Yes, another dam. Maybe these entries are about that noun called ‘dam’…and its all ‘damned’? I mean, damn the more dams. Damn the kitten that bit me. And now, the dam nearby.
I went to Danu last weekend with a friend’s friends, Andrew and Delia. They wanted to spend a night there and I had an interview with an old man, asking him about his life when he was young and his village at the time. It was interesting. Well, anything outside of Kuching and discovering new things, new stories are always interesting! When we arrived in Danu in the morning, the langkau session had just started. It was good. It’s been a while that I’ve participated in this langkau drinking thing and strangely, I’ve not been missing it much.
Anyways, after that session, Robert took the three of us upriver Sarawak Kiri to a place where I’ve been before. When I was there last January, the riverbank where we stopped out boat looked like the picture above. Well, this isn’t a full picture of it but the riverbank was still ‘usable’ for picnics and things like that. That’s at the foot of the Sarawak Kiri river rapid. There’s no way of going further upriver on a longboat without hitting the large boulders of rocks.
Last weekend, when we went to the same spot the riverbank looked like this! The riverbank had shrunk and almost disappearing. We stopped by and Robert, Andrew and Delia went up the slope to take a look. I followed behind them a while later. When I got to the top, there were people – mostly Indonesian laborers – working on something. There were a couple of buildings erected just above the riverbank and the soil on the slope was eroding (very fast!) to the river. It was a depressing sight. I didn’t want to move up further and went to the boat, waiting for them to return. I’m not sure if I feel like going back there again. It just looked damned ugly.
Enough lah….
