Logging Protests Spread

Protests by the Penan tribe in Borneo have escalated, with twelve villages coming together to mount new road blockades against the logging and plantation companies that are destroying their rainforest.

Journalists covering at the blockades were intercepted by police with machineguns and taken away for questioning.

Hundreds of Penan have blocked roads at three new locations in the interior of Sarawak, in the Malaysian part of the island of Borneo. The protestors are demanding an end to logging and plantations on their land without their consent, and recognition of their land ownership rights.

BBC TV presenter Bruce Parry visited the Penan for his hit series, Tribe. One Penan told him, “It’s not true that we Penan do not want progress. Not the ‘progress’ where logging companies move on to the land. What we want is real progress. What we need is land rights first of all.”

The new protests come only weeks after blockades by two nearby Penan villages. The destruction of their forest robs the hunter-gatherer Penan of the animals and plants they eat and pollutes the rivers they fish in. Without the forest, many Penan have difficulty feeding their families.

The Penan have been struggling for more than twenty years against the logging companies that operate on their land with full government backing. In areas where the valuable trees have been cut down, the companies are clearing the forest completely to make way for oil palm plantations.

The blockades are aimed at forcing the Malaysian timber companies Samling, Interhill, Rimbunan Hijau and KTS to end their activities on the Penan’s land without the tribe’s consent. One of the earlier blockades, mounted in June at the settlement of Ba Marong, resulted in the withdrawal of a KTS subsidiary from the area – but the Penan fear that the loggers may return.

In another Penan area, the notorious company Samling is advancing on an area of the tribe’s forest that has never been logged before. Observers say that the road built by the company is likely to reach the remote Ba Jawi area within weeks.

Survival’s director Stephen Corry said today, “The logging and plantation companies are preventing the Penan from being able to feed their children. It’s no wonder they’re taking to the barricades. Penan in some areas are currently receiving food aid – before the loggers arrived, they would never have needed such hand-outs.

The Malaysian government must recognize that this land is theirs and stops sanctioning its destruction.”

Rainforest And Penan Tribe

LONG BELOK, Malaysia — Hundreds of Penan tribespeople armed with spears and blowpipes have set up new blockades deep in the Borneo jungles, escalating their campaign against logging and palm oil plantations.

Three new barricades, guarded by Penan men and women who challenged approaching timber trucks, have been established in recent days. There are now seven in the interior of Malaysia's Sarawak state.

"They are staging this protest now because most of their land is already gone, destroyed by logging and grabbed by the plantation companies," said Jok Jau Evong from Friends of the Earth in Sarawak."This is the last chance for them to protect their territory. If they don't succeed, there will be no life for them, no chance for them to survive.

"Penan chiefs said that after enduring decades of logging which has decimated the jungles they rely on for food and shelter, they now face the new threat of clear-felling to make way for crops of palm oil and planted timber.

"Since these companies came in, life has been very hard for us. Before it was easy to find animals in the forest and hunt them with blowpipes," said Alah Beling, headman of Long Belok where one of the barricades has been built.

"The forest was once our supermarket, but now it's hard to find food, the wild boar have gone," he said in his settlement, a scenic cluster of wooden dwellings home to 298 people and reachable only by a long suspension bridge.

Alah Beling said he fears that plans to establish plantations for palm oil -- which is used in food and for biofuel -- on their ancestral territory, will threaten their lifestyle and further pollute the village river with pesticide run-off.

"Once our river was so clear you could see fish swimming six feet deep," he said as he gestured at the waterway, which like most others in the region has been turned reddish-brown by the soil that cascades from eroded hillsides.Indigenous rights group Survival International said the blockades are the most extensive since the late 1980s and early 1990s when the Penan's campaign to protect their forests shot to world attention.

"It's amazing they're still struggling on after all these years, more than 20 years after they began to try to fight off these powerful companies," said Miriam Ross from the London-based group.

Official figures say there are more than 16,000 Penan in Sarawak, including about 300 who still roam the jungle and are among the last truly nomadic people on Earth.

The blockades, which Friends of the Earth said involve 13 Penan communities home to up to 3,000 people, are aimed at several Malaysian timber and plantation companies including Samling, KTS, Shin Yang and Rimbunan Hijau.

After clearing much of the valuable timber from Sarawak, a vast state which lies on Malaysia's half of Borneo island, some of these companies are now converting their logging concessions into palm oil and acacia plantations.

"They told us earlier this month they were coming to plant palm oil, and I said if you do we will blockade," said Alah Beling.

"They told us we don't have any rights to the land, that they have the licence to plant here. I felt very angry -- how can they say we have no right to this land where our ancestors have lived for generations?

"Even on land that has been logged in the past, Penan can still forage for sago which is their staple food, medicinal plants, and rattan and precious aromatic woods which are sold to buy essential goods.

"Oil palm is worse because nothing is left. If they take all our land, we will not be able to survive," the Long Belok headman said.

Sarawak's Rural Development Minister James Masing admitted some logging companies had behaved badly and "caused extensive damage" but said the Penan were "good storytellers" and their claims should be treated with caution.

"The Penan are the darlings of the West, they can't do any wrong in the eyes of the West," he said.Masing said disputes were often aimed at wringing more compensation from companies, or stemmed from conflicts between Penan and other indigenous tribes including the Kenyah and Kayan about overlapping territorial claims.

He said the current surge in plantation activity was triggered by Sarawak's goal to double its palm oil coverage to 1.0 million hectares (2.47 million acres) -- an area 14 times bigger than Singapore.

"The time we have been given to do this is running short. 2010 is next year so we want to make that target and that is why there may be a push to do it now, to fulfil our goal established 10 years ago," he said.

"In some areas the logging has not been done in accordance with the rules and some of the loggers have caused extensive damage. That does happen and I do sympathise with the Penan along those lines," he said.

"But the forest has become a source of income for the state government so we have to exploit it".Driving through the unsealed roads that reach deep into the Borneo interior, evidence of the new activity is clear with whole valleys stripped of vegetation and crude terraces carved into the hills ready for seedlings.Most of the companies declined to comment on the allegations made by the Penan, but Samling said it "regrets to learn about the blockades".

"We have long worked with communities in areas we operate to ensure they lead better lives," it said in a statement.Its website says its acacia timber plantations in Sarawak will "enhance the health of the forests" and that it uses "only the most sensitive ways to clear the land".

The Penan allegations could discredit Malaysia?s claims that it produces sustainable palm oil, particularly in Europe and the US where activists blame the industry for deforestation and driving orangutans towards extinction.Indigenous campaigners say that past blockades have seen violence and arrests against tribespeople, but village chiefs -- some of whom were detained during the 1980s blockades -- said they did not fear retribution.

"We're not afraid. They're the ones destroying my property. Last time we didn't know the law and now to protect ourselves, but now we know our rights," said Ngau Luin, the chief of Long Nen where another barricade was set up.

An AFP team reporting at the blockades was photographed by angry timber company officials, and later intercepted at a roadblock by police armed with machineguns and taken away for questioning.

The plight of the Penan was made famous in the 1980s by environmental activist Bruno Manser, who waged a crusade to protect their way of life and fend off the loggers. He vanished in 2000 -- many suspect foul play.

By Sarah Stewart (AFP) – Aug 22, 2009

Who is Bruno Manser

The non-profit organization, Bruno Manser Fonds, based in Basel, Switzerland, has spent three years preserving, digitalizing, and inventorying Manser's massive collection of photographs.

The photographs will be available through the Bruno Manser Fonds website: www.bmf.ch/en.

The life of Bruno Manser
Bruno Manser lived among the Penan peoples from 1984-1990, during this time he became intimately aware with their struggles. Deforestation was rampant in Borneo, destroying the rainforest along with the livelihood of the Penan people. Manser tried several non-violent means to make Malaysia and the developed world aware of the plight of the Penan people and Borneo's rainforest.

He organized peaceful blockades of logging roads in Sarawak with the Penan people. In 1999, using a hang glider, he landed on the Chief Minister Tan Sri Abdul Taib Mahmud's lawn in Kuching. He offered the minister a truce if the Malaysian government would set a biosphere around the Penan people's territory. He offer was denied.

In Switzerland he went on a sixty-day hunger strike before Berne's Swiss federal parliament building in an effort to press the Swiss government to ban tropical timber.

Fifteen years later, the Swiss have not adopted the ban. Such actions made him the most wanted person in the state of Sarawak.

Manser was further declared ‘persona non grata' in Malaysia; reports of a bounty on his head of up to $40,000 circulated. Despite this, he returned numerous times to the Penan people. He disappeared on his last trip in 2000. His body was never found, and in 2005 he was declared missing and presumed dead. Allegations have been made that he was murdered by loggers or the Malaysian government, but no evidence has surfaced.

"Bruno Manser dedicated his life to saving the unique rainforests of Borneo as basis of livelihood of the Penan and as a heritage of mankind," Straumann says. "He was key to making the Penan's struggle for the conservation of their forests known on an international level. He is also an important example of how much impact one individual can have in environmental matters." The Penan people today and their future

Despite Manser's efforts, deforestation continued in Borneo and the Penan people were increasingly forced to abandon traditions and lead more settled lives. Without the forest that provided them with everything, they could not survive the way their ancestors had. Currently only 200 Penans, out of some 10,000, live nomadically.

A large blow occurred recently to the Penans when longtime anti-logging activist and chieftain, Keleasu Naan, was found dead. Broken bones on the body led the Penans to believe he was murdered. Under pressure local police have announced that they will exhume Naan's body to determine his cause of death.

Meanwhile, Naan's son, Nick Keleasu, has stated that he was offered $8,000 dollars by a timber company to retract a statement he made in which he said he believed "foul play" was involved in his father's death.

Despite such setbacks—and the continuing destruction of the forest—Lukas Straumann is not without hope. He believes that some of the decade's worth of damage can be undone: "We should not forget that some of the secondary forests, which were logged in the 1980s, have regenerated and can still play an important cultural and environemental role."

He also sees new possibilities in the photos to reach-out to Malaysians and Southeast Asia in general. "I think these pictures will help raise global awareness on the Penan's struggle and their yet unresolved problems. The power of images can hardly be overestimated. By making them public on the internet, we also want to enable the Southeast Asian public to get access to them.

The electronic media are in a position to break the monopoly of the Malaysian, and in particular the Sarawak print media, many of which are controlled or influenced by the timber industry."

Developed countries can be a strong advocate for the forests of Borneo, if they step-up. Straumann explains that currently "the European Union is negotiating a "Voluntary Partnership Agreement" on timber trade issues with Malaysia.

European Citizens can pressure their governments not to relent to the lobbying of the Malaysian timber industry, which, on a worldwide scale, is playing a leading role in the destruction of the World's tropical forests - not only in Malaysia, but also in countries like Gabon, Guyana, Papua New Guinea."

Recently, a Malaysian company was stopped from deforesting 70% of Woodlark Island in Papua New Guinea for palm oil plantations because the plan was protested heavily by islanders and internationals.

Straumann describes Interhill as "one of the worst logging companies operating on Penan lands...[which] are now reinvesting their profits from the Penan's forests in a big hotel project." In 1984 when Manser went to Sarawak, 45% of its forest remained. Today, the figure is less than 10%. "In an overall view, things have clearly become worse for the Penan people," Straumann told Mongabay.

"After some ninety percent of Sarawak's forests have been logged, plantation projects, in particular for oil palm, and new hydropower schemes are new threats to the Penan's livelihood.

The combination of unrelenting deforestation and new rising threats to the region, creates a situation that probably would've spurred Bruno Manser into some daring action.

As it stands, if the situation on the ground doesn't change, his photos may be the best evidence of the lives the Penan peoples once possessed and the forest that used to be.

Humble

Some people!' snorted a man standing behind me in the long line at the grocery store. 'You would think the manager would pay attention and open another line, 'said a woman.

I looked to the front of the line to see what the hold up was and saw a well dressed, young woman, trying to get the machine to accept her credit card. No matter how many times she swiped it, the machine kept rejecting it.

'It's one of them welfare card things. Damn people need to get a job like everyone else,' said the man standing behind me. The young woman turned around to see who had made the comment. It was me,' he said, pointing to himself.

The young lady's face began to change expression. Almost in tears, she dropped the welfare card onto the counter and quickly walked out of the store. Everyone in the checkout line watched as she began running to her car. Never looking back, she got in and drove way.

After developing cancer in 1977 and having had to use food stamps; I had learned never to judge anyone, without knowing the circumstances of their life. This turned out to be the case today.

Several minutes later a young man walked into the store. He went up to the cashier and asked if she had seen the woman. After describing her, the cashier told him that she had run out of the store, got into her car, and drove away.

'Why would she do that?' asked the man. Everyone in the line looked around at the fellow who had made the statement. 'I made a stupid comment about the welfare card she was using. Something I shouldn't have said. I'm sorry,' said the man.

'Well, that's bad, real bad, in fact. Her brother was killed in Afghanistan two years ago. He had three young children and she has taken on that responsibility. She's twenty years old, single, and now has three children to support,' he said in a very firm voice.

'I'm really truly sorry. I didn't know,' he replied, Shaking both his hands about.

The young man asked, 'Are these paid for?' pointing to the shopping cart full of groceries.

'It wouldn't take her card' the clerk told him.

'Do you know where she lives?' asked the man who had made the comment.

'Yes, she goes to our church.'

'Excuse me,' he said as he made his way to the front of the line. He pulled out his wallet, took out his credit card and told the cashier, 'Please use my card. PLEASE!' The clerk took his credit card and began to ring up the young woman's groceries.

Hold on,' said the gentleman. He walked back to his shopping cart and began loading his own groceries onto the belt to be included. 'Come on people. We got three kids to help raise!' he told everyone in line.

Everyone began to place their groceries onto the fast moving belt. A few customers began bagging the food and placing it into separate carts.. 'Go back and get two big turkeys,' yelled a heavyset woman, as she looked at the man.

'NO,' yelled the man. Everyone stopped dead in their tracks. The entire store became quiet for several seconds. 'Four turkeys,' yelled the man. Everyone began laughing and went back to work.

When all was said and done, the man paid a total of $1,646.57 for the groceries. He then walked over to the side, pulled out his check book, and began writing a check. He turned around and handed the check to the young man.

The young man looked at the check and said, 'This is really very generous of you.'

'No, ' said the man. 'Her brother was the generous one.'

Everyone in the store had been observing the odd commotion and began to clap. A great example of why we should be kind and patient. Kindness is the language the blind can see and the deaf can hear.

One Paragraph That Explains Life

Arthur Ashe, the legendary Wimbledon player was dying of AIDS which he got due
to infected blood he received during a heart surgery in l983.


He received letters from his fans the world over, one of which conveyed: "Why does

GOD have to select you for such a bad disease?"

To this Arthur Ashe replied:

"The world over -- 50 million children start playing tennis, 5 million learn to play tennis, 500,000, learn professional tennis, 50,000 come to the circuit, 5000 reach the grand slam, 50 reach Wimbledon, 4 to semi final, 2 to the finals, when I was holding a cup I never asked GOD 'Why me?'.

And today in pain I should not be asking GOD 'Why me?' "

Find a Mentor

Choose your mentors wisely. Mentoring is not counseling. It is guidance in the form of teaching and support provided by someone you trust, usually a teacher, a parent or relative, a supervisor, coach or a counselor. Attached is a list of characteristics we believe the best mentors possess:

Fair - in their assessments, judgements and expectation.

Enthusiastic - excited about helping you pursue your goals. Look for a mentor that is willing to share that excitement with you and help you stay on path.

Inspiring - always keep you moving forward and stretching your current state of limitations. Finding someone that inspires you and others will keep that focus.

Able to identify strengths and weaknesses - that can determine what your strengths are and also know how to offset some of your blindspots and weaknesses.

Able to stretch their mentees - a mentor should challenge you daily to be better than you were the day before.

Both demanding and supportive - always challenges you physically, mentally, spiritually, etc.

Straight forward and decisive - someone that you can have candid conversations with and don't have to 'pull punches' with during your one-on-one meetings and discussions.

Willing to express gratitude for a job well done - someone that supports your goals and objectives.

Willingness to share knowledge, insights and ideas - someone that can provide solid, documented success and insight.

Still learning themselves - find mentor that is continuing to learn more everyday. No one has it all figured out and a mentor should be someone that is continuing to sharpen their minds and experiences as much as you.

Open and accessible- Make sure your mentors can be easily accessible, especially early on in the relationship.

Appreciative of the opportunities they have been given - Find a mentor that is grateful for the mentors they have found along the way and appreciate of the things their life has brought to them through experiences. The happier they are, the happier you'll be!

Give me Lee anytime

After the rains come a little sunshine, and I’m not referring to the torrential downpours that have been hitting Singapore. After two years of depressing news, people here have at last some blessings to count, and perhaps feel a little proud of being Singaporeans.

They came as the economy improved enough to allow the government to rule out another recession, and the global tribute paid to Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew’s achievements in the past 50 years.

Lee’s acclaim by the United States and the 10 Asean countries has raised the Republic’s morale and standing at a time when both are badly needed in the wake of its worst recession.The foreign recognition comes at a time when the Minister Mentor is losing popularity among young

Singaporeans who have a different set of values and little recollection of what he did in the past.However, Singapore’s founding father has shown he still retains the world’s admiration for his role in the contemporary history of Singapore and the region.

In Washington last week, he was accorded the first lifetime achievement award by the US-Asean Business Council – with tributes from the current US and two former presidents at the ceremony. President Barack Obama, who met him at the Oval Office and who will be in Singapore, said Lee was “one of the legendary figures of Asia in the 20th and 21st centuries... somebody who helped to trigger the Asian economic miracle.”

Among a list of high-powered figures who were present were Bill Clinton and George W. Bush, who said: “All of us who have worked with him have benefited from his wisdom, his insight and his dedication.”

Henry Kissinger said: “I’ve known him for 40 years. I would say I’ve not learned as much from anybody as I have from Lee Kuan Yew.”

The accolade shows an appreciation of the man’s tremendous accomplishments, but he remains to the world as controversial as he is admired.Amidst the praises, his Law Minister K. Shanmugan was in another US city repeatedly defending against charges that the Singapore system that Lee had put up is undemocratic and lacks human rights and press freedom.

His “lifetime award” has also raised questions about whether this was his last hurrah, and if the 86-year-old leader intends to seek another five more years in office.“It is always risky to predict an imminent Lee retirement. He has a habit of proving it wrong,” said a local reporter. “However at 86, he is visibly slower. How long can he go on?”

The international buzz is adding to the national debate about what possible impacts his eventual exit will have on Singapore. Although he has distanced himself from the day-to-day running of the country, Lee is widely believed to hold significant influence over the Republic.The general feeling is that the country will continue to move ahead without Lee, but replacing his vast experience and his global stature is virtually impossible.

For years he shaped a foreign policy on China and the United States that enabled Singapore to avoid being crushed by their conflicting interests, but also served as a bridge between them. At times, it hit a sensitive nerve as it did last week when he urged the US to deepen its “indispensable” role in Asia as a counterweight to China’s emerging power.“

The size of China makes it impossible for the rest of Asia, including Japan and India, to match it in weight and capacity in about 20 to 30 years. So we need America to strike a balance,” Lee said.

Within hours, it drew strong reactions from thousands of Chinese bloggers, some accusing Lee of being used by the US to undermine China. One described Lee as “a political animal... (who) relies on China to develop his country’s economy, but is ushering wolves to deal with China.”

Another was reported to have said, “Just because he has achieved some success in Singapore, he dares to play the guiding light that shows US the way.”

Ironically, American liberals have accused Lee of more or less the same thing – setting Singapore up as an example for China on how it can have a predominant one-party democracy.

Lee’s successes abroad and the “feel good” factor for Singaporeans, especially the older people, were reflected by a blogger who said:“Without Lee Kuan Yew, we Singaporeans would not be respected especially when travelling overseas.

People associate Singapore with him, that’s for sure.”After a long 50 years, the People’s Action Party (PAP) is feeling the heat from a new generation of demanding, tech-savvy voters who frequently disagree with its policies.Aggravating the strains is the hardship brought about by the global crisis.

Much of the blame is levelled, fairly or unfairly, at Lee’s influence. Some foreigners have found the level of vehemence hard to understand given Singapore’s advanced state of progress.

During a dinner among regional journalists, one editor from a developing country asked me to explain why so many Singaporeans were so angry with the architect of their prosperity.“We’d be happy to swap our leader for Lee anytime,” he said.

It reflects how much society is changing.Lee recently said the evolving mindsets of the young and their response to the world’s changes will alter Singapore’s political landscape in future “and not because I won’t be around.”