More than 2000 scientists, experts, politicians, United Nations officials and non-governmental organizations attended the Geneva Conference on Global Framework on Climate Services, just ended last week. They came together to make sure that everyone of us has access to the climate prediction and information so that we can cope with the predictable and unpredictable problems of climate change. The key component of the services is the improving of national and regional observation and research to make weather prediction and forecast accurate to save life. People need to know about evacuation plans and potential disaster information on time — an effective warning system, when cyclone, typhoon, floods, heat waves, drought or sand storm are going to hit us. Some of the warning services are available now, but they are not formalized. Experts have warned us that because of global warming, climate-related disasters will occur more frequently and more intense, no matter where we live. The newly set-up Global Climate Services will equip government and community leaders with required tools such as digital/electronic warning system, hazard maps, health and food security alerts. Most important, Dr. Gro Harlem-Brundtland, Envoy of the United Nations Secretary-General, said that we can not only rely on individual projects or individual agencies to undertake this task. The international community needs to unite to make science-based information on climate available to all. To be prepared at individual level in saving our life and protecting our properties, we should be active in getting accurate information, which are available through the media such as internet, or by contact the communications and public affairs officers of the World Meteorological Organization (WMO).
A visit to Singapore Botanical Gardens is best early in the morning. There are many people visiting the Garden at that time along with walkers and joggers doing their morning exercises along the winding roads through rain forest and around beautiful lakes. Under shady trees, a group of Tai Chi and Chi Gong enthusiasts display their skill in ancient Chinese martial arts, while the young ones prefer to do modern dance from recorded musics. The morning air was also fresh with soft cool breeze. I was already impressed of its beauty when I first visited the garden ten years ago. During my last month’s trip, I saw new addition such as the Shaw Foundation Symphony Stage in the middle of the Palm Valley as I walked through the rain forest towards the National Orchid Garden, which really is a dream place for orchid lovers. Since I enjoy doing painting of orchids, I took the opportunity to photograph the large varieties of a thousand species of Bulbophylium, Aerides Multiflora, Dendrobium, Paphiopedilum Callosum, and Vanda, for painting on my website. At the Garden, the orchids were artistically displayed between small water falls and bridges in natural settings. Crane Fountain decorated with colorful orchids, was also a new addition. I want to invite everyone to come and visit this largest orchid collection in the world. The Singapore Botanical Gardens, at its present site, was founded by the Agri-horticultural Society in 1859. It was later handed over to the Singapore Government. A lake around the Garden was completed in 1866 to be a home for the swans, imported from Amsterdam. I enjoyed seeing them floating around the water of the lake. There were other people watching them and admiring the swan graceful dance from the seats along the lake sides. There were many beautiful sculptures such as “Swans in flights” and “Girl on Swing” that scattered around the Gardens’ walkway donated by Singaporean artists. The entrance to the garden is through Tanglin Gate/Botany Centre at the junction of Holland and Napier Road. Admission is free to the public. There is a charge of five Singapore dollars for entrance to the National Orchid Garden situated adjacent to the main area of the Botanical Gardens.
Israel should do what was called for by Ms. Navi Pillay, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights : a) to stop its illegal expansion of settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territories; b) ease of restriction and blockade on Gaza; c) halt evictions and demolition of Palestinian homes; and d) address impunity of Jewish settler violence. She introduced the 34 pages Human Rights Special Committee Report, which was released on 14 August, highlighting the significant evidence of serious violations of international humanitarian law by the Israeli forces between 27 December 2008 to 18 January 2009, during which the Israeli military conducted an offensive operation on the Gaza Strip violating the international law. Ms. Pillay explained that human rights violations included torture, extra-judicial execution, forced eviction, arbitrary detention, home demolition and other violence and restrictions on freedom of movement and expressions. She also expressed her gravely concerned that Israel has not yet complied with the Advisory Opinion of the International Court of Justice on the Wall that Israel built within the Occupied Palestinian Territories “to keep out suicide bombers”. During those 22 days of military action, many Palestinians have had their human rights violated. Up to 1,400 Palestinian children, women and men were killed by the Israeli forces. Although findings of the UN Human Rights Council are not binding, I want to commend the efforts of the UN Human Rights Council , the Special Committeemembers, and the High Commissioner for Human Rights, in their determination in bringing out this Report, the Violations of Human Rights of the Palestinian People by the Occupying Power, Israel. This report will be sent to the next UN General Assembly meeting in New York.
If you are “luxury wives” of politicians, you would probably not mind when being asked about your husband’s opinion on topical issue of the day, or receiving praise on your husband’s brilliant political skill. You would have felt proud to be connected in marriage with such a “great man”. But when you are professional women, holding one of highest offices in a government, you would feel annoyed when, at a press conference, a question from the floor is not about what you do but about your husband’s opinion on political issue. The US Secretary of State, Hillary R. Clinton was right to be annoyed and angry when an African chauvinist male stood up at press conference to ask a question not about what issue that she was dealing with in Africa but about what her husband’s opinion was. If the situation were in reverse, any male politician with pride, would be angry if the question was about his wife’s opinion instead of about him. But men usually would not dare to insult another male politician in public that way. This type of insulting situation only happened to professional/political woman. As a United Nations professional staff attending many international meetings, my male colleagues would come up to ask me what my husband was working on, or about his opinion on political issues, instead of about me and what interesting work I was doing. Feeling insulted, I used to brush them off by saying “Go and ask him yourself” etc. This is not an issue of competition between “Bill and Hillary”, as many male journalists and the international media had made it to be. It is an issue of discrimination against women, and the trivialization of work performed by a competent professional women. I am glad that Hillary Clinton did not allow that African man questioning her to get away with such a “put down” in public without receiving a strong reaction from her.
In 1986, Corazon Aquino was the first woman of the Phillippines who has ever been elected to the office of the presidency — three years after her husband was shot by men in the military at the tarmac of the Manila airport. I met her husband, Benigno (Ninoy) Aquino some 40 years ago while attending the regional meeting of the Asian youth leaders organized by the Quaker in Tarlac province of the Philippines. Ninoy came to speak to our group about how together we can change Asia to be a more democratic region. We were very impressed by him, his vision and his easy way of communication with people. At that time, he was a young journalist, not yet a politician. He only thought of running as candidate from Tarlac province for a Senatorial seat in the Parliament of the Philippines. When he was elected later and became a Senator, I thought that his future was assured — he would be the future president of his country. But it was not meant to be. Because he was too popular which was too much of a threat to Marcos dictatorship and the political power at that time, he had to be killed in 1983, when returning from a political exile to run for national election as an opposition candidate to President Ferdinand Marcos. I never thought that it would be his wife that will become the President instead of him. Returning from her exile in the United States to attend Ninoy’s funeral, Corazon had turned it into a “People’s Power” movement against dictatorial government that killed her husband. With rare bravery and determination to bring change, she reluctantly accepted the people’s request and trust to lead a revolution that swept away dictatorship and corrupted Marcos regime once and for all from the Phillippines. As a former housewife and mother of five children, she surprised me and every one in her success in restoring democracy and the rule of law to her country. I therefore want to join those who honored her on this day of her passing. We have lost one of the great Asian leaders of our time on 1 August 2009. She is an inspiration to us all.
I want to share with you the Paul Kerley’s slideshow of some of the most colorful X-ray images captured by the Chandra Observatory, which orbits the Earth once every 64 hours. It is wonderful for me to see those images it has produced during the last ten years from when the it was first deployed on 23 July 1999 to 23 July 2009. The narration of the slideshow was done by Daren Baskill, an X-ray astronomer at the University of Sussex. One of the most beautiful image is the cat’s eye nebula, with its blue, purple and orange color-mixture. The Chandra Telescope is Nasa’s flagship mission to continue exploring the realms of X-ray astronomy in our Universe.
To improve our environment, more and more people are using bicycle as a mean of transportation to and from home and work place. For those riders, I want to suggest that you have a look at Chiyu Chen’s designed “Hybrid2”. Chen is a student in Portland, Oregon who has invented a “Hybrake” system to allow rider to generate and store energy from braking and normal biking in an ultra-capacitor. Any rider can use the system to rent a bicycle capable of generating and storing energy to power the city hybrid electric buses. It is such an easy system that anyone can make use of just by charging the bicycle up with kinetic energy from pedal power, and then return it to a kiosk in a parking station, which then feeds energy into the city’s smart grid. The bicyclist then receive a monetary credit towards the next bus pass. The more energy you generate, the more credit you get. I think this is a good way for us to get an exercise, safe the environment by using alternative energy and reduce the amount of toxic fume on the street, at the same time, help easing the traffic jam in town and city roads. Mayor of every town and city should consider building this kind of system for its population.
Anyone interested in ancient arts and history should not miss the exhibition on the Afghanistan Hidden Treasures at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. These treasures, some of them dug-up from tombs, have been on tour in the United States since last year, beginning at the National Gallery of Art in Washington D.C., the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco, then the Museum of Fine Arts in Houston, Texas. I went to see the exhibition on July 8. As I stepped into the hall, I saw a stunning photographs of a beautiful panoramic view of the mountain terrain of Afghanistan, then I watched a documentary film of the Greek architecture from the second century B.C. city of Ai Khanum. The history of the people who live in the country in ancient times and their arts were on displayed in the connecting rooms. I like the normadic gold jewelries of the first century that were excavated from the old city of Tillya Tepe. The background Afghan music played throughout the exhibit hall, had created an atmosphere of actually being in Afghanistan for that moment in time. The display of ancient art treasures, statues, carnelian and turquoise jewelries, gold coins, carved ivory were set up in separate compartments keep secured in a glass-top tables and walls under controlled temperature. The museum organized this exhibition in cooperation with the National Geographic Society, with support from the National Endowment for the Humanities grant. I went to Afghanistan for the first time in 1969. I considered myself to be very lucky in having seen the full exhibition of all the historical treasures of Afghanistan that were kept at the National Museum of Kabul before they were destroyed during the civil war. At that time the museum rooms were over flowing with arts and artifacts from Greece, Mongolia, China and India. The National Museum artfully displayed those hand-blown glasses and vases of different shapes in pale blue/green colors that were brought over by Alexander‘s army; silver and gold coins brought over by Bactrian and Mongol merchants when they traveled through the ancient “silk route” crossing the Hindu Kush mountain. I was told then that there were much more priceless materials collected at the Museum than from what I had seen, because there were no space to display them all. The museum, therefore, had to store them in the basement. When the Taliban took control of the government in the late eighties, I was concerned that those precious treasures would be lost forever. Many of them were destroyed when the museum were bombed during the war. But in 2003, the Afghan new government announced to the public that they had found some of the treasures hidden in the vault of Kabul’s Presidential Bank.The staff of the museum had hiden them underground to avoid possible looting and destruction during the fighting. In Bamyan valley, the Sunny Taliban destroyed the two big Buddha statues when they fought with the Shi’it Hazaris people living in the area. The two statues were built by Buddhist monks pilgrims who built meditation chambers by carving the rock on the side of the mountain along side the Buddha statues. Bamyan valley was a crossroads of many cultures in Central Asia from traders to pilgrims. The Taliban wanted to eliminate all forms and influences of other religions and ethnic groups and made Afghanistan an Islamic State. Now, there is a war going on between the NATO force and the Taliban establishments in the rural areas. What I am afraid of is that the modern weapons used could damage historical places shown at the exhibition namely one of the Unesco Cultural Heritage sites, the Landscape and Archaeological Remains of the Bamyan Valley. The exhibition will end on 20 September 2009.
When I went to visit my mother in Bangkok, I often saw young men (mahout) taking the elephant for a walk on the main Sukhumvit road and in a small narrow lane passing by her house. I was unhappy to see the poor elephant walking on a hot cement road in the mid-day Sun along side motor cycles and cars, but I could not do anything about it. I am appall to learn that there are as many as 100 elephants roaming the street of the Thailand’s capital! Elephants are taken by their owners out of the natural habitat in the forest to walk and beg in the city for food and money. Cruelty to animal is often ignored in Thailand. Despite years of pleading and protesting by various groups of people, the previous Thai governments did nothing about it. Now, thanks to the present Bangkok Governor, Sukhumbhand Paribatra and his Deputy, Theerachon Manomaipiboon, we can see some progress in solving the problem of elephant exploitation. Last week, they dispatched polices to patrol the street of Bangkok in search of wandering elephants and their mahouts. When founded, the the city inspector embedded the elephants with microchip under their skin for registration, and for the future control of elephants’ population. The City Hall also conducted a campaign “Cash for Elephant” to send the elephants back to its natural habitat in reserve forest. They urge people for help in buying these elephants from the mahouts/owners who are poor and cannot afford to send the elephant back to the forest. The cost of buying an elephant from the mahout is about $30,000. The Friends of the Asian Elephant Foundation bought the elephants but pleaded with mahouts/owners not to overprice their elephants. Governor Sukhumbhand Paribatra set up a hotline for the public to give information on the exploitation of elephants. He also assured people that the streets of Bangkok will be elephantfree in less than a year. Good news, indeed!
A real sanctuary for swans, wild geese, ducks and sea gulls, Bruce park is a peaceful place to visit in Greenwich, Connecticut. I enjoy the afternoon sitting on a bench along side of the lake watching 3 swans floating by gently searching for under water weeds and plants to eat. Walking around in the park I saw several groups of wild geese flying in from somewhere to rest and search for food on the green grass lawn near the edge of the lake. Since the park is quite close to the sea, I was looking for sea gulls but did not find them. But I found many kinds of small birds flying around the area. The white gazebo situated in the middle of a big lawn is a gift from the Hortulus Garden Club. It gives the passerby a shelter to get away from the hot summer Sun. In front of the Gazebo, red, pink and yellow roses scattered all over the lawn. The fragrance of those roses attracts swarms of bees and small insects. There are picnic areas and winding paths up and down the hills for skate boarding and bicycling, and also a separate for jogging and walking for exercise.. About 100 acres of this park area are gifts to the town from a wealthy textile merchant, Robert M. Bruce in 1908. He designated his house located in the park for a Natural History, Historical and Art Museum. The only way to go to Bruce Park is by car. From New York City, I took 1-95 Northbound. turn out at Exit 3, then right onto Arch Street, and to Museum Drive. Turn left onto Davis Avenue to go into the park area.
