Friday, October 5, 2007
Blog Response Term 3 #1
Smoking out the world's lungs
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/6354079.stm
This issue is concerning forest fires in the rainforest in central Kalimantan. In the article, the journalist records it as “the lungs of the world”. What irony that many people would actually want to destroy the lungs of the world they are living in. This issue is significant because it is about the world we are living in, the very world that is slowly being destroyed before our very eyes.
The people starting the forest fires are poor people, having no money to spend on fertilizer, they have to resort to burning trees for the nutrients. As quoted from the article, "To prevent people opening up peatlands for agriculture or whatever, we need to come up with development projects that directly benefit the local poor, and that is a challenge that has to be solved by the government as a whole." I empathize with the people that they are so poor that they have no alternative other than to burn the forests in order to make a living, in order to survive. However, the government is also in a dilemma. Should they sacrifice the livelihood of the locals to protect the earth, or risk a finger being pointed at them saying that they have no sympathy for anyone at all? It is a situation which nobody would want to be in.
From the government’s perspective, they are really at a loss as to what to do, and it is difficult to think up a solution that would benefit everyone. From the locals’ perspective however, it is a necessity to that to ensure their own survival in this world where only the fittest survive. I believe that the government’s perspective is the more correct one as they would have assessed the situation beforehand, while the locals are concerned only for their own survival.
However, because I am young and do not have much exposure to the outside world, my viewpoint may not be very accurate, and to me, the best solution is to follow the government.
moonlight shone on Friday, October 05, 2007.
