(Breaking News) ACA chief contract not renewed March 30, 2007
Posted by elizabethwong in Current Affairs, Malaysia, Note2Self, Politics.3 comments
About time.
He should have been made to go on leave while under investigations.
These case files, according to an editor of a popular daily, were received since last July by the mainstream media but they didn’t dare to print them.
Instead they were sent to the Prime Minister’s department but there was no action.
…. Until Malaysiakini.com broke the news, reporting on the press conference held on February 26, 2007 by Mohd Ezam Mohd Nor, the chairperson of Gerakan Demokrasi dan Anti-Korupsi (GERAK) (Please send bouquets to both these organisations!)
More on ExxonMobil March 29, 2007
Posted by elizabethwong in Environment, Human Rights, International, Malaysia, Southeast Asia, Women.5 comments
Ignorance isn’t an excuse.
In 2005, ExxonMobil scored 14 out of 100 on the Human Rights Campaign Corporate Equality Index.
“ExxonMobil may be second to BP in size, but with sales of over $320 billion, the company broke earnings records in 2005. And that’s not all. Between its public denial of global warming and steadfast efforts to open the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge for drilling…. (More)”
Global Warming
ExxonMobil Contributed Five Percent of Global Greenhouse Gas Emissions in Last 120 Years, by William Baue, SocialFunds.com, Jan 30, 2004.
“Friends of the Earth calculates that ExxonMobil contributed five percent of the world’s manmade carbon dioxide emissions over its 120-year history… FoE commissioned independent researchers in Spring 2003 to conduct the studies.”
The first study, written by Richard Heede of Colorado-based Climate Mitigation Services, estimates ExxonMobil’s emissions of carbon dioxide and methane (another GHG) from the founding of ExxonMobil precursor Standard Oil Trust in 1882 to 2002. During this period, the combustion of ExxonMobil-produced fossil fuels resulted in the emission of approximately 20.3 billion tons of carbon, the equivalent of between 4.7 percent and 5.3 percent of global carbon dioxide emissions.
The second study, written by Jim Salinger and Greg Bodeker of New Zealand-based National Institute of Water & Atmospheric Research (NIWA), runs the results of the first study through the well-respected and widely-used “Bern CC” climate model. This process extrapolates the environmental implications of GHG emissions. This study finds that ExxonMobil’s emissions have contributed between 3.4 percent and 3.7 percent of total attributable temperature change since 1882, and 2 percent of the sea level rise.
ExxonMobil blood money March 29, 2007
Posted by elizabethwong in Environment, Human Rights, International, Malaysia, Southeast Asia, Women.13 comments
My eyebrows raised late at night when I read an email from my former colleague, K. Shan, who now works as the Coordinator of Amnesty International Malaysia. By the time I finished it, I was almost close to tears.
ExxonMobil, one of the oil and gas companies in Southeast Asia with an appalling human rights record in Aceh, which we have been campaigning against for many years, has decided to pull a PR stunner on our shores when they awarded RM 1.3 million to 2 women’s rights organisations – WCC and WAO.
I visited the areas surrounding the ExxonMobil oil and gas plant in Leuksomawe, Aceh, together with villagers who had suffered from torture, sexual assaults, massacres and disappearances. The collusion between this giant oil company and the Indonesian Army is well-documented.
Anwar in fine form March 28, 2007
Posted by elizabethwong in Democracy, Malaysia, Politics.6 comments
(Updated: Video of interview embedded)
I caught the last quarter of Anwar Ibrahim‘s interview on the Riz Khan’s programme on Al-Jazeera.
Perhaps it was his composure. The clarity in which he spoke. The articulation. The way he held himself. Or even his suit, and might I add, smashing tie!
Perhaps he was invigorated after a discussion session with Amartya Sen in Italy last week.
Future rights March 28, 2007
Posted by elizabethwong in Human Rights, Malaysia, Miscellanous.1 comment so far
(Filed under “Too Cool”)
While our government here can’t even be bothered to debate the Annual Report of the Human Rights Commission of Malaysia (MPs found their copies on their desks on Monday), South Korea is discussing about rights of robots.
While South Korea is planning to place a robot in every household by 2020, we can’t even aim for a vacuum cleaner in every house since we haven’t sorted out a viable masterplan on rural electrification in east Malaysia.
Memories of Machap March 27, 2007
Posted by elizabethwong in Democracy, Malaysia, Note2Self, Politics.7 comments
I have fond memories of what city folks here call ‘rural Melaka’. Took about a couple hundred of photos during the 1999 campaign.
My theory is that every time urbanites move out of handphone range, they go, “Ah….rural…”
Those days, finding Astro in Machap would have been a rarity. We could hardly get TV3 reception at the operations room, not to mention handphone coverage. But due to sheer will and surprisingly efficient Telekoms, we were plugged into the internet by Day 2.
Tributes flow for human rights activist March 24, 2007
Posted by elizabethwong in Human Rights, Malaysia, Note2Self, RIP.5 comments
Tributes flow for human rights activist
More than 1,000 mourners attended the funeral service of a 29-year-old human rights activist from Palmers Green who was killed in a motorcycle crash in Malaysia.
(more…)
Machap by-election dates and details March 21, 2007
Posted by elizabethwong in Democracy, Malaysia.12 comments
(Updated: 1513 H)
Nomination day: 3 April 2007
Polling day: 12 April 2007
The constituency of Machap was formerly known as Bukit Sedanan. Both KeADILan and DAP have contested there in the past.
In 1999, KeADILan’s Zamani Abdul Wahid received 2,340 votes against the late Poh’s 4,966
In 2004, DAP’s Liou Chen Kuang’s 1,285 votes lost to the late Poh Ah Tiam’s 5,847.
Late this morning, Lim Guan Eng, secretary-general of DAP announced to the media in Parliament that DAP is interested to contest there.
KeADIlan, while saying they are keen and ready too, in the spirit of unity and consultation, they will first discuss it in tonight’s Political Bureau meeting and talk further with other partners in the Opposition to ensure the best candidate is put forward to ensure an Opposition victory.
(KeADILan President Dr. Wan Azizah Wan Ismail’s statement available here)
Malaysiakini and a few Chinese media have reported on the names of possible candidates. According to them, they are:-
Malaysian embassies shame us abroad March 20, 2007
Posted by elizabethwong in Democracy, Human Rights, Malaysia.14 comments
The long arm of the Malaysian government stretches not only to London at Cambridge University and the London School of Economics (LSE), to stop students from organising and attending the recent talks by former deputy Prime Minister and KeADILan advisor, Anwar Ibrahim, but it has reached as far as South Korea.
Below is a letter of protest from Black to the Malaysian Embassy. He is incensed over the embarrassment caused by the Malaysian Embassy there, when it tried to obtain information from one of East Asia’s most prestigious academic institution – Sunghonghae University – about a Malaysian student based there.
And the student’s alleged ‘crime’? Submitting an article to Harakah Daily.
With Malaysian government reps behaving in this goon-like fashion, the Tourism Minister whacking women and bloggers, why bother spending millions on Visit Malaysia Year 2007 and the “project known as Islam Hadhari”?
Civilisation …. Knowledge society…. My foot.
Toll Demo #5 March 19, 2007
Posted by elizabethwong in Economy, Event, Human Rights, Malaysia, Photography, Photojournalism.29 comments
USJ Summit Anti-Toll Hike Demo
A Narrative in Pictures (and a few words)
This is Dr Hatta Ramli (PAS). We like him heaps because he’s articulate and very humorous. But not the cops. They get edgy. So often enough, when he gets hold of the mic/megaphone, this is the inevitable outcome… (more…)
elizabeth wong 