Man Play God Again

I read the article “Engineered Mosquitoes Could Wipe Out Dengue Fever” and felt that our world is surely heading to the end. Man is playing God again. And the worst is that they are using Bolehland as the guineapig!

The article reads:
Scientists at a British biotech company said they have evidence that their genetically modified mosquitoes, which are programmed for sudden, early death, can control the spread of dengue fever. Dengue is carried by mosquitoes and is the scourge of urban areas in the developing world, much as malaria is in rural regions.
The company, Oxitec, said it can decimate mosquito populations by breeding genetically modified male mosquitoes, then releasing them to mate with wild females. Their offspring contain lethal genes that kill them young, before they can reproduce. Company officials told Wired News that their latest test results show that the genetically modified bugs can breed just as well as wild ones. "We will be able to control dengue through controlling the mosquitoes that transmit it, especially in large urban areas," said the company's chief scientist Luke Alphey. "Thereby protecting many, many millions of people from this disease." Mosquitoes pass dengue fever to up to 100 million people each year, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Up to 5 million die...”

If you have been into the virgin jungle in Malaysia, I bet that you hardly find any mosquito. If there is, then that place have been visited by human.

Perhaps you would like to know why?
Because in the jungle the bats feed freely on the mosquitoes.

Then why is it that when there are human, there are mosquitoes?
Because human cook with fire which smoked away the bats, and without bats, caused the over supply of mosquitoes.

This is only a simple ecosystem. What about other fauna and flora affected by the disappearing of mosquitoes? I can think of spiders getting extinct caused by the disappearing of mosquitoes.

Here are some comments from the net:

“…removing ANY organism from a local eco-system can cause a collapse of all organisims in it. We typically think of mosquitos as no-good insects, but I'm sure they have a place in the food cycles of other creatures who are also native to the area. Wiping out or dramatically reducing the mosquito population could affect the residents' main food supplies and then you have a different problem -- starving people, rather than sick people. The effect on crop pollination in fruits and vegetables as well as other potentially hazardous effects on the ecosystem? Such tinkering with nature is dangerous indeed - what would the company (and the country of Malaysia) do if their crops/fruits no longer fruited because they weren't pollinated. Also, how would these genetic mutants be contained in Malaysia (they couldn't) - their spread could cause many more problems than they solve. Should we allow a company to use Malaysia as a laboratory for such experiments? Who knows what unseen impact this will have on our ecological balance. I would be extremely cautious - and worried - about this initiative”.

Koel in Kiasuland

Since when do the singing of birds annoy anyone?

Apparently there are still people in Kiasuland who think that when they stay at a place called Pasir Ris, that place is his – any bird that sing around that area should be a nuisance.

An asshole just has such stupidity. Did he know that the birds were living there long before him or his great grandfather? The birds have more right than that asshole. Just because the birds do not pay taxes while that asshole does, did not give him the right to have the singing terminated!

The singing bird is called Koel. A black bird with fiery red eyes. It has a part in our ecosystem. If there are crows, there will be Koels. They control the population of crows. They will kick out the crow’s eggs and replace with their own. The mother crow will nurse the Koel’s chicks like her own. Isn’t that a wonderful way of nature to control crows?

So, if you kill the Koels – the consequences – more crows!
So, if you want to get rid of the “lousy singing” Koels then you should keep your compound clean! No crows, no Koels. It’s that simple!

Probably because that asshole pays big taxes and talk loud, the council people could chop down the tree…as killing of birds will be inhumane. Well, I don’t know what will happen next. Let’s wait and see.

Oh, in Bolehland, I guess the Koel would be catapulted to death. That is Bolehland!

Read the story from the Electric New Paper:

"I AM a resident of Pasir Ris.

Since early August, there has been a bird singing loudly in a tree near my flat on Street 52 between 5.45am to 6.30am every day.

I called Pasir Ris Town council in mid-August explaining that the bird is disturbing my sleep.

They promised to investigate.

For the next six weeks, I made about five calls to the town council, including asking to talk to the general manager.

But all I got was the response that they would investigate and someone would call me back.

For that six weeks, I was forced to wake up at 6am - even on Saturdays and Sundays, days that I do not work.

Six weeks later, the town council came back to me with this: that the bird making the sound is a bird called 'koel'.

It also said that the bird is on the tree which happens to fall into the jurisdiction of either the Public Utilities Board or the National Environment Agency.So it will get the relevant agency to give me a call.

What I don't understand is why it took six weeks to come back to me on something that can be accomplished in two hours.

What is the use of telling me the type of bird?

Does the problem go away for me if the tree falls under the PUB or NEA jurisdiction?

I woke up at 6am over the weekend on Saturday and wrote this letter.Each month, I receive a conservation fee statement from my town council for monthly payments, and I have been paying it every month.

Each year, I fill my tax forms, and understand that some of the tax money I pay is channelled towards the public service including the town councils.

I was told that if I do not fulfil such payments, I will be jailed or fined heavily.

But if I do pay, it seems there is no guarantee that the payment will be used to hire public servants who can solve problems or at least empathise with me".