2) Haze

Haze in Malaysia…the never ending problem causes by ‘other’ that effect ‘others’.

Haze is traditionally an atmospheric phenomenon where dust, smoke and other dry particles obscure the clarity of the sky (Wikipedia). Haze affecting us badly during dry season and when will we be free from suffering from haze that cause by ‘other’ as every year we have facing the some problem and our only solution is praying for God to let the rain fall to clean the air..

i) Right now it has impact to me as I suffering cough and sore throat that affect my health which contribute to affect my life and work. Do I need to suffer this kind of things every following year?

ii) Haze is an impact to our country as it been categorized as air pollution (air quality becoming worst day by day). It affected our tourism industry (local or international) as people have been advised to stay at home or limited their outdoor activity. Beside that, it also shorten/limit our view to certain distance and it quite dangerous to the drivers (applicable to all mode of transport) as it could lead to incident and also accident.

iii) Haze also has an impact to community especially to children and elders. People with asthma, breathing problem or lung problem easily could fall sick during haze. Beside that, as nowadays H1N1 become a phenomenal issue, it also could contribute to worsen the H1N1 impact.

Although Indonesia not quite agree been blamed to cause the haze problem to their ASEAN neighbors from their timber and plantation firms that deliberately starting fires to clear land, either for farming or for other use. They (Indonesia government) should be more serious in taking precaution and prevention to cater this problem as it affect the environmental and also living things not only in their countries, but also to their neighbors as it happened mostly every year.

As neighbors, all of us could help to minimize the problem, but the seed of the problem need to be taken care. We sharing the air, but why cannot we sharing the problem..

References ;

INDONESIA FOREST FIRES FLARE, MALAYSIA HIT BY HAZE
12 June 2009 (Reuters)

PEKANBARU, Indonesia (Reuters) - The number of forest fires raging in Indonesia's Sumatra island has increased, with wind blowing choking smoke over parts of Malaysia and slashing visibility, officials said on Friday.


FOREST FIRES WORSEN, HAZE COVERS MALAYSIA
8 June 2009 (The Jakarta Post)

Forest fires continued to rage across the country, blanketing neighbor Malaysia in haze on Wednesday, which caused temporary closure of Dumai's Pinang Kampar airport in Riau as visibility dropped to below 50 meters.
The WWF Indonesia has detected 1,608 fire hot spots across the country on Wednesday, the highest number in the last five days with a total of 5,349.


HAZE SHROUDS MALAYSIA
6 August 2009 (The Straits Times)

KUALA LUMPUR - MALAYSIA was yesterday hit with the worst haze levels recorded this year, as smoke from forest fires in Indonesia caused unhealthy levels of pollution in six areas.


HAZE IS BACK IN S'PORE
6 August 2009 (The Straits Times)

IT'S back. Smoke haze shrouded Singapore on Thursday morning, with an acrid burning smell hanging in the air. The Pollutant Standards Index (PSI) hit its first moderate level since February on Wednesday.


'DANGEROUS LEVEL' HAZE IN RIAU
6 August 2009 (The Straits Times)

JAKARTA - THE air quality in several cities across Riau province dropped to 'dangerous' levels Tuesday, due to thick haze from forest fires that also disrupted flights and forced schools to close.


HAZE WORSENS H1N1 FLU
6 August 2009 (The Straits Times)

KUALA LUMPUR - HAZE from forest fires that was shrouding parts of Malaysia will worsen the H1N1 flu situation by causing more respiratory illnesses, a minister said according to reports on Thursday.