Every year, Indonesian farmers have their annual “burn-off”.
They burn palm oil palms by the hector.
Why?
Why is the question I and many other inhabitants of SE Asia
ask. WHY? Well, we know “why”, but what we want to know is, “WHY?”
It’s so inconsiderate. It’s so damaging to our health. It’s
so inhumane, so selfish. It’s plain, downright narcissistic. And all just to
save money. And mostly because they are just plain, downright lazy.
How much easier is it to pour on the petrol and light her up
than to chop down the dormant trees and hack them up for compost? In fact, they
could probably use the wood for lots of other purposes. They could probably come up with all kinds of creative ways to make
money out of those trees. And, save the rest of SE Asia the pain that their
smoke causes.
SE Asia suffers: students missing school, loss of tourism, financial loss, climate change. People here are not able
to breathe. They get head-aches. 95% of the air is smoke. How can you suck that into your lungs
without causing bodily harm? We're all breathing Indonesia's second-hand smoke!
The selfishness of the few causes the many their quality of life. Quality of air. It's not fair
to the children. Not fair to the adults.
They say we're looking at another six months of it. Just when we thought it was over! When will it stop? When it finally stops, it
is only to start up in another six months! There's no mercy. It's barbaric. Archaic.
Where is the Indonesian government? WHY? Why aren’t they
stopping it? Don’t they care about the health of their own people? Their own
children? Not to mention, Singapore and Malaysia, their closest neighbours.
This stuff goes all the way up to Thailand, for heaven’s sake.
The fines should be heavier than the profit they make by
burning. Throw them in prison. FOREVER.
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