Weekend stories on Singapore and Sudan

Haze hazard in Singapore has escalated to a new high as reading of Pollutant Standard Index by National Environmental Agency Singapore hit 400. Ish. 400! No thanks to forest fire / burning in Indonesia. Kalau dah more than 150 PSI pun, my lungs dah feel so tight. Ishhh.

The thing is, this is a yearly problem. Indonesia will burn their forests and plantations to clear the land for more farming around this time of the year. The news (like Aljazeera) semua kutuk lah Indonesia. In fact, Indonesia's President has just made a statement that he will try and curb these forest fires.

Yeah. Right. They do this every year. Sigh. My heart goes out to Singapore. I cannot imagine breathing in air so polluted that it's considered hazardous.

Aizal sent this picture via Whatsapp this morning. Singapore is blanketed by the haze. Sighhh..

 Kesian my Singapore relatives.. especially like my cousin brother yang ada heart problem. My dearest Abang Sofi, hang in there ya. Stay indoors and drink lots and lots of water. Semoga hujan akan turun and clear the air a little.

Now in Sudan, lain lah pulak ceritanya. Dodi is now in Port Sudan (for work) and he took some awesome pictures, which I'm posting here.

Yang bestnya, he and his team went to Port Sudan by road.. which was a whole day's journey. (I have been to Port Sudan before, but that time, I flew via Taco Air). Anyway, here's what he experienced:

Looks like they're stuck in a sandstorm but Dodi said that this weather is normal in this part of Sudan. In fact, the air is so thick that they could actually see sulfur in the form of small balls by the side of the road.

Fuuuhh.. Macam movie poster.. but can you imagine workers in this kind of working condition every day?

Awesome view of the dessert.. Damn! I so wish I was on that trip! Pfffftttt...

 And here's some of the villages and vehicles they saw on the road to Port Sudan..

And the people they met..

Asking for some money, perhaps?

Segak berjubah dan ber-vest.. tapi Quran tetap tidak dilupakan

But most of all, I am so, so, so proud of this picture..

PETRONAS .. Standing in the eyes of the world

Proud because in Sudan, PETRONAS is often associated to Malaysia. And Malaysia is often associated to Tun Dr Mahathir.

Proud because a Malaysia-owned petrol station can be seen in the middle of the dessert in Africa.

Proud because it shows that Malaysia has gone so far.. we're even supplying oil in Sudan.

Proud because you see Malaysians roughing it out in tough dessert condition, braving the weather and other hardship, sacrificing their time with family and friends in comfortable Malaysia, just so they can bring money back to the country.

P.R.O.U.D. :)

Happy weekend semua.. xoxo