OCTOBER 4 — The smog (named “haze’ by Dr M), did not come about yesterday but has been around for almost a generation. The public has been treated to so much pulling of the wool over their eyes while the creators of the smog have been left alone, and consequently encouraged, to go on with impunity as their activity is meant to create wealth and benefit the economy.

Smog, like what we are seeing presently, is not created by the burning of tens or hundreds of acres of forests but by the burning of thousands of acres to clear them for plantations that will earn money for the country. For money-making purposes, fire is the cheapest and fastest means of clearing the forests. The faster land can be cleared and plantations created, the faster money will start rolling in. That and that alone is what matters. The economists call it cost benefit.

To placate the man in the street who complains, charades are created and played out. For instance we have been shown pictures of firemen dousing the flames with hoses. Now, can this put out the fires covering thousands of acres? Like the case of Humpty Dumpty, even if all the fire services were put to this duty, they could hardly tackle more than a small fraction of the area covered.

Similarly, how big an area can be covered by water-bombing? We are now told that when the smog gets very heavy, cloud-seeding is done to let the clouds release the water as rain. Again, while huge areas are covered by the smog, will cloud-seeded rain cover all that area? First of all, without rain clouds over the area, you can’t create clouds! Even if rain is successfully created over a limited area and it does clear the smog a little, no sooner will the wind blow in the smog from the surrounding areas. So how does cloud-seeding really help?

Now we are being fed the excuse that there is no law under which action could be taken against those responsible for creating the smog. So more time is being given to the smog-makers to keep enjoying their wealth creating activities for the economic prosperity of the country.

Well, money is king and the people are the pawns. Money first, people last.

* This is the personal opinion of the writer and does not necessarily represent the views of Malay Mail Online.