Wednesday, November 04, 2009

Longhouse, tradition and environment

So far, the longhouses I visited literally have no middle age people around.
This is by far the longest longhouse we visited ... almost 40 doors.
Only older folks are around...
It seems that they pass their time by looking after grandchildren, cleaning and cooking!
Traditional pounding of tapioca leaves!
Everything is handmade ...
Our ministers are trying to convince us that the logging in Sarawak is well controlled and there is hardly any logging. In recent newspaper, the finding was that Sarawak forest management is the poorest. Sad and sad.... the fact is that oil palm plantation literally flatten everything for hundreds of miles which can be seen clearly from the airplane. And look at the river! This is very serious. The erosion will soon fill the river up with silt and the whole land will be flooded.

7 comments:

suituapui said...

I love tapioca leaves. Ya, that's what I heard - it's not so much logging or dam construction, but the clearing of vast jungles (and open burning) for oil palm cultivation! Money is the root of all evil!

claire said...

no middleaged people.. oh yeah, i can understand..
seeing the river is very distressing, so polluted, sigh, dont talk about them big bosses.. all they want is $$$$

Livvy said...

ouh..homesick :(

Ken Wooi said...

nice..
i've never seen a long house in real life before.. hehe.. =)

kenwooi.com

ladyviral said...

The river is murky :(.

So sad...
Lovely potraits you took :).

MCM said...

At Suai, is it?

William said...

STP: It is so sad!
Claire: The able bodies have gone into the cities!
Anonymous: Don;t be scare lah...
Livvy: Hahaha... come home!

Kenwooi: Come to Sarawak. Plenty of them.

Ladyviral: Thanks
MCM: No, it is in Selangau.