Reflections

damn! can’t seems to upload video in this blog. ok lah, so please go to my mental jog blog to see the video.

these videos are in reference to my earlier post on the hill-slopes development protest.

this is my second third project as a citizen/video journalist. the first was during pakatan’s 1st anniversary gathering at the esplanade on 7 march, where 4 of us, lilian, lim and leow were there; second one on 14 march when 5 of us (the same 4 L’s, plust koh) were out on the streets after 11.00am to interview the homeless people. yesterday, there were only 2 of us, lim and i where we went to the tanjung bungah residents association (TBRA) ‘tea party’  hill-slopes protest.

it was actually a ‘coffee party’ as coffee was served instead. this was the 2nd protest the TBRA held. the first one was in feb where they used pots and pans to bang. this coffee party protest was held at solok tan jit seng (behind the tg bungah secondary school) because it was where the dangerous hill-slopes project can be seen. seemed that over 20 trees had been cut down for the project and the hill-slope has a gradient of 68 degrees!

TBRA members wants the penang government to ban class 3 (a gradient of 25 – 35%) and class 4 (a gradient of over 35%) it seemed that, this hill project’s gradient is 68%! imagine! so much higher than class 4! can’t blame the residents for living in fear that some disaster is waiting to happen.

there were a number of press present for this protest. the VIP present ere YB teh, the assemblyman from tanjung bungah and YB phee, exco for social welfare and environment department.  the CM was invited but he sent YB phee instead. YB phee said that halfway through, the CM called him to check if the turned up!

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the speakers l to r: choo choon kai (suaram), YB chow kon yeow (PR), the moderator, lim kah cheng (councillor), teh leong meng (gerakan)

i attended the suaram forum ‘CAT ruling: change or same?’ as announced  in my mental jog blog. i was late… arrived about 8.30 of which when i walked in the 3rd speaker was just about to finish (there were 4 speakers).

my friend, christina reserved a seat for me next to her and she was seated right in front! alamak! i walked in and all eyes were on me.   anyway there were quite a number of empty seats. the room (2nd floor) was big but there were not too many people… maybe about 50. nevertheless, it was an interesting forum with lively debate from the speakers and the floor. i did not take down notes but let’s see what i remember here and there.

the 4 speakers were mr choo chon kai from suaram, ms im kah cheng, councillor, YB chow kon yeow, who is the state local government, traffic management and environment committee chairmanand mr teh leong meng from gerakan.  it was a pleasant surprise to not the presence of an opposition member – mr teh from gerakan.

well, when i walked in, mr teh was speaking.  i heard something “the CAT government not living up to its promise…” blah blah. sitting down for just 5 mins, his speech ended! pity i missed his speech as i’m sure he had a lot of criticisms of the present penang government, label the ‘CAT government’. never mind, there were still summing up time and Q&A.
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my reflection on blogging and the laws as based on the eLawyers conference held on saturday, please visit my mental jog blog.

UPDATED:  this post was picked up by malaysia today and posted at its website.

The second weekend of our Citizen Journalism workshop, had Anil Netto,  famous blogger and professional journalist, conducting it. As part of our assignment, all of us had to write an article on Penang. I choose to write on this topic, and here is the article, with some corrections done by Anil.

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I commute to work daily, sometimes in a car, sometimes on a bus. Many times, I get caught in a traffic jam during office rush hours. When it rains, the traffic situation gets worse. Such is Penang’s traffic system. Too many vehicles clog the road.

People who travel between the island and the mainland of Penang will either use the Penang Bridge or the ferry service. As the traffic flow increases, traffic congestion becomes a headache for motorists. The government has come up with a solution to this – a third link, i.e. the second Penang Bridge… but will this really be the solution? Do we really need the second Penang Bridge?

The 2nd Penang bridge will link Batu Maung on the island to Batu Kawan on the mainland. It will be 24 km in length (17 km over the sea). The cost of building the bridge, originally was at RM2.7 billion when it was first mooted in July 2007 but it sky-rocketed to RM4.3 billion in April 2008. now on April 2008 it is expected to cost RM4.3 billion.
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yes, now you see it…

This is one of the banners found in bukit gantang, perak.  nominations day haven’t even started and campaigning already started. Phew! What a hot battle the bukit gantang by-election is going to be. This picture was taken by one of our MAFREL member. Please go to the MAFREL website for more pictures.

ok this is a continuation of my ‘baby post’ actually. i have to add something after i learn of something – seems that this blog is not only for videos (and pictures) as i thought. i can also post articles… which means to say i will for sure post more articles than videos/photos. if i knew of this earlier, i wouldn’t have chosen the blog name ‘now u see it’. never mind, now that i had chosen it, just have to made do with it.

oh as you can see, i have change theme for this blog. you’ll see different random colours/designs in my theme each time you visit.

(i’ll come back to write something here again if i think of any ‘intro’ talk)

Hi there! Welcome to my Citizen Journalism Malaysia blog!

My name is Lucia Lai. More of me can be found under the page of  ‘I, me, myself’.

I already have a blog named ‘mental jog’, where I have been blogging for 5 years! It’s more of a socio-political blog but once in a while I also blog on personal matters.

Since I already have the blog ‘mental jog’, I will reserve this blog only for posting up photos and videos… not necessary my own… but of course after, being through the citizen journalism and video journalism workshop, it’s better for me to come out with my own.  Ok ok… in due time… AND in FREE time.

Well, since I want to put up only photos or videos, hence the name of the blog ‘now u see it’. I will still devote most of my time to my long-time present blog, ‘mental jog’.

I actually don’t have interest in video shooting. More so because I’m a shy person! I feel very awkward approaching people or holding my video camera in public (or even camera).  Also, my grey matter seems to shrivel up when trying to understand the technical details of video shooting/editing. LOL.  Anyway, since I have already gone through 4 weekends of video workshop, might as well put in practise the little that I have learned (but it had been a lot that had been taught – only because of my grey matter, I learned little).

(note: the heading of the post here ‘baby post’ means it is the very first post. no, no baby photo)