The Malaysian Insider :: Features
The Malaysian Insider :: Features |
| Once an Arab model, Baghdad now world’s worst city Posted: 20 Mar 2014 09:24 PM PDT That is, at least, according to the latest survey by the Mercer consulting group, which when assessing quality of life across 239 cities, measuring factors including political stability, crime and pollution, placed Baghdad last. The Iraqi capital was lumped with Bangui in the conflict-hit Central African Republic and the Haitian capital Port-au-Prince, the latest confirmation of the 1,250-year-old city's fall from grace as a global intellectual, economic and political centre. Residents of Baghdad contend with near-daily attacks, a lack of electricity and clean water, poor sewerage and drainage systems, rampant corruption, regular gridlock, high unemployment and a myriad other problems. "We live in a military barracks," complained Hamid al-Daraji, a paper salesman, referring to the ubiquitous checkpoints, concrete blast walls and security forces peppered throughout the city. "The rich and the poor share the same suffering," the 48-year-old continued. "The rich might be subjected at any moment to an explosion, a kidnapping, or a killing, just like the poor. "Our lives are ones where we face death at any moment." It was not always so for the Iraqi capital. Construction of the city on the Tigris River first began in 762 AD during the rule of Abbasid caliph Abu Jaafar al-Mansur, and it has played a pivotal role in Arab and Islamic society ever since. In the 20th century, Baghdad was held up as a gleaming example of a modern Arab city with some of the region's best universities and museums, a highly educated elite, a vibrant cultural scene and top-notch healthcare. Officials still note how their counterparts from the region would hold up Baghdad's international airport as a model, and oil cartel OPEC was founded in the Iraqi capital. And it was home to a diverse population of Muslims, Christians, Jews and others. "Baghdad represented the economic centre of the Abbasid state," noted Issam al-Faili, a professor of political history at the city's Mustansiriyah University, an institution which traces its own history back nearly 800 years. "It was used as a base for taking control of neighbouring areas in order to strengthen Islamic influence." "It used to be a capital of the world," Faili said, "but today, it has become one of the world's most miserable cities." In February alone, 57 violent incidents struck the Iraqi capital, including 31 car bombs. As recently as March 5, a dozen shootings and bombings across the city killed 20 people. The very next day, four more bombings left 11 dead. Security forces typically respond with heavy-handed tactics reliant on setting up new checkpoints to add to the plethora already scattered around Baghdad, and restricting movement as much as possible. Massive concrete walls, designed to withstand the impact of explosions, still divide up confessionally-mixed neighbourhoods, while the government sits in the heavily-fortified Green Zone, which is also home to parliament and the US and British embassies, access to which is difficult for ordinary Iraqis. Uphill task Some are working to clean up the city and beautify it, but even they acknowledge the uphill task facing them. "I am actually hurt that Baghdad ranked among the worst cities in the world," said Amir al-Chalabi, head of the Humanitarian Construction Organisation, an NGO which runs civic campaigns aimed at improving the city's services. "Successive governments have not worked to develop Baghdad," he said. "It has become deserted, and it suffers from instability. At night, it turns into a ghost town because of the lack of lighting." Messes of electrical wires run along neighbourhood streets, as privately-operated communal generators work to make up for the shortfall in provision from the national grid, albeit at a price. Poor drainage means that even moderate levels of rainfall during the winter lead to flooding, as pools form on the city's potholed streets, while scorching summer heat forces the government to regularly declare national holidays. Economic growth nationwide is strong, thanks to healthy oil production, but because the industry is not labour-intensive, it has not made a major dent in unemployment, including in the capital. "Baghdad's problems cannot be counted," said Daraji, the paper seller. "The situation in Baghdad is sad. Sometimes it makes us cry – beautiful Baghdad is today in ruins." – AFP, March 21, 2014 |
| Global warming a concern at Chile’s penguin paradise Posted: 20 Mar 2014 08:45 PM PDT Magdalena Island, located near Chile's southern tip, is a natural paradise for tens of thousands of penguins, which come every year to breed. But global warming could threaten the long-term survival of the species, say experts at the island nature reserve in the Strait of Magellan, about 50 kilometers (30 miles) from the city of Punta Arenas. The island is home to 22 bird species – 11 which nest year-round and 11 seasonal visitors – including the Magellanic penguin. Some 23,000 tourists a year make the pilgrimage to Los Pinguinos Natural Monument, a protected area comprising tiny Marta Island and windswept Magdalena Island. The penguins' main predators are aggressive seabirds called skuas and Dominican gulls, which feed off penguin eggs and young, says Roberto Fernandez, a ranger at the site for the past seven years. And those predator populations are growing. "Right now, what we are seeing is summer starting late, then lasting through into March. Climate change is bringing about a rise in gull numbers, that is for sure," monument administrator Neftali Aroca told AFP. "You would have to undertake a long-term study in order to link this increase with a reduction in the penguin population but the forecast is that in the future, the penguins could be at risk." The worrying prognosis seems to confirm alarm bells sounded in January in a study published in the scientific journal PLOS ONE, which indicated that extreme weather, such as unseasonal warmth and heavy rainfall, may have killed off a considerable number of young Magellanic penguins. The study – conducted over a period of 27 years in Argentina's Punta Tombo peninsula, the largest breeding ground for the species – showed that 65% of the colony's young died annually on average, 40% of them from hunger and 7% owing to the effects of climate change. Epic swim Each year, the penguins flee the cold to spend winter in the warmer waters off Brazil. As soon as they are big enough to swim, they head off on a 4,000-kilometer (2,500-mile) odyssey from Magdalena Island to Brazil. They spend the Southern Hemisphere winter on the coast of Brazil's southern Santa Catarina state – though they sometimes make it as far up as Rio de Janeiro's beaches. Come mid-August, they begin to head back, via Uruguay and Argentina to the Strait of Magellan, the natural passage between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, and Magdalena Island. "Magellanic penguins come to the island to complete their reproductive cycle," explains Valeria Sanchez, who has spent five years as a tour guide here. "They start arriving in September, as summer approaches, to enjoy the longer days necessary to incubate their eggs and look after their young." Family circles The Magellanic penguins, who can live to 25, are monogamous, sharing their lives with just one partner. First to arrive on Magdalena Island are the males, who must seek out the burrowed nests dug the previous season and make any necessary changes with whatever material they can find, including stones and feathers, before attracting their mate. Around a fortnight later, the females arrive, and their keen partners sound a trumpet-like call to guide them to the nest. The species tends to use the same burrow year after year to reproduce over a six-to-seven-month period. Following fertilization, the females lay one or two eggs. For the first 12 days, she will incubate them and not leave them – even to eat. Following their long fast, the mothers give way to the males in order to feed. The couples then switch at roughly fortnightly intervals until the end of the 40 to 45 day incubation period ahead of hatching in around November. 'Cup' refuge in Brazil During the first months of their lives, the penguins' offspring are wholly dependent on their parents for food, learning to swim and how to fend off predators. "Between February and March, they start to leave the island – but this year they began leaving two or three weeks earlier," Sanchez said. "It seems they wanted to give themselves a head start to go and see the World Cup in Brazil," she joked, before explaining that the young had simply hatched early this year. – AFP, March 21, 2014 |
| You are subscribed to email updates from The Malaysian Insider : Features To stop receiving these emails, you may unsubscribe now. | Email delivery powered by Google |
| Google Inc., 20 West Kinzie, Chicago IL USA 60610 | |
0 ulasan:
Catat Ulasan