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Piggy Sticky

RPK said that the spinning machine is spinning out of control and it is more so after the general election.

After a long, long time, I watched the 8 o’clock news at TV3 – perhaps curious on how the TV station is “presenting” its news now (after the position of the opposition just got better) and perhaps there was nothing interesting on the other channels.

The spin

(The affected area for centralised pig farmingF1 Circuit is not that near as it is claimed to be. Picture source: Google Earth)

The issue of centralised pig farm in Selangor was raised again. The TV station claimed that the State Government (they used the term “mixed government” – to connote, er, what?) was going against the wishes of the people. They claimed that it will cause massive pollution and therefore the “people” were angry on this project.

[digg=http://digg.com/environment/Piggy_Sticky]

Then mention of the Sepang F1 International Circuit and the Bagan Lallang area was made together with snippets of a beach was shown (implying that the pig farm will pollute this beach).

Then (as I expected), a short interview with the “angelic looking” Khir Toyo was shown where he condemned the project and said that the State Government should have an open talk with the residents in the area before even agreeing to the project (tell me how many times the local government had “open talk” with residents and adhered to it?).

The truth

(Selangor Umno leader and Tanjung Sepat state assemblyperson Dr Karim Mansor posing next to a pig-pen with a thumbs-up sign while in Germany. Photo source: Malaysiakini)

For those who do not know the truth, they will probably fall for the spin and waste their time and be upset with the “arrogant” State Government. But a spin is a spin nonetheless where the truth is hidden and lies are made up as the holy truth. The TV station “conveniently” failed to mention couple of important facts such as:-

The centralised pig farming was originally mooted by Khir Toyo’s Administration

The pig farm is using latest technology to avoid any pollution & outbreak of diseases

The centralised pig farm will eliminate the sporadic pig farm problem (same problem faced by Malacca – read Malaysiakini’s report titled “M’cca CM flamed over blog-post on pig farm”)

Not all people are against it – the majority of them supports this project

EIA Study

If the centralised pig farm eliminates pollution, then where is the EIA study to confirm this? Veera Pandiyan wrote this in theStar and asked the same question. He said:-

I don’t remember seeing reports about Selangor Mentri Besar Khalid Ibrahim’s plan to call foreign experts to assess the pig farm project and support its Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) study to ensure the public.

Nor that the previous government did the original EIA or that the new administration had three options to resolve the issue – allow dirty farms to exist all over the state and continue to pollute the environment, close all down, or locate them to the proposed new state-of-the art pig farm area.

Perhaps Pandiyan should look at this piece in Sin Chew instead:-

He (the Selangor MB) said the Selangor government will hire foreign to carry out an in-depth study to support the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) study as an assurance to the public that there would be no problems arising from the implementation of the project, which was expected to take a year, according to Bernama.

He said the EIA study had already been done by the previous Barisan Nasional state government which had also visited such operations in Germany and the Netherlands to see the technology being used at the facilities.

“We are very transparent about the project and will inform the people accordingly, so that they will understand what we are doing.

“We will disclose the actual cost of the project, the size of the area involved, number of breeders and number of pigs to be reared at this modern facility,” he told reporters after opening the annual general meeting of the Gabungan Ikhtisas dan Usahawan Bumiputera Anak Selangor (GIBS), in Shah Alam Friday (12 Apr). Khalid was responding to the statement by Environmental Protection Society Malaysia adviser Dr Gurmit Singh who asked that the findings of the EIA study be made public.

Modern Pig Farm

What does this really means? I am not sure the details of the “technology” to be used in Selangor but that does not mean new technology is unable to solve the age old problem with pig related problems in Malaysia.

The researchers at North Carolina State University have evaluated five new technologies that help to control air and water pollution generated by pig farms – read the details here – some ideas sound very similar to one that mentioned for the pig farm in Selangor.

Or read about the study titled “Economic Impacts of Installing Innovative Technologies on North Carolina Hog Farms” that was published by Environmental Defense and Wilbur Smith Associates – click here for details.

Consider the above before falling for spins in the mainstream media – they may not be “the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth”.

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2 thoughts on “Piggy Sticky”

  1. Actually pig is a kind of animal which is considered the same as chicken, ducks or swan.I mean the way to rear it.Why not say chicken farm gives pollution when there is bird flu but when on pig farm, even there is no diseases it is to be say as gives pollution?It is our psychology?

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