Swimming With The FISH - Tagal System

In Sabah it is known as "Tagal System" borrowing the word "Tagal" from the native language. Actually it is a community-based fisheries resource management system. It has gaining the minds and hearts of many riparian communities in Sabah. The Tagal System is a stakeholder-driven system of rehablitation, protection, and conservation of the river environments and the fisheries resouces for its sustainable development. At the moment, the number of Tagal areas established in Sabah has multiplied to 212 involving 107 rivers in eleven districts.

Protection of the environment of the Tagal System rivers and its enforcement are in the hands of the elected Tagal Committees. At present the enforcement of the prohibitions is through the imposition of native customary laws that are backed by the Native Court.

And then, Sarawak borrowed the same system and it called "Tagang System". In the Iban language "Tagang" is refers to control and conserve. It aim is to raise awareness of conservation and local community commitments towards increasing fish production for food as well as promoting agro-tourisme. Apart from that, it also create responsible manner to prevent, control and reduce river pollution to preserve natural environment for the future generation.

There are 23 Tagang System areas in Sarawak.

* The above photos was taken by myslef during my visit to one of the village that run their Tagal System in Sabah. It was a lots of small fishes in the river after a few month they launch their Tagal System.

Malaysia Confirms First Case of Swine Flu

15 May 2009 (Friday)

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia – Malaysia on Friday confirmed its first case of swine flu, a 21-year-old student who recently returned from the United States.

A statement by the Health Ministry's director-general, Dr. Ismail Merican, said the young man was hospitalized on Thursday after suffering from fever, sore throat and body aches. He had returned to Malaysia from the United States on Wednesday.

Tests confirmed that he was infected with the A(H1N1) virus, the statement said. He is receiving anti-viral treatment and is in stable condition, it said.

Ismail said the ministry is in touch with his family members to ensure that he did not infect them, but they have not been placed under quarantine. He also urged all passengers on the Malaysia Airlines flight from Newark on Wednesday to contact the ministry.

Ismail said the public has no reason to panic as his department was taking steps to protect public health.

Globally, 70 people have died of swine flu, 64 of them in Mexico where the virus originated. Four deaths have been reported in the U.S., one in Canada and one in Costa Rica.

According to the World Health Organization, some 6,672 people in 33 countries are confirmed to be suffering from the disease.

The WHO estimates that up to 2 billion doses of swine flu vaccine could be produced every year, though the first batches wouldn't be available for four to six months.

*This is scary..i hope all of the passengers in the same plane be aware of this and immediately check their health condition...Hopefully it will not spread to Borneo.

Read More....

FINDING AND KEEPING A LIFE PARTNER - PART 2

QUESTION ..4: How does he/she treat other people?
The one most important thing that makes any relationship work is theability to give. By giving, we mean the ability to give another personpleasure.

Ask: Is this someone who enjoys giving pleasure to others or are theywrapped up in themselves and self-absorbed? To measure this, think aboutthe following:
How do they treat people whom they do not have to be nice to, such as waiters, bus boys, taxi drivers, etc..
How do they treat their parents and siblings?Do they have gratitude and appreciation? If they don't have gratitude forthe people who have given them everything;

Can you do nearly as much for them? You can be sure that someone who treatsothers poorly, will eventually treat you poorly as well.

QUESTION ..5: Is there anything I'm hoping to change about this personafter we're married?
Too many people make the mistake of marrying someone with the intention oftrying to 'improve'; them after they're married. As a colleague of mineputs it: 'You can probably expect someone to change after marriage for theworse' If you cannot fully accept this person the way they are now, thenyou are not ready to marry them.

In conclusion, dating doesn't have to be difficult and treacherous. The keyis to try leading a little more with your head and less with your heart.

It pays to be as objective as possible when you are dating; to be sure toask questions that will help you get to the key issues. Falling in love isa great feeling, but when you wake up with a ring on your finger, you don'twant to find yourself in trouble because you didn't do your homework.

Another perspective...

There are some people in your life that need to be loved from a distance..

It's amazing what you can accomplish when you let go of or at leastminimize your time with draining, negative, incompatible, not-goinganywhere relationships. Observe the relationships around you.

Pay attention..
Which ones lift and which ones lean? Which ones encourage and which onesdiscourage? Which ones are on a path of growth uphill and which ones aregoing downhill? When you leave certain people do you feel better or feelworse? Which ones always have drama or don't really understand, know, orappreciate you?

The more you seek quality, respect, growth, peace of mind, love and trutharound you...the easier it will become for you to decide who gets to sitin the front row and who should be moved to the balcony of your life.

An African proverb states, 'Before you get married, keep both eyes open,and after you marry, close one eye'; Before you get involved and make acommitment to someone, don't let lust, pity, desperation, immaturity,ignorance, pressure from others or a low self-esteem make you blind towarning signs. Keep your eyes open, and don't fool yourself that you canchange someone or that what you see as faults aren't really that important.

Do you bring out the best in each other?

Do you compliment and compromise with each other, or do you compete,compare and control?
What do you bring to the relationship?

Do you bring past relationships, past hurt, past mistrust, past pain?

You can't take someone to the altar to alter them.You can't make someone love you or make someone stay.

If you develop self-esteem, spiritual discernment, and 'a life'; you won'tfind yourself making someone else responsible for your happiness orresponsible for your pain. Seeking status, sex, and security are the wrongreasons to be in a relationship.

WHAT KEEPS A RELATIONSHIP STRONG ARE:
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1. TRUST

2. COMMUNICATION

3. INTIMACY

4. A SENSE OF HUMOR

5. SHARING TASKS

6. SOME GETAWAY TIME WITHOUT BUSINESS OR CHILDREN

7. DAILY EXCHANGES (meal, shared activity, hug, call, touch, notes)

8. SHARING COMMON GOALS AND INTERESTS

9. GIVING EACH OTHER SPACE TO GROW WITHOUT FEELING INSECURE

10. GIVING EACH OTHER A SENSE OF BELONGING AND ASSURANCES OF COMMITMENT

If these qualities are missing, the relationship will erode as resentmentwithdrawal, abuse, neglect, and dishonesty; and pain will replace it.

Just For Easy Reading!

FINDING AND KEEPING A LIFE PARTNER - PART 1

When it comes to making the decision about choosing a life partner, no onewants to make a mistake. Yet, with a divorce rate of close to 50%, itappears that many are making serious mistakes in their approach to findingMr./Miss. Right!

If you ask most couples who are engaged why they're getting married,they'll say: 'We're in love'; I believe this is the #1 mistake people makewhen they date. Choosing a life partner should never be based on love.Though this may sound 'not politically correct', there's a profound truthhere. Love is not the basis for getting married. Rather, love is the resultof a good marriage. When the other ingredients are right, then the lovewill come. Let me say it again: 'You can't build a lifetime relationship onlove alone'; You need a lot more!!!

Here are five questions you must ask yourself if you're serious aboutfinding and keeping a life partner.

QUESTION ..1: Do we share a common life purpose?
Why is this so important? Let me put it this way: If you're married for 20or 30 years, that's a long time to live with someone. What do you plan todo with each other all that time? Travel, eat and jog together? You need toshare something deeper and more meaningful. You need a common life purpose.

Two things can happen in a marriage:
(1) You can grow together, or
(2) you can grow apart.

50% of the people out there are growing apart. To make a marriage work, youneed to know what you want out of life! Bottom line; and marry someone whowants the same thing.

QUESTION ..2: Do I feel safe expressing my feelings and thoughts with thisperson?
This question goes to the core of the quality of your relationship. Feelingsafe means you can communicate openly with this person. The basis of havinggood communication is trust - i.e. trust that I won't get 'punished'; orhurt for expressing my honest thoughts and feelings. A colleague of minedefines an abusive person as someone with whom you feel afraid to expressyour thoughts and feelings. Be honest with yourself on this one.

Make sure you feel emotionally safe with the person you plan to marry.

QUESTION ..3: Is he/she a mensch?
A mensch is someone who is a refined and sensitive person. How can youtest? Here are some suggestions. Do they work on personal growth on aregular basis? Are they serious about improving themselves? A teacher ofmine defines a good person as 'someone who is always striving to be goodand do the right ';.So ask about your Significant other: What do they dowith their time? Is this person materialistic? Usually a materialisticperson is not someone whose top priority is character refinement.

There are essentially two types of people in the world:
(1) People who are dedicated to personal growth and
(2) People who are dedicated to seeking comfort.

Someone whose goal in life is to be comfortable will put personal comfortahead of doing the right thing. You need to know that before walking downthe aisle.

Conservation & Local Communities

It has been 3 months and 13 days I am working with my new employer with the new work scope. If I reflect back to my first month it was really a struggle for me but now it seems to be a very interesting experienced and I am developing new skills now. I am not good in dealing with the communities and I have to admit that, even though I come from rural village in Sarawak because it will never be the same to work together with the local communities with different cultures and beliefs.

Back to the topic I want to discuss here before I am away too far with my other stories. I will write some more about it later. Conservation! Who is responsible? Where? How? Before this I know for sure that scientist or researcher with different field will working so hard to study about plants and animal or we can say it biodiversity. Study to understand about the biology, ecology and do something about it.

How? By using all the information they will come out with the recommendations on managing and protect this biodiversity. This can be implement at managing level but is it works till the ground level, the communities which are living close to this all living things? In my previous work place we tried so hard to make local people understand that they have to harvest their natural resource in sustainable way. But the problem is even though they are aware of it but they have no choice because of living pressure. So, how far the local communities can work together with the authority or the experts to manage the natural resource and protect the biodiversity? How to make them totally involve where they can become the forest or wildlife ranger? So that the responsibility of conserving the fauna and flora is not burden on the shoulder of authority or experts only but it will become OUR responsibility. No point finger on whose job is it.

Okay, I have to stop right here for now. How it should be done I will share it later. I have fire training going on because we have drought season now. We, the field people have to be prepared before fire attacks us. Will be back soon.

Simple Explanation on Swine Flu

What is swine flu?
Like people, pigs can get influenza (flu), but swine flu viruses aren't the same as human flu viruses. Swine flu doesn't often infect people, and the rare human cases that have occurred in the past have mainly affected people who had direct contact with pigs. But the current swine flu outbreak is different. It's caused by a new swine flu virus that has spread from person to person -- and it's happening among people who haven't had any contact with pigs.

What are swine flu symptoms?
Symptoms of swine flu are like regular flu symptoms and include fever, cough, sore throat, body aches, headache, chills, and fatigue. Some people have reported diarrhea and vomiting associated with swine flu. Those symptoms can also be caused by many other conditions, and that means that you and your doctor can't know, just based on your symptoms, if you've got swine flu. It takes a lab test to tell whether it's swine flu or some other condition.

If I think I have swine flu, what should I do? When should I see my doctor?
If you have flu symptoms, stay home, and when you cough or sneeze, cover your mouth and nose with a tissue. Afterward, throw the tissue in the trash and wash your hands. That will help prevent your flu from spreading.If you've got flu symptoms, and you've recently been to a high-risk area like Mexico, CDC officials recommend that you see your doctor. If you have flu symptoms but you haven't been in a high-risk area, you can still see a doctor -- that's your call.Keep in mind that your doctor will not be able to determine whether you have swine flu, but he or she would take a sample from you and send it to a state health department lab for testing to see if it's swine flu. If your doctor suspects swine flu, he or she would be able to write you a prescription for Tamiflu or Relenza. Those drugs may not be required; U.S. swine flu patients have made a full recovery without it.