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Money matters:
Graham Macdonald MBMG International Ltd.
Water - 21st Century’s Oil
We have written on this subject before. Please
check previous articles in the Pattaya Mail for further information.
However, this is a subject worth reviewing again.
The Western world is consuming water like never before. This is at a time when
we have never had so little of it. On top of this, the method of distribution,
in many cases, is still in the 19th Century and not even the twentieth. This
means that there is also a lot of wastage. As president Lyndon B Johnson said in
1968, “A nation that fails to plan intelligently for the development and
protection of its precious waters will be condemned to wither because of its
short-sightedness. The hard lessons of history are clear, written on the
deserted sands and ruins of once proud civilizations.”
A well known study last year gave a doom and gloom forecast of what would happen
if there was a collapse in infrastructure around the world. The costing of a
total updating of what was needed came to over USD40 trillion. This is at a time
when the world’s population is growing faster than ever before. That figure
alone is worrying enough. The really bad news is that over half of it relates to
water infrastructure. If we just look at America, then you will start to
understand the problem.
There are over 700,000 miles of water pipelines in the USA. If you then add the
sewage system to that then there are nearly 1,500,000 miles. That fact is
stunning in itself but what if it was admitted that if things were to carry on
as they are now then it would take almost a millennium to replace everything
there is now? Well, this is what is happening and the fact has been confirmed.
As the citizens of London know only too well from experience, water systems for
both drinking and waste should be replaced at least every one hundred years -
preferably less than this. Most countries in the west take at least twice this
time to do this. This is why they are losing between 15%-45% of potable water.
So far we have just talked about the problems in the western world. Many cities
elsewhere still rely on something that was built well over a century ago. If you
look at places like New Delhi in India then they actually lose four fifths of
their drinking water due to poor infrastructure. This is because very little has
been done to update things since the 1950s.
Hong Kong is not as bad but still loses over a third of what is available as
does Sydney in Australia. To put this into perspective, even places like
California can lose a quarter of what runs through its pipes and this is meant
to be one of the most sophisticated places in the world. Everywhere in the world
is losing water unnecessarily and people turn a blind eye even though it costs
them a fortune.
However, times are a-changing. Due to global warming, politicians now realize
there are votes to be had due to environmental issues. Even the Chinese have got
onto the bandwagon. When China was awarded the Olympic Games for 2008, the
country realized that it needed to supply good quality drinking water for all
the visitors. Thus, it built a canal from the south of the country to the north
as the latter has no real water facilities itself. This cost USD60 billion or
twice as much as the Three Gorges Dam.
The problems go on, as an anonymous Jordanian said a few years ago in the
Washington Post, “(If) you think we have bad fights over oil. Just wait until we
start fighting over water. It’s predicted in the Koran.”
This is not surprising if you consider the Middle East itself. Many politicians
in this area agree with the above quote; for example, Palestine has to get its
water from Israel. This leads us back to infrastructure as water cannot be
transported via vehicles, it is just not financially viable. It is a lot easier
to go to war over who owns what. Being cynical, this will also reduce the amount
of people who will be around to drink what has been won.
Another important factor is that water and energy are becoming more and more
interlinked. It takes an enormous amount of water to create energy and vice
versa. The power industry needs three things:
1. A fuel source
2. A transmission line
3. A water source
Going back to America, nearly half of the water taken from rivers goes to
cooling power generation as you cannot have electricity power stations without
water.
The situation is close to getting out of hand. It is not just the Third World
that is suffering but also the so called developed world. Big changes are going
to be needed in the near future but will they come?
Again, the cynical hat comes on, by investing in water and water related
infrastructure projects, there is good money to be made.
Let the last word be from Ismial Serageldin, World Band vice president for
environmental affairs, quoted in Marq de Villiers’ Water, 2000 - “The wars of
the twenty-first century will be fought over water.”
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The above data and research was compiled from sources
believed to be reliable. However, neither MBMG International Ltd nor its
officers can accept any liability for any errors or omissions in the above
article nor bear any responsibility for any losses achieved as a result of any
actions taken or not taken as a consequence of reading the above article. For
more information please contact Graham Macdonald on
[email protected]@mbmg-international.com.com
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Snap Shots: by Harry Flashman
f8 and be there
Winter trees
The photojournalist’s creed used to be “f8 and be there” and that still
is relevant today. Even with today’s auto-everything cameras, when you
don’t have to set the f8 side of things, or even the focus, you still
have to “be there”.
I was reminded of this the other day when I was touring the UK. I had
spotted a rainbow and was chasing it, hoping to get a great shot.
Rainbows are not easy to get, as when you get the exposure right for the
actual rainbow, it is generally not enough light for the foreground or
background. Try it yourself one day.
Anyway, I was getting increasingly frustrated with the rainbow, but
suddenly there was a break in the trees and I told my driver to stop and
I leapt out. A bracket of three shots was done, but when I checked the
exposures on the LCD monitor, I was again disappointed. I turned back
towards the car and suddenly, there was an absolutely surreal image
which had been behind me. The birch forest in the late winter’s
afternoon frosty light was the shot of a lifetime. The three shot
bracket produced the photo I have used with the column this week. It was
certainly a case of “being there” to get that photo.
 Wind
Farm
We traveled further and came across a wind farm. These are quite
fantastic, almost science fiction when you get up close. Again I was
“there” and it was just a case of getting close enough, but yet far
enough to try and show the height of these things. The blades rotate
very slowly, so a fast shutter speed is not necessary, but I again did
my customary three shot bracket. When shooting something against the
sky, it can be difficult to get the best exposure, so try f8 and be
there.
So what I am suggesting now is just “be there” to get good shots. It
also helps if you have a theme. This is true “editorial” photography,
where you, the photographer are illustrating a story.
Try for example, “Early Morning at the Beach”. Firstly because there is
great light at that time and secondly because beaches are a wonderful
hive of activity as people get ready for the new day.
The following subjects are all there for you to shoot and you should try
and get them all. There are monks doing their morning rounds. You will
find the local people offering the monks their food for the day. Get two
shots here - one of the woman giving the food to him and another of the
monk in his robes walking slowly down the street with his alms bowl.
Next subject should be the beach vendors, preparing their area, raking
and collecting rubbish, putting up the umbrellas and placing the deck
chairs. Try to make sure you have the man or woman in the overall shot.
Human interest always appeals. In the early morning, the sunlight is
with you, not against you, so there is no tricky exposure compensations
to be done.
More workers - the beach boys and the speedboats. There are several
shots here. Firstly take the line of boats and water scooters being
towed slowly to the boat ramps. Again a rear shot of them going away
from you is best, especially if they have the young boys sitting on
them, holding them down! Looking down the road, as the second last
trailer in the string goes past, pop the shutter. That will be a good
shot - guaranteed!
Mount them all together, and you have “Early Morning at the Beach”!
Modern Medicine:
by Dr. Iain Corness, Consultant
Sliced and diced for the over-50’s
This week I was asked by a gentleman in his 50’s about the
64-Slice CT examination. Since he was unsure of what it was, I suspect many
others of you may be in the same boat, so I thought I should demystify it.
If you are over 50, and particularly between 50 and 60, coronary heart
disease is one of the most likely causes of your being struck down, other
than a blow from a rampant song taew baht bus (of course, if you get through
the dangerous decade and get to be 61 you are automatically 10 foot tall and
bullet-proof).
Coronary heart disease refers to the gradual build up of ‘plaque’ (and it is
not the dental kind) in the inside of the coronary arteries, the arteries
that ‘feed’ the heart muscle.
What is often not realized is that the heart muscle does not get its
oxygenation from the blood inside its chambers, but through separate
arteries that run around the heart and supply the heart muscle directly.
These are called the coronary arteries. If the inside diameter of the
coronary arteries is reduced by 50 percent, it means that the oxygen
required cannot be supplied in enough quantities to keep the heart muscle
alive when it is called to perform extra work, such as running to (or out of
the way of) a baht bus, for example. Viagorous exercise could also come
under this heading. Constriction greater than 50 percent means that the
heart muscle ‘starves’ of oxygen even more quickly.
We know these days that the ‘plaque’ build-up is made of cholesterol and
calcium, and that the likelihood of deposits depends on many factors,
including diabetes, high blood pressure, high cholesterol levels, stress and
cigarette smoking. This is why we advocate regular testing for those
physical factors, and strongly advise you to give up smoking! We actually do
want you to live a little longer, with a good quality of life.
To diagnose coronary artery disease, we will evaluate a patient’s risk
factors and perform some tests and then divide the patients suspected to be
at risk into the two groups; high and low risk. After that, there are two
main diagnostic procedures that will usually be performed, conventional
coronary angiography (CAG) or the 64-Slice CT.
However, whilst CAG might be the gold standard, it is also expensive (like
gold) and time consuming, as it requires a stay in hospital of four to six
hours. Being a direct intervention, with cardiac catheters, there can also
be a risk of hemorrhage, though this is not usually the case. But it can
happen.
The alternative is the 64-Slice CT. This is the latest variation of CT
scanning, with the original known as 16-slice CT. This was fine for
assessing organs which did not move, but was not as accurate in
demonstrating coronary artery problems, because the heart is moving and
beating inside the chest (unless, of course, if you have died already and
please advise the technician beforehand). However today, with the advent of
the most advanced form of this imaging, the multi-slice detectors and high
powered computer programs called the 64-Slice CT, we can efficiently get
information on the coronary arteries in as few beats as possible, in around
4 seconds. And this comes with 90 percent accuracy.
The 64-Slice CT has many advantages. First off, nobody is actually slicing
you open to insert cardiac catheters into your arteries. The 64 ‘virtual’
slices are done of your cardiac image and the coronary arteries by the
computer program, not physically. Each slice is 0.625 mm, so will be able to
pinpoint calcium deposits. It is a quick and painless procedure. You do not
have to wait around in hospital afterwards, other than perhaps wait for the
radiologist’s report. A boon for the busy 50-60 year old businessman (the
group most at risk). And finally, it is much cheaper than having a coronary
angiogram.
If you have no risk factors, other than being over 50, I would seriously
consider the 64-Slice CT.
 Heart to Heart with Hillary
Dear Hillary,
I read the letter from the chap up north about his local monk who makes
petrodiesel. Is this not bio-diesel? And how can he make petrol and LPG from one
kilo of plastic? We should all be wanting to save the planet, but I don’t think
the young abbot of Wat Doi Noi in Ban Jambon in Lamphun can really do all this
without the technology training to do it.
The Chemical Engineer
Dear Chemical Engineer,
The letter you are referring to was from a long-time reader, Delboy. He is not
prone to exaggeration and seems to have his feet well and truly on the ground
(other than when he is riding his motorcycle). It is not only Buddhism that
teaches that if you really want to do something, you can do it if you apply
yourself properly. I would agree with Delboy that Khru Bah Noi is an amazing
man, he has so much energy, and puts it all into helping the local people of his
district. Perhaps you should go and visit him before commenting further, my
Petal.
Dear Hillary,
Regarding your “Very Tempted” 40 year old with the hots for the waitress who
wrote in a couple of weeks ago. Does she think that just because the waitress is
a woman this makes it more difficult before “planning the next move”? I’m just
glad I’m a bloke and I don’t have these hang-ups, or I hope I don’t get them
when I’m 40. All she has to do is go back there one night without her husband
and she’ll soon know, that’s for sure. If she’s too scared, then I’m happy to
help her out!
Jack
Dear Jack,
Who is it you want to help out, Petal? The 40 year old or the waitress? Or
perhaps at your age, you’re ready for both? You will find out, Jack my young
lad, that personal relationships become a difficult and personal matter when you
get older. The ‘bull in the china shop’ approach will not stand you in good
stead all your life, Jack. Read your response again in another 20 years and see
if you still feel the same way.
Dear Hillary,
As I am thinking about retiring here, I was hoping you could advise me on a
couple of points. It has always been one of my ambitions to have my own little
pub (I’ve spent a fair deal of time in little pubs and bars after work). There
seems to be a few very successful bars for sale and they only want about 600,000
baht for most of them. Since I will be getting a nice tidy sum for my
retirement, I thought I might invest in one by buying a half share or something.
It would be nice to make money at a bar, rather than spending money at a bar,
don’t you reckon, Hillary! My only worry is that I have heard that foreigners
have been ripped off and I am hoping you can advise me on what to watch for.
Geordie
Dear Geordie,
With apologies to the Charge of the Light Brigade - “Into the valley of death
rode the six hundred” (thousand baht). Geordie, Geordie! For a start, there are
very few successful bar owners who learned the trade from propping up the
outside of the bar. Even with half shares for sale, have you stopped to think
why the owner of such a successful establishment would want to give half of it
away? Things to watch for? There is always the third or fourth 50 percent share
that gets sold. Unfortunately, with the economic downturn, tourist cancellations
etc., etc., etc., the bar will pay no dividend this year and the regretful owner
will buy your 50 percent share back for 100,000 baht. Yes, there are quick
profits to be made in the bar bizz - for the seller, not the purchaser. Mind
you, if you can get a half share in Jameson’s for 600,000 baht, count Hillary in
too!
Dear Hillary,
For the last two years I have been based here but I have taken another off-shore
posting to go to Malaysia for the next year. Should I keep the lease going on
the condominium and keep my girlfriend in it, or just tell her that I will let
the lease run out (there is another four months to go) and she will have to go
back to live with her mother till I come back. I don’t want her to go back to
the bar. What do you think I should do?
Paul
Dear Paul,
Your question is appalling, Petal. Surely you know by now whether this is the
girl for you. Stop dithering and make a decision. How much does this girl mean
to you? Not much it seems. From the kindness of your heart you will let her stay
on at the condo you have signed a tenancy agreement on for the next four months
- so you have got to pay anyway! After that she can do anything except go back
to the bar (where you got her from) for the next eight months. Sounds to me as
if she should go back there right now and hope that someone who thinks more
about her, rather than himself, comes along.
Let’s go to the movies:
by Mark Gernpy
Now playing in Pattaya
The Day the Earth Stood Still: US Drama/ Sci-Fi/ Thriller
– A remake of the 1951 classic sci-fi film about an alien visitor and
his giant robot counterpart who visit Earth. Starring Keanu Reeves as
Klaatu, a mysterious alien who travels to Earth with a simple mission:
to save the planet. But his plan is not good news: he wants to destroy
everything and everybody, then re-populate our planet with clones of the
current species.
Ong-Bak 2: Thai Action/ Adventure – With Tony Jaa, who also
directed. I’m not sure what the reception will be to this film, for it’s
rather difficult and really not too much fun to watch. It’s quite dark,
and exceptionally violent. Not for children! But it’s extraordinary in
many respects, and approaches almost every aspect of an action film in a
new way. And it seems a terribly personal film for Tony Jaa, in which he
apparently is trying to exorcise some inner demons. I think it’s a
fascinating attempt.
Beverly Hills Chihuahua: US Comedy/ Adventure/ Family – You must
know fairly well at this stage whether or not you and your child enjoy
talking animal pictures. (It’s not an animated movie.) I found this one
amusing with parts quite a lot of fun. It’s certainly well done of its
kind. It’s a Disney comedy in which a pampered Beverly Hills Chihuahua
finds herself accidentally lost in the mean streets of Mexico. Alone for
the first time in her spoiled life, she must rely on some unexpected new
friends to help her to find her way back home. Critical reaction seems
to be very mixed, with people either loving it or hating it. Overall,
mixed or average reviews. If this is your cup of tea, you should enjoy
it well enough.
Twilight: US Vampire love – Yes, it was a phenomenon, the opening
weekend of Twilight – somewhat akin to the Beatles frenzy, at least for
heartthrob Robert Pattinson, who is a handsome, smoldering devil as the
vampire. Here in Thailand there were squeals from a few patrons at the
first appearance of Pattinson on screen when I saw it, but apparently
nothing like the near hysteria that greeted his visage in every new shot
in American moviehouses and where girls were getting injured in the mass
near-rioting wherever Pattinson had a personal appearance. It’s a
heavy-duty love story, quite well done overall, with a few interesting
twists, and I rather enjoyed it.
Teeth: US Comedy/ Horror – Directed by Mitchell Lichtenstein (son
of Pop artist Roy). Dawn, a high school student, works hard at
suppressing her budding sexuality by being the local chastity group’s
most active participant. A stranger to her own body, innocent Dawn
discovers she has a toothed vagina when she becomes the object of
violence. More enjoyable than I thought it would be, it is still pretty
sick and unpleasant, and with the number of appendages that eventually
litter the ground, I think Teeth bites off more than it can chew. Mixed
or average reviews.
007 – Quantum of Solace: UK/US Action/ Adventure/ Thriller – A
continuation of the 2006 Casino Royale, which was a reinvention of the
James Bond film series for present-day audiences. Here, with a different
director, I found the undertaking greatly diminished in charm and style
and elegance, with the action sequences more mindless and muddled, the
plot vastly more convoluted and confusing, but with much to still like
if you’re a fan of Bond films. Generally favorable reviews.
Midnight Meat Train: US Crime/ Horror – At last! A thinking man’s
slasher flick! I don’t usually like movies of this icky ilk, but I do
have to say that this one is a very creative and energetic adaptation of
a very bloody short story by the renowned horror writer Clive Barker,
with enough scares and thrills to be a potential cult classic. Unusually
literate for a slasher, it’s nearly a perfect bloody horror film.
Understand, it’s disgusting! Rated R in the US for sequences of strong
bloody gruesome violence, grisly images involving nudity, sexual
content, and language. Mixed or average reviews.
Tropic Thunder: US Comedy/ War – I heartily recommend the film
for those not easily shocked – you might just have the best laughs
you’ve had in years. Robert Downey, Jr. gives another amazing
performance. A group of self-absorbed actors set out to make the biggest
war film ever. Rated R in the US for pervasive language including sexual
references, violent content, and drug material. Generally favorable
reviews.
The House Bunny: US Comedy – About the travails of an ex-Playboy
Bunny. I did see it, and it is appallingly nauseous. Only for those who
enjoy dumb blonde jokes. Mixed or average reviews.
Headless Family / Hua Luud Family: Thai Comedy – The usual, this
time about a family that has a freak accident that leaves them able to
detach their heads without ill effects.
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