For those who are always looking for pussies on dive trips…
Twenty-Three Cars Stolen Every Day!!
Twenty-Three Cars Stolen Every Day
KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 12 (Bernama) — An average of 23 cars, 141 motorcycles and 13 lorries and vans were stolen every day last year, Inspector-General of Police Tan Sri Mohd Bakri Omar said Monday.
He said 65,076 cases of vehicle theft were reported last year which amounted to a total loss of RM753.2 million.
“The police were able to solve 18,294 of the cases and recovered in terms of value RM192.88 million, which is a success rate of 28.11 per cent,” he said during his keynote address when opening the first National Seminar on Vehicle Theft to discuss effective strategies against vehicle theft, here.
He said the losses incurred by the vehicle owners and insurance companies were enormous and would adversely affect the economy.
Bakri said vehicle theft attempts by individuals or syndicates should be addressed by re-examining existing laws and regulations so that offenders would face stiffer penalties.
In addition to sharing skills and knowledge, enforcement officers also needed to be trained in handling such cases, he said.
He said the police had already set up a task force within the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) to tackle vehicle theft and related offences, including the hijacking of lorries and trucks carrying industrial goods.
The role of the task force, headed by Bukit Aman CID Director Datuk Mohd Fauzi Saari, was to formulate strategies and draw up the most suitable investigation practices by emphasising on intelligence procurement and forensic investigation.
Speakers from the police, Customs and Excise Department, Road Transport Department and the private sector are presenting their working papers at the two-day seminar jointly organised by the Royal Malaysia Police and the General Insurance Association of Malaysia.
— BERNAMA
My Way..
à¸à¹‡à¸•à¸à¸™à¸—ี่ฉันรัà¸à¹€à¸˜à¸à¹à¸„่ครึ่งใจ หาà¸à¹€à¸˜à¸à¸¡à¸µà¹ƒà¸„รà¸à¹‡à¸—ิ้งฉันไปได้เลย
That’s part of the lyrics of a song I listened to some 10 years ago. It has nothing to do with what I’m going to write here.
Many people would go the professional way diving, taking up courses like DM, AI and Instructor. Me? No..I’m pursuing my technical courses as well as my PADI Master Scuba Diver (MSD). For that reason i don’t think I’ll be doing a lot of fun dives with the rest of the MDC divers.
For my Master Scuba Diver rating, I shall take the following specialties:
1) Deep Diver (4 dives over 2 days)
2) Enriched Air Diver (2 dives over 1 day)
3) Semi-Closed Rebreather (3 dives over 2 days)
4) Underwater Photographer (2 dives over 1 day)
5) Wreck Diver (4 dives over 2 days)
6) EFR/Rescue Diver(5 sessions over 2 days)
After which I’ll go for the TDI Decompression Procedures, Inspiration Rebreather…get my own rebreather if my pocket permits, and then do a trimix course on my own rebreather.
Makes more sense that way.
Kimi’s Done His Umrah
Kimi has done his Umrah or minor pilgrimage to the Holy Mosque in Mecca. Good for him.
I first went there back in 1998 during Ramadhan…during which I completed 7 umrahs. The another 7 umrahs the next year, before I went sabbatical in 2000.
In 2001 I did my Haj. I did the Ifrad Haj. When I was there in Mecca after the Haj, Formula One was at Sepang…it was rainy at Sepang then, and I saw the Mir space station re-entered earth’s atmosphere and break up before plunging into the South Pacific Ocean.
I also climbed Jabal Nur and went into the Hira’ Cave.
Pulau Payar
Come Christmas Day, my daughters (Noor Farhanah and Nurul Syafiqah), and I, will be diving Pulau Payar. Latest reports say that condition is good but viz is a bit sh**ty…bad at 2m, best at 6m. It’s the moon. Probably it’s waxing and into its first quarter. But come 25th December, it should be just after the last quarter and into waning gibbous. So hopefully the viz will improve and tide changes not too vivid.
Payar, here I come.
A Poem I Wrote
This is a poem I wrote just a few minutes ago…I really hope something can be done about the cruelty of shark-finning.
A Shark’s Plea
From the subclass called Elasmobranchii
Evolved my predecessors, my family and I
In terms of number of years 409 million
I have been here since the Upper Devonian
I have strong teeth, they make big gash
But I have no desire for human flesh
But humans make me into a cause
Thank you to the paranoia caused by ‘Jaws’
They hunt, and fin us, they did not even frown
Then they toss us back to sea alive to drown
To earn millions for them is something of a coup
While it was only our fins that end up in some soup
All their butchering earned them some praise
While we never did anything to the human race
15 human deaths a year is attributed to the snake
0.4 human deaths a year is all we could rake
So please, I beg you, make your kind realise
The decimation of a kind goes not without a price
We both live in the same world, so please make them see
So your children and mine can learn to co-exist and enjoy the sea
Abdul Rahmat Omar a.k.a SeaDemon
8th December 2005
Global Warming Has Claimed Its First Village
Global warming claims first village
Powered by CDNN – CYBER DIVER News Network
by ALISTER DOYLE
TEGUA ISLAND, Vanuatu (6 Dec 2005) — RISING seas have forced 100 people on a Pacific island to move to higher ground in what may be the first example of a village formally displaced because of modern global warming, a UN report has said.
With coconut palms on the coast already standing in water, inhabitants in the Lateu settlement on Tegua Island in Vanuatu started dismantling their wooden homes in August and moved about 548.64m inland.
“They could no longer live on the coast,” Taito Nakalevu, a climate change expert at the Secretariat of the Pacific Regional Environment Program.
The spokesman was attending a 189-nation conference in Montreal on ways to fight climate change.
King tides, often whipped up by cyclones, had become stronger in recent years and made Lateu uninhabitable by flooding the village four to five times a year.
“We are seeing king tides across the region flooding islands,” he said.
The UN Environment Program (UNEP) said in a statement the Lateu settlement “has become one of, if not the first, to be formally moved out of harm’s way as a result of climate change.”
The scientific panel advised the United Nations seas could rise by almost 0.9m by 2100 because of melting icecaps and warming linked to a build-up of heat trapping gases emitted by burning fossil fuels in power plants, factories and cars.
Many other coastal communities are vulnerable to rising seas, such as the US city of New Orleans, the Italian city of Venice or settlements in the Arctic where a thawing of sea ice has exposed coasts to erosion by the waves.
Pacific Islanders, many living on coral atolls, are among those most at risk.
Off Papua New Guinea, about 2000 people on the Cantaret Islands are planning to move to nearby Bougainville island, four hours’ boat ride to the southwest.
Two uninhabited Kiribati islands, Tebua Tarawa and Abanuea, disappeared underwater in 1999.
“In Tegua, the dwellings are moving first. The chief has moved, he has to start the process, so his people are now following,” Mr Nakalevu said.
A church would also be dismantled and moved inland.
Mr Nakalevu said the rising seas seemed to be linked to climate change.
It was unknown if the coral base of the island, about 31sq km, might be subsiding. Most villagers rely on yams, beans and other crops grown on higher ground.
To help Lateu, Canada provided $US50,000 ($66,649) to build a system to collect and store up to 36,000 litres of rain water to break dependence on springs by the coast.
Weather Gone Mad
It’s December. Normally this would be the start of the dry season in Langkawi…when it would be nice to start diving there again. However, since the Asian Tsunami of Boxing Day 2004, the weather seems to be going nuts. Tomorrow, LIMA starts there and I don’t know how are they going to have aerobatics display by the various participating aircraft and teams. I was there and cloud-wise, it’s almost 7 Octas.
Twinkle Twinkle Little Jarak
I have posted the Twinkle Twinkle Little Star – Jarak Style video on the web. You should be able to find it here:
Twinkle Twinkle Little Star – Jarak Style
I’ll put up a page for my videos too.
Blast From The Past – Proud Moment
This picture was taken on a Saturday, 3rd December. It was a proud moment for me. My mother was there but my father had to attend the Malay Rulers Conference in Langkawi then. My ex-fiancee was there too that day.
That very night, both she and I attended the Commissioning Ball. A week later I was back in the jungles of Perak doing Combat Survival, a month later did my Basic Parachuting Course.
Those were the days when I could run marathons, half-marathons etc.
Now, 35 kilograms later…..sigh…
SeaDemon Says 
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