Headhunting

We made it back from Sabah a couple of weeks ago now and if you are interested you may follow the daily detail on Chris' wonderful Track My Tour App... thanks as always Chris.... right here. If not, well that's OK just follow on from below once I get going.

Sabah is well within my 3 1/2 hour circle for direct flights from Penang...

Sabah is the top right bit

So Borneo, well Wikipedia has a lot to say of course (see here and thanks for this) and as you take a look at where it is located on both the maps, remember that 73% is Indonesia so the rest of it is now Malaysia with a hint of Brunei thrown in. That is the top part. The left hand side is Sarawak and the right is British North Borneo that was but is now known as Sabah (again thanks Wikipedia -- see here). So now you have all the history that you could possibly want and need, that is the 'official' history. Of course, what is said and what is not are sometimes worlds apart. I cannot say that our 10 days there gave me any great insights about the histories of things but present day observation sure adds some color and textures to what is formally stated.

The old British version of Borneo. Looks like the Dutch were pressing into the British but that wasn't the case at all. The island is so big, they barely met even though the green runs next to the pink. The Dutch were in the south of the island.

Direct flights to Kota Kinabalu (KK from now on as the name is far too long to keep typing) from Korea, Japan and China mean that this formally lush and serene paradise island (actually it never was that!) is now no longer quite so serene. At sundown, the coastal beaches facing the setting sun are overrun with coaches and coaches of tourists bussed in just for the occasion which I have to say is pretty darn amazing actually (not the coaches although that is quite a sight too but of a different kind). I have watched loads of sunsets but never before has it been so cloud free for all of it as the first I witnessed here. One minute the sun is there, the next ... poof... its gone!

Our first sunset!

Our last sunset

Anyway I was busily being cynical about bus loads of tourists clustering together on limited beach space for the 30 minutes that the sunset takes to happen; well approximately if you don't add a couple of cocktails along with things, like we did. Then it gets a bit longer.

But it wasn't me though being the cynical one, it was our Grab driver who rolled his eyes when talking about this. I merely nodded sagely and noted it for future reference as it joins in with a whole lot of other stuff that is out there clear as day but totally either missed or ignored (deliberately or not I wonder) starting with trash. It is everywhere. I asked one of our great guides/drivers/boat crew from Borneo Ecotours (terrific incidentally, thanks guys!!) about this and he was polite and diplomatic to a painful degree. Obviously it doesn't show people in a great light and this is the problem (I don't like that word but this time I will use it because it is a 'problem'). For the problem is that the newly wealthier tourists don't think of the environment at all. Hoovering up all endangered species they can as face cream, special soups, or just deep fried with noodles.

Not endangered of course but rather nice deep fried with noodles

Nothing on land, sea or in the air is off limits. Factor in also on a local basis the indigenous peoples who are poor as church mice and therefore have no compunction hunting a particular creature to extinction if there is the possibility of making a little extra money. And finally.... and this is something I really do not get .... there are really very, very few trash bins so even if you didn't want to throw stuff all over the place willy nilly, the only alternative is stuffing it in your pockets. Which let me tell you people do not do.

This is one of the picturesque tourist islands near the beach. At least this trash is in a bag but that does not deter monitor lizards from getting stuck in one bit. Incidentally I thought these were horrible creatures until our guide told us that is these lizards that clean up the jungle and keep it both clean and smell free. They are carrion eaters. Sounds nasty but very necessary.

If you listen to David Attenborough on the wildlife shows -- which I do as he is simply terrific, there probably is a better word for it but I cannot think of it. On a plane recently I watched a wildlife program about penguins narrated by Morgan Freeman, who has a great voice, but.... it just is not David Attenborough so even though it is really well done, it just isn't.... well David Attenborough, so it can't be right. Well, not as right as when David Attenborough says it. So when David Attenborough speaks, you listen and you give weight (or should anyway) to what he says. He says that Borneo is a stunning paradise for wildlife and then goes on about habitats and stuff. And he is right but then when he is joined by olive oil manufacturing companies who say 'yeah, look at those palm oil plantations...' that is when you should stop and start to think: 'why would that olive oil company (could be any related company) agree with David Attenborough on this?' Answer economics.

This is where I get a bit cynical about the whole eco thing because whilst I totally agree that we are making a mess ecologically speaking and doing things that will have a significant deleterious impact on the planet at some point, I do also think that some of the people going on about it have motives that are not 100% planet positive related, rather money related. And for others, well it is a bit rich them having a go at a newly emerging country trying to make its way when they have systematically cut down all their first growth trees, exterminated all their large mammal populations, turned their countries into concrete jungles, etc. etc. All for them to have a better life. So it's OK for them to do it, but it's not OK for someone else to have a go at making a better life for themselves??

Nice mess we've made for ourselves, isn't it?

It would be nice to see all those eco-friendly joiners in and armchair experts actually come out to all those places and see for themselves and.... try to do something about it out there instead of complaining to their MP back home or gluing themselves to a London Underground (happened yesterday.... really!) or having sunrise group yoga sessions for the world before their Starbucks soya milk lattes. It really isn't easy and there is no easy solution as economics and sinister lobby groups do rather get in the way as they cynically and self servingly talk about carbon footprints and the Paris Accord. But really, will pressure groups in so-called developed nations of the west actually convince the rest of the (developing) world to do what they couldn't and didn't do and in fact raced full pelt to actively do once they found out they could?

Sadly my bet isn't on the answer 'Yes'.

Being in the jungle even if for only a few days and staying at a slick resort does not make me an expert by any means but it does seem meaningful to me that one of our guides is an ex-hunter turned eco-fanatic. Clearly engagement did work with him and of course his uncle, presumably the senior partner in their previous enterprise who became the guardian of the last two Borneo rhinos in existence. They are still alive but sadly both males so don't expect much unless a miracle happens. The species was declared extinct in 2015 but there are still large tracts of first growth jungle remaining -- that is 100 million year old forests that have remained untouched by humans -- where people have never ventured so who knows maybe a miracle will happen. Hope so.

It was all rather wonderful though to be somewhere where critters that David Attenborough in his whispering voice tells us are endangered with their habitats disappearing all over the place simply wander up and start chowing down on some of the many jungle fruit seemingly on every tree and bush. Totally unconcerned by our presence. We kept tripping over orang utans and proboscis monkeys but still the thrill of seeing them in the wild remained. Catching some sun bears wrestling was rather wonderful. As for those noisy hornbills, well you couldn't keep them quiet. What a racket. Sadly no elephants this time nor rhinos and leopards, but there was this rather amazing civet (weasel shaped cat creature) that acted just like my cat Bella (alright ex-cat).

Through a telescope, well it was a long way away but somehow the ranger spotted it

Proboscis monkeys by the river bank. During the heat of the day, they retreat into the jungle but return at dusk to sleep 

This sun bear was terrific to watch enjoying that carrot. Surely not a jungle fruit? Well no it was in the sun bear sanctuary, there being so few remaining in the wild. That's what people think but as they never see them, how do they know?

During the time we were in Sabah, we heard about the kimodo dragon island nearby on one of the Indonesian islands being closed to tourists to protect not the tourists from the dragons, but the other way around. At about the same time, newspapers reported the illegal transshipment of one in a cooler box. The report that did make me almost cheer was that of the unfortunate poacher in Africa who seeking rhinos was trampled by an elephant and eaten by lions. He ticked all the boxes in a wrong way! However, it all makes me realize that there is less and less time still available to visit and see all the marvels that the world has to offer before things change forever and they are gone. We'd better get to it then.

Plus Ca Change, Penang Style

The Far East is the most populous part of the world by a distance. Something like 60% of the global population are near by, well relatively nearby so one of the things that happens is that the cost of labour is cheap. Being someone that does economics for a living, I remember reading that globally there are only 2 billion jobs. Given the population size this means that nearly 50% of all working age people are either unemployed or under-employed so little pressure on businesses to pay up for staff.

That is noticeable here in Penang. The island has 750,000 people and is of relatively small size so is very busy and crowded but also that means lots and lots of low paying jobs away from the factory complexes which are very high tech indeed (Pharma, Tech, Chips, etc) so require highly trained white collar skills as well as the command of English. Away from this salaries drop precipitously and you can see that with jobs that simply wouldn't exist in the west, here there are always people and in many cases multiple levels of back up for that job.

I am completely OK with this as I follow the trend of robotisisation (if that's not a word, it soon will be) and the use of Artificial Intelligence to enhance tech solutions even though I don't necessarily agree with it all as people do need to work for a living. What would they do if there no jobs? Nothing good I suspect.

I met a guy here recently who manages his California IT business from just down the road. OK that's nothing special I know as many people do that these days but its what he does that blew me away.

If you remember the last two Jason Bourne movies, you may remember that on at least two occasions the CIA trackers were trying to find him by hooking into local CCTV networks remotely from wherever it was that they were located and by communication links directing their trackers to find Jason. That was managed by people so even though it took seconds in the movie, that was pretty darned inefficient according to this guy.

Imagine now that you want to do that and you harness the power of AI into the loop. Ditch the people watchers and replace them with a computer image that you have of the person you want to track. And then do it globally. Apparently once you do all of this correctly it now takes less than a nanosecond to find whomever it is that you want to find. Anywhere in the world.

Unsurprisingly law enforcement agencies from all over the world are buying this technology and adopting it. So this computer nerd from the 1970's is now an AI superstar with killer technology that everyone wants. Forget about the intrusion into your personal life. See what this wonder technology can do! I told him that this was 1984's worst nightmare come to life. He laughed. Thanks!

However that world has not made it here yet. Well not entirely anyway. There's a wonderful taxi service here called Grab, a Singapore start up and a competitor to Uber which is also here. As the local taxis are dreadful, both these guys have killed the licensed taxi industry. The service is very fast, very cheap and the people that drive the cars are happy to use this for a second job. We have used both frequently and both are fantastic. We have also met some great local people, all friendly, all inquisitive on their side too.

One young man we met in this way said that his lifetime career ambition was to own his own hawker stand selling the best chicken rice. We asked him his recipe and he said he would be learning from a chicken rice sifu and go from there. Talk about life aspirations but typical of here and I imagine typical of this highly populous region. AI won't have much luck competing with this young man I hope.

The original purpose of this post was something different but clearly I had that other stuff on my mind too! We are just settling in here and have moved into an apartment where we wanted some work done. Nothing major, just putting in a sink and cabinet. Sounds simple but just as anywhere else as soon as you start off with a contractor, he says well if you want that, you'll have to do that and that will be more expensive. Sound familiar? Anyway we agreed on a price way more than we expected and the works to do and the cabinet installers have just been in and I have to acknowledge they did what looks like a great job. The cabinet has a lovely new cabinet smell too.

The various stages of work

So I went in the room where they were working and found a crew there. Maybe 6 or 7 guys. Two were on their phones looking at videos and giggling, one guy the boss had his back turned and was tapping away vigorously on his phone, another two were generally milling around and the one sole guy was doing all the work.

Some things really do not change!