Rudyard Kipling"
“When you're left wounded on Afganistan's plains and
the women come out to cut up what remains, Just roll to your rifle
and blow out your brains,
And go to your God like a soldier”
General Douglas MacArthur"
“We are not retreating. We are advancing in another direction.”
“It is fatal to enter any war without the will to win it.” “Old soldiers never die; they just fade away.
“The soldier, above all other people, prays for peace, for he must suffer and be the deepest wounds and scars of war.”
“May God have mercy upon my enemies, because I won't .” “The object of war is not to die for your country but to make the other bastard die for his.
“Nobody ever defended, there is only attack and attack and attack some more.
“It is foolish and wrong to mourn the men who died. Rather we should thank God that such men lived.
The Soldier stood and faced God
Which must always come to pass
He hoped his shoes were shining
Just as bright as his brass
"Step forward you Soldier,
How shall I deal with you?
Have you always turned the other cheek?
To My Church have you been true?"
"No, Lord, I guess I ain't
Because those of us who carry guns
Can't always be a saint."
I've had to work on Sundays
And at times my talk was tough,
And sometimes I've been violent,
Because the world is awfully rough.
But, I never took a penny
That wasn't mine to keep.
Though I worked a lot of overtime
When the bills got just too steep,
The Soldier squared his shoulders and said
And I never passed a cry for help
Though at times I shook with fear,
And sometimes, God forgive me,
I've wept unmanly tears.
I know I don't deserve a place
Among the people here.
They never wanted me around
Except to calm their fears.
If you've a place for me here,
Lord, It needn't be so grand,
I never expected or had too much,
But if you don't, I'll understand."
There was silence all around the throne
Where the saints had often trod
As the Soldier waited quietly,
For the judgment of his God.
"Step forward now, you Soldier,
You've borne your burden well.
Walk peacefully on Heaven's streets,
You've done your time in Hell."
Satellite images show Perak rare earth mine built before approval By Aidila Razak & Koh Jun Lin
Saturday, June 11, 2022
Malaysiakini : "It is questionable how the mining operations could start before the EIA report was approved.
"Checks on Google Maps (above)
show there are already land works done and pregnant solution collection
pond structures at the proposed project site," said Sahabat Alam
Malaysia field officer Meor Razak Meor Abdul Rahman.
Pregnant solution ponds are used to store chemical solutions in the mining process.
Malaysiakini’s further checks of other publicly available satellite imagery found signs of land clearing on the site as early as December 2019.
About a year later in December 2020, apparent structures started showing up in satellite imagery of the site.
Timelapse
of satellite imagery of the site from September 2020 to May 2022. Each
individual image is a “cloudless mosaic” assembled from multiple images
taken throughout a calendar month to artificially reduce cloud cover in
the image.
The images were
cross-referenced with coordinates for the project provided in the EIA
report displayed by the Department of Environment (DOE).
The
project is located in an ecological corridor connecting the Kenderong
Forest Reserve and Bintang Hijau Forest Reserve which is home to
endangered wildlife including the Malayan tiger.
The EIA report was put on public display in July 2021 before receiving the DOE’s approval on May 11 this year.
Besides the Malayan tiger, the EIA states that the area is also home to the Asian elephant and Malayan tapir.
The project sits 500m north of salt licks which are visited by elephants, tapirs, and sun bears.
It was also noted that active logging has been happening in the area.
Permanent loss of habitat
Environmentalists
oppose the project because it is located on the Central Forest Spine
which runs down the length of Peninsular Malaysia.
The Central
Forest Spine is a network of ecological corridors that allow wildlife to
move from one forest complex to another. This helps especially with the
conservation of threatened and near-extinct species.
The project
area is also in an Environmentally Sensitive Area Level 1 which,
according to the National Physical Plan, are areas that cannot be used
for anything but low-impact tourism, education, and research.
It
is estimated there are fewer than 150 Malayan tigers, 3,100 wild
elephants, 1,500 tapirs, and 500 sun bears in the wild in Malaysia.
"The
EIA clearly states that land works can cause direct and indirect impact
on wildlife, especially large mammals and aquatic life, and can
potentially cause species extinction.
"The EIA does not provide
any mitigation measures to overcome this loss of wildlife habitat, so
this means the destruction of wildlife habitat is permanent," Meor Razak
said.
Sahabat Alam Malaysia field officer Meor Razak Meor Abdul Rahman
He
added that the mining period of 12 years, plus a 30-year mining
licence, is likely to cause irreversible damage and obliterate wildlife
habitats.
The Perak government has said the mining will be a pilot
project to determine if lanthanides could be a new source of income for
the state.
According to the EIA, the mining will be conducted
through in-situ leaching by constructing seven hydrometallurgical plants
as well as establishing injection holes and piping systems.
The
project covers 11 land parcels of 5,339 acres (2,161 ha) and is owned by
Menteri Besar Incorporated Perak (MB Inc Perak), Majlis Daerah Gerik,
Felcra Bhd, and the Perak State Agriculture Development Corporation
(SADC).
This is equivalent to about 3,026 football fields.
