The area adjacent to the hill of City Hall for North of Kuching City is being earmarked for development as Aviary park to keep all species of hornbills in the world that can live in the tropical climate. The aviary park, once it becomes a reality, will befit the status of Sarawak as land of the Hornbills. More importantly, it will be able to provoke interests of the people to develop the habit of love for nature, animals and plants. The State has come of age where the development of towns or cities, with the rapid growth of population, must take into consideration the diverse interests of the people. In this respect, the local authorities must think of developing something that can captivate interests of people from ages of 25 upwards, those people, who are just growing up, in particular. In other words, they must think of developing something that can captivate interests of children and old people. Otherwise, the people, after works may just go back home to watch TV or just be idle without doing anything.
Basically, the towns and cities, which are having big populations, must have varied facilities that can give choices to local residents to take up activities based on individual interests. More and more people will take up activities to satisfy their interests or fill their times either on their own or in groups as they become more conscious of good health in the future. Besides, the people no longer spend all their times to work just to buy food to eat and clothes to wear.
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| Aviary and Butterflies Park overseas |
Understandably, the State Government is no longer focusing all development activities to the task of providing sufficient food for the people as it must also take into consideration the interests of the overwhelming majority of the people, who, from time to time, will be looking for something that can amuse them, provoke their thinking or make them feel contented with life. Their diverse needs and interests must be recognized in the overall development of the country, the society in particular.
There are only about 80,000 people, who can be considered as still being trapped in poverty in Sarawak. An overwhelming majority of the people are living above the level of poverty or the depressed situation being experienced by the 80,000 odd people. In other words, the problem of poverty is no longer rampant in the State. Since the early stages of socio-economic development, the government has been developing amenities and facilities that can provide quality of life to the people.
Strong, healthy society
Besides, the government has also been encouraging people, the young people in particular, to involve in sports and games and other healthy activities in the overall efforts to develop a healthy society. In another words, while the core struggle is to raise the level of income of the people, efforts must also be made to encourage people to involve in healthy activities in order to develop a strong and healthy society. Basically, the people must not only enjoy a more comfortable life but have the capacity to enjoy their own progress and prosperity. The power of the people to think and be creative in life cannot be ignored or left undeveloped; they must be developed and expanded. Otherwise, the people, as human beings, may feel that there are being trapped in an environment that does not give satisfaction in life to them. Hence, any development program to improve the livelihood of the people must take into consideration the social aspects of life. Obviously, there is the second thing, which has to be considered in order to uphold a kind of livelihood for the people, who do not only work to fill their stomach but more importantly to enhance their ways of thinking.
Hence, relevant bodies, entrusted with the development of libraries, must endeavor to generate sufficient fund to buy all essential materials for libraries throughout the state. More importantly, they must endeavor to develop areas near libraries as parks where children can sit on the floors to read comics and pictorial books. In other words, conscientious efforts must be made to create atmosphere that can develop interests of young children in learning. They must have sufficient interests in life in order to look for challenges ahead of them. They must have the inclination to think of something that can challenge their minds. In other words, the State must endeavor to avoid experiences of having young people with the tendency to become rebellious as can been seen in some towns or cities of developed nations. Obviously, such towns or cities do not provide young people with sufficient facilities to involve in healthy activities. For example, young people in some cities in America tend to develop rebellious attitude as they have no avenues to release their youthful energy to purse healthy activities.
They tend to disagree with what ever things being done by local authorities to develop their towns or cities. They do not recognize things being developed as attractions to the environment surrounding them. Their thinking is being pre-occupied with problems and discussions centre around problems and grievances of the society only. They tend to be influenced by groups or parties that oppose the authorities. Quite obviously they can be considered as followers of the opposition.
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| Family time during school holidays or weekends |
For this reason, the State must endeavor to produce people who do not get trapped in living with worries, complaints and bitterness against the authorities. They must live the life that has been created for them with the interests to do good and positive things. They are being created with the mind to enliven interests and make full use of their energy and leisure to serve their purpose in life. Generally, the people can serve their purpose in life through proper development of their mind.
The planning and development of the city’s Orchid Garden must take into consideration the need to further develop interests of the people to plant orchids, which have made Sarawak quite well known throughout the world. For example, the State is known for its success in producing various types of orchids through the process of grafting. Over the years, the state has been able to produce varied types of orchid including hybrid orchids, which have become quite famous throughout the world; they are just behind those being produced in England in term of popularity.
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| Fun activities with friends |
However, not many local people have interests in orchid growing that we do not really appreciate our status in orchid growing in the world. Actually a number of people in developed countries, with wide interests in orchid growing, appreciate that Sarawak is a good place to grow orchids. Besides, Sarawak is also a good place to see a wide collection of butterflies. The fact that Sarawak is very rich with flora and fauna was first highlighted by John Wallace, a British botanist in his book about mytho selections, which were quite in tune with the book written by Charles Darwin. Generally, mythologists have a lot of interests on Borneo. Obviously, the State has a strong foundation to develop local interests on the preservation of natural habitat and environment in order to enrich our development in the social sector.
The State, through activities of Sarawak Biodiversity Centre, has been able to collect more than 40,000 species of trees including 60 to 90 species of hybrid orchids, which have been produced through the process grafting. In this connection, people, who have interests to develop a form of hobby in life, should consider planting orchids or any other plants as part of the overall efforts to make life of urban living more interesting.
Besides, more and more people, the young generation in particular, should be encouraged to involve in varied sporting activities in order to promote health among them. Understandably, the traditional Malays, Ibans and others in the older generations may not have interests in sports and games. However, they can be encouraged to involve in activities relating to nature and become nature lovers. They must not be left to remain idle or inactive in life as we move forwards in pursuit for greater progress and prosperity towards the year 2020 and beyond. As the people enjoy greater comfort and prosperity in life they tend to eat food that are very rich in calories; they are taking food with varied tastes to such an extent that they grow very fast from the age of 13 or 14 upward. They do not only grow upward but also side ways as a result of imbalance of activities. Hence, there is the growing problem of obesity among the young population.
Obviously, there is a need for young people either as individuals or groups must be encouraged to pursue changes in their lifestyle to ensure that they will be able to lead healthy living and not be trapped in an environment of imbalance activities. Arguably, it is alright to be fat as long a person does not have diabetes, gout and other sicknesses that can lead to heart problems. However, statistics indicate that fat tends to lead to diabetes, gout and other sicknesses that contribute to heart problems, which have increasing become a real problem in the country now. The people in America experienced this problem in the 50s and early 60s. Then the general perception of the people on beauties and models like Marilyn Monroe was to be curvaceous. However the perception has changed. Now the people expect to see models to be slim and healthy. The people in developed countries do not consider beauty not accompanied with good health as beauty any more. Only the beauty that is accompanied with good health, which is being promoted through healthy activities, can be considered as everlasting beauty; the beauty that can survive the tests of time.
Nurturing healthy community
Perhaps members of political parties, as leaders at grass root level, can play appropriate roles in nurturing a healthy community. They must be prepared to assume a new role in the services of the community. They must help to develop social habits that breed not only beauty but beauty that is accompanied with health among them, their husbands and children. For example, they must help to provoke their children to think of involving in healthy activities that can trigger the development of their brain in order to become rounded persons. In this respect, they should consider the rich natural resources, which Sarawak has richly been endowed with, as sources of the inspiration to develop a community that is creative and having the culture enriched with art and crafts. Such aspects of culture can provide opportunities for the people to take their place in a community, which is being enriched not only by wealth but by arts and crafts. Generally, the people could help in the development of a society that is more conducive for them to come up not only in universities or civil service but in the social sectors.
benuasains
*Photos Source: google.com images
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