Saturday, April 23, 2011

The Fallen Tree

Yesterday 23 April at about 5pm a huge tree probably more than 30 years old fell on to the road a few houses away from mine in a freak storm and hit the power line across it thus throwing the neighbourhood into darkness almost till midnight.

Fortunately there were no cars passing by during the incident as it is very close to the junction going out to the main thoroughfare leading to one of the most busy four-way junction controlled by a computer assisted traffic lights, in Kelana Jaya which once used to be the biggest roundabout in the Petaling District in Selangor.

I only came to realise it when my eldest son arrived to fetch my wife to go to Hartamas housing area near Mont Kiara. My neighbour in front of my house said he was driving in Petaling Jaya during the storm and there were many old trees suffering the same fate and the MBPJ emergency response team must have been kept very busy indeed. The TNB crew arrived about half an hour after the storm stopped and a recce party arrived to assess the damage when I was just outside my gate and talking to Renny Cheong.

I suppose the MBPJ crew was busy elsewhere and could not come to remove the fallen tree who blocked the entrance to Jalan SS3/94 thus making many drivers to turn around as the road is used as short-cut from University Garden going to Taman Megah and Taman Bahagia.Many parents also had to take a different route in order to fetch their children from the Sri Permata Secondary School nearby.

As experience had taught me in the past, I have my emergency lights on a standby and it came to good use during this power blackout. The TNB repair team had to remove the fallen tree whose trunk had become weak due the rot taking place and since the house in which it is in has been turned into an office, nobody was around during the freak storm and thus the security guards who manned the entry into the neighbourhood just a few feet away must have thanked their lucky stars that it missed them by a close shave.

Since the damage on the power line was extensive and also it brought down the street lighting pole across the road, it was long just before midnight, power was thereby restored much to the relief of the people in the neighbourhood. What baffled me was that the fallen tree was just beside a stump of a tree trunk which must have been deliberately cut down years ago and the owner did not bother to cut down the wild acacia tree next to it or he must have thought that it is better for it to go down on it's own. The fence also is currently breached and should anyone wants to steal the portable garden furniture it could easily be done. To me the fallen tree is an analogy of a diseased State brought down easily by nature because the caretaker allowed the rot to eat at the very base which holds it firmly to the ground. Neglect and "Tidak Apa" attitude caused the downfall of a State which is eaten away by the rot, this time it starts from the base, unlike the fish where the rot starts from the head.

2 comments:

Al-Manar said...

If your analogy is correct similr situtions exists around my area. Our proble is ols coconut palms leaning badly ith age and erosion around the roots. It is so obvious that the palms will fall any time, bringing down electric and telephone lines with possible accidents. No one cares!

abdulhalimshah said...

PakCik,
The could not care less attitude abounds everywhere that no one find it strange anymore. The civic conciousness amongst our people is almost absent and unless they can see WIIFM (What is it in for me) they could not be bothered.
I suppose this is one of the result of the NEP which is now rearing its ugly head again. Woe betide the country where its citizens lose its moral and ethical values which once formed the bedrock of our Malay society.